We are created as children of God, in His image. When we live our lives in Christ we become joint heirs of all the promises of God. Such truth gives us confidence and hope for the living of these days.
While I was recently reading in Rick Warren's “The Purpose Driven Life,” I was referred to the book of Jeremiah and there read what is the OT Scripture for today: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you and appointed you a prophet to the nations." "But I said: "Lord, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth."
You know there are some things that really tick me. People who make excuses for doing what they could do if they had a different attitude. Individuals, young and old, who use their unique situations to justify not doing something they should do.
There are too many of us who like Jeremiah, who said: "Well I'm only a youth." Or, I’m only human. Or, I’m only one human. Excuse me, when did being human become an excuse for mediocrity, or poor performance, or substandard or even immoral behavior. "I'm only human." People use these words when they are exhausted or exasperated, or they have royally fouled things up and they are trying to justify their behavior. "Well, I'm only Human?" I believe it is usually used as a way of justifying something: You slept late and are late for school, you ate the last piece of chocolate cake, immature behavior or exhaustion, but come now and let us reason together about this business of being "only Human".
Paul writes in Ephesians: "You are God's masterpiece." The Psalmist writes, "Man is made just a little lower than the angels." Genesis says: "God made man in his own image." Jeremiah was a child when God called him to become the prophet of Israel. And he said: "I'm only a boy." If we can get over excuse giving, we will begin to see remarkable things take place in the world in which we live. Because, never forget, we are made in His image, we are God’s masterpieces.
Let me illustrate this truth in the following way:
It was a high school senior in l958 by the name of Robert Heft who designed a 50 star American flag for a history class project. This was when there were only 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii were yet to join the union. In time his flag design was adopted for our current American flag.
The point is no matter how young we are, or how old we are, when you are only human; you have the ability to envision things and then to make them real. Dreams do come true. Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "The thought is the ancestor of the Deed." Leslie Weatherhead, the great preacher in London wrote: "We become like the thoughts we think." And David Read who succeeded George Buttrick at the N.Y. City Madison Ave. Presbyterian Church said: "The kind of person you are and the kind of things you do are very largely determined by the kind of images or pictures with which you fill your mind."
You are only human and you can make things happen. The church has historically taught us that we are tainted with what is called "Original Sin", which is our fallen nature. And it is true that our nature is basically selfish and bent toward evil. Thus we are called by the Christian faith to "A more excellent way", "a better way", "to God's way" and it takes a decision on our part. You can make excuses for yourself till the cows come home, but the truth is when we stand to the full height of our humanity then we give evidence of God's divine image. You know, I believe that the ultimate original sin is to limit God.
Life is not easy, and often we are challenged beyond our abilities, but God has made us a little lower than the angels. We are "God's masterpiece." The Christian way of life leads to abundance in this life and eternal life in the next, but it is not easy. It takes effort and discipline, but anything worthwhile takes effort and is not easy.
Do you think marriage is easy? You must not be married. Do you think holding down a job is easy? You must not be working. Do you think tithing and being an active member of the church is easy? You must not be tithing or an active member of the church.
As a five-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong knows more than most people about the importance of hard work. But while working real hard to win in bicycling, he failed in his marriage. In his book, Every Second Counts, he describes his regret that he did not put the same hard work into his marriage that he put into his bike racing: "All I knew was that in trying to do everything, we'd forgotten to do the most important thing. We forgot to be married. People warn you that marriage is hard work, but you don't listen. You talk about the pretty bridesmaids' dresses, but you don't talk about what happens next; about how difficult it will be to stay or to rebuild. What nobody tells you is that there will be more than just some hard days. There will be some hard weeks and perhaps even some hard years.
Listen, you are only human, which makes you "a little less than the angels". Which makes you through Jesus Christ, a joint air of Jesus Christ. Which makes you God's child. And so being "only human" is a gift of God for you to truly be great.
So you don't want to say, "I'm only a youth. I'm only a student. I'm only a senior citizen. I'm only a housewife. I'm only a human." Say, instead: "I am human. I Am Human. I Am God's child. I Am saved by Jesus Christ. I Am Not A Victim, I Am A Victor.
