Transported to Mount Pisgah

I love the Blueridge Mountains, small compared to the Rockies but a small piece of heaven here in Virginia. At times, I enjoy a drive an hour south of D.C., south of Sperryville, Virginia to Old Rag Mountain. It’s about an hour and a half of a vigorous hike to the top, some climbing at the end, but the payoff is spectacular.
In my studies today I was transported to Mount Pisgah. Moses was ascending its pinnacle at the Lord’s command to view the sprawling land of promise. It was the last brief moments of this magnificent man’s life. He was ascending high as into the throne room of Heaven itself. Here was the man who knew God “face-to- face” (Num 12:8); a man whose fellowship with God was second only to God’s Son. Can you imagine knowing our Heavenly Father this intimately? The writer of Hebrews invites us “….come boldly into the throne room of grace….” Heb 4:16.
The Apostle Paul brings us squarely to the place where we need to attain. “….That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection , and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death.” Phill 3:10 I believe that this is the intimacy that we are to have with God; that we are to attain to. It is being acquainted with God’s grief. It is having a deep grief over sin, callousness and indifference. It is being moved by His passion for souls, the care for widows, orphans and the powerless. It is to die in conformity to him. Jesus was clear on His mission. In Luke 4:18-19 he declared The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good…Now that is a mountain worth scaling.

Guided by His Eye

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Psalm 32:8.....My better half and I are celebrating going on 24 years of marriage. One thing is certain, having been married for that period of time, experiencing rough times and great times you get to know each other intimately. Fact is, it only takes a glance or a quick read and I know what my wife is thinking (most of the time). This comes from the intimacy of understanding that only marriage or family relationships bring; the type of clarity of closeness.

Imagine the Psalmist here captures God's heart perfectly with crystaline detail. You realize that this is the kind of close intimacy God desires from us? That we are guided with the twinkle of His eye? This imagery (we know that God is Spirit from John 4:24) is of course pointing to a thought. Hebrew is a language of vast imagery, of word pictures. God guides us with his eye. He leads us beside the still waters, to borrow from another wonderful Psalm. Friend, we must press into God to develop this type of relationship....to capture His heart and sense His direction. Now that is the kind of direction that is not needful....it is bountiful and rich. Blessings.