One-Eyed Jack

I mentioned a dream in my last blog that impacted me greatly toward belief in Christ. Before I get into the dream story I need to be totally clear about my thoughts about dreams and putting too much stock in them. I consider it a very dangerous exercise to think every dream or any dream for that matter needs interpretation by some person with a supposed gift of it. Yes, there are in scripture men, like Daniel who could interpret dreams. Today, we have the more sure word of prophecy, the word of God that we must trust in fully. Men, even godly men/women can be misled or mislead trying to bring some sense to someone’s dream. The dream I am going to tell you about was demonic, an attempt to turn me away from the gospel. It was baked in pure evil even as brief as it was. I am not a card player - but solitaire is a simple game that my simple mind can enjoy. During that in between time of Dick dropping the bomb and me coming to faith in Christ there were many battles in my life. Relationship battles - physical battles and serious spiritual battles that my darkened heart and mind was blind to in most cases. But this dream was clearly a spiritual one. Satan knew I was being drawn away from his kingdom into the kingdom of light and life. He (Satan) doesn’t give away his slaves easily. My dream was an attempt to discourage and intimidate me from going forward with investigating Biblical faith. The Bible was fueling my faith (Romans 10:17). My friends and co-workers were discouraging my inquiries. In fact, my friends were quite threatening at times. So this dream was just a continuation of many conflicts. This dream, was seriously colorfast. I had never had a dream that dynamic, nor have I since. I am alone - in a dark room. The cards seemed to be going in my favor. I was seemingly succeeding. But as I turned a card, it happened to be a “One -Eyed Jack”. Great! I had just the place for it open. As I laid the down - it began to speak to me. Remember this is a dream. It’s message was plain and simple and I fully understood what was a stake. He simply said, “You will never win- I own you”. Even in my sinful state, I knew we were not talking about the game. The dream was so vivid and powerful I immediately woke up knowing that I had encountered Satan. I never told anyone about this dream, but like Mary, I pondered it in my heart. In those pre-Christ days every thing seemed to be building toward a dramatic new beginning. But now, I know that God is patient - long suffering and He is super strategic in how He brings men and women to himself. We often hurry in our evangelistic efforts, and reasonably so. We do not know what is going to happen in someone’s life. But, God’s sovereignty rules - He uses men - His Word and His Spirit to bring salvation to all men. My story is no different than anyone else’s. God's patience and strategy is simply to anchor our faith in HIM! He is going to remove anything and everything will get it the way of it. The dream was a motivator for me. I knew I had to make a decision. To give in and walk away from God’s working in my life or take a bold step forward, regardless of the cost. I had read that following Christ demanded a cost - that cost was a cross. I had no idea what it that meant, but I knew I couldn’t turn back. I had tasted of God’s goodness through His word and because of that I knowingly had the courage to move forward. Yes, I still attempting self-reform. “Trying” to drink less - smoke less dope. My friends tried to convince me that “moderation” was the key. This simply goes to prove of God’s incredible patience. But even God’s patience has it limits. I found out that reality on December 19th, 1980. I’ll tell you about that in another story.