FROM THE PASTOR'S PORCH: High up on the mountain

[Lynn D. Walker]

 Please visit us at COWBOY COUNTRY CHURCH

FROM THE PASTOR'S PORCH: High up on the mountain

    I remember back when I got saved during Vacation Bible School.  My goodness, it doesn't seem possible that will be fifty years ago this coming summer.  You talk about a mountain top experience!!  I was so happy and felt so good about my salvation.  I was very naive at that time in my young life, and I thought I was going to be on the mountain top for the rest of my life.  Yep, all my troubles were over and I was going to live a trouble free life from now on.  I was now a child of God and from then on I thought my life was going to be perfect....... Oops.  It

didn't take me long to find out that my life was not going to be perfect and that I still had to function in a sinful, fallen world.  Mountain top experiences are truly wonderful, but in this life that is not where God is going to let us stay. 

    Mark 9:2 says “Jesus leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves”.  Why does God lead us up on the mountain top, but he does not let us stay there??  If all you can do is ascend to the mountain top, you are in

trouble.  The important part is descending back down, because that is where the work is at.  Mountain top experiences are not to “teach” us anything, but they are to “make” something out of us.  Jesus led His disciples up high on the mountain to allow them to see things from God's standpoint.  Oh, we all want to stay up there.  We want stay away from all the trouble, danger, and problems that are down below.  We all want to live the “perfect” and “easy” life.  Oswalt Chambers wrote, “We are not built to live our life on the mountain top, those are for
moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff we are in, and that is where we have to prove our mettle. Spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mount. We feel we could talk like angels and live like angels, if only we could stay on the mount. The times of exaltation are exceptional, they have their meaning in our life with God, but we
must beware lest our spiritual selfishness wants to make them the only time.”

   Where would we be if Jesus had not come down from the “Mountain top” to live a life of example for us, to teach us, and die on the cross for our salvation.  Jesus came down here to meet our needs; Spiritual, Emotional and Physical.  It's high time for us “Christians” to come down and follow His example.  Some of us are not even up on the mountain top, we're just up on our high horse and it's about time we crawled off of that horse.  Lost people are dying and going to Hell every day, while we are busy seeking our mountain top experiences.  God will lead you up the mountain when it's time; for now we need to be witnessing and meeting peoples needs down here in the valley. 

    My prayer for all of us today is that we will “see” the world from God's perspective.  I pray that God will make us all strong Spiritually, Emotionally, and Physically so that we might descend down the mountain to “fight the good fight”, as Paul said, here in the “real world” of the valley below.  Lord help us to get our
nose out of the clouds and down to the grindstone!!       

   Thanks to all of you who read and enjoy “FROM THE PASTOR'S PORCH”.  May
God bless you richly,  ~Pastor Lynn