Thoughts on a Mountain Top

Thoughts on a Mountain Top

“And I said, "This is my anguish; But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High." I will remember the works of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all Your work, And talk of Your deeds. Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary; Who is so great a God as our God?”   Psalms 77:10-13 (NKJV)

Every so often our family will take a trip to Mt. Pocono in Pennsylvania just to do it. It is a three hour drive from our home in South Jersey at the least. We have taken some trips in the past where none of us knew what was ahead of us and it was in those times where we pulled together as a family unit. But this trip was kinda the same ole’ thang…to the kids. They were thinking about the outlet stores and fireworks that are up there. My son, Kevin, likes to eat at different spots up there and my daughter, Karen, has to shop at Clare’s. My wife, Kathy, and I had other thoughts and we had every intention of carrying them out. That meant our children were hiking up mountains and looking at God’s creation and not hiking to the Reebok outlet. At least not right away.

As we were hiking along the trials at Bushkill Falls I mediated on some phrases that were conveyed to our counseling class Thursday night. Chaplin Jim Freed ( Program Administrator of the Colony of Mercy) had been part of our KIBS class to share his methods on how to counsel the addicted and he said things that caught my thought pattern. One of the things he shared was how we lead the unsaved to Christ but we will, at times, need to lead the believer to The Cross. I haven’t ever thought about this in the contrast it was stated. I was comfortable, I guess, with the notion that once we all came to Christ we surrender to The Cross. But if I re-visit Romans 12:1-2, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”, this takes on a whole new avenue for me to explore. After all it was the peace of Jesus that led Him to The Cross.

Another tidbit that caught my ear that night was something said concerning what we find in Genesis 3:8-9, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” My initial thinking was that God may have not known what Adam and Eve had done but what was I thinking? I serve a God who has a complete foreknowledge of what’s to come. Even Jesus stated that He does not know what the appointed time is and that it was in the hands of The Father. But if we re-look at this stroll through the garden as God calling out to them to let them know to come back, that He already knew what has happened and was ready to restore what was destroyed, “Where are you?” doesn’t sound like the beat down is coming does it? A comforting thought for this believer to receive indeed.

But the tie-in for me that night was this statement, “God’s will would not take you where His grace would not keep you.” (hope I got that worded right) This thought has permeated deep into my present day thinking about what is going on in my everyday life. I have those moments, either at work or in the home, where I have to realize that I just might be doing what I am doing in my own strength. Because if I take this statement and do some word swapping I get, “My will is taking me where my grace ain’t keeping me and I am getting pretty ticked.” When I run these past thoughts that I have just shared with you, through God’s promises in His word, I get humbled knowing that all it takes is an act of surrender to receive His grace and mercy in my life. I have those times where I forget this simple principle in my daily walk.

So as we leave all that trick or treat nonsense behind us and head towards Thanksgiving may we all remember that our Thanks-Giving should be for His grace and mercy to be abundant in our lives. I am also hoping that as the rest of 2010 rolls to its end that the foolishness with stuffing ourselves with turkey, stuffing and gravy or spending too much time in check-out lines to spend too much money on stuff that has no use in eternity does not interfere with the real reason we have Thanksgiving or celebrate Christmas. The real reason is God’s riches at Christ’s expense and not of ourselves so that we do not boast in anything other than the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. – Chris Hughes is frequent contributor to Freedom Fighter and is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 2; Jeremiah 27-29; Titus 3

Dig This Quote: “God will call me to separation often, because He has people to reach and to reconcile. May I be as self-denying as Jesus was, and as full of love. May I be willing to leave my family, lifestyle, and personal goals in favor of the lost who need to be brought in. And may I always make a sharp distinction between separation from men and separation from their fallen nature. The greatest joy of self-separation is: “They have believed” (John 17:8, KJV). In the light of that, it will all been worthwhile.” Daily With The King W. Glyn Evans

Determined Digging: Level 1: John 8:31-32; Level 2 – Isaiah 40:28-31

Determined Praying: The real secret of prayer is secret pray. John Blanchard