Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Three recent dreamlets and the interpretations

Recently (Two nights ago) I had some dreams which have really affected me:

Dreamlet one:
I was with a friend -- Jennifer Lopez-- and she had a date with or loved the actor or the character from Queen InHyun's Man (QIHM)-- and we were going swimming. I turned and saw that she had left her baby in the foyer asleep. I was worried about this and wanted to move the baby into a sleeping area where the baby would be safe from the neighbors and other folks in the house trampling on her accidentally. I imagined folks just walking into the foyer with laundry or hands full of stuff and not looking down and bingo, the baby gets stepped on. She said, "No, leave the baby there. People must be trained not to walk on it." I thought that was the backward way of looking at it. Shouldn't it be that the baby would be awake and the baby would learn to step aside out of harm's way?

Dreamlet two:
I dreamed I was on my front porch telling someone about a dream. I said, "I dreamed of two pennies on a plane." Then I corrected myself: "No, it was two cents!" Then in the dream I realized that whenever I debated anyone on facebook I usually ended the post with, "My 0.02." I woke up wondering if God was saying I should learn not to be argumentative with folks on facebook. There was just a feeling there that I am a very insightful person but I'm always using that insight...and perhaps I shouldn't.

Dreamlet three:
I got up in church to give a word. I forget the verse but it was about talking to God. I said, "We must learn to talk to God at all times. On earth we talk to him to heal us, to protect us, to give us money, to help us, to guide us. But in heaven we won't need him to heal us, to protect us, to give us money, to guide us...and what will we talk to him about then?" As I was speaking, the leader of the church started on other church business, not really ignoring me but going about some other matter while I was talking. I didn't think she was rude but I thought it was the wrong thing to do. When someone is talking about God, we should listen to all she/he has to say in stead of half-listening and moving on with one's own business?"


Rose-Marie's (I won't link to her site just now) interpretation:
the first dream is about people expecting others to get out of their way--about expectations one has of people that will lead to harm because one didnt exercise common sense in what was precious to them. again, it was lopez's job to protect her baby, not try and teach others how to be responsible.  she was looking out to try and fix things when she she should have been just protecting her baby.

the third one is good advice about not putting your 2 cents worth in. people dont want it, they wont listen to it, and it ends up in trouble. if people want to know they will ask, and then even then if its not what they want to hear they will reject it and sometimes you with it. :( 

I dont know if youremember a long while back i had a dream the nite before
Tammy Bakker died about her and she was all shriveled and i was wheeling her in a wheal chair into a a conference and people were making fun of her and all of  a sudden i could feel hard shards in my mouth and they were bits of razor blades broken off. and i said, "i thought all these were taken out" ....yikes!

i lose my cool a lot lately too so im trying to just retreat and keep quiet.  we cant change people and i should just work on being the most like Jesus i can be and that takes a lot of work! :)   Well, i think all we have is to work on ourselves, i dont think people are listening, for the most part, and all we can do is live in front of them --and therefore our lives will have to be righteous and
anyway, we want to live in peace so we have to get the crap out of us .:)  there is just so much of it!  

Perfectly true. God has called us to peace. 

There is a lot of sneering by Christians about how other people behave. I hate sneering. Sneering is the thing i war against primarily. One Christian in a wheeled chair is sneering about how some flaky woman online is angry at her husband for not taking her to the lake.  I understand that. I know the woman should not be raging at her husband because other people are suffering...and yet if I wished to I could sneer at the Christian woman who is sneering because although she herself is in a wheeled chair, she is not as ill or as poor or as suffering with a sick kid as I believe I am. In addition, she is mocking a woman in a wheel chair and all we have is the husband's viral video upload. Is it possible we aren't seeing everything that needs to be seen? Is it possible that even if the flaky lady at the lake is a total nutcase that we have not experienced her life and we would be more compassionate if we understood her woundedness and where the flakiness comes from? So, in life, what does this do? Lead to comparison and comparison. It leads to the idea that we "know" someone. So should we not sneer at all?