So Jeremiah, who was only human, became the prophet of Israel in the year 627 and would be the prophet of Israel for 50 years. He would judge the people harshly but give them hope, and God would do remarkable things through him. Imagine what God can do through you in this year 2004 as we put our whole trust in him and give ourselves completely to His leadership. Stop using your "humanness" as an excuse for mediocrity and stand up to the full measure of your humanity for you are made in his image, you are God's masterpiece, or if you prefer to say, “you are human.”
The day the first disciples of Jesus, pushed out into the deep water and followed Jesus as their Lord, was a magic moment. It was transformational. It was a turning point for the whole world.
Such a decisive point in time has been described by Malcom Gladwell as "A Tipping Point." Says he: "It is a magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips the scales and spreads like wildfire."
@ an idea which causes old companies to soar from being "Good to Great".
@ a trend which causes old tired churches smoldering in the ashes of past fires to ignite again and burst into flame.
@ a moment in an individual's life when they fall in love, are called to a new way of thinking or behaving, or vocation when they move into a new and exciting phase of their life.
Just as a single sick person with a cough can start an epidemic of the flu, so also can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, new growth of a church or company.
For example, Brittany Spears appeared on stage one night early on in her adolescent career in the l990's with her midriff showing. And within a six-month period, kids all over America had taken scissors to their well fitting shirts and were showing their belly buttons to their a gasp parents. And stores like Gap were selling every short tea shirt they could get their hands on. It was a turning point-a tipping point-a watershed moment in the fashion industry. Lord, I'm not judging it as a wonderful moment, because now it seems it has led to showing it all, in the trashy Janet Jackson style, and how silly that looks.
Tipping points—Magic Moments When An Idea, or Trend Crosses A Threshold, Tips The Scales. Sometimes These Tipping Points Can Lead To Great Things And Sometimes Lead To Evil. It should be obvious to us which side of the scale we as Christian people are interested.
I have wondered if maybe our nation is at a tipping point with regards to words like integrity and honesty and right. There was an interview on National Public Radio recently with a Mom and her teenage son about downloading music from the Internet. The boy had downloaded thousands of songs without paying for them. His mother saw nothing wrong with the practice. She said: "If he were going to burn them to CDs and sell them, that would be inappropriate." Notice she did not say that would be wrong, but it would be "inappropriate." Do you see the problem here? The trend? Have we passed a "Tipping Point?" and are we now to begin to reap the destructive benefits of trends that have weaken such character traits as honesty, truthfulness, faithfulness, and integrity?
Did the President of Enron in reaping millions of dollars profit by selling his stock but not allowing the employees to sale theirs act "inappropriately " or was that just wrong? Did mutual fund traders, who showed preferential treatment to the big boys in the market, act inappropriately? Or was what they did, just unfair and wrong? Did Martha Stewart…well I will let the courts decide that one. Did an individual selling drugs to a friend act inappropriately? Are we at a "tipping Point" with integrity in this nation? Haunting questions in troubled times.
I have told you of the unusual experience which Jane and I had during the "Blackout of New York City" this past summer. How I was struck with the friendliness and helpfulness of the New Yorkers in a time of uncertainty and uneasiness. You will recall how in the l970's a similar "Blackout" led to muggings, looting of stores and even murder on the street. But this time everybody pitched in to help everyone else. In the middle of the confusion, I noticed how common citizens were directing traffic and helping older people, and I found myself stooping down to help lace the old tennis shoes of an elderly lady who was trying to make her way down the street in a wheel chair and saying to her I believe we are going to be okay. There was a time in New York when you held on to your pocketbook and watched over your shoulder, but most everybody this time were marching to the tune of a different drummer. I still believe that the fact that we are post September 11 was part of the reason of the change in the culture of the city of New York, but I have since discovered another cultural shift.
In the 1970s and 80's crime had escalated like crazy and by l992, there were 2,154 murders in New York and 626, thousand serious crimes, but the situation tipped and within five years of the first 5 years of the l990’s the crime rate had fallen by almost half and the 2154 murders had in the mid l990 become 600. The question is what happened that changed the culture of the city" or tipped the scales of an escalating crime scene in one of our largest cities? The best candidate I can come up with is what Mayor Giuliani has described as the "Broken Windows theory". In the late 1980's criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling were hired as consultants by the city and they proposed that the city start fixing up the old broken windows. It was called the "Broken Windows Theory" which was that if a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken and the message goes out that anything goes. Thus broken windows, graffiti, and panhandling invite more serious crimes. It is a theory that an epidemic can be reversed, can be tipped, by tinkering with the smallest details of the immediate environment.
