Mountain

I grabbed my friend, Libbie and we were off to the auction...and as we turned the corner to approach I-10 - she said look don't you wish those were mountains...and we could look at them everyday. And I glanced up and God had made this beautiful dark cloud line...that was continuous...and had a pattern of high ups and medium downs that looked very much like mountains. They were a dark blue...not a storm dark....but a peaceful color against a fading sky. As you would know, I loved that comment and as we drove I kept looking at them....thinking she is right, it would be so neat to have a mountain view each day....but that is not the topography that this coastal city was designed to have. And if I want a mountain view, I am going to have to travel to a different location.

We hear of mountain top experiences...and many of you have had them...a time when all emotions and senses and physical bearings blend together to make a most wonderful collage that is assembled and framed into one memory. And that memory will carry on for a lifetime. For when you finally have a chance to experience one of those moments...you don't forget it. As I looked onto those clouds, I thought.....Though those are not mountains...it is a vivid image of what a mountain landscape would look like. I can imagine it so much better when I have a prop....and those clouds were the prop.

We have the ability to imagine mountaintop experiences...and we also have the ability to make them happen. It is a matter of attitude and perspective....and how we choose to live our daily routines and who we choose to share them with. If I want a mountain top view I have to relocate some of the thoughts that are in my mind....and move away from flat line thinking. God is not a flat line thinker...and to be a God thinker we have to allow him the ability to raise up our thoughts to His level. To His mountaintops...If you think about it...God sees everything from a higher standpoint than we do...literally and figuratively. When we stand on a mountaintop...our circumstances seem smaller, our view becomes abounding and astounding, our sense of freedom becomes more of a reality, and there is an uncanny sense of wonder that God places within us that unleashes joy. Joy to be alive, joy to know that we serve an awesome God, joy as we take in the beauties that are before us, joy as we alter our perspective, joy in knowing that all things are possible with God, joy in believing that all that our eyes can see from this vantage point has been created by God for our enjoyment and our provision.

Yes we do have the ability to imagine mountain top experiences...and we need them from time to time to tuck away in our pockets as remembrances that when we walk down from them...God remains on that mountain....watching and guiding and providing. He sends his angels to hover around us and His Holy Spirit to dwell within us. But never are we asked to come down from that mountain unattended....but what we are asked to do is to share what we have learned while we were there....and offer to bring someone along with us the next time we journey up.

Moses was on a mountain when he was given the commandments, Jesus preached from a mountain..Jesus provided Abraham a ram on the mountain...Jesus took his disciples to pray on a mountain....a temple was build on a mountain, mountains surrounded Jerusalem...Lot's family fled to mountains for safety when Sodom was being destroyed, etc. There are 301 verses that site mountains.( http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=mountain&x=0&y=0 ) So I figure there must be something pretty significant about mountains for them to be referenced so often. But so many of the verses are about Jesus going to the mountains to pray. He must have found true peace in the silence and solitude of being away from the crowds ...as he escaped to the heights of the mountains.

When we allow our thoughts to climb up to God's mountains we will find:
1) Solitude - peace through prayer
2) Provisions - ex. ram for Abraham, answers to prayers, directions
3) Building - temples, plans, relationships
4) Lessons - commandments, holy standards, worthy values

Mountaintop experiences are not just about how we may feel at a given moment but they are also about the acceptance of the deep rooted love and need for a relationship with God that God has placed within us. It is when we climb the mountains of adversity, or the mountains of joy or the mountains of praise that we are sustained by the blessing of grace that God seeps into our souls. We will not find that blessing if we are steeped in resentment, or guilt, or fear or anxiousness.... we will find it only when we seek to join God on His mountainside in prayer. He sits watching and waiting.....and he will continue till we have the desire to make the climb....and choose to relocate our thoughts from flat line to His mountaintop.
Micah 4
The Mountain of the LORD
1 In the last days
the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and peoples will stream to it.

2 Many nations will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore

Dear Lord, Help us to imagine the mountaintops... and help us to seek to sit with you in prayer and be ablet o look down and leave all distractions down below. Help us to develop perspectives from your heights and not settle and accept our thoughts based on the world's lows. Amen
Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation he has allowed you to be in...for His glory will shine through.

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