Month: June 2017

I’ll Remember You

Barbara Kain Parker Inspirational , , , , , , ,

Eccles 12 1The cherished quiet moments of my morning time with the Lord had ended as the activities of the day began demanding attention. Fixing breakfast, I stole another quick, silent few minutes while standing at my kitchen sink to take communion and focus on the Lord. Moving on to the food preparation, I was surprised and blessed to sense my spirit declaring, “I remember You,” and I prayed, “Yes Lord! I do remember You; and I desire to remember You throughout the day, regardless of what is happening; I desire to remember You in the midst of chaos as well calm.”

Next task—get online to check email, but I Remember You began playing in my head. Remember that smooth jazz tune? Its popularity has endured since it was first introduced in 1942 when my mom was only fourteen years old. It was a time that was dominated by the horrors of World War II and perhaps, it was also a time when focusing on the sweetness of someone you loved was comforting amidst the anguish. This morning, only the first 2 lines were resonating, so I Googled the song for the rest of the lyrics and was astounded by the relevance of the last verse to my own romance with God:

I remember you
You’re the one who made my dreams come true…
…When my life is through
And the angels ask me to recall
The thrill of them all
Then I will tell them I remember you

God has made it clear that He always remembers us, just one example being Psalm 40:5:

You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
    your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
    none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
    yet they are more than can be told.

But do we remember Him with that same passion—every day, all day, and not just on Sunday, Easter or Christmas? We love to receive His blessings, and we often cling to such wonderful promises as we read in Psalm 91, but have we looked closely at the ‘gotchas’? Check out the qualifiers for the protections promised:

1He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

9 Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.

14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.

If we expect to receive God’s blessings, we must make Him our dwelling place—we must live in Him, hold onto Him, and know Him so intimately that we are on a first-name basis. When we do, we will remember Him always and, as in that last stanza of the song, our greatest memories and our testimony throughout eternity will be of His love and faithfulness, His mercy and grace, His peace and comfort and sufficiency throughout our lives here on earth.

Poof, and It’s Gone!

Barbara Kain Parker Inspirational

Version 2

 

 

Poof, and It’s Gone is an excerpt from my new book, Exploring Heavenly Places, Volume 8: Dreamspeak, which I’m excited to announce is now available. Print, PDF, Kindle, and Nook versions are all available via Aslansplace.com

 

 

Tourist traps abound as one travels just about anywhere in the world. On road trips through the southwestern deserts of the United States these may take the form of gift shops that are advertised miles in advance. Most of them are a huge disappointment by the time one arrives but by then you’re so ready for a bathroom break that you stop anyway. Inside, one usually finds a large variety of items of regional interest, though a close inspection will reveal that they are made in China or some other far-away land more often than not. Prominently displayed are the beautiful dream catchers, originally created by First Nations peoples who believed that the night air is filled with both good and bad dreams and that a dream catcher hanging over or near the bed and swinging freely in the air would catch those dreams as they flow by. Good dreams supposedly know how to slip through the holes and slide down the soft feathers so gently that many times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming. On the other hand bad dreams don’t know the way and get tangled in the web, perishing with the first light of the new day. Nice, if it really worked, but it doesn’t!

It was eighth grade, and I’d had the most incredible dream ever, one I would never forget! Such a great plot; complete with everything necessary to finally get an A the next time our English teacher delivered the dreaded news that we had to write a story. Other writing assignments were fine, but coming up with an interesting story line was beyond me; so I remember very clearly the moment a few months later when the previously dreaded assignment was given. In shock, I sat helplessly at my desk with absolutely no memory of my award-winning dream. Too bad that nobody had ever taught me the truth of scripture:

He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night.[i]

Moses understood the transitory nature of dreams. In praying about the brevity of life, he compared it to a quickly vanishing dream:

For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.[ii]

Fortunately, Daniel understood too. Had he not, would he have been able to recall the details of his dream/visions of the four beasts?

In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.[iii]

We don’t need dream catchers, but we do need to catch our dreams by following Daniel’s example.

[i] Job 20:8

[ii] Psalm 90:4-6

[iii] Daniel 7:1