Do you dream when you’re sleeping? I do. Very often. My dreams are rarely positive because of painful events in my past. I often re-live moments in my life that were destructive and harmful to my soul. I would love to be able to block these traumatic memories, but my dreams will not co-operate. A few years ago, I had a particularly startling dream. After a restless night of tossing and turning, I got up, went into the kitchen, and drank a glass of orange juice. I laid down on the sofa with the TV playing quietly, trying to find something to bore me to sleep. After a few episodes of Sports Center, I finally dozed off. I was dreaming that I was in an urban neighborhood, where I grew up in inner-city Atlanta. I was standing outside a club or something, talking to some people about Christ. These people looked really sketchy: poor, angry, tattooed, and hostile – just like where I grew up. Anyway, my family was with me in the dream and I was worried about them and their safety. So I looked up and started praying to the heavens, “Jesus, I want to follow you, but this situation isn’t safe. Why did you lead me here? Why did you give me this family if I can’t keep them safe? I’m too weak, too faithless, too confused.”
Just at that moment, in my dream, a voice spoke to me. It was loud and commanding and it spoke slowly, emphasizing each word, “Tim! You are Sacrosanct!”
At that word, I woke up in a cold sweat.
“Sacrosanct?”, I muttered. I heard Martha Jo rustling in the kitchen and I caught the aroma of coffee wafting through the air. “Martha Jo?”
“Yeah?”
“Hey, what does ‘Sacrosanct‘ mean?’
“What?”
“Sacrosanct? What does that word mean?”
MJ walked over to the sofa and handed me a cup of coffee, “I don’t know. I’ve never heard that word before. Why?”
“I just had a dream. It was weird. I was talking to these sketchy dudes about the Gospel and I think they were planning to hurt me, you, and the kids. I was yelling at God about it when a loud voice said, “‘Tim Melton, You are Sacrosanct?‘ Weird huh? I don’t even know what that word means. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that word. Have you?”
“No, I just said that I hadn’t.”
“Yeah. That’s pretty weird. Don’t you think?”
“Yes. Really weird. Maybe God is telling you something. Why don’t you look it up?”
“Good idea.”
I went to the computer and booted up the internet. I Googled the word ‘sacrosanct’ in the search line. The definition was perfectly related to the situation in my dream.
Sacrosanct:
1. extremely sacred or inviolable (not able to violate)
2. not to be entered or trespassed upon
3. secure from violation, profanation, assault, or trespass
I whispered to myself…”Tim Melton. You are Sacrosanct. You are sacred and inviolable. You and your household cannot be broken into, violated, profaned, assaulted, or trespassed upon.”
For whatever reason, when I whispered this to myself, recalled one of my favorite passages of Scripture, which is found in Colossians 3:3, ” You died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” I got it! I understood. What can you do to a dead man? When King Jesus called me to himself, the old Tim Melton died, and the new life that is mine in Christ, is Sacrosanct. The true me, the ‘Resurrection Me’ is hidden with Christ in God. My true self cannot be eternally threatened. This is true of my family as well. Because of Jesus, we are all hidden in Christ. We are eternally Sacrosanct!
The broader passage in Colossians 3 says, “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
How beautiful this is. What a comfort. I sometimes cling so tightly to this world, trying desperately to find my identity here, to protect my little domain, to preserve my tiny kingdom. Yet Christ proclaims, “This is not your home, Tim! Even the life you now lead is not yours, for you have died! And you have been raised with Me – set your mind on these things, not on earthly things. Your eye has not yet seen, your ears have not yet heard, your tongue has not yet tasted my Kingdom. Nor have you seen who you really are. When I appear, you will appear with me in Glory! Till then, do not fear what this world can do to you. Your life here is dead. Your true life is in the life to come. You are Sacrosanct!”
When I think about the resurrection, I need to remind myself that death has no victory over King Jesus. Because of His perfect righteousness, Jesus is Sacrosanct from the horror of death. Death could not violate him and the grave could not hold him. The resurrection was the proof of his perfect righteousness and His complete victory over death. And now, because of the Cross, the perfect righteousness of King Jesus is ours, and so we too are Sacrosanct from death. We have nothing to fear. Just as no one could ultimately harm Christ, now no one can ultimately harm us. We are dead. And our life is hidden with Christ, whose resurrection is the first fruit of many people yet to be resurrected. Just as Christ arose, so we too shall be raised with Him in the glorious Kingdom of Love that He is preparing for us.
Hallelujah Church! If you are in Christ, then you too are ‘Sacrosanct‘ in the grace of King Jesus!
What an unforeseen blessing.
Hey Tim, Fellow CIU Grad and an Anglican, no less. I heard you preach once when I was in High School at the Presbyterian Church in Myrtle Beach. Anyways, my pastor and a therapist, along with a book called The Body Keeps the Score, helped me deal with some repetitive thoughts, visions, and dreams through a process of taping into R.E.M. by allowing yourself to respond to whatever comes up in a therapeutic setting. You can actually have another person take a pen and move it back and forth rapidly, stop and then kind of envision whatever thoughts surface. You then literally imagine Jesus in a peaceful place of you choice and bring those thoughts to Jesus and ask Him what He thinks about them. You do this process with Jesus, if you are Christian, or you just leave Jesus out of it if its a secular setting. Either way, the process, along with Yoga helps to heal the damage done to the subconcious by the trauma. For me, once I learned the technique, when the bad dream was happening, I willed my self into the dream and then drug the whole thing to Jesus and dumped it at His feet. Then I took a bicycle ride the next morning up in Dupont, near Mt. Pisgah, North Carolina on this trail called Three Lake’s Trail. At each Lake along the trail I gave Jesus what I was anxious about. For whatever reason the repetitive nightmare and thoughts stopped after this, and I was able to move forward. I can’t recommend The Body Keeps the Score enough, and this particular method of praying is also what my church uses to train our prayer team with. It seems to fit your mission.
Blessings to you,
Brandon
Wow! I had heard the word before with a vague idea of what it meant. I’m so glad to have it explained so clearly. How profound! Especially that God thought it important enough to let you know that this is exactly what you are. Gotta love it!