Same thing for a very smug pontificating Christian. We have so many pontificating christians online. They want to help fight evil and to correct the world but 
A) if they happen to be right in the issue they are addressing -- because they are so sneery and so smug, I lose patience with them.
B) if they have muddled Christianity with their own racial or class issue -- there is no way to unmuddle them so why even challenge them
C) if they are wrong -- see above. And worse, then I become someone who challenges and sneers.

The dream is a good one for me because it is basically, i feel, God saying to get off that merry-go-round of Christian advising and Christian rebuttal and Christian sneering. I generally don't tell folks what to do in my offline life...so why venture into commentary and know-it-all ness in my online life?

If the problem is social, the Christian sneerer is too ingrained with his own class worldview to see. If the problem is personal, the Christian sneerer has too much pride and will not be enlightened. If the problem is spiritual, the Christian sneerer is so indoctrinated with his/her sense of denominationalism, church tradition, etc that talking to them and giving them my two cents is not gonna help. So the question remains: why argue when the listener will not hear?

On a personal level, I think God is saying that my career is my baby. Like Jennifer Lopez, Ms career woman. Should I destroy my future, my baby projects, my reputation among Christians (sneerers or not) by challenging folks just so they "learn a lesson about the path they're taking"?

I want to keep, maintain, and develop a loving heart. The trouble is..if one starts correcting -- even correcting folks who are sneerers-- one has fallen into judging others. Resisting the urge to comment on someone's judgmental post makes me fall back and resist judging itself. However wise I may be, however right I may be...I learn self-control and love by letting what I perceive as "judgment" go. So in resisting the urge to snap at someone who is judging, I resist judging. PLUS, I do not waste my breath. Because this is a complicated matter. The dream came to steer me from lack of love (when I am wrong by judging) but it also came to steer me toward peace (when I am right but the very act of commenting will ruin my reputation, waste time, waste my breath, and make me lose my own peace.)

Jesus brought us the gospel but the gospel battles the old Adam, the tendency in human hearts to be children of the knowledge of good and evil. We all have rules/standards/guidelines/measurements of etiquette, behavior, propriety, goodness, suffering -- this is the effect of living by the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  I heard such a great definition of legalism: The feeling that somewhere someone is getting away with something. In this case, when someone says something sneering and judgmental and I have the perfect comeback/response to silent the person but I do NOT challenge them...I feel as if that person is getting away with something. 

I didn't think I was legalistic but the more i think about it, the more i realize how i have disliked those who were healthy, those who didn't seem to have suffered as I have. And the Lord said to me: "Would you be happy if you heard a mafia hit man who had murdered 100 innocent people had yet another healthy grandchild? Would you be happy if you heard Zimmerman had a healthy child and won a million dollars? Would you be happy to hear that a rich millionaire won another million dollars even though you have no money? That is what i want you to do. To rejoice with those who rejoice, to weep with those who weep...and to push judgment and harshness from your heart." 

I want to be able to see the crap folks write online or to hear the crap folks say in church or on the streets and to truly love folks however cruel their platitudes or judgments or wrong their doctrine. I want to be humble even towards the arrogant and the all-knowing and to say to myself: have a merciful kind heart. They may judge you but you must love them. Lord, have mercy on my soul. 

Travelling Fantasy Roundtable -- July's topic: Intrusive Fantasy


Intrusion in fantasy often occurs in two ways. Either this is the intrusion of something alien, something entirely other, something not normally seen or active in the character’s world, something that disturbs the status quo by it’s arrival.  Or, intrusion is not truly intrusion at all but unveiling, an “apocalypse” where something hidden and secret now makes itself known to the character.

For instance, in the NBC program Grimm, Juliet discovers that monsters walk among us. This is not merely a realization of evil because evil has always been on earth, but a realization that the rules of life are more complicated than she had formerly thought and that certain species of people (hitherto unknown to her) are living lives she had not dreamed about. The fantastical intrusion might be a good thing. Or not. It might give glimpses of the numinous, the awesome, the otherworldly, the kind-heartedness at the center of the universe — thus creating saints (which often happens to folks who have seen angels or God. It might give the one intruded upon a glimpse of evil. . .the result of which is paranoia, conspiracy theories, isolation, prophets, or freedom fighters (spiritual or otherwise.)   

