CAUGHT UP IN A DREAM

#1 · June 3, 2003, 10:53 am

Quote from Forum Archives on June 3, 2003, 10:53 am
Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>

CAUGHT UP IN A DREAM

Matthew 4:12-23

A few years back there was a movie titled, TUCKER. It's the story of a man who tried to fight the Detroit automobile industry by attempting to introduce a car named after himself. In one scene, Tucker is talking about how his mother came from the old country. She was Italian and had a very heavy accent. Tucker remembered that for years when he was young she said to him, "Don't gette tooa closea toathe peopele, you'le catcha theira greamsa." What she was really saying in broken English was, "Don't get too close to people, you'll catch their germs." But Tucker grew up thinking she was telling him, "Don't get too close to people or you'll catch their dreams." (Randy Rowland, GET A LIFE! (New York: HarperCollins Publishers 1992), p. 72.)

That can happen sometimes, can't it? We can get swept up in somebody else's dreams. I heard about one man who was determined it wouldn't happen to him.

Jim Egan worked at the West Coast Computer Fair in 1977. His job was to help customers decorate their booths. Industry shows are the cheapest way to reach customers within the trade, but some undercapitalized entrepreneurs hardly have enough to rent a booth, let alone pay for the decorations. Egan was approached by a couple of long-haired kids who wanted some chrome displays to make their booth "look flashy." Egan said he had the displays but they were for rent. The kids said they were short of cash, but perhaps Egan might like some stock in their new company. Egan, who had seen them come and go in his twenty years in the business, said he would accept only hard cash. So Steve Wozniak and Steven Jobs did without the chrome, fixed up their booth, and kept the stock in Apple Computer to themselves. Presumably, Jim Egan is still decorating booths for hard cash. ( Peter Hay, THE BOOK OF BUSINESS ANECDOTES, p. 212.) Sometimes it is a good thing to catch someone else's dream.

(Mat 4:12) But when Jesus heard that John was thrown into prison, He went back into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, He came and lived in Capernaum, which is on the seacoast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations! The people who sat in darkness saw a great Light; and Light has sprung up to those who sat in the region and shadow of death."

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

And walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea. For they were fishermen.And He said to them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.And they immediately left their nets and followed him.And going on from there, he saw another two brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And He called them; and they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him.

(Mat 4:23) And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

The story of the New Testament is the story of men and women who got close enough to Jesus to catch his dream. Doesn't it amaze you how quickly the disciples left their fishing nets to follow Jesus?

Matthew tells us that Jesus was in Capernaum. John the Baptist was now in prison. It seems more than coincidental that upon hearing of John's incarceration Jesus began his own ministry of preaching--taking up, as it were, where John left off--preaching a message of repentance: "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Walking by the sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And Simon and Andrew left their nets, and followed him. And going on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And immediately, Matthew tells us, they also left the ship and their father, and followed Jesus.

Doesn't that seem rather abrupt to you? What, no discussion? No "we'll think about it and get back to you tomorrow?" No "don't call us; we'll call you?" Could we not say that these four fishermen acted rather impulsively? Evidently, they were caught up in Jesus' dream. Doesn't their impulsiveness suggest certain real truths?

FIRST OF ALL, THERE MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING VERY IMPRESSIVE ABOUT JESUS FOR THEM TO ACT SO RAPIDLY.

We don't get swept up that quickly by just any ordinary run-of-the-mill person. There was something special about Jesus --some indefinable quality that set him apart. What was it? He hadnt performed any miracles, he hadnt fed any multitudes, he hadnt raised any dead people. Yet they immediately dropped everything and followed him.

Those four fishermen--Simon, Andrew, James and John--got excited when they met Jesus. They left their families, they left their jobs, they left everything important to them for an uncertain future as his disciples. There must have been something very special about Jesus.

THERE ALSO MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT JESUS' DREAM, OF WHAT HE TOLD THEM HE BELIEVED AND STOOD FOR.

Jesus came preaching that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." What was there about that kingdom that got these fishermen so excited?

