A few weeks ago I had a dream and I was in an Adventist church, not any church I have ever seen, but I knew it was an Adventist church. I saw a lot of people I knew were church members, but none I that I recognized. Almost everything in the dream was in shadows. Everywhere I looked I saw many of the church members were doing things that Adventists know are wrong. There seemed to be no regard for our Biblical standards at all. Only once did I see clearly without shadows in the dream. I saw two young women sitting on some steps, but I saw them only from the back as if I was standing behind them. One of them opened a large tote bag in front of her, pulled out a cigarette and began to smoke it. Neither woman seemed to have the slightest concern that what she was doing was wrong.

I then found myself in an adult Sabbath School class, not as a participant, but as an observer. Everything here was also in shadow and I could not discern any facial features. In this dream I was aware that a man had come into the church looking around as though he was searching for something and he now entered this classroom. He took a seat and sat for a short time, listening. Then it seemed as if he had heard enough and he raised both hands into the air and cried out, "What's wrong with you people? Don't you know Jesus is coming soon?" I could hear the agony, the sadness, the anguish, in his voice as he cried out. I could tell he was crying out from the depths of his being. I turned from the man who had cried out, and looked at the teacher, waiting to see what he would do, but he said absolutely nothing. He didn't react at all. He just stood at his podium, silent. I then turned to look at the class members, but they didn't react either. They just sat in their seats, some turned around looking at the man who had cried out. Though I only saw these people in shadow and could not see facial features, I could detect absolutely no reaction. The only way to describe what I saw was complete, total apathy.

This dream really jarred me. Brothers and sisters, do we really believe that Jesus is coming soon? Do we believe it so much that we are spending our precious time fitting our characters for heaven? Are we in constant communion with heaven, seeking supplies of grace that we might become a little more like Jesus every day? God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world and that day is quickly approaching. Adventists have been preaching the nearness of the second coming for over 150 years. We have become complacent, apathetic. "Well," we reason, "our parents and our grandparents thought He was coming in their day, and that's long past. Sure He'll come some day, but I don't think it will be very soon." We give lip service to a soon appearing of Jesus in the clouds, but our daily lives most often reveal that we are living more for the present world than for the next. The standards of the church are trailing in the dirt. Adventists would rather argue about religion than spend time on their knees pleading with God to change them into Christlikeness.

Remember, Jesus warned us to watch and be ready for He said He would come in an hour when we think it most unlikely He will appear. He told us that when they are saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh. "A storm is coming, relentless in its fury. Are we prepared to meet it?" {8T 315.2} This storm is about to break upon us, and we cannot remain asleep much longer. We must awake now so we will not be taken by surprise when it hits in all its fury.

Romans 13:11-14 And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts. (NKJV)

1 Thess. 5:6-9 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Bro. Jacobs:-- As God has shown me in holy vision the travels of the Advent people to the Holy City, and the rich reward to be given those who wait the return of their Lord from the wedding, it may be my duty to give you a short sketch of what God has revealed to me.

The dear saints have got many trials to pass through. But our light afflictions which are but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. I have tried to bring back a good report, & a few grapes from the heavenly Canaan,[see last sentence of this post] for which many would stone me, as the congregation bade stone Caleb and Joshua for their report,
(Num. 14:10.)

But I declare to you, my brother in the Lord, it is a goodly land, and we are well able to go up and possess it. While praying at the family altar the Holy Ghost fell on me and I seemed to be rising higher and higher, far above the dark world. I turned to look for the Advent people in the world, but could not find them, when a voice said to me, Look again, and look a little higher. At this, I raised my eyes and see a strait and narrow path, cast up high above the world.

On this path the Advent people were traveling to the City, which was at the farther end of the path. They had a bright light set up behind them at the first end of the path, which an angel told me was the Midnight Cry. This light shone all along the path and gave light for their feet so they might not stumble. And if they kept their eyes fixed on Jesus, who was just before them, leading them to the City, they were safe.

But soon some grew weary, and said the City was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before. Then Jesus would encourage them by raising his glorious right arm, and from his arm came a glorious light which waved over the Advent band, and they shouted, Hallelujah! Others rashly denied the light behind them, and said that it was not God that had led them out so far.

The light behind them went out which left their feet in perfect darkness, and they stumbled and got their eyes off the mark and lost sight of Jesus, and fell off the path down in the dark and wicked world below. It was just as impossible for them to get on the path again & go to the City, as all the wicked world which God had rejected. They fell all the way along the path one after another, until we heard the voice of God like many waters, which gave us the day and hour of Jesus' coming.