Some of you can remember the l970s and 80s in downtown Pensacola. Storefronts were boarded up. The old San Carlos was a campground for vagrants. The churches were running down. I talked this week with a "snowbird" from Canada who asked me "What's happened to Pensacola?" When I came here 30 years ago, most of the downtown stores were closed down and boarded up and now new things seem to be happening everywhere." Well something has gradually happening and we are changing. The streetscape was changed, old buildings torn down, and now new residential areas are popping up, churches are vibrant, and the area is changed. By tinkering with the smallest of details in one's immediate environment, things are changed. Some might say it was the arrival on the scene of a young student by the name of Jennifer Fleming, a city planner who had more ideas than she could implement in her lifetime. Others might say it was the creation of "The Downtown Improvement Board" in 1972 and people like Bill Barrineau, Susan Schmidt, Debra Dunlap, and others who had a new vision. Don't discount any of these things. By tinkering with the smallest of details in one's immediate environment, things can be changed.
Whatever it was, something changed a trend, a direction. A Tipping Point. A Turning Point.
Consider what that can mean for your life.
In the l980's the church started to grow again when the Wright Place became the "Right" Place. We started talking about the church as family, as community, as a place that was "Right for us." And the Baby Boomers started coming to church.
We started dreaming about how things could be different. We have had our dreams over the past few years. Three Capital Campaigns. One in 1988, one in 1995, and this last one, which we celebrate today, began in 2001. There were times when we envisioned what the church would be like if the "broken windows were repaired", if we were debt free, if we made it easier for our people to have access to the church. Dreams change reality. People who dream make a difference.
Push out into the deep waters of your dreams and you will experience a Tipping Point.
Jesus was a Tipping Point. Judaism had become an old tired religion of laws and rules. And Jesus said: "I have not come to change the law, but to fulfill the law. I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." Thus he would say: "You have heard it said that you are not to kill, but I say to you don't be angry with your neighbor.
"You have heard it said: "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy", but I say to you love your enemies."
"You have heard it was said: "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.", but I say to you turn the other cheek, and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
To Peter, James and John, Jesus said: "Push out into the deep water and there let down your nets."
Maybe it is time for you to push out into the deep water. I have seen lives changed when they have come to this church, met Christ and became a part of "a more excellent way". I have seen broken down and shattered families, renewed and blessed, and you have to. I have seen dreams come true, and so have you.
It could very well be that today, this church is at such a magic moment. In our long history of 183 years, today is a Tipping Point.
Assuming that in some ways we all recognize the magic of this moment in our history, I will proceed and suggest the following:
1. Commit your life to Jesus Christ. No change can be lasting without Jesus.
2. Christ at the center of your life. Luke says that "when these fishermen, James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him." Some of you might leave the familiar comfort zones of your lives and enter into some phase of ministry. You might go to Zimbabwe, you might go to the neighbor just down the street.
Years ago when Jane and I were students at Huntingdon College, we went in downtown Montgomery to hear E. Stanley Jones.
3. Having committed your life to Jesus Christ, you will begin to see hardships as challenges, opposition as opportunity and failure as a way God opens a new door.
This morning allow God the Holy Spirit to energize you and began to use you. Push out into the deep water.
Open your mind and heart today to God the Holy Spirit and see if there will not be a magic moment of change, a tipping point, for you and for us all. Push out into the deep water!
One of many of the new and refreshing dimensions of our refurbished buildings is the young oak tree, which now stands in the front yard of the new welcoming center building.
A review of pictures of First Church in the l920’s and 30's reveals that there was at that time a live oak, which was planted in that same spot. We live in an area, which is graced by these stately old trees. Sometimes I ride down 12th Avenue just to enjoy the canopy of interlaced oak branches that stand vigil as the road approaches the Fairfield Road intersection. There is something about the stately oak that reminds us of stability and strength.