And why are we not just as excited?

Maybe we don't understand what the kingdom is. Or maybe it just hasn't been presented very well.

It reminds me of a woman who read somewhere that dogs were healthier if fed a tablespoon of cod liver oil each day. So each day she followed the same routine--she chased her dog until she caught it, wrestled it down, and managed to force the fishy remedy down the dog's throat.

Until one day when, in the middle of this gruelling medical effort, the bottle was kicked over. With a sigh, she loosed her grip on the dog so she could wipe up the mess. To her surprise the dog trotted over to the puddle and begin lapping up what had been spilled. THE DOG LOVED COD LIVER OIL. It was just the owner's method of application the dog objected to. ("Awaken Your Students to Scripture," by Bill McNabb and Steven Mabry, YOUTHWORKER, Summer 1995, p. 43.)

Sometimes I think something like that has happened to the good news of the Kingdom of God. It has been so poorly presented to us that we have never been captured by its attractiveness and its power.

Jesus had a vision for the world, a dream, a picture of how life is intended to be. Jesus saw a world where God ruled in every heart--a world of righteousness, peace and justice. A world of love and harmony and unity. Sure, Jesus talked about heaven and life in the hereafter but he also had a vision for this world. He called it the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God. You can use those terms interchangeably scholars tell us. And Jesus said that this kingdom is at hand. It is available. It is not merely a distant dream. It is a present possibility. Every once in a while we catch a glimpse of that kingdom.

J. Edwin Orr, a former professor of Church history at Fuller Theological Seminary, described the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the Welsh Revivals of the nineteenth century. As people sought the infilling of the Spirit they did all they could to confess wrongdoings and to make restitution. This unexpectedly created severe problems for the shipyards along the coast of Wales. Over the years workers had pilfered all kinds of things. Everything from wheelbarrows to hammers had been stolen. However, as people sought to be right with God they started to return what they had taken, with the result that soon the shipyards of Wales were overwhelmed with returned property. There were such huge piles of returned tools that several of the yards had to put up signs that read, IF YOU HAVE BEEN LED BY GOD TO RETURN WHAT YOU HAVE STOLEN, PLEASE KNOW THAT THE MANAGEMENT FORGIVES YOU AND WISHES YOU TO KEEP WHAT YOU HAVE TAKEN. (Tony Campolo, HOW TO BE PENTCOSTAL, (Dallas: Word, 1991), pp. 92-93.)

Wouldn't you love to see that kind of revival sweep this nation? Couldn't you get excited about a world in which people began making restitution for their wrongs. Couldn't you get excited about a world in which you could always trust people to do the right thing because God lived in their heart. Couldn't you get excited about a world without child abuse, without murder, without broken families, or drug addiction? A world without fear or poverty or disease? Couldn't you get excited about a world like that?

The disciples got excited. They were swept up in Jesus' dream. They believed such a world was possible and they gave their lives to see it become a reality. And that brings us to a third truth:

THE DISCIPLES GOT EXCITED ABOUT THE ROLE THEY WOULD PLAY IN BRINGING ABOUT THE REALIZATION OF JESUS' DREAM.

Jesus said to them, "I will make you fishers of men." They knew all about fishing for fish, but Jesus was calling them to something far more significant. He was calling them to introduce men and women to this kingdom of love, this kingdom of power, this kingdom of heaven on earth. They would not be passive spectators of this coming Kingdom but active participants. And they would make a difference, a lasting difference in their world and in individual lives. No wonder they were excited. They were going to help change the world.

When the missionaries were forced to leave China in 1951, and Christians began to be oppressed by the Communist government, the future of the church seemed bleak. In the preceding decades of western missions work, many of the approximately one million Protestant communicants had become "rice Christians," accepting the forms of Christianity more for personal gain than genuine conviction. When the pressures began to mount, they soon fell away. With the coming of the Cultural Revolution and the suppression of all institutional religious functions, it seemed that Christianity in China was doomed.

