While I was talking to Pao yesterday she related how one of her officemates was unfortunate to be riding in a jeep which was held up. Fortunately, he only lost a plastic bag of useless paper. Thank God for that. She went on to tell me how these men robbed the passengers: One kept an eye out, one had a knife, one had a gun, and apparently a taxi driver who was in on it picks them up and they all drive away. She told me how the men with the weapons announced the holdup, and they calmly passed a bag around for the passengers to toss their cellphones and wallets in.
I responded by telling her how thankful I was to the Lord for keeping her safe at all times. Thank God for keeping us all safe and under His wings.
I thought that was the end of that conversation.
Last night I had a dream. I had a dream that we were talking as a family about a modus operandi of criminal groups to rob people. They would pose as officials who would give all sorts of legitimate reasons just to be allowed access inside the house. Once inside one of them would pull out a gun, and the house was theirs.
In my dream I saw the faces of the thieves - they looked well fed. They hardly fit the profile of a criminal, knowing how to dress smart and professional but blending in with the crowd.
I remember being in a room with my mom, when my dad walked in. When I saw the face of one of the people with him, I expected what I was going to see next - a second man with a gun pointed towards his lower back.
At around this time I felt fear and disbelief - I couldn't believe my dad fell for that. I knew I should have warned him and the rest of the house to challenge anyone who wanted to come in with identification.
Oddly enough, the men were calm and respectable. The first man spoke and asked for us to give him our cellphones. I remember mom bringing out hers, while I thought twice about giving them mine. I was initially thinking about how useful it was to have that phone, but eventually I resigned myself to its fate, and I asked if I could take the sim. They agreed, but I remember thinking to myself that I'm keeping the accessories that would keep you from using the phone correctly, and the thing has a passcode.
As I gave the phone, more men came in, apparently to help in hocking more stuff out. I remember even recognizing one of them as one of my high school or college batchmates. He saw me too, and I remember we talked, and he even apologized - he didn't know our family lived in this house they were robbing. The atmosphere was that relaxed, and I was surprised that though things were tense at first, we were relaxed too. My dad and mom were calm as they directed the thugs to the other stuff. Mom even asked our faithful helper to cook food. We were treating them as guests! I remember going to my batchmate and seeing another guy around the same age (they were the much younger part of this group) with him. I called them to my room so I could give them clothes. I remember looking back and seeing only my batchmate following. As I approached my room I told him to call his friend too. I remember seeing my backpack, and thinking that they would let me keep that (there was a laptop inside).
I opened my eyes to darkness, and a bright white light coming from the 'plugged' indicator on my laptop. I thanked God that this was just a dream.
I thought to myself, 'here's something to blog about.' But I needed to pray before I wrote this - I actually wrote a bit before really praying, because I thought that I would forget a lot (or all) of the details, as is the case with many of my other dreams.
Right now I could still remember it a bit clearly. I really wanted to communicate this to everyone. Even if I said the atmosphere was calm, there was still some tension, but it was all brought down because we had peace - we had peace that the Lord was always with us, even if we were being robbed. We had peace, and we were following the Word and hoping for its promise.
Proverbs 25:21-22 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the LORD will reward you.
Romans 12:19-21 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God's wrath, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I was thinking that if we acted any differently towards these criminals, they would have easily just killed us all. I believe that if the dream continued, we would see that kindness we showed them would have spared us. But even if it went any other way, we would have still won, because we would be with our Father.
We can all rest in the promises of God. But let me remind everyone that time is running out! Let's pray for each other. Beloved, we need to pray for each other during these times. It also isn't enough that we be warned to be wary against these sorts of plots. Again, we need to pray, and we need to pray for real - not in vain repetition as the faithless do (Matthew 6:7).
I know I've been sharing this before but I will share it again:
Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
I pray that God's Will be done in our lives and in our families, as God's Will is done in Heaven. I pray that He would use us all to spread the Word to our friends and family who do not know about our Savior, our Peace. It is His Will that all may be saved!
I love you all with God's love. May He continue to bless and guide us in these trying times. To God, To Yahweh be all the glory and praise, through Yeshua, through Jesus. Amen.