Windshield wipers blazing, I inched along in the morning rush hour traffic.  With the forecast, calling for heavy rain all day, the eight hour drive promised to be a long one.  I scanned the dial, looking for a news program to help pass the time.  However, it was a talk show that caught my attention.  Mark*, the host, asked callers to share their dreams and he pretended to interpret them.  Mark was really having fun coming up with his far-fetched ideas and poking fun at his callers.  I wondered to myself, “What would happen if someone said they had seen Jesus in their dream?”  The host connected the next caller…

“Hi this is Mark.  Who are we speaking with?” he began.  “My name’s Heidi*,” she replied. “Great to have you. Can you tell me your dream?” Mark continued, “The other night, in my dream, I saw Jesus,” Heidi began. “He looked just like you thought he would look.  With tears in his eyes, he asked me, ‘Why are you persecuting me?’  He was holding out his hands to me, inviting me to come to him.  Then I took his hand and we began to run together.  What do you think it means?”

There was a second or two of silence.  For the first time Mark was speechless.  All morning long he had been poking fun at his guests and having fun with far-fetched dreams.  But, now he had absolutely nothing to say.  He made no attempt to answer… no attempt to entertain the audience.  He politely thanked Hulya for her call and attempted to move on to the next caller.

This month I have been most privileged to see the Lord work in the life of my national friend, Sam*. My wife and I had him over to our home for dinner the Sunday night before Christmas. He was having some problems with relationships, finding a job, and finishing school. These problems were weighing heavily on him and really affecting him. So, he came over for dinner and after dinner I asked him if he had any dreams recently. This was the first time I had asked him this question and had felt the Lord telling me earlier in the day to ask him this question. So, after I asked him this, he looked at me and smiled. He then told me he had dreams 5 days earlier and then he proceeded to explain the dream to me. In the dream, he was naked and he saw Jesus through a hole in the wall and Jesus was extending his hand to him. Sam then woke up crying. We talked about this for a long time. And then about two weeks later he sent me a text asking if we could get together again and pick back up with studying the Bible. So we met last week and I began by asking him if he had any more dreams recently. He then told me that he had one three days earlier and then explained the dream to me. This time there was a priest holding two pictures, one picture was of Sam and the other picture was of a path with colorful trees and fruit all around the path. And he saw the name “Matthew” and the words, “You have a long way to go.” Sam then woke up.

I am not certain of what the meaning of these dreams is. However, it does seem that the Lord is using the dreams to draw Sam to Himself and to strengthen his desire to read and the study the Bible even more. We will continue to meet every Tuesday and study the Bible together. I am very excited about this and look forward to seeing how the Lord continues to draw Sam to Him.