Mountaintops

There comes a point in our lives where we make that step from silent adoration, from basking in His glory, from transformation to action, and often it is a step that involves sacrifice. Sometimes it is almost as though this surprises us, we have followed Jesus to the cross and are still surprised that sacrifice is expected of us. We have heard Jesus say, ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.’

But we want to stay on the mountain top Lord, we like it here, it’s comfortable, Jesus says to us ‘If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.’ Those are harsh words Jesus, that’s not fair Jesus. We’ve repented of our sin, we’ve called you Lord, we’ve accepted you as saviour, what more do you want? And Jesus says, ‘I want your life to show that you mean it, I want no more and no less than what I gave for you, your life.’

If our transformation does not give way to sacrifice, we have missed the boat, we have lost the plot, and we are living in delusion. So often the things we do and the way we act are motivated by an incomplete understanding of what Jesus has done for us, and what response that should elicit from us.

It’s almost as though we have accepted the fact that the wage of sin is death, we recognise that Jesus paid the price for our sin, that he died for us, that he took our sin upon himself, that he suffered for and died in our place, and we say ‘thanks see you around’ and carry on living our lives and ignoring that sin that put Him there.

I’ve been reading a book, called ‘Intercessors arise II’, in the prayer room this week, the book was Debbie Przybylski who is known by many of us in the church in Gibraltar. And as I’ve read it I’ve come across a few quotations which really spoke to me. In one of them she is talking about repentance and she quotes from Henry Blackaby in his book Experiencing God, ‘Repentance involves a radical change of heart and mind in which we agree with Gods evaluation of our sin and then take specific action to align ourselves with His will. A desire to change is not repentance. Repentance is always an active response to Gods Word. The evidence of repentance is not words of resolve, but a changed life. She also quotes this from Stormie Omartian’s, The power of a praying woman, ‘It’s one thing to recognize when you have done something that has violated God’s laws; it’s another to be saddened by it to such a degree that you are determined to never do it again. That’s repentance. Repentance means to change your mind. To turn and walk the other way. Repentance means being so deeply sorry for what you have done that you will do whatever it takes to keep it from happening again. Confession means we recognize we have done wrong and admit our sin. Repentance means we are sorry about our sin to the point of grief, and we have turned and walked away from it.’

I wonder how many times we don’t meet this criteria, I know there have been many times in my life when I have missed the mark, many times when I have compromised with sin, times when I have been content with the idea of repentance, without following through with the action, times when I have been content to bask in God’s glory, in the power of His transformation without being willing to move out of that and into sacrifice.