October 8, 2007

  • I had a dream the other night. It was of people I don't even know. In my dream, an older couple with their daughter were in our house, not the house we have now, but a different house. I was surprised when I saw them. They were decorating our wall with newspapers and made a newspaper curtain for our door. They were totally making themselves feel at home by making our house a mess. The daughter went right in to our bedroom without asking permission and laid down on the bed and started smoking. I finally told her that smoking was not allowed in our house and to take her smoking outside. By then, I was starting to get aggravated. I grabbed an air freshener and started spraying the house, but I realized that I was using the glass window spray, but I was so angry already that I did not care. My husband, who was taking the whole thing in stride, finally told me that he will tell these people to leave as I was getting so upset. The whole time, I never heard these people speak in my dream. I was reading their minds by their uncaring and disrespectfullness through their actions. When they left, my hubby told me that they were his distant relatives and they came to bring him a gift--2 aprons and he was already wearing one of them. I told him that just because of the gift he let this people stay with us who were so self centered and do not have regard for our feelings.

    In the same dream, I was in the backyard and I saw a young boy hanging out there. I asked him how he got inside the backyard. He said the gate was opened and he helped himself in. I told him that he has to go, but the boy became belligerent and remained where he was. When my hubby warned him that he would take him home and tell his parents of his self-centered actions, he demanded to get something that we owned, and then he would leave. He was holding a shoe string in one hand, and I guess that's what he wanted of ours to take with him. End of the dream.

    This dream stemmed from an incident that happened four days ago. On our way for a visit to see my husband's mother, we stopped  to have a late lunch/early dinner before continuing on our trip. We did not realize we were at a wrong place at the wrong time. When we got back to our vehicle, someone had broken into our truck and stole my new laptop, my husband's duffel bag with clothes, my make up bag with sundries, my husband's retired ID (which really did not have any info there except his name and picture from his former job) and some other items. Thank goodness that I shut down my laptop and it has a password. I did not have any personal info in it because it's new, but still, I was glad that I had put a system password.

    But still, it was a traumatic experience and left me shaken. I never experienced where my personal things were stolen. Years ago, someone stole my old car once and when I had it repaired for the small damage made, the same criminal tried to steal it again, but this time, this person failed. I knew it was the same person because the place was a park and ride for carpools. That was a bad experience, but I got the car back. This time I felt like my privacy was invaded and I was violated. For two days, I almost felt paralyzed. I lost material stuff and I don't really put too much attachments into them, but I lost two rings that have sentimental values for me. They cost less than the laptop, but the sentimental values cannot be replaced.

    In the midst of it all, we reported the incident to a law enforcement and did a police report. We were told that in the area where we stopped, it's notorious for break ins, shopliftings and hold ups. We could not tell because the shopping mall was not rundown or anything that would indicate that it was a hangout for criminal activities. Where we used to live, that type of a shopping mall would not be a place for criminals. But then again, no one knows. We are always careful when we go on a trip to the point that I would be paranoid leaving my things inside a vehicle. For some reasons, my husband and I's guards were down that day. For some reasons, I put too much credit for a place just because it's in the south. That people are more godly in the south and would not do such a thing. Was I wrong! These places in the south are as infested with criminals as the rest of the country and the world is. I keep on forgetting that people are by nature evil and not basically good. The Holy Bible has said it. You cannot trust anyone. Anyone that does not revere God and is not fearing His wrath, has an evil mind overcome by the devil. Anyone who does not know and does not worship God and does not have a relationship with Him is dead in sin and destined for eternal damnation.

    Although my spirit was shaken, I was not defeated spiritually. I questioned God's power and miracles for two days; but with this experience, it proves many things. God could have given us free will with our actions, but He still is in control in regards to our lives. It proved also that the devil with the help of his cohorts, including humans, will do anything in his power to discredit God. And that was exactly what the devil was doing with my mind in the past two days. And since he could not attack my health and could not change my mind about God's unconditional love for me, he attacked me through my possessions. He was waiting for the time that I was vulnerable and he got me with the help of these lost humans who totally disregard the feelings of others as long as they can fulfill their self-centered desires to please themselves. This will not make me go back to being bitter and resentful of people because of this ordeal brought by these abusive humans. But this nightmare makes me vigilant and always on guard in any given situation that would inflict inconvenience, trauma and pain.

    My husband told me that the minds of these criminals are so screwed up that they think the rest of the world owe them something that belongs to them. They want a piece of the pie that law abiding citizens possess lawfully and have worked hard to have. These criminals think that they should also have them even if they have to use force to obtain them.

    What goes around, comes around. What you sow, you will reap--you sow hurtful and sinful deeds, you reap the same. I have given this incident to God. I am not carrying this burden, but cast it upon the Lord. I'm moving on, because I have a God that always takes care of my needs.

    Romans 12:19 (New Living Translation)

    19 Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,

       “I will take revenge;
          I will pay them back,”[a]
          says the Lord.

    Since God is going to take up your cause and see to it that justice is done, you can lay it down. You don’t have to carry anger and bitterness and resentment and revenge. Indeed you dare not. Jesus warned that an unforgiving heart will destroy you in the end (Matthew 6:15; 18:35)

    So wrath is connected with God’s response to something that deserves vengeance. And then it says, “I will repay.” So God’s wrath is treated as a repayment to man for something man has done.

    So just taking this verse alone, with its pieces, we could venture a definition of the wrath of God like this: the wrath of God is God’s settled anger toward sin expressed in the repayment of suitable vengeance on the guilty sinner.  http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2005/204_Gods_Wrath_Vengeance_Is_Mine_I_Will_Repay_Says_the_Lord/

    Daniel 12:2 (New Living Translation)

     Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace.

    Mark 9:43-48 (New Living Translation)

    43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell[a] with two hands.[b] 45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet.[c] 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’[d]

    Matthew 13:41-42 (New Living Translation)

    41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

    Isaiah 66:24 (New Living Translation)

    24 And as they go out, they will see
          the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me.
       For the worms that devour them will never die,
          and the fire that burns them will never go out.
       All who pass by
          will view them with utter horror.”