In the Christian view, the Revelation of St John is the ultimate intrusion of fantasy. As one of the Old Testament prophets stated, “Tear the heavens and come down!” In the same way, John sees a day when the heavens will roll away like a scroll and the truth about the world — its true ruler, its basic battles, its true moorings— will be revealed.

In Christianity, John saw the revelation of the unveiling when a door opened up in heaven and he was invited into it to “Come and See.” He was trusted with knowledge of how the real world works and told how to declare it. In fantasy novels, the unveiling comes about either through sudden accidental discovery, by a character’s gradual insight and realization, or by trust…that is, another character (good or evil) decides to share the “secret” of the intrusion with the main character. Examples of this kind of encounter with fantasy intrusion in contemporary life are cases of alien abduction, haunted houses, and bumping into bigfoot.

Once the character’s eyes are opened, choices have to be made. The character can choose to close her eyes to the truth, as some do in The Matrix. The character can choose to align herself with other “adepts,” “visionaries,” or wizened souls. . . after all fantastical truth is hard to follow alone. There is the danger of forgetting. Therefore, some kind of fellowship is needed. The fellowship’s duty is to grow in knowledge about this revealed truth, strengthen the will of those who might be tempted to fall back into unknowing. Thus churches, fellowships, partners, support groups are needed, especially if the intruder into the real world is dangerous, the character may choose to fight.

In the end, the character is changed by this sudden intrusion. Something must be done. Or the character must change. Intrusion fantasy shows the main character that the world is not what she had thought it was. Whether this unveiling blesses the main character or curses her is unimportant. What matters is that the character is changed and will never see herself, the world, or her place in the world in the same way again. Thus, those who have seen the God behind the veil will suddenly “bring forth fruits worthy of repentance”  or go about preaching to neighbors with the zeal of an ex-alcoholic or an ex-smoker. Intruded-upon characters generally change. And who would not? They must in order to accommodate the secret that had formerly been hidden behind that closed door in heaven. 

Our collective posts on Intrusive Fantasy is located at:

Chris Howard's Saltwaterwitch Blog

Book III of the Stone Trilogy, Song of the Storm by Mariam Kobras

Book III of the Stone Trilogy, Song of the Storm

by Mariam Kobras

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Buddhapuss Ink LLC (July 16, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0984203575
  • ISBN-13: 978-0984203574
  • When dreams come true for some and worlds crash for others, when friendships are tested and true love is found at last--that is theSong of the Storm.
    The conclusion of the award-winning Stone Trilogy brings the love story of Jon and Naomi full circle; with some things lost and some things gained, they discover the true value of love and family, and the high cost of survival in our world today.

    Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Mariam Kobras  lived in Brazil and Saudi Arabia with her parents as a child before they decided to settle in Germany. She attended school there and studied American Literature and Psychology at Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen, where she met her husband. She lives in Hamburg, Germany, with her husband, two sons and two cats.






    Thursday, July 11, 2013

    Moving Your Invisible Boundaries: Heart Physics: The Key to Limitless Living by Dr Jim Richards

    Moving Your Invisible Boundaries: Heart Physics: The Key to Limitless Living

    by Dr Jim Richards
    Here's the blurb:
    Have you ever set goals, trained for maximum results, and followed the same personal development plan that seems to work for everyone else, only to hit an invisible boundary that causes you to fall short? Unless you know how to expand your heart you will sabotage any success that might take you beyond your current heart boundaries. Even if you manage to push past your current heart boundaries, chances are you will experience some catastrophic event that pulls you back within the limits of life as you have known it! Moving Your Invisible Boundaries is the result of forty years of research and clinical practice. These principles have been proven in counseling sessions, drug recovery programs, personal mentoring and by thousands who have put them into practice through Dr. Jim Richards Heart Physics Programs. This book is designed to take you past information, past self-growth and into a life that experiences God, His promises, and the resurrection life of Jesus. By discovering and implementing the distinctions between the mind and the heart you will experience the secret to limitless living! Rather than just hearing and reading the transformation stories of others, your life will be a transformation story. When you learn how to change your heart you will be able to move your invisible boundaries and begin to experience the joy of limitless living!