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
(Joyce Kilmer was a native of NJ but was killed in action in World War I at the age of 32.)1 I think that I shall never see
2 A poem as lovely as a tree.
3 A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
4 Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
5 A tree that looks at God all day,
6 And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
7 A tree that may in Summer wear
8 A nest of robins in her hair;
9 Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
10 Who intimately lives with rain.
11 Poems are made by fools like me,
12 But only God can make a tree.
In the Bible, which primarily contains stories out of the arid, deserted like environment of the Mideast, trees were anomaly -an unusual phenomena. Thus, often times, trees were used as symbols of spiritual truths.
For example, the Psalmist would write: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night. He Is Like A Tree Planted By Streams Of Water, Which Yields Its Fruit In Season And Whose Leaf Does Not Wither."
Jeremiah, the prophet of the 7th century wrote: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, He Will Be Like A Tree Planted By The Water That Sends Out Its Roots By The Stream. It Does Not Fear When The Heat Comes, Its Leaves Are Always Green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." (17:8)
In the New Testament book of Revelation, there is the vision of the Eternal City of God, where there is the "river of the water of life which flows through the middle of the street of the city and on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month."
If you are not careful, as you encounter these images, you will get caught up in the image of the tree, and overlook what the Bible is saying here. It's not that a tree is so beautiful, but as Jeremiah says: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, for he is like a tree..."
1. When we trust in the Lord, when our delight is in his Ways, when we keep Sabbath, when we are obedient to his Law, when we do not lie, when we do not steal, when we do not kill, when we are peacemakers, when we go the second mile, when we hunger and thirst after righteousness, when we are merciful, these behaviors give indication that the roots of our life lie deep in the soil of the being of God.
2. When we are rooted in God and His ways, then we will bear fruit, then we will experience the productive life.
Deep Roots and Abundant Fruits characterize human beings who "Trust in the Lord".
There was a lady who I would always see at the nursing home when I would go and visit my mother before her death. She was always pleasant, well groomed, but very quiet. I would always speak to all of the residents at the home, but would walk by quickly to get to my mother. I still miss her greatly and find it extremely difficult to go into the Haven where she lived the last few years of her life. Well, this lady would always smile and wave. And one day I stopped to say hi. She asked me, if I was a minister. I thought, "Oh Lord, is it that obvious? I'm going to start combing my hair differently or something; but over the years I have made peace with that and realized that it is a pleasant compliment, not a criticism. Anyway, she said to me: My most favorite verse in all of the scripture is a proverb. And I asked if she would share it with me. And she quoted: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6
1. The way we sink deep roots into the ground of all being, is by being obedient to the Law of God, by trusting in his ways, by living a Christ like life. In this way our life remains healthy, vibrant, and alive.
I was eating out the other evening at Jerry's Cajun Restaurant on 9th Ave, when Jerry came over and told me about the group of men who meet at the restaurant early one morning a week for prayer and Bible Study and the youth who meet at their home for prayer and Bible Study. And he spoke with excitement about all of these various ways he had planted deep roots since becoming a part of our church fellowship and how blessed was his life.
On the other hand, I ran into another person in the mall the other day and they briefly observed how bad things were going in their life. I had not seen them in worship for months. I saw no evidence of love and kindness in their crisp judgmental words.
No roots, no fruits. Deep roots, abundant fruits.
2. Only those with deep roots will produce abundant fruits. The Bible spells out that the "fruits of the spirits" are these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. They come as gifts, as fruits of Christian obedience.
To live in any other way than trusting in God is to live like a cut flower…pretty for a while, but with no ongoing nourishment source.
Stephen Coven in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People talks about the difference between Character Ethics and Personality Ethics.
He observes that for the first 200 years in America, all literature focused on what could be called the Character Ethic as the foundation of success. Such things as integrity, humility, courage, fidelity, and patience, the Golden Rule were taught as the foundation or basic principals of effective living. People enjoyed success because they learned to integrate these principles into their basic character.
But somewhere between the end of World War I and II, America shifted to the personality ethic as the basic view of success. You know of such books as How to Win Friends and Influence People for example. Clichés such as, "Your attitude determines your altitude", and "Smiling wins more friends than frowning." So one's ethics became what you showed to the world, not what was a part of your basic character. So the difference between Character Ethics and Personality Ethics is what lies deeply inside of us. One is internal. The other external.
To quote Covey: "If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work better, to be more motivated, to like me and each other, while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked by duplicity and insincerity, then, in the long run, I cannot be successful. My duplicity will breed distrust, and everything I do, even using so called good human relationships, would be perceived as manipulative. It simply makes no difference how good the rhetoric is or even how good the intentions are; if there is little or no trust, there is no foundation for permanent success. Only basic goodness gives life to technique.'
We have had this weekend, with Valentine’s Day, opportunity to express our love for one another. But when we are in Christ, everyday is a day to demonstrate our love for others.
Grady Watson Jr. lives just south of Monroeville. He came back from the Second World War and married a lady by the name of Vermel. It was l946 and he tried his hand at farming and the government gave him $15.00 a month to get his farm going. They lived in a small room with his parents, worked the land, and gradually built a small home, as money was available. The postman delivered their check on the first of every month and traveling salesmen followed the postman around selling Fuller brushes, and books of all kinds. One day he was working in the field and his young wife came walking toward him, with a brand new family Bible in her hand and a smile on her face. His comment was "You are spending all of our money. Do you know how much lumber for our new house I could have bought with that money?" As he spoke the smile faded and she turned around and left him in the field with his ugly response to her new purchase. Later it would dawn on him. He had married her and brought her to come live in a small room with his parents. The house they lived in was not theirs. The pots she cooked in were not hers. The sheets she slept under were not hers. The bed they slept on was not hers. She had nothing, but that newly purchased Bible and he was so insensitive to her needs to possess something, and it was a Bible, after all.
He prayed that night: "Lord give me the fruit of love in my life." And it then came to him, "Read the new Bible." When we plant deep roots in the word of God and trust in him, God will bless our lives with abundant fruit and guide us in the way of eternal life.
Today's Scripture is truly a Mountain Top Experience. We have all experienced the emotions of Mountain Top Experiences of varying degrees. They were moments of ecstasy, enlightenment, and discovery. Perhaps it was last summer's trip to Disney World. Perhaps it was the first day of school when you discovered that you could handle school. Perhaps it was the day of your first date, first day on the job, your first kiss, the day you caught your first fish, these are obviously different levels of ecstasy!
Mountain Top Experiences are unusual but they don't have to be extraterrestrial, although sometimes they are. There are a number of Mountain top experiences recorded in the Bible that are extraterrestrial:
1. Moses goes to Mt. Sinai
2. Elijah goes to Mt. Horab/Mt. Sinai
3. Jesus goes to the Mount of Transfiguration
In the Gospel reading for today we hear the writer of Luke describing one of these rare moments. Jesus is on retreat on a mountain overlooking the Sea of Galilee. The Transfiguration occurs. This is one of those mountaintop experiences of life, which somehow defy adequate description and challenge us to scratch our head and stretch our concept of reality to the point that we usually wind up asking the question, "Did this really happen?" Events such as the Transfiguration somehow connect us with the mystery of creation and eternity.
This past week, Tim O'Brien, the ABC correspondent who for years has covered the US Supreme Court, told a funny story about Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Watson. It seems that the London detective decided that he and Watson would camp out or stake out this place where a crime had taken place and so they pitched their tent and crawled in and by midnight were fast asleep. Around two a.m. Sherlock Holmes awakens Watson and says: "Watson, look up and tell me what you see." Watson stirs awake and looks straight up seeing stars and the black sky above. He says: "Well, I see the stars above and the immensity of outer space. "Yes, Sherlock Holmes says, but what else do you see? And Watson says: "Well, I see the bright lights of other planets and see evidence of the greatness of the creator of the Universe and; but he is interrupted by Sherlock Holmes, who says, "My God Watson, don't you see. There is no tent. Someone has stolen the tent."
As you read the Bible you have to decide are you looking for the canvas of the tent, the literalness of what you can see, touch, smell or taste; or are you looking beyond for meaning, the larger purpose, the message from beyond. Watson was looking beyond the tent. Sherlock Holmes was looking for the details. Today as we deal with the transfiguration, we are not looking for the details, we are looking beyond for the meaning.
Moses, Elijah, Jesus come together...
Recently I came across a fascinating book written by Mortimer Adler back in l940. It has been reprinted dozens of times. The title of the book is "How to Read a Book." It was insightful because it placed in words, what I have been thinking for a long time. You see, I read the Bible just as I read any other book. You read it in two ways, or on two levels, or with two goals:
For information and for understanding,
For knowledge and for revelation.
