I had a strange dream one night. As the dream started, I was standing before a small group of people. There were also several small animals with the group. There was a rather large man that seemed to be the center figure of the group, something seemed very strange about his head. I looked more closely at his head and there was an opening right across his forehead and it looked like some small animals in the opening in his head. He put his hands up to his head and two small animals came out into his hands for a few moments and then went back into his head. They looked like little skunks. At this point I woke up.
The next day I shared this dream with Pauline and two other friends and right away they said; “Stinking thinking! As I thought more about this dream I realized it was speaking of the natural mind. Like “animal thinking” instead in contrast to the spiritual mind, like the mind of Christ.
Two days later I had another dream. The earth was coming to an end. They were loading the people on to space ships and sending them to some other planet. Someone came up with the idea of using airplanes by putting rockets on them to try to save the ones left behind. Pauline and I were a part of that group. They loaded us onto an airplane to send us out into space hoping we would make it.
The dream changed, we were on a ship on the ocean. We came to an island and the ship stopped there for some reason so Pauline and I got of the boat to check out the island. We walked way to the other end of the island and then came back. Just as we got to where we could see the boat, what looked like a whirlwind grabbed the ship and rolled it over and over and it sank. We realized that everything we owned was on that ship, and we had nothing but the clothes on our backs. Then I thought, “I have my credit cards”, then I remember the earth was gone and so were all the banks. We had nothing. I turned around and started walking and thought, “What will we do now?” I turned to Pauline and said, “I know what we will do. We will preach Jesus Christ and him crucified! The dream ended.
As soon as I woke up I started thinking about this dream and I knew that both dreams were talking about the same message. Then a scripture came to mind, 1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified”.
Another scripture came to mind Romans 6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Why was Jesus Christ and Him crucified so important that Paul left everything behind to preach that message?
I remembered a little incident that took place a couple of years ago. We were in a restaurant having lunch. A man was waiting on us and I asked him if he knew Jesus. He said yes. He is standing right over there in the lounge. I was in a Mexican restaurant and many of them are named Jesus. I also remembered being in Egypt and the people there made a point of telling us that Jesus spent some time there. They believed in Jesus as a prophet but not as the Christ that was crucified.
This made me think of a scripture reading in 2 Corinthians 11:4 For if one comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.
Then I realized what was so important about Jesus Christ and Him crucified, it was the sin issue.
What does stinking thinking have to do with Jesus and Him crucified? Many Christian people believe they are going to continue to sin and fail over and over again. They do not understand that Jesus died for their sin and not only that he set us free from the bondage of sin that we do not have to continue sinning any longer.
Romans 6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
We have no excuse to fall into sin anymore because Jesus Christ and the Cross, and the helper, guide and teacher, the Holy Spirit is here to lead us out of the darkness into the light, so that we can walk in holiness and godliness. Peter did such a wonderful job of laying out the path for us in 2 Peter 1:1-9
Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,
and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,
and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
As long as I keep professing that I am a sinner, I will continue to sin. When I begin to believe that Jesus has totally dealt with all my sin; set me totally free from sin bondage; and start believing that I do not have to live in sin anymore; I become a free man. I then have the greatest peace and joy I have ever known.