I Had a Dream: Does The Church Still Haunt Your Dreams?

In my personal transition from the WCG and the ministry, I still have dreams weekly about various issues that I can only assume my subconscious mind has and still does wrestle with. Unlike Dr. Bob, I don't put any outside stock in dreams being more than the mind sorting through the events of the day or other life issues that are a bit more deep seated to make sense of it all.  In my own case, my WCG dreams seem like no brainers to me as to what my subconscious self knows to be, or do or think.

So here we go with Dreams of WCG and what they still tell me. These are repetitive dreams with some having been experienced dozens of times until "I get it."

Dream #1  A giant ball of light bursts into three colored balls of light.  However, the white ball of light comes down to me and elongates into an angel.  I ask the angel, "How can I fly?"   It puts its vest on me and off I go. I see a soccer game below then bank hard right up into the rafters of a log pavilion with hundreds of people below attending the Feast.  They applaud when I fly in.  However, I slow wing it down to the floor where they are having lunch and every time I try to sit down with them someone says "This seat is taken"  I give up and fly away.

Lesson:  You don't belong here any more.  Fly away.

Dream #2  The sky is full of commercial jets.  They are dropping like flies and crashing all over the place.

Lesson:  You're world is crashing

Dream # 3  I am the co-pilot of a commercial jet. Every time, and I have had this dream scores and scores of times, we try to take off, a canopy of trees starts growing over the runway.  I tell the pilot to hurry and he never does what I say nor does he ever acknowledge me.  We crash every damn time.

Lesson:  If you don't fly your own plane and only let others do it for you, you'll never get off the ground.

Dream #3b  We start down the runway and here comes the canopy of trees growing over it.  Screw this...I take over the controls and fly on out of it.

Lesson:  You can't be the co pilot. You can't depend on others. They aren't listening and can't help you. You have to be the pilot if you want to take off.

Dream #4  This dream I have at least 50 times.  I'm in Buffalo, NY trying to get to Rochester. I have a hard time figuring out which way is East and have to climb through stores and peoples backyards to get out of town.  Once I get free of Buffalo and pointed in the right direction I start for Rochester on either a tricycle, a go-kart or even a skateboard.  I never get there.

Lesson:  I am trying to get "home" but I am doing it with an inadequate vehicle.

Dream #5   I am on a bus to and SEP camp somewhere.  I get there and everyone is packing up to leave.  Several times I have to climb on the bus roof because the ground is covered with snakes.  I pack up an leave.

Lesson:  You're too late for camp.  Let the snakes be, take the bus home and get on with your life.

Dream #6  I am back a local church I pastored to give the sermon. Last night , the elder who smoozed me to my face and stabbed me in the back by telling the church I was the worst thing that ever happened to the church etc, was also there.  I asked him if he was  going to speak and he said no "but you better speak the truth."

Lesson:  The elder still doesn't like me

Dream #7

I am at the feast. Sometimes it is packed full and other times it is nearly deserted and people are coming and going from rival sites.  I have to speak and am up in the balcony when I am introduced to speak.  I can't find my Bible or my sermon so will just go without.  However, I can't find a way to get from the balcony to the stage ever.

Lesson:  It's over.  There is no way back and you don't need your Bible to live your life

In NONE of these dreams have I surmised that I am a prophet, an Apostle or have any business back in church.  I get it!  

What about you?  Has your church experience haunted your dreams as your mind sorts itself out over the experience?

COG Prophet Says There Is Too Much Jesus Being Preached In The COG's

Dave Pack has said something about the other Church of God's I would never have expected.  Well, part of me did, but the claim against other COG's on what they supposedly preach is what is surprising.  Dave is offended that some COG's preach Jesus more than they do the doom and gloom of the past.  Imagine that, COG's preaching Jesus, who knew?

Many are unaware that the apostasy produced new positions in thinking about the Work of God. Many independents and others, usually but not always in the smaller splinters, now believe there is no longer an ongoing commission, nor any need, to either ANNOUNCE the kingdom of God to the world or to WARN the nations of Israel. These believe that all such responsibility ceased at Mr. Armstrong’s death. Most others believe God has commissioned His Church to fulfill His purpose—to continue His Work—but have become confused as to what that is.

For instance, the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG) believes its main purpose is to “warn Laodicea.” Its offshoots then see a duty to turn and warn PCG! Most others see no need to warn the final, lukewarm era, thinking this arrogant and presumptuous. Similarly, they would give little or no emphasis to a SPECIAL WARNING to the great nations of Israel—what Mr. Armstrong often referred to as “the Ezekiel Warning.”

