12-20-2019

Good Morning All, 

      Exodus 3:1; “Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.”

    It is often called a “mountaintop experience”.   It is usually a spiritual experience where you “feel” closer to God.  It can be a very intense experience that can leave you excited, exhilarated, enthusiastic and full of life and a joy of knowing God.  It probably even draws its name from the Bible when Peter, James and John were on the mount of transfiguration with Jesus.  The disciples wanted to stay up on the mountaintop.

    It is easy to see why we think this way.  There are many stories in the Bible where God is on the mountaintop.  Abraham and Isaac had one; Moses had a few; Joshua and some of the judges had met with God on mountaintops.  Elijah met with God on the mountain of God like Moses.  Mountaintop experiences are the types of experiences that many people love to share; they love to relate the greatness, the grandeur and the elation that they experience when they have been to the mountaintop.  But what if there hasn’t been a mountaintop experience for you? 

    Many don’t have this experience.  Just as many cannot tell you the precise time and date that faith came into their life, many have not had a mountaintop experience.  We just live ordinary lives; we never know those real high moments, nor do we know those really devastating low moments.  We don’t know the mountaintop, but we don’t know the depth of the pit either; we are just plain people who live their life on the plain.

    Yet the joy of the Gospel is for us as well.  We may not ever experience the rapturous heights, but we can know for certain that God’s promise of salvation is for us as well.  God gives us the peace and the calm to live the life that he has given us.  We can live with the certainty that God’s love for us is real.  You don’t have to have fallen into the depths of the pit and you do not have to have been on the mountaintop.  Your salvation, and the certainty of it, does not depend on how you feel but it depends on God’s grace and God’s grace alone.  There may be times when you don’t “feel” that god is close to you; but he still is.  There may be times when you don’t “feel” his grace, but it is continually poured out upon you.

    It is not your feelings that determine your salvation or faith.  It is the certainty of the knowledge that Jesus died for you, a fact an event that occurred in a place called Jerusalem many years ago.  It occurred in order that you might have salvation.  Whether you have been to the mountaintop, been to the depths, lived your entire life on the plain or had all three, all that matters is that God loves you and has given to you salvation which we can hold onto by faith.

Father, I don’t always feel like I think I should.  I think that I should do something to make me be saved.  Give me the comfort in the knowledge that your grace comes from you freely.  Help me to know that it does not depend on me or my feelings.  Renew those who feel lost or adrift.  Give them the comfort of the certainty of your mercy.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret