Hey Pastor John,
I remember when I began to understand more of the truth and how I had started looking at christians the wrong way. My attitude was all wrong. One night I was so upset about an individual who thought they were right about a particular doctrine, but the Lord had not open their eyes to the truth yet. That night as I was thinking on this situation before falling asleep, the Lord gave me a dream.
In the dream I was at school and new kids were coming in the class one at a time. Then entered this one kid who started preaching while holding his Bible over his head. He started preaching that you had to “get saved”. I think he was quoting scriptures and saying you need to repeat [a prayer or scripture] after him.
I thought to myself if, he comes over here I will give him some truth (this was a wrong thought motivated by a wrong attitude). As he got closer to me, I began to get ready to let him have it with both barrels. He started to preach at me, when I stopped him and I began correcting him. As this started to take place in my dream, I was taken up by the Lord in spirit to sit beside him and watch this scene. There, I could feel what the Lord was feeling. Every word that I was saying to this kid was like my open hand slapping him in the face. Each time I did this, the kid got physically smaller. Then I began to feel the anger of the Lord toward me for that attitude. At that moment, I started to tremble at His correction for me.
As I begin to awake from the dream, I could feel myself getting lower and asking God, “How do you know when to speak the truth to someone?” At that very moment of my awaking, my alarm clock came on with the radio blasting with these words from a Beatle’s song: “All you need is LOVE”. From that moment on, I’ve tried to remember to speak to those I meet with a godly attitude. If they say anything about the Lord, I try to get them to tell me about my experience with Him. That is safe ground to start with.
Shortly after my correction, you started instructing us about good manners in the Lord and how important it is to show respect to our elders.
I thank God for you and for all the elders that are in my life. They are treasures to the Body.
Sincerely,
Brother Tim