Last week we shared about dreams, starting with the fortune from a fortune cookie: "Old dreams never die; they just get filed away."
When I first read that fortune, I immediately thought of old writing projects—novels, a novella, short stories, and poems—all filed away in boxes or cabinets in my messy office. Of course I was thinking of those things anyway, but it occurred to me that they were "old dreams." As such, what does one do with the creative work of one's past? Resurrect it, redo it, revise it, resuscitate it, or just recycle the paper and start over? Of course, one wants to believe that there is hope for the old work, after serious and possibly drastic revision.
And, of course, revision is more than editing for spelling and grammatical errors. It means to "re-see," to "re-envision" the work. You look at it from different angels and from the inside out and the outside in, re-examining the elements of its structure as well as the diction and syntax (word choice and word order).
It can result in a reversal of thought or a re-arrangement of parts. Often that is what needs to happen to a dream that has been filed away too long.
Interestingly, in the Greek, the word translated "repent" in the King James Version of the New Testament (in most verses), means "to think differently afterward; to reconsider" (according to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.) In speaking of repentance for sin or wrong-doing, then, it means to re-think one's actions, to reconsider one's motives, and to make a change (often referred to as "to do a 180 degree turn around").
So the ideas of revision and repentance are somewhat similar. Both involve making necessary changes. Both are encompassed in the "renewal" process, which is where the change is made. "To renew" is, of course, "to restore, to renovate, to rebuild" (active) and "to be made new" (passive).
In the Bible, we see many instances of such renewal, sometimes in connection with repentance and other times in connection with waiting on the Lord, re-seeing the dreams or hopes He has given us.
Our spirit (personality and eternal life-force) can be renewed (Psalm 51:10); our youth can be renewed (Psalm 103: 5); our strength can be renewed (Isaiah 40: 31); our mind (mental process and thinking) can be renewed (Romans 12: 2 and Ephesians 4: 23); our nature can be renewed (2 Corinthians 4: 16 and Colossians 3: 10), specifically in regards to the new nature that we have through faith in Jesus Christ; and our days can be renewed (Lamentations 5: 21).
That pretty much covers the whole person. Notice that dreams which God gives us do not need to be renewed. We just need to remember them.
This is in stark contrast to the dreams and night visions that our own minds concoct. In the Bible, those are spoken of as being transitory—they flee away the moment a person wakes, or soon thereafter. But dreams given by God (while awake or asleep) will come to pass, just as they did for the prophets of old.
This is because the dreams which God gives are through the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Triune Godhead. Joel 2: 28 (quoted in Acts 2: 17) promised the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; this outpouring was fulfilled in Acts 2: 1-21. So we can now rely on the dreams which God gives us. And the dreams that He gives us will never contradict His word. That's how we can tell the source of the dream.
In the sense of a dream as a hope, plan, or desired outcome, God's dreams for us are good. The Hebrew/English interlinear translates Jeremiah 29: 11 like this: "For I know the purposes which I am planning for you, says Jehovah; purposes of peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." For the believer, this is a marvelous promise, a glorious hope.
The apostle Paul wrote to Christians that, "It is God who works in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure (purpose)"—Philippians 2: 13. This means that God gives us the dreams and hopes that He wants us to have and then brings them to pass in our lives, according to his ultimate purpose, which is to bless us.
That kind of dream doesn't grow old. Nor should it be filed away.
Crack in the Liberty Bell
Vicki Dorshorn
7/4/2022
Resurrection Miracles
Vicki Dorshorn
4/16/2022
Globalism: Olympic Games Canceled
Vicki Dorshorn
2/20/2022
Happy Valentine's Day from God
Vicki Dorshorn
2/13/2022
Beginnings and Endings
Vicki Dorshorn
12/30/2021
The Light of the World
Vicki Dorshorn
12/24/2021
He Is Risen As He Said
Victoria Dorshorn
4/2/2021
Three M's of Christmas
Vicki Dorshorn
12/25/2020
Silenced and Silent
Vicki Dorshorn
8/4/2020
The Right Way
Vicki Dorshorn
7/13/2020
"Let Freedom Ring"
Vicki Dorshorn
7/3/2020
Caring and Sharing
Vicki Dorshorn
6/20/2020
One Race -- Two Creations
Vicki Dorshorn
6/10/2020
An End to Racism
Vicki Dorshorn
6/2/2020
With One Voice
Vicki Dorshorn
5/24/2020
Trust in God
Vicki Dorshorn
5/17/2020
A Firm Foundation
Vicki Dorshorn
5/9/2020
No Fear!
