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Monday, September 26, 2011

Ruth Had A Dream-May it Come True

I had a rapture dream very early this morning.
I've never had one before, and honestly, never expected to.  I wasn't really sure I *wanted* a rapture dream, to be honest...I thought I'd just be too disappointed to wake up and realize it hadn't been real.  So, I've never prayed and asked for one, or even really hoped for one.
I dreamed I was lying in bed, and it was early morning.  In the dream, I opened my eyes to see the clock spinning very quickly to a specific hour, and then I immediately heard an intensely loud, kind of shrill sound that I immediately suspected as "the trumpet call".  And you know what?  It really sounded more like a trumpet than a shofar, lol.  Kind of somewhere in between the two.  But VERY loud.
At the sound, I knew my husband had woken up.  Before the trumpet sound had finished, my body started to change.  I told my husband, "It's happening".  In the dream, I remember consciously thinking that it felt like millions of bubbles all throughout my body....it reminded me of when we used to take our kids to the fish hatchery when they were very small...when you throw the fish food in and the fish all thrash around and make the water frothy...the movement in my body felt like that...at least, that is what I thought of while it was happening.  In the dream, I was very relieved that it didn't hurt.  :)
A second after that bubble sensation started throughout my body, I heard my 10 year old daughter call me from her room, sounding worried.  My husband told her and my youngest son to come into our room, and they did.  They understood what was happening.  Then the bubble sensation stopped, and everything was very still, and very quiet.  My daughter seemed to be wondering why everything had stopped, and I quietly told her, "The dead in Christ have to rise first".

When I said that, I was personally expecting to next feel a large earthquake.  But instead, after just a few seconds of the quiet, we started to lift up!  It was totally quiet, and sensation was very gentle, but VERY tangible.  I've had dreams before where I've felt like I was falling...but never of lifting up.  It was SUCH an amazing sensation.  Not scary at all.  

As we neared the ceiling, it was as though we just passed through it, like it was nothing more than cloud vapor.  At that point in the dream, I remember thinking, "It's REALLY happening.  This is it.  We're leaving".  

As we lifted up into the sky, I was holding my son and my husband was holding onto my daughter.  I remember telling my son, "These bodies can never get sick now".
Then we appeared in some kind of structure.  We were standing still on our feet...some people were sitting down.  There were children and people of all ages, and my children hadn't changed as far as age goes.  I had the sensation that we were waiting for someone to enter the room.  Nobody was scared - everything was very calm.  The last thing I remember was telling my husband, "You know, a lot of people had guessed this date".
In the dream, I knew the date.  I also saw the exact time on the clock.  I knew the day of the week.  However, if I match up the time on the clock to the date it will be here between where I live and Israel, it is off by about 90 minutes (because they start their new day at sunset, correct?)

I don't feel like I should say what the day/time was in my dream....but suffice it to say that it was before Friday.  Naturally, I have no way of knowing if any of it will turn out to be significant in any way.  But what a dream!  

That sensation of lifting up, and realizing with certainty that we'd all been correct in recognizing the "season"....it was really magnificent.  And it was SO real, that when I did *actually* wake up, it took me a few seconds to understand that it had been a dream.  To my surprise, I wasn't disappointed at all to find that it hadn't really happened - instead, it just made me look forward to ithe real thing more....especially since the timing in the dream was so specific, that now I feel totally inspired to just wrap up a few loose ends over the next couple of days just incase there was any truth to the timing (but then, I have no reason to believe that the actual timing would be revealed to me, so I'm keeping that in mind).
Regardless, it was a great dream, and I knew there would be people here who would enjoy reading about it.  :) 

Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Hill of Crosses









The Hill of Crosses is in Lithuania.  The precise origin of the practice of leaving crosses on the hill is uncertain, but it is believed that the first crosses were placed on or around the Spring of 1831.

Poles and Lithuanians unsuccessfully rebelled against Russian authorities in 1831-1863. These two uprisings are connected with the beginnings of the hill: as families could not locate bodies of perished rebels, they started putting up symbolic crosses in place of a former hill fort. When the old political structure of Eastern Europe fell apart in 1918, Lithuania once again fought for it's own independence. Throughout this time, the Hill of Crosses was used as a place for Lithuanians to pray for peace, for their country 

The Hill of Crosses took on a special significance during the years 1944–1990, when  the Soviet Union invaded.  Continuing to travel to the Hill and leave their tributes, Lithuanians used it to demonstrate their allegiance to their original identity, religion and heritage. It was a venue of peaceful resistance, although the Soviets worked hard to remove new crosses, and bulldozed the site at least three times (including attempts in 1963 and 1973).  There were even rumors that the authorities planned to build a dam on the nearby Kulvė River, a tributary to the river Musa so that the hill would end up under water. On September 7, 1993, Pope John Paul II visited the Hill of Crosses, declaring it a place for hope, peace, love and sacrifice.