… Jesus took . . . them up on a high mountain apart by themselves . . . —Mark 9:2
We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, “What’s the use of this experience?” We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God’s purpose.
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October 1, 2012
Journal Entry for Today-JDV
Lord, today would have been my brother’s birthday. But he went to be with You and many others in the family almost two years ago now. But I do miss him and wish we could have had more time to discover all that brothers can discover together. I wish that he knew just how much he meant to me and how much I admired his courage and tenacity. I would have liked to have told him about the traits in him that I admired and respected. If there is a way Lord, could you remind him how much we loved him?
And God says…”Your brother is loved beyond all imagination and he knows it. He is immersed in My love and My love transcends all things. Remember, I am love and the love you hold for your brother and others, comes from Me, and is best shared, and given away. He knows the love you hold for him in me, and nothing can separate you and or your brother from My love…Remember what Paul wrote….in his letter to the church in Rome?”…
“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
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