Daily Dreams I

Yesterday was Stephen's birthday... he would have been 36 years old. It's been 7 years since his passing and my heart still aches when I think about him and the love we shared. Along with that ache is a enormous sense of awe and wonder at how the Lord allowed me to be loved by an angel... and now to know His love through another, my precious Paul.I came across a Daily Dreams Devotional book that Stephen wrote the first Christmas I was with him. He gave it out as Christmas gifts that year. I thought I would share them with all of you. I will type out one when I feel led to do so. Today I shall start with this one... as it is fitting for the beginning of a New Year!Often times we get jaded when our dreams seem to fall to the wind...

Matthew 12:23 "And all the multitudes were amazed, and began to say, "This man cannot be the Son of David can he?"

"The multitudes knew of the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7:12-16); how a son of David was going to be the Messiah, the Christ... and they began to question if that one day was here. Could the dream of a Messiah be standing before them?

They saw in Jesus fulfillment of prophecies, and with this question began to look upon Him in a different light. The crowd was searching for the Messiah. The Pharisees a power based upon the Law. The crowd saw a demonic person healed and they marveled. The Pharisees saw their power fading. It was for that reason Jesus calls them a broad of vipers and condemns them as being evil (v. 34). They knew the Law, but had no application of it. They held the people to the Law, but they exempted themselves.

So to are our dreams... when we see them before our very eyes, many come to kill, steal and destroy them. It is then, we know our dreams are of God. It is then: we should "cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." (2 Corinthians 10:5). It is when we are oppressed on every side that we should ask ourselves if this dream is worthy of the pursuit - keeping in mind that a God given dream dies the most violent of deaths when the dreamer gives up on seeing the dream come to pass, or just gives up on God, the very One who inspired the dream to begin with.

Ask the hard question! But never give up your dream... "This man cannot be the the Son of David, can He?" was asked while staring the answer in the face. "My dream cannot be coming true can it?" Is so often asked when the dream is within reach. Reach out and grab hold of your God-given dream... that is your destiny! That is your right as a child of the King of the Universe.

~Stephen W. Fortune 9/20/99