    About the Author

    Jim Richards combines spirituality, energy medicine, scientific concepts and human intuition into a philosophical approach that aligns spirit, soul and body, resulting in incredible health, emotional, financial and spiritual breakthroughs. Jim is a life coach, consultant, teacher and motivational trainer. He holds doctorates in Theology, Alternative Medicine and Human Behavior. Dr. Richards is an entrepreneur who has built several successful businesses ranging from contracting to real estate to marketing. As a national best-selling author, Dr. Richards has written several books that have sold several million copies around the world.

    Moving Invisible Boundaries on youtube.



    Wednesday, July 10, 2013

    Pet peeve #486: Christian platitudes

    Yep, I'm always ranting about Christian platitudes. So here's another one:

    Platitude spoken by Sunday school teacher: "If you're having trouble and battling Satanic attacks, then God is using you because Satan wouldn't bother you if you weren't going to trouble his plans/empire." 
    (The equal and opposite of this platitude is also wrong: "Sister, everyone is suffering. The world is large so other people are suffering more than you.")

    Why does this platitude go around? Who started it? 

    I suspect some kind soul started the ball rolling in order to comfort the suffering. It was perhaps a response to the question, "Why is my life so hard? I must have done something wrong for God to be punishing me. And even if it is chastising and not punishment, I must be doing something wrong."

    So, this statement aims to comfort by showing that God is not behind the evil that is happening in some sufferer's life. 

    But as in all these cookie-cutter cake-baked half-baked Christian platitudes there are subtle evils in this statement ...and these subtle evils just lead to affecting one's heart. 

    First the statement posits the idea that 

    A) good people will suffer and that if someone is not suffering then that means the person is not good enough for Satan to bother them. But is that true? It's a nice platitude which equates the suffering of a Christian almost to Christlike level. But what does it to to the spirit of someone who drinks in such a statement, like water soaking into dry thirsty ground? And how does it make that sufferer think about those who have had only good happen in their lives? Yes, yes, there are such things as people who have had really good lives!

    Do we envy the person with the good life? Do we go around listening to everything they say of their lives so we can "accept" that they have somehow "earned" their happy lives? Do they think that perhaps the other person has not been good enough for Satan to bother them? Do they think the happy person has not suffered enough to earn a happy Satanic attack free life? Do they get angry with Christians who have had a good life? 

    And how does this affect our view of ourselves? Do we smugly sit by and say "Yes.. I am suffering, but it is because I have some great work to do. Satan is the cause of all my trouble because I am so good."


    We then fall into the danger of thinking something like this: “Look how buffeted I am! Come not near me for I am more buffeted than thou!”

    It is said that a legalist is someone who fears that somewhere a bad person is getting away with something. Legalists will quote Chapter 33 of Ezekiel. Even the heart of a Christian legalist tends toward legalism more than to love.

    Don’t get me wrong. I totally believe sinners suffer and God blesses the good. But I want a heart that doesn't see evil in another's life (or my life) as proof of God working against me or that person. It trips a person up. It mires us in self-judging and takes us away from loving God because He truly loves us. Job's comforters are quick to see things that just may not be there. I remember being on a bus trip once. Not a church i generally went to but hey I was there that Sunday. And there was a drunk with a broken walk, staggering along and limping. Then the pastor's wife chirped up, "The wages of sin," and nodded pityingly smugly.

    But who knows? Maybe he became a drunk after the accident, and maybe he was a good person before the accident. And if he did get into an accident because he was drinking too much, we still can’t judge because we don’t know what wounds he carried to make him turn to drink. The entire conversation just really bothered me. That she had the judgment in her heart was bad enough but that she had the nerve to say it.

    The Bible tells asks, “Who are we to judge another man's servant?” And if we judge another, we have put ourselves back under the law and are now NO MORE under grace.

