Just a Dream...???

March 11, 2017

Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,

     The following experience is given for your own personal evaluation.  You decide for yourself the value of what I am about to relate.  
     I am not a believer who is given over to dreams and visions, like many claim to be today.  In my 63 years in the Lord's ministry, I have only had two dreams which I believe to have been given to me from the Lord.  The first dream occurred so many years ago that I have even forgotten when it happened.  But this last dream [if that is what it was] occurred this week.  
     I went to bed Thursday night, March 9th, as I usually do.  I do not recall having anything in particular on my mind, and I soon dropped off to sleep.  
     I awoke, or was awakened, about 3:30 a.m.  Instantly when I woke up, 1 Thessalonians 5:4 was on my mind, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."  
     This thought was immediately followed by Luke 21:36, "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and stand before the Son of man."  
     Then this thought was instantly followed by the realization that the only Jewish Holy Day which deals with God's people escaping from the hatred, anger, and wrath of the wicked, is the Jewish Festival of Purim.  Check this out  for yourself.  At the same time came the realization that Purim this year is this Sunday, March 12th on our calendar.  Could it really be possible that our Lord will resurrect and rapture His New Covenant believers to glory on Purim, this Sunday?   I don't know!  
     Folks, I hadn't even read the Book of Esther in probably a year, yet it was so fresh in my mind that I was amazed.  It is needless to say,  that with these thoughts running through my mind, I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night.  
     When the day dawned, I still had these thoughts running through my mind.  I decided not to share this experience with anyone, other than my brother in the Lord, Tom Gaston.  I truly did not want to give any false hope to any fellow believer.  But for the past 24 hours this experience has been "bugging me."  Yes, I have prayed about it earnestly, and finally have decided that I just had to tell my brothers and sisters in Christ about the experience and let each of you decide for yourself if my experience has any validity or merit.  
     The Lord Jesus did tell us 24 times in the New Testament to "watch."  If the timing of the resurrection and rapture is totally hidden from the Lord's Church and people, then what are we supposed to be watching for?  1 Thessalonians 5:4 is still in the Bible.  God bless you all!  

                   Pastor F. M. Riley