Spiritual dreams

"The Wise Men Come to Worship" by James Tissot

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Matthew 1-2; Psalm 81

TO CHEW ON: "Then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way." Matthew 2:12

A sidebar article in my Bible observes about dreams, "The NT opens with a burst of dreams, visions, angelic visitations and prophecies and closes with John's revelation…" James W. Ryle, "Dreams, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1291,2.

The story of Jesus' incarnation is particularly full of dreams.

• An angel comes to Joseph in a dream to tell him it is OK to marry Mary - Matthew 1:20.

• In our reading today, an angel warns the wise men away from return to Herod - Matthew 2:12.

• In the next verse of Matthew, we have another dream of Joseph's in which an angel tells him to flee from Herod to Egypt with Mary and baby Jesus - Matthew 2:13.

• After Herod dies, an angel gives Joseph the news and tells him to settle his family in Israel - Matthew 2:19.

• En-route another dream confirms his intuition about the danger of living in Judea and so he returns to Galilee - Matthew 2:22.

The article quoted from above goes on to say:

"…neither Jesus nor the apostles give any particular precept concerning the phenomena of dreams or visions. This is somewhat enigmatic in that, while the Bible does not teach about dreams and visions in any systematic manner, yet by citing so many significant examples it validates their existence and use by God as a means of communicating to people" - Ibid.  

What do you think—does God still speak to people in dreams today? Google that question and you'll raise many links to check out. Perhaps one of the simplest answers is on the Billy Graham Evangelical Association Answers page:

"God may communicate through dreams or visions even today, but we need to carefully check any such guidance we receive with Scripture and godly counsel to be sure it is from the Lord..." (read the entire answer).

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for preserving Jesus' human life through dream warnings and messages. I know You can communicate to me in whatever way You choose. Help me to be listening. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 81

The Bible Project VIDEO: Matthew (Part 1: 1-13) (Read Scripture Series)



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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Pilgrim attitudes

Detail of "Visit of the Wise Men" from 
The Bible in Pictures © 1922

 TODAY'S SPECIAL: Matthew 2:1-12

TO CHEW ON: "When they saw the star they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy." Matthew 2:10

Four attitudes jump out at me from this amazing story of these eastern pilgrims on their quest to find the King of the Jews.

Perseverance
I've always wondered, where exactly is the East? Did these men travel far?  Over difficult terrain? When they got to Jerusalem and found no knowledge whatever of this king, did they wonder if they'd got it wrong? Feel like turning back? Through all this, they persevered to their satisfying destination.

Joy
I love the description of them rejoicing with "exceedingly great joy." I imagine  the reappearance of the star as they were leaving Jerusalem felt like a divine seal of approval on this quest they had undertaken with a sense of 'this is what we were destined to do.' Now they knew—No, we didn't get it wrong! We're in the right place at the right time.

Worship
Jealous Herod introduced the idea when he sneakily asked them to report back to him so he could worship too. Worship is what the wise men did when they found Jesus, and fell down before the young Child. "Fell down" (used in the NKJV, Amplified, and ESV versions) is interesting. We would expect a more controlled action, like "bowed down" perhaps (which is how it's translated in the NIV and NLT).  I like "fell down." I wonder if here, in the presence of Jesus, they were overcome by the power and glory of deity so that their limbs gave out and they literally fell down?

Generosity
What gifts—gold, frankincense and myrrh—signifying the best of earth's treasures, entirely suitable for a King! These wise men gave them with abandon, not flinching for a moment at the humble surroundings or the ordinary-looking mom.

I want these attitudes of perseverance, joy, worship and generosity to characterize my relationship with Jesus. What about you?

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, help me to seek You with perseverance, find You with joy, worship You with all of me, and give You my best. Amen.

MORE: Epiphany

Today is the day the church celebrates the Feast of the Epiphany. The liturgy for the day begins with this Collect:

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Epiphany in the workplace

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Matthew 2:1-12

TO CHEW ON: “…wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, ‘Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” Matthew 2:1, 2

For years Brian Stewart was a foreign correspondent. Canadians will recognize him from the CBC where he worked on "The National" and hosted the foreign affairs show “CBC News: Our World.” He covered wars in El Salvador, Beirut, Sudan and was instrumental in breaking the news of the great famine in Ethiopia (1984-1985). It was in that hellish situation in Ethiopia that something began to dawn on him:

“I noticed that the first groups I ran into when I went to Ethiopia were these small Christian groups that were working on the ground. It was these people who had been warning the outside world all along that this was coming. They were there in the beginning, and they stayed long after all the celebrities and international media had left.


“This also caused a chain reaction. It began to connect, in my mind, all the other times I had been to remote places where you would not expect to find any human being doing anything to help anyone, yet the first person you run into is a Christian – a Christian activist or a Christian aid worker on what I began to see as the frontlines of humanity. The more I saw of the church doing good in the field, and in thankless areas without any notice of the media, this began to draw me into the church in a more spiritual way” (from “Faith on the Frontlines”).

Brian Stewart came to Jesus through his work. The wise men came to Jesus through their work too. They were astrologers, students of the stars. It was during their studies that the miraculous star that led them to Jesus came to their attention.

God can come to all of us through the activities and routines of work. He can come to you. He knows you completely, understands your very essence, is privy to precisely what will catch your attention and speak to your innermost being. I know. I am a lover of words and books. I spend a lot of time reading. More times than I can count, God has come to me through what I read.

Whether you are a store clerk or a nurse, a librarian or a cook, a banker, farmer or a stay-at-home mom, watch for God’s presence in your place of vocation and duty.

GRACE: Dear God, please come to me at my place of work this week. I too would worship You.

MORE: The Feast of the Epiphany.

Today the church celebrates that Jesus came to the Gentiles too, as represented by the Magi. The celebration is called the Feast of the Epiphany.

British poet Malcolm Guite has published a collection of sonnets on the feasts throughout the church year (Sounding the Seasons). Here are the first four lines of his sonnet for Epiphany:

 Epiphany

"It might have been just someone else’s story,
Some chosen people get a special king.
We leave them to their own peculiar glory,
We don’t belong, it doesn’t mean a thing..." 

Read entire...

Listen to the poet read "Epiphany"...