October 2, 2005

• Well… another week gone!  I was sick — actually I’ve been sick since the last week in August–
  two weeks with a cold and two weeks with a cough.  As of last
  monday, the cough was really bothering me, especially at night, so I
  wasn’t sleeping.  Ended up going to the doctors on Thursday. 
  I was running a fever.  Diagnosed with some type of bacterial
  lower respiratory infection in my lungs.  So, on some anti-biotics
  and some heavy duty cough medicine.  Still didn’t start sleeping
  well until last night.  Now I am doing much, much better.

  Yesterday and today’s devotions in
  Oswald Chambers are a couple of my very favorite ones.  Written
  around Mark 9:2 & Mark 9:22 “… Jesus took … them up on a high
  mountain apart by themselves…” and “If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”  It says:

  Yesterday’s:

  We
  have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have
  seen things from God’s 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 Mark 9:14-18). We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the
  other beautiful attractions in life— 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.
  

  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.

  
  

  Today’s:

  After
  every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into
  things as they really are , where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor
  thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal
  drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live
  for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live
  for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our
  true worth to God— that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of
  us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity,
  simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God
  wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley
  according to our personal relationship with Him. Peter thought it would
  be a wonderful thing for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus
  Christ took the disciples down from the mountain and into the valley,
  where the true meaning of the vision was explained..

  “If
  you can do anything . . . .” It takes the valley of humiliation to
  remove the skepticism from us. Look back at your own experience and you
  will find that until you learned who Jesus really was, you were a
  skillful skeptic about His power. When you were on the mountaintop you
  could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the
  facts of the valley? You may be able to give a testimony regarding your
  sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you
  right now? The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw
  that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus— will you
  be skeptical now, simply because you are in the valley of humiliation?
  

  I really love the first line of today’s… After
  every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into
  things as they really are , where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor
  thrilling.  This
  is the case for me when I’ve come home from a retreat. There I usually
  have a “mountain top” experience, then the minute I come home I
  challenged by that sudden rush into things that remind me my life is not lived on the mountain top, rather the I am made for the valley and the ordinary
  things of life, and that is where I have to prove my stamina and
  strength. It is in the valley that I have to live
  for the glory of God.

  Tomorrow is my hubby’s 48th birthday! 

  

  Happy Birthday, Hunny!

  I love you always – 100%!!!! 

  Have a good week! 
  ~me

  • 11:32 pm
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