For details and for meaning-the what and the why
These are two different levels of the human experience. Today in worship we read the Bible story of the transfiguration on the level of understanding, revelation, and discovery!
For Jesus it was a time of confirmation and affirmation of his ministry. For Peter, James, and John it was a brief glimpse of the transcendent, a peek at the reality that lies just beyond everyday life. They realized and we now know by reading this event, that Jesus was no break with the past, he was not different from Moses or Elijah, but he clarified both for a modern world at the beginning of the Modern Era. God is involved in His creation of every era.
II. Perhaps today is a mountain top experience for you. Maybe worship makes sense for the first time for you. Perhaps this coming season of Lent can be a mountain top experience for you. Perhaps you will fall in love. Perhaps you will at last figure out what is important in your life. Perhaps you will come to know God as one who loves you.
Perhaps...Well all of this is speculation, what I know for sure is this: God will meet you wherever you want to meet him. He will meet you today if you will give him your heart. He will come to you as He came to Moses and to Elijah and to Jesus so long ago, saying, "Be still, and know that I am God."
Mountaintop experiences occur all the time and they are offered to all to desire to live! And, unless we sleep through them, as did Peter, James and John, or miss them altogether, which many do, He will come to us.
I met a fellow the other day who has been so busy hating things through his life, that he has missed it. He's into drinking and hating now and I thought "What a waste"
Mountain top experiences are offered to us all:
For those who will climb the mountain.
This journey takes discipline of mind and body. Such things as Keeping Sabbath, Practicing the Discipline of Lent-a time of regular worship, meditation, reading, giving away your finances, learning what sacrificial service means-some fast in some way and that is not bad for your body nor you spirit, some give up something so that they can add something that is important to them.
I know a lady who was afraid and whose life was dominated by fears of all kinds and panic attacks, and she started reading and praying the Psalms and was healed.
Last year's marvelous summer movie, Sea biscuit, told the story of a horse who was loved and believed in. The movie revealed the power of transformation, which occurs when someone believes in you. People and Horses move from death to life, from defeat to victory, from illness to health, from despair to celebration, from tragedy to triumph, when someone believes in you. Start believing and see what will happen.
In today’s lesson on the transfiguration, Mosses reminds us that the Laws of God are not to be violated. Elijah reminds us God calls us to a covenant relationship. Jesus reminds us, that God is love and that he is willing to sacrifice his life to demonstrate the extent God will go for us. So, it is obvious that through the discipline of Bible reading and study, we are informed as to God's desires and such study and reflection become transformational for us.
John Clark who is having to work on Sundays as an Emergency Paramedic and usually he is in worship, but because of the nature of his job he is for right now out of Sunday Worship. Although he doesn't perceive himself as a reader, he went to the Bookstore and stood overwhelmed before all of the choices of Bibles, I guess he felt like I do when I am sent to the store for a box of cereal and stand before row after row of choices and am overwhelmed. But in his case he pulled off the shelf, by chance he said, I say by the action of the Holy Spirit, the book called "The Message" by Eugene Peterson, which is an excellent paraphrase of the Bible. The luck of the draw or action of the Holy Spirit? I would say the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit encourages us to search the scripture as a spiritual discipline.
Mountaintop experiences are often found in tragedy.
I know I have a deeper appreciation of family having lost all the members of my blood family. I know I have a deeper appreciation of being able to walk, having for a brief time lost the ability to climb stairs.
Lily is 9 years old. She lives in East Kagan, Kenya. She is one of 3.5 million children in Sub-Saharan Africa whose parents have AIDS. Already 13 million children in Africa have lost parents to this awful disease. Lily's mother has taught her already how to cook, how to pray, how to build a house of straw, how to catch and dress a chicken. And now Lily's mother is teaching her how to dig a grave. Lily is being taught to trust in a power greater than herself or her parents.
In time, the pasty face of death will knock on the door of every family. And through that tragedy, you will develop a new appreciation of those who have loved you and you will develop a gradual longing for reunion in heaven and a trust in the creator.
Summary: Mountaintop experiences give you unique opportunities to steal a view of some glorious vista that surrounds you, to look back with sincere appreciation on the long road you have traveled, to savor the memory of those who have walked the steep inclines beside you, Mountain Top Experiences Are Available To Even You, And For All Who Will Open Their Hearts To The Mystery.