05/25/26 IF IT IS GOOD, IT IS OF GOD
SOMETHING I WROTE IN THE PAST
(GOOD WORKS... Nov.14, 2017??)
My dreams are really vivid. Sometimes I wake up to my own voice (or my own voice wakes me up), involved in a theological or doctrinal discussion, or I wake up with a fresh thought on an old subject.
NO, I am not aligning myself with the Biblical concept of "dreaming dreams and having visions," nor am I saying that my beliefs are based on special revelation or personal views arrived at while I am asleep. It is simply that I think so much about Biblical issues that my mind remains focused on those things, even in my sleep. Most of us have done this for one reason or another.
It is sort of like when I first got married. I used to swing my arms from one side to the other in my sleep, hitting my new bride. During my high school and college years, I worked as a mate aboard sports fishing boats. In my dreams, I was landing large fish and throwing them into the fish box on the boat. I am just glad I was a fisherman instead of a hunter or a butcher.
Anyway, I recently woke up answering a question that I was being asked by some imaginary person in my sleep. I woke up saying, "It doesn't matter."
The question I had been asked was, "Then how does someone know if a good deed is a work of faith or a work of the flesh?"
It does not matter what another person may think or say concerning the good works of a Christian. It is not something that other people should be concerned with, especially other Christians. If it is a good deed, and if it is done by a follower of Christ who is manifesting the likeness of Jesus, no one should be trying to judge the deed. God is the judge of such things. Why would a believer want to fault a fellow believer for doing a good thing in the spiritual likeness of Christ?
Of course, if a person does not believe that anyone can do a good deed, then they have to attribute all good deeds to "works of the flesh." Sadly, we live at a time when people quickly attribute the work of God to the devil. Hmmm, it seems there is a Biblical word for that. Have you ever heard of blasphemy?