The living saints, 144,000, in number, know and understand the voice, while the wicked thought it was thunder & an earthquake. When God spake the time, he poured on us the Holy Ghost, and our faces began to light up and shine with the glory of God as Moses did when he came down from Mount Sinai, (Ex. 34:30-34.) By this time the 144,000 were all sealed and perfectly united. On their foreheads was written, God, New Jerusalem, and a glorious Star containing Jesus' new name.

At our happy, holy state the wicked were enraged, and would rush violently up to lay hands on us to thrust us in prison, when we would stretch forth the hand in the name of the Lord, and the wicked would fall helpless to the ground. Then it was that the synagogue of Satan knew that God had loved us who could wash one another's feet, and salute the holy brethren with a holy kiss, and they worshipped at our feet.

Soon our eyes were drawn to the East, for a small black cloud had appeared about half as large as a man's hand, which we all knew was the Sign of the Son of Man. We all in solemn silence gazed on the cloud as it drew nearer, lighter, and brighter, glorious, and still more glorious, till it was a great white cloud. The bottom appeared like fire, a rainbow was over it, around the cloud were ten thousand angels singing a most lovely song. And on it sat the Son of Man, on his head were crowns, his hair was white and curly and lay on his shoulders. His feet had the appearance of fire, in his right hand was a sharp sickle, in his left a silver trumpet. His eyes were as a flame of fire, which searched his children through and through.

Then all faces gathered paleness, and those that God had rejected gathered blackness. Then we all cried out, who shall be able to stand? Is my robe spotless? Then the angels ceased to sing, and there was some time of awful silence, when Jesus spoke, Those who have clean hands and a pure heart shall be able to stand, my grace is sufficient for you. At this, our faces lighted up, and joy filled every heart. And the angels struck a note higher and sung again while the cloud drew still nearer the earth.

Then Jesus' silver trumpet sounded, as he descended on the cloud, wrapped in flames of fire. He gazed on the graves of the sleeping saints then raised his eyes and hands to heaven & cried out, Awake! Awake! Awake! ye that sleep in the dust, and arise. Then there was a mighty earthquake. The graves opened, and the dead came up clothed with immortality. The 144,000 shouted, Hallelujah! as they recognized their friends who had been torn from them by death, and in the same moment we were changed and caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.

We all entered the cloud together, and were 7 days ascending to the sea of glass, when Jesus brought along the crowns and with his own right hand placed them on our heads. He gave us harps of gold and palms of victory. Here on the sea of glass the 144,000 stood in a perfect square. Some of them had very bright crowns, others not so bright. Some crowns appeared hung with stars, while others had but few. All were perfectly satisfied with their crowns. And they were all clothed with a glorious white mantle from their shoulders to their feet. Angels were all about us as we marched over the sea of glass to the gate of the City.

Jesus raised his mighty glorious arm, laid hold of the gate and swung it back on its golden hinges, and said to us, You have washed your robes in my blood, stood stiffly for my truth, enter in. We all marched in and felt we had a perfect right in the City. Here we see the tree of life, & the throne of God. Out of the throne came a pure river of water, and on either side of the river was the tree of life.

On one side of the river was a trunk of a tree and a trunk on the other side of the river, both of pure transparent gold. At first I thought I see two trees. I looked again and see they were united at the top in one tree. So it was the tree of life on either side of the river of life. Its branches bowed to the place where we stood. And the fruit was glorious, which looked like gold mixed with silver.

We all went under the tree, and sat down to look at the glory of the place, when Bro. Fitch, and Stockman, who had preached the gospel of the kingdom, whom God had laid in the grave to save them, came up to us and asked us what we had passed through while they were sleeping. We tried to call up our greatest trials, but they looked so small compared with the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that surrounded us, that we could not speak them out, and we all cried out Hallelujah, heaven is cheap enough, and we touched our glorious harps and made heaven's arches ring."

People of God: WHAT "GRAPES" ARE WE BRINGING THE CHURCH, FROM THE HEAVENLY CANAAN?

It seems in the first part of the dream that the girls who where smoking where the only true worshipers in this church. Was there an interpretation of the dream? Dreams from God often come with an interpretation in the bible.

And yes, it is time to be awake waiting the return of Jesus, it is time to keep ones both eyes on Jesus, it is time to serach for Him and follow Him, it is time to do His will. What could be done to get everyone to listen for the still smal voise?

/Thomas