Vicki Dorshorn
5/2/2020
Author of Peace, Not Confusion
Vicki Dorshorn
4/28/2020
Too Timid to Tell
Vicki Dorshorn
4/24/2020
Resurrection Promise
Vicki Dorshorn
4/11/2020
God's Mercies
Vicki Dorshorn
4/2/2020
Yet I Will Rejoice
Vicki Dorshorn
3/18/2020
Slow Suicide—Part 2
Vicki Dorshorn
3/5/2020
Slow Suicide—Part 1
Vicki Dorshorn
3/2/2020
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y
Vicki Dorshorn
2/6/2020
A Stable and an Empty Tomb
Vicki Dorshorn
12/24/2019
Do Definitions Matter?
Vicki Dorshorn
12/17/2019
Darkness Creeping In
Vicki Dorshorn
11/26/2019
The Presence and Purpose of Pain and Sorrow
Vicki Dorshorn
8/31/2019
Salt and Light
Vicki Dorshorn
8/21/2019
Real Rainbows and True Light
Vicki Dorshorn
8/17/2019
The Light of Life
Vicki Dorshorn
8/7/2019
A Giant Eraser
Vicki Dorshorn
4/23/2018
He Is Risen
Vicki Dorshorn
3/30/2018
Rejection
Vicki Dorshorn
7/22/2015
Liberty Bell & more
Vicki Dorshorn
7/4/2015
Breaking News
Vicki Dorshorn
6/22/2015
Cracked Foundations
Vicki Dorshorn
6/12/2015
Power Transformers
Vicki Dorshorn
6/5/2015
Transformers
Vicki Dorshorn
5/28/2015
What is my name?
Vicki Dorshorn
5/20/2015
What age is Jesus for you?
Vicki Dorshorn
12/21/2014
Part 2 - Stories of Sovereignty from England
Vicki Dorshorn
11/21/2014
Stories of Sovereignty from England
Vicki Dorshorn
11/15/2014
Coincidence or Sovereignty?
Vicki Dorshorn
11/3/2014
Time to Care
Vicki Dorshorn
8/24/2014
"Lion on the Loose"
Vicki Dorshorn
8/16/2014
Lessons from My Garden - Part 6
Vicki Dorshorn
8/10/2014
Lessons from My Garden - Part 5
Vicki Dorshorn
8/3/2014
Lessons from My Garden - Part 4
Vicki Dorshorn
7/27/2014
Lessons from My Garden - Part 3
Vicki Dorshorn
7/20/2014
"Lessons from My Garden -- Part 2"
Vicki Dorshorn
7/12/2014
Lessons From My Garden - Part 1
Vicki Dorshorn
7/7/2014
Dreams, Revisions, and Renewal
Vicki Dorshorn
6/29/2014
A Dream that is Reality
Vicki Dorshorn
6/21/2014
The Return of the Swallows
Vicki Dorshorn
6/14/2014
Part 2 - Where will I go when I die?
Vicki Dorshorn
6/7/2014
Where will I go when I die?
Vicki Dorshorn
5/31/2014
Truth or Deception
Vicki Dorshorn
5/24/2014
Deliverance from Falling
Vicki Dorshorn
5/16/2014
Deliverance from Tears
Vicki Dorshorn
5/10/2014
Deliverance from Death
Vicki Dorshorn
5/3/2014
The Significance of Death
Vicki Dorshorn
4/27/2014
Conclusion of Why Bad Things Happen
Vicki Dorshorn
4/19/2014
Good and Bad, Relatively Speaking
Vicki Dorshorn
4/12/2014
The Potter and the Clay
Vicki Dorshorn
4/5/2014
"Bad Things" - Part 5
Vicki Dorshorn
3/29/2014
"Bad Things" - Part 4
Vicki Dorshorn
3/21/2014
"Bad Things" - Part 3
Vicki Dorshorn
3/15/2014
"Bad Things" - Part 2
Vicki Dorshorn
3/8/2014
"Bad Things" - Part I
Vicki Dorshorn
3/1/2014
Who are "good" people?
Vicki Dorshorn
2/26/2014
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Vicki Dorshorn
2/22/2014