Up on the Mountain

Not too many weeks ago, we got to spend a couple of days in the mountains. These pictures were taken on our way up to Klingman's Dome in the Smokey Mtn. Natl. Park. It does me good to get away, go out into nature & enjoy God's creation. I always seem to leave better for it. I am refreshed. Energized. Stirred in my thoughts about God. I get a sense of the bigness of the Creator.

Funny thing though. I don't live on the mountain. On the long drive up to the top, we did not pass one house. There were many visitors from all over the country there that, but at the end of the day they were all going to come back down. Do you see what I see? We are not meant to live on the mountain, not at the top. We can go & ought to go as often as we can. We must always come back down to get back about living our lives. We come to the top to see God. But we go back down to serve God. Some try to live an isolated, hermits life away from people & supposedly serving God but strangely never seeking others for Him. He commanded us to go. The command is definitely to go after them, but it also has an element of leaving Him at the top of the mountain.

Moses had to come down. Joshua came down. Peter, James & John came down. Let's go to the mountain of the Lord & get what we need. Then let's come down ready to seek the souls of men, women, boys & girls. Then let's teach them & take them back up the mountain with us. God bless.

Happy New Year

Wow! 2009 breezed by & we find ourselves at the lip of a new year. 2010. No doubt this is a year full of possibility & even some adventure. Those of you that prefer the quiet life, hang on because the noisy, troublesome life will find you hiding under the covers. Life happens & it will happen to you.

Oh, I'm not a pessimist that says this next year is going to be bad. But I would say that some bad things will weasel their way into our lives. Look though, this may not all be as awful as it might seem at first. Tough situations give us an opportunity to see God's hand at work in the very fabric of our day to day life. You may be surprised by the strength with which you handle some difficult problems. Take heart, our heavenly Father is watching, concerned & ready to intervene on your behalf. He can open the storehouse of Heaven & bestow grace, strength, discernment & the much needed virtue of patience.

Ask & ask again when your back is pinned to the floor of life. When you have painted yourself into the corner with no way out - look to the One who has an ear to hear. Jer. 33:3 is still one of my favorite verses, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." If you are ever in trouble, I hope you would seek me out. You ought to also know that sometimes I am out of reach. The Lord Jesus Christ is near every moment, of every day & is waiting for you to turn to Him. May the Lord bless & keep you in 2010.