After I had been saved for awhile my husband and I started to go back to our old denomination for church. It was all we had ever known, both of us being raised in the same denomination from the time we were young. It was the tradition of our families and though we had gone there so long and were never born again, it seemed easier just to stay with what we knew.

            For the first time in my life I was reading the Bible every day and that was really starting to change me. I started to get rid of some of the religious ideas I held about Christianity and I started to know something more about who God really is. I liked Him. I really found I had not known Him at all and was somewhat surprised at His personality and character.

            The trouble was, the more we learned about God the less satisfied we were with our denomination which didn’t seem to ever have had that revelation! We went week after week and soon I was teaching Sunday school for the adults and was involved in about every function the church was having. We were starving for more of God and going to church once a week just wasn’t enough to take care of that hunger.

            Still we loved the people and didn’t want to just leave. And then too, we didn’t have any idea what other church we would go to. So we stayed…and stayed…and stayed.

            Then one Sunday when we were sitting in the service I had a vision. This wasn’t an every day occurrence for me so it seemed like a really big deal. The church we attended was small but beautiful with large stained glass windows and fine wood paneling for the walls. There were heavy curved wooden beams running from floor to ceiling. There was red carpeting and the pews were upholstered in red as well. It was the kind of place that made you feel reverent the moment you went in—even before the huge pipe organ started to sound.

            When I saw the vision it was in color and very alive. As I sat there the walls of the building fell away leaving the curved beams like huge wooden bones of a dinosaur skeleton. The colored windows were still there and the light was coming through them so the colors were beautiful. But the pews were gone as was the red carpet, the alter and the pipe organ.

            As I watched, people started to come in one by one. These people were all dressed in rags and they were very skinny as though they had not had enough to eat for a long time. They would go over to the “bones” and you could hear their long fingernails scratching on the wood as they tried to get even a small morsel of food from them to give to themselves or their children who were with them. But no food was to be had and they continued to go from one “bone” to another with no success whatsoever.

            The thing that amazed me was that there were no walls on the building at all so the people could have left at any time. There was nothing to hold them there where they were starving. But they seemed to not notice that there was plenty of food right outside on the street. Even though people outside kept calling to them and trying to get them to come join them for a good meal they seemed unable to hear. They simply continued their search for food. One after another they were falling down and dieing in their starvation.

            I was truly horrified as I could recognize some of these people. I wanted to shake them and make them leave before it was too late.

            Then I heard the voice of the Lord. He told me that this was the exact condition of the church we were in. He said that if we stayed there we would starve and our little boy with us. He said that we couldn’t make others leave because they were so used to living at a starvation level that they would not recognize the danger. After you haven’t eaten for long enough you don’t even realize you are really hungry.

            And then the vision was gone and I was sitting in the familiar pew with my family and the walls were back in place and the pastor was droning on about some news paper article he had read, trying to make the Gospel fit the situation at hand.

            When we left the church that day it was for the last time. It was time to go find where the banquet table was set and that is exactly what we did. The people we left behind didn’t understand why we had left. They thought it was because we had become some of those crazy charismatic people who were headed for trouble and error.

            I have never regretted leaving that church though I did miss the people. We went on to find good food in other churches in our community and eventually we went to Bible school ourselves and ended up starting our own church. There we always serve up a good healthy meal of the Word of God to any who will attend. It sure has put meat on our bones!    

I dreamed a dream and in that dream I saw a winter bush. It had no leaves but was a think mass of small branches coming from one root. The bark was beautiful with tones of beige and pink.

            I came walking along the path next to the bush and stopped before it. Then for some reason I started putting my hand down into the bush and removing it and then putting it back once again into the bush.

            I heard the Lord’s voice behind me saying, “If you keep putting your hand into that bush you will get bitten.” For some reason I only stopped for a moment at His voice and then went right back to putting my hand down into the bush.

            Sure enough, once I put my hand in and felt a sharp pain travel from my hand up my arm. I pulled my hand out quickly and hanging from it was a very nasty looking snake. For a moment I stood there in pain and panic and then I shook it off, turned and walked down the road.

            At the time I was dealing with another ministry and I was really fascinated with those people who moved very beautifully in the gifts of the Spirit. When the dream occurred I think I knew it had to do with them but I just didn’t want to believe it. So I pursued that relationship and sure enough! The day came when the snake struck my exposed hand.

            Thank God I was able to shake the serpent off. But the pain, which was totally unnecessary if I had only headed the warning, was really excruciating. Live, learn, go on.