{"id":7598,"date":"2012-10-01T06:39:39","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T14:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=7598"},"modified":"2012-10-02T06:07:50","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T14:07:50","slug":"the-place-of-exaltation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=7598","title":{"rendered":"The Place of Exaltation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>&#8230; Jesus took . . . them up on a high mountain apart by themselves . . . \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=Mark+9%3A2\" target=\"_blank\">Mark 9:2<\/a><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xHGU3z10fo0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"620\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<section>We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God\u2019s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Mark+9:14-18\">Mark 9:14-18<\/a>). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life\u2014 those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.<\/section>\n<p>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 <em>teach<\/em> us anything, it is meant to <em>make<\/em> us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, \u201cWhat\u2019s the use of this experience?\u201d 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\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n<p>______________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>October 1, 2012<\/p>\n<p>Journal Entry for Today-JDV<\/p>\n<p>Lord, today would have been my brother\u2019s 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\u00a0 way Lord, could you remind him how much we loved him?<\/p>\n<p><em>And God says\u2026\u201dYour 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\u2026Remember\u00a0 what Paul wrote\u2026.in his letter to the church in Rome?\u201d&#8230;<\/em><strong><em><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cSo, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn\u2019t 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\u00a0 anything else he wouldn\u2019t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God\u2019s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us\u2014who was raised to life for us!\u2014is 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\u2019s 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: <\/em><em>They kill us in cold\u00a0 blood because they hate you. We\u2019re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I\u2019m absolutely convinced that nothing\u2014nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable\u2014absolutely nothing can get between us and God\u2019s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<footer>\n<p id=\"bible-in-a-year-box\">\n<\/footer>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230; Jesus took . . . them up on a high mountain apart by themselves . . . \u2014Mark 9:2 We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God\u2019s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7598"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7610,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598\/revisions\/7610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}