“Jesus,” Growing the Church and Evangelical Protestants

Over time, the apostates slowly conditioned the Church, without most recognizing it, to

think the above approach was “unloving,” and that a different emphasis—one of “helping” people and “leading them to Jesus”—should be employed. They felt this should replace what was seen as an old approach of “doomsaying,” “sundowning” or offering a “save your skin” gospel connected to warningnations.

If I told you that most who think they are doing God’s Work today now believe it primarily consists of, or at least includes, Jesus’ role is central to the gospel—the Church or individuals giving to disaster victims and relief organizations—warning, particularly whole nations, is judgmental—or the Work as we knew it is finished, you would surely believe I am speaking of today’s Worldwide Church of God. Sadly, to one degree or another, these are the splinters. Worse, most who attend them have not grasped how far their leaders have departed from the commission that over 150,000 people helped carry out as recently as the mid-1980s. The Work of God

Regrets: No Unringing the Bell

While many a famous person at the end of their careers usually sings a round of "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention,"  I think they have to be kidding themselves.  They really haven't had just a few regrets.  They are usually drunk when they start singing that. We all do it our way because it is us doing it and life lived long enough brings many regrets.

On the other hand, I might rewrite it to be "Regrets, I've had a bunch. And then again, too many to mention."  Much of that regret is not doing it my way at all but rather doing it the ways others told me I should and must do it, whatever it was.  On Banned, we all get reminded of our religious choices of the past and regrets.

In religion, HWA and the WCG told me to do it their way.  And I did.  I choose to do it their way because I thought that somehow and in some way, ( I was very young) they had an inside line to God and truth and I was really doing it God's way  (I did come to hate religious folk substitution "I did it God's way" for the actual lyrics however. ). God and truth were topics that interested me at a very early age and the hook was easily set . I wanted to be a church pastor long before I heard of WCG. I wanted to know what the Bible had to say, who Jesus was and what was the meaning of it all.  You could not have talked me out it.  I had to do that to myself after years of observing, thinking, study and deciding that I would be better off making my own choices from now on.

But now time has past, water has gone under many bridges and the hindsight of age leaves me, and I assume everyone, many regrets in life on many topics.  Banned, of course, is for us who regret our doctrinal and church choices as members and ministers and somehow find a sadistic pleasure in following those still stuck in it and especially those who think they have inherited the leadership positions they evidently craved in times gone by and now have an open shot at.

I could list several dozen personal regrets as could we all but when it's all said and done, life teaches us that fires go out, water seeks its own level and lessons, for whatever reasons, are noted.  That's probably about the best one can do with regrets.  We can take new paths, learn what we wished had known long ago and keep moving ahead with our lives older and wiser.  But we can't unring the bells of past choices and simply have to put regrets in whatever perspective helps us the most.

Not doing so can kill us from all directions and in many ways.

I found this observation long ago and find it so very true if you get to live long enough.

When I was young, mountains were just mountains and rivers were just rivers

But then  I was told that mountains are not just mountains and rivers are not just rivers.

But when I was old, mountains indeed were just mountains and rivers were just rivers

This speaks volumes to me of my own personal WCG/Member/Minister experience.  Nothing was a big deal when I was young until someone came along and convinced me that everything was a big deal only to learn years later that I was right. Nothing is a big deal after all.  

Mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health has to be directly related to how we process regrets.  I have learned that if I wait around for everyone to like, forgive , put up with or agree with me is probably going to take a very long time and actually will never happen. So it is with us all I suspect.  Fortunately, I no longer have that as criteria for healthy living. I do still wince over the term "Ministurd" but sooth myself knowing that others were "Memberturds" so it all works out. LOL

Eckhart Tolle said "All negativity is some form of non-acceptance.  Anytime you  find yourself being negative, ask yourself what is it you are not accepting."  I can't find any fault with this observation.  It is how it works.  Regrets are like this.  They produce a lot of negativity when they stir us up but in the final analysis simply must be accepted as a part of the show.  Yelling and screaming that something that is already past and over with probably qualifies as insanity. Thus the simple reality of "what is...is," or was may be the best course to take.

When I did was a paramedic for a diversionary hobby my last years of ministry, I saw some  gruesome stuff. My first call came in as a "precipitous birth" meaning if I helped deliver a baby I'd get a Stork Pin. Someone screwed up and when we got there it was chaos. A teen had walked into the living room, spun the cylinder on a pistol, looked to see the bullet wasn't really in the chamber and told the family to watch this.  He did not know cylinders rotated one last time. He was dead before he hit the floor but we had to work as if he wasn't.   I did learn I could get to without passing out and do what needed to be done.  I could never help what happened. But I could help what happened next. Well not for him. 

And so it is with bells that can't be unrung and regrets now past. 

Whatcha think?