a dream

I had a dream the other night that I believe needs to be written down somewhere, so here it goes. I was traveling in a jungle type place, just lush gardens, green green grass and tropical. This couple from my church, Norma and her husband, were asking me to follow them because they were taking me to their home. I think there were bridges, the suspension kind that I am terribly afraid of, but I followed them, no problem. (It seemed like we were in Brazil?) I was busy checking out the scenery. There was a wall to my right, a vague one but it sort of resembled a climbing wall. I reached out to touch it to support myself along the hike and a nail punctured my hand, right in the center, in the palm of my right hand. When I pulled it away from the wall, it hurt. When I looked at my hand, I could see right through it! The nail pierced my hand all the way through and I was freaking out. I kept trying to yell for Norma to stop because I had been injured, but no one stopped or really noticed. I kept looking at this dime sized hole in my hand and it HURT. But there was no blood. So I asked God in my half-asleep/half-awake stupor what this was all about.

He told me that it had to do with my sharing in His crucifixion. He said I was finally beginning to live in a place where I understood what all He died for and precisely what He did for me personally. He said when I become aware of my life and how it is so awesome because of Him being crucified, then I get to live in the way cool life that He set out for me as I live in the joy and reality and revelation of His resurrection. But that was just a side note. It was not an exciting dream and that part was not the part that was stressed. It was that my wound in my hand didn't bleed at all, because the blood had already been shed. But the wound hurt and there was pain that I had to endure. But the revelation of what He did for me was going to take US places we had never been before, as I begin this journey of understanding what He did for me, just me and where we can now GO together, as I live a life that is totally FREE because He died for my freedom and for me to have LIFE in Him. And this is a subject for another blog entirely...what my freedom looks like to me? What joy looks like? What my personal revelation can be described as... It is just me realizing that He died for every single solitary sin, addiction, vice, quirk, disease, illness, infirmity, EVERYTHING! He died so that I can now, not only have a relationship with God, but that I reach my hand into HEAVEN and get down what I need and I no longer live beat up, worn down, depressed about my past, my mistakes, or my uncertain future, because Jesus died for me. And He shows up! And He changes personalities, and opens doors, and makes a way, and supernaturally provides and much, much more. And that is wonderful.

Romans 6:4 KJV
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:3-5 The Message
That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country.

Romans 6:4 NLT
For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Romans 6:4 NIV
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Romans 6:4 Portuguese
A nossa natureza pecadora foi enterrada com Cristo, pelo baptismo, e quando Deus o Pai, com o seu divino poder, o trouxe de novo à vida, também nos foi concedida uma vida nova para desfrutar.