preface

Dream

I placed a very heavy large book that I could hardly lift onto a podium. I understood it to contain only a preface of the bible. I read it out loud to a crowd on the edge of their seats in anticipation. I am in wonder as it happens. END

I wake up with a sense of awe and a little confused. Who reads the preface of a book in public? Who would ever be on the edge of their seat in anticipation of a foreword being read, never mind one bigger than a thesaurus and Strong’s Concordance put together?

If one at all, it would be a book about God for sure.

Do not get the wrong idea. I do not in a million years think that I have or will receive extra biblical revelation. Let’s use one of the first steps of dream interpretation and take out the main features of the dream.

What stands out and the first thing I want to study is “preface” The difference between a preface or foreword is important.

The foreword is written by someone other than the author, usually someone eminent, lending credibility to the book. The preface is written by the author, it deals with the genesis, purpose, limitations, and scope of the book and may include acknowledgments of indebtedness. It introduces the subject of the book and supplements text by” indicating a point of view to be adopted by the reader.”

Upon reading the last sentence my heart leapt a little. God wants me to understand His heart as I read. He wants me to understand the genesis, the purpose, from beginning to end. This is an aspect of biblical study, that it is God’s revelation of Himself to us.

I could relate to this. Keep the main thing, the main thing.

For me, the main thing, consistent from beginning to end is God’s revelation to us that He desires to be WITH us, to BE our God. What does that mean? Just a shadow of beginning of a meaning of that? To be present with us, to be active in our lives, to be our provider, to be the one we listen to.

Here is one of my favorites

Jeremiah 12: 12

Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate,” declares the Lord.

13 “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me,

The fountain of  living waters,

To hew for themselves cisterns,Broken cisterns

That can hold no water.

I know God’s heart, so do you know what I hear in those verses?

Longing. He WANTS to be our living waters.

His anger at sin is not because we broke the rules.

The rules are not the most important thing.

Our lack of desire for a relationship with Him is His Heartache.

I heard His voice whisper this morning, that idiom” your argument cannot hold water”

I knew I had to share these thoughts.

Any lifestyle created seeking fulfillment outside of relationship with this Loving God is an argument that does not hold water.

We live in just the same way as those in biblical times who carved their own wooden idols.

We worship dead wood. Things that cannot answer us.

They don’t have any power. Leave us empty.

The application of this dream is simple and profound.

When you read the bible, remember the preface. The point of view that the author wants the reader to adopt. Understanding that everything circles back around this fact, that

He is a loving God who wants to be with you.