Yet during this period of terrible persecution, committed Christians, not afraid to defy the principalities of this world, began to meet secretly in their homes. When regular church services were outlawed during the "Great Leap Forward," these informal cottage meetings became the primary structure of the church. As their pastors were killed or imprisoned, members of the laity came forward to provide leadership. Women especially took an active role. When their houses were searched by the Red Guards, and all Bibles and Christian literature destroyed, the people drew upon their memory of Scripture and shared experiences to build up one another in the faith.

As the Christians in these small groups displayed extraordinary courage, zeal, and love, the gospel spread to their neighbors and fellow workers. Freely they gave their own food and clothing to the needy and poor--especially to those whose breadwinners had been killed or thrown into prison. They visited the bereaved and prayed for the sick, often seeing God miraculously heal.

Typical was the way some believers cared for a Communist school teacher who became seriously ill. So genuine was their compassion, that upon her recovery she, too, accepted Christ, only to suffer public ridicule on return to her work. Required to appear at a public "confession" meeting, she protested: "When I was ill, you did nothing to help me. It was the Christians who did everything!" That fact shamed her critics into silence. (Leslie Lyall, GOD REIGNS IN CHINA (London: Hodder and Stough, 1985), pp. 178, 214, 215. Cited in Robert E. Coleman, THE SPARK) Today the church of Jesus Christ in Communist China is alive and growing because individual Christians did their part to be fishers of men.

What we need to see is that the kingdom of heaven is still at hand in this world. It remains a very real possibility wherever there are followers of Jesus who are willing to live out that which they believe. There is something very special about Jesus of Nazareth. There is something very special about his dream. It is a dream of the rule of God in every heart. It is a dream of a world freed from the grip of man's inhumanity to man. And Christ is still looking for co-workers--men and women who will be fishers of men--who will seek to introduce their friends and neighbors to this kingdom of heaven. Can he count on you?

------------------------------------------------------

Dear God... Kid's wisdom in Cartoon form

http://folsom.sk.ca/deargod.htm

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.483 / Virus Database: 279 - Release Date: 5/19/2003

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.486 / Virus Database: 284 - Release Date: 5/29/2003

Posted by: henkf <henkf@...>

CAUGHT UP IN A DREAM

Matthew 4:12-23

A few years back there was a movie titled, TUCKER. It's the story of a man who tried to fight the Detroit automobile industry by attempting to introduce a car named after himself. In one scene, Tucker is talking about how his mother came from the old country. She was Italian and had a very heavy accent. Tucker remembered that for years when he was young she said to him, "Don't gette tooa closea toathe peopele, you'le catcha theira greamsa." What she was really saying in broken English was, "Don't get too close to people, you'll catch their germs." But Tucker grew up thinking she was telling him, "Don't get too close to people or you'll catch their dreams." (Randy Rowland, GET A LIFE! (New York: HarperCollins Publishers 1992), p. 72.)

That can happen sometimes, can't it? We can get swept up in somebody else's dreams. I heard about one man who was determined it wouldn't happen to him.

Jim Egan worked at the West Coast Computer Fair in 1977. His job was to help customers decorate their booths. Industry shows are the cheapest way to reach customers within the trade, but some undercapitalized entrepreneurs hardly have enough to rent a booth, let alone pay for the decorations. Egan was approached by a couple of long-haired kids who wanted some chrome displays to make their booth "look flashy." Egan said he had the displays but they were for rent. The kids said they were short of cash, but perhaps Egan might like some stock in their new company. Egan, who had seen them come and go in his twenty years in the business, said he would accept only hard cash. So Steve Wozniak and Steven Jobs did without the chrome, fixed up their booth, and kept the stock in Apple Computer to themselves. Presumably, Jim Egan is still decorating booths for hard cash. ( Peter Hay, THE BOOK OF BUSINESS ANECDOTES, p. 212.) Sometimes it is a good thing to catch someone else's dream.

(Mat 4:12) But when Jesus heard that John was thrown into prison, He went back into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, He came and lived in Capernaum, which is on the seacoast, in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, by way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations! The people who sat in darkness saw a great Light; and Light has sprung up to those who sat in the region and shadow of death."