    The legalist will say: “As Jesus loved the ‘sinners’ and reached out to them with parables, He also told them to ‘go and sin no more.’ So although we are NOT Jesus, I don't believe He would have us turn a blind eye to sin. True, we ARE under grace, but grace is NOT a license to sin.”

    My response is: Jesus told us to remove the beam in our own eye before we take the speck out of someone else’s eye. We must love others and never have a heart that plugs people into little categories. I’m not saying it’s a license to sin. It’s just not a license for us to judge others. We must never, ever, ever defend our right to judge another person;
    legalism is on one side, license is on the other and liberty in the middle. As David Pawson said, “Legalism is not free to sin; license is free to sin; liberty is free to not sin.”

    The question is: If a Christian has trouble, their reaction to the trouble is often affected by how legalistic they are. Job is the oldest book in the Bible and it is dealing with bad things happening to a good legalistic person. We can get instruction from this book if we approach it honestly and let the book challenge us a we read it and see the strange legalistic things we believe. 

    Jesus said that it is the heart that defiles the body because out of the heart comes sins such as adultery, pride, etc. The sin of spiritual pride is a subtle one. And really so many Christians —who would not let a gay person or an adulterer near them— are so full of defiling pride. Is it possible that it is the sin of religious “suffering” pride in our body that is getting in the way of grace working health to our bodies? 

    In Matthew 20, Jesus tells a story about a generous landowner who pays those who have only worked for one hour as much as he pays those who worked for an entire day? Needless to say those who had worked the entire day were somewhat legalistic and objected to the landowner’s generosity. The landowner then posed this question to them: “Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?”

    A great Christian preacher said, "If there is one thing a legalist doesn’t like, it’s the idea that some bad person is getting away with being bad. Somewhere some bad person is being blessed by God. Legalism and the idea of fairness go hand in hand."

    I remember hearing of a man who had won the lottery three or four times. The news bothered me. After all, the man wasn’t disabled or poor…luck just seemed to happen to him. It didn’t seem fair when there were so many poor people out there who could’ve used the money.

    There was also a time when I would find myself getting angry at a gorgeous young educated woman who had what I considered a good life. Why hadn’t I had such a good life? Why did life go so smoothly for her? I would resent such a person, especially if they seemed to be happy and empty-headed. At last it occurred to me, I must learn to love people. Whether or not they are rich or poor, deserving or not. Love either kills the legalism in us or legalism kills love. Both cannot abide in the same place.

    Legalism says such statements as, “I didn’t deserve to have this (bad) thing happen to me.”
    OR “She didn’t deserve to have this (good) thing happen to her.

    In Ecclesiastes 9:11, the Preacher says, “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

    For the legalist, this is a bad thing because good should happen to those who “deserve” or “earned” it. But I have often considered myself lucky that the race is not always to the swift. There are many battles I have won which I should have lost, and there is much I do not understand. 

    Yes, God will judge sinners. The adulterer, the murderer, the liar, even the coward will be judged. But judgment happens too easily in the legalist’s mind because there is always the tendency to compare one’s self with others, to rest on one’s own laurels, or to judge God and to think that God is being unfair.

    What I want to do in life is to know how to love. That is all. And if it begins with God teaching me to be very careful what we hear and to not let the traditions and platitudes of men affect my spirit....then so be it. 

    Monday, July 01, 2013

    Bards and Sages Blog Tour: Lonely Moon by Andrew Saxsma

    Lonely Moon  by Andrew Saxsma
      Genre: SF



  • Paperback: 284 pages
  • Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (February 15, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1482369958
  • ISBN-13: 978-1482369953

  • Book Summary : Earth lies in ruins, destroyed by an unknown enemy. Humanity flees their burning homeworld, seeking a safe place to hide before they can be hunted down and eradicated. 

    Alliance Captain Michael Hane watches helplessly while his wife and unborn child fall victim to the random slaughter of Earth. With time running out, he is burdened by the last bits of humanity to find a way to stop this menace before it wipes the galaxy clean of every last human being.

    EXCERPT

    Almost on cue, Nilus entered the bridge where Hane sat in the pilot’s chair, the only other one on the bridge.

    Hane turned and looked over the back of the chair as Nilus walked futher in.

    “Report back when you’ve got something,” Admiral Reese said.  “Admiral Reese out.”

    “This one had a feeling it would come up sooner or later,” Nilus said, his huge oily eyes staring at Hane.  His eyelids blinked with a wet slosh.

    “What is the Hades Station,” Hane asked, point blank.  “And I don’t want any run around, Councilor.”

    Nilus nodded in agreement.

    “Very well.  The Hades Station watches and monitors the Hades FTL Bridge at all times.  During my species’ first ventures into space, in the early days of the Faster Than Light Bridge networks, a group of Aurans were charged with exploring the galaxy, creating pathways for which to travel throughout the network.  The very pathways our species use every day.  These explorers were known as the Pioneers,” Nilus said, typing on his chrome bracer.  A small panel opened and a hologram projected from his bracer into the air.  A spherical representation of the Milky Way galaxy slowly rotated in the air above both of them.

    “The Aurans created the FTL Bridge network?” Hane asked.

    “That is correct.  The basic idea is to set a point of origin,” Nilus said, pressing a button on his bracer.  A bright dot on one side of the galaxy hologram flashed and remained solid.  “Then, the Pioneer uses a ship to trace the route for which the Bridge will take.  Once it reaches its intended destination, it drops a Bridge Gate with which to connect back to the point of origin.  While the Pioneer ships can still travel faster than light with warp technology, it is quite dangerous.  These ships are more or less flying blind, guided by telescopes from our homeworld.  They are unreliable, and most ended in tragedy.  But the cause was too great to quit.  

    This one’s species set the tone for other inhabitants of the galaxy to flourish within.”

    “What does any of this have to do with the Hades Bridge?”

    “One Pioneer travelled too far.  Farther than anyone has ever been in the history of our galaxy,” Nilus said.

    “Where did he end up?” Hane asked.  He rose from his chair, interested.

    “The Andromeda Galaxy,” Nilus said.  He pushed a button on his bracer and a line traced from the solid dot, across the hologram.  The line shot out of the hologram and into the air, stopping a foot outside of the sphere.  “From start to finish, the trip took roughly fifteen thousand years.  

    Upon arrival, the destination Bridge Gate was released and went online,” Nilus said.

    “So?  What’s wrong with that?” Hane asked, missing the point.

    “An Auran’s life-span is only about three hundred and fifty years.  The oldest Auran recorded was four hundred and thirty-three.”

    “I don’t get it,” Hane said.

    “The Pioneer died before arriving at his destination,” Nilus said.

    Hane stood in silence, trying to understand.

    “As a precaution, every Pioneer must enter a code to finalize the connection between the point of origin and its final destination, thus establishing a successful network,” Nilus said, shutting down the hologram.  “Until three years ago, there were one hundred trillion, five-hundred thousand, and sixty-seven invalid code entries.”

    “Someone was trying to finalize the connection?” Hane asked in awe.

    “That is correct.”

    “What do you mean by three years ago?  They stopped?” Hane asked.

    Nilus nodded yes.

    “But why stop?”

    “One correct code was entered,” Nilus said, gravely.  “Something came through.”



    Paperback


    Kindle version






    About the author:

    Andrew is a small town author, surrounded by cornfields on all sides in a quaint little mid-western bore.
    His style is eclectic and to the point, with some polished flowery imagery for flavoring. His ideas are sharp and grisly and mostly deal with the fringes of reality, the things you hear on dark stormy nights, the things with no names. If the world of Literature was a full-bodied woman, his writing would be the hosiery, tight and fitting.
    Genre: Horror, Supernatural, Thrillers, Suspense
    Influences: H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Brian Keene, Gregory Thompson, Richard Laymon.
      Link to Book or Author Website : http://www.andrewsaxsma.webs.com , http://andrewsaxsma.blogspot.com


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