From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

And walking by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea. For they were fishermen.And He said to them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.And they immediately left their nets and followed him.And going on from there, he saw another two brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. And He called them; and they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him.

(Mat 4:23) And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.

The story of the New Testament is the story of men and women who got close enough to Jesus to catch his dream. Doesn't it amaze you how quickly the disciples left their fishing nets to follow Jesus?

Matthew tells us that Jesus was in Capernaum. John the Baptist was now in prison. It seems more than coincidental that upon hearing of John's incarceration Jesus began his own ministry of preaching--taking up, as it were, where John left off--preaching a message of repentance: "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Walking by the sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And Simon and Andrew left their nets, and followed him. And going on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And immediately, Matthew tells us, they also left the ship and their father, and followed Jesus.

Doesn't that seem rather abrupt to you? What, no discussion? No "we'll think about it and get back to you tomorrow?" No "don't call us; we'll call you?" Could we not say that these four fishermen acted rather impulsively? Evidently, they were caught up in Jesus' dream. Doesn't their impulsiveness suggest certain real truths?

FIRST OF ALL, THERE MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING VERY IMPRESSIVE ABOUT JESUS FOR THEM TO ACT SO RAPIDLY.

We don't get swept up that quickly by just any ordinary run-of-the-mill person. There was something special about Jesus --some indefinable quality that set him apart. What was it? He hadnt performed any miracles, he hadnt fed any multitudes, he hadnt raised any dead people. Yet they immediately dropped everything and followed him.

Those four fishermen--Simon, Andrew, James and John--got excited when they met Jesus. They left their families, they left their jobs, they left everything important to them for an uncertain future as his disciples. There must have been something very special about Jesus.

THERE ALSO MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT JESUS' DREAM, OF WHAT HE TOLD THEM HE BELIEVED AND STOOD FOR.

Jesus came preaching that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." What was there about that kingdom that got these fishermen so excited?

And why are we not just as excited?

Maybe we don't understand what the kingdom is. Or maybe it just hasn't been presented very well.

It reminds me of a woman who read somewhere that dogs were healthier if fed a tablespoon of cod liver oil each day. So each day she followed the same routine--she chased her dog until she caught it, wrestled it down, and managed to force the fishy remedy down the dog's throat.

Until one day when, in the middle of this gruelling medical effort, the bottle was kicked over. With a sigh, she loosed her grip on the dog so she could wipe up the mess. To her surprise the dog trotted over to the puddle and begin lapping up what had been spilled. THE DOG LOVED COD LIVER OIL. It was just the owner's method of application the dog objected to. ("Awaken Your Students to Scripture," by Bill McNabb and Steven Mabry, YOUTHWORKER, Summer 1995, p. 43.)

Sometimes I think something like that has happened to the good news of the Kingdom of God. It has been so poorly presented to us that we have never been captured by its attractiveness and its power.

Jesus had a vision for the world, a dream, a picture of how life is intended to be. Jesus saw a world where God ruled in every heart--a world of righteousness, peace and justice. A world of love and harmony and unity. Sure, Jesus talked about heaven and life in the hereafter but he also had a vision for this world. He called it the Kingdom of heaven or the Kingdom of God. You can use those terms interchangeably scholars tell us. And Jesus said that this kingdom is at hand. It is available. It is not merely a distant dream. It is a present possibility. Every once in a while we catch a glimpse of that kingdom.

J. Edwin Orr, a former professor of Church history at Fuller Theological Seminary, described the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the Welsh Revivals of the nineteenth century. As people sought the infilling of the Spirit they did all they could to confess wrongdoings and to make restitution. This unexpectedly created severe problems for the shipyards along the coast of Wales. Over the years workers had pilfered all kinds of things. Everything from wheelbarrows to hammers had been stolen. However, as people sought to be right with God they started to return what they had taken, with the result that soon the shipyards of Wales were overwhelmed with returned property. There were such huge piles of returned tools that several of the yards had to put up signs that read, IF YOU HAVE BEEN LED BY GOD TO RETURN WHAT YOU HAVE STOLEN, PLEASE KNOW THAT THE MANAGEMENT FORGIVES YOU AND WISHES YOU TO KEEP WHAT YOU HAVE TAKEN. (Tony Campolo, HOW TO BE PENTCOSTAL, (Dallas: Word, 1991), pp. 92-93.)

Wouldn't you love to see that kind of revival sweep this nation? Couldn't you get excited about a world in which people began making restitution for their wrongs. Couldn't you get excited about a world in which you could always trust people to do the right thing because God lived in their heart. Couldn't you get excited about a world without child abuse, without murder, without broken families, or drug addiction? A world without fear or poverty or disease? Couldn't you get excited about a world like that?

The disciples got excited. They were swept up in Jesus' dream. They believed such a world was possible and they gave their lives to see it become a reality. And that brings us to a third truth:

THE DISCIPLES GOT EXCITED ABOUT THE ROLE THEY WOULD PLAY IN BRINGING ABOUT THE REALIZATION OF JESUS' DREAM.

Jesus said to them, "I will make you fishers of men." They knew all about fishing for fish, but Jesus was calling them to something far more significant. He was calling them to introduce men and women to this kingdom of love, this kingdom of power, this kingdom of heaven on earth. They would not be passive spectators of this coming Kingdom but active participants. And they would make a difference, a lasting difference in their world and in individual lives. No wonder they were excited. They were going to help change the world.

When the missionaries were forced to leave China in 1951, and Christians began to be oppressed by the Communist government, the future of the church seemed bleak. In the preceding decades of western missions work, many of the approximately one million Protestant communicants had become "rice Christians," accepting the forms of Christianity more for personal gain than genuine conviction. When the pressures began to mount, they soon fell away. With the coming of the Cultural Revolution and the suppression of all institutional religious functions, it seemed that Christianity in China was doomed.

Yet during this period of terrible persecution, committed Christians, not afraid to defy the principalities of this world, began to meet secretly in their homes. When regular church services were outlawed during the "Great Leap Forward," these informal cottage meetings became the primary structure of the church. As their pastors were killed or imprisoned, members of the laity came forward to provide leadership. Women especially took an active role. When their houses were searched by the Red Guards, and all Bibles and Christian literature destroyed, the people drew upon their memory of Scripture and shared experiences to build up one another in the faith.

As the Christians in these small groups displayed extraordinary courage, zeal, and love, the gospel spread to their neighbors and fellow workers. Freely they gave their own food and clothing to the needy and poor--especially to those whose breadwinners had been killed or thrown into prison. They visited the bereaved and prayed for the sick, often seeing God miraculously heal.

Typical was the way some believers cared for a Communist school teacher who became seriously ill. So genuine was their compassion, that upon her recovery she, too, accepted Christ, only to suffer public ridicule on return to her work. Required to appear at a public "confession" meeting, she protested: "When I was ill, you did nothing to help me. It was the Christians who did everything!" That fact shamed her critics into silence. (Leslie Lyall, GOD REIGNS IN CHINA (London: Hodder and Stough, 1985), pp. 178, 214, 215. Cited in Robert E. Coleman, THE SPARK) Today the church of Jesus Christ in Communist China is alive and growing because individual Christians did their part to be fishers of men.

What we need to see is that the kingdom of heaven is still at hand in this world. It remains a very real possibility wherever there are followers of Jesus who are willing to live out that which they believe. There is something very special about Jesus of Nazareth. There is something very special about his dream. It is a dream of the rule of God in every heart. It is a dream of a world freed from the grip of man's inhumanity to man. And Christ is still looking for co-workers--men and women who will be fishers of men--who will seek to introduce their friends and neighbors to this kingdom of heaven. Can he count on you?

------------------------------------------------------

Dear God... Kid's wisdom in Cartoon form

http://folsom.sk.ca/deargod.htm

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.483 / Virus Database: 279 - Release Date: 5/19/2003

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.486 / Virus Database: 284 - Release Date: 5/29/2003