Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of Jacob’s God.
There he will teach us his ways,
and we will walk in his paths.”
For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion;
His word will go out from Jerusalem.
Isaiah 2:3

Read: Isaiah 2:1-5, 2 Corinthians 3:7-18
Pilgrim’s Progress Stage 3 Part 16

Relate: Once upon a time, I was a peak bagger. In New York, there are 36 high points tall enough to officially be declared mountains. (In contrast, nearly all the “mountains” in the Bible in reality should barely even be considered hills.) A peak bagger is someone who is working their way through climbing all, or at least many, of these mountains. At the rate of one a summer, I managed to bag 6 of those peaks, including the top three, before God calling me away to be a missionary. Unfortunately, I will probably never finish, but that’s OK. I’ve done one in Turkey, one in the Philippines, and Ukraine has many of its own that I can eventually add to my collection.

One of the things I love about mountaintop experiences is the beauty of the view. Unless, that is, you are in a cloud. Then you can’t see nothing. One time I was actually over the cloud. It was like the view from an airplane, except I could see three or four other peaks also poking their heads over the billows of white. Clouds notwithstanding, most of the time up there, it seems you can see forever. And there are no trees or other things growing to obstruct your view. Up there it is you and the wind and the rocks and this amazing, breathtaking view. Or maybe the breathtaking has more to do with the altitude?

React: Pilgrim’s Progress seems to hop from mountaintop to mountaintop. You have the hill of Calvary. Now Palace Beautiful (which was seen from the Interpreter’s House). Christian is looking ahead to the Delectible Mountains. In those mountains, he will ascend many peaks that will show him many things, but the greatest of these revelations is the view he will have of his final ascent, the Celestial City.

Just like Christian, we need mountaintop experiences to help us keep perspective in our spiritual walk. For me, growing up, three consistent mountaintop experiences I would have each year were PK retreat each winter, Youth Convention each Easter weekend, and Teen Camp every summer. It is through these I was baptized in the Spirit, called into ministry and called to missions. These days they aren’t scheduled into my life so regularly, but I still need to seek them out. What mountaintop experiences have you had in your life? What perspective have you gleaned or vision for the future have you seen through them? When was the last time you spent your hard-earned time and treasure to get away from the world and seek out a mountain (literal or spiritual) where you can meet with God?

Respond:

Dear God,
I thank You for those times You have met me on the mountaintops. I am thankful for the things You have shown me and the way those times have shaped my life. But even more, I am thankful for the very real, tangible sense of Your presence You allow in those times. I pray that those spiritual peaks would not just be a great time, but that they would be life-changing, vision-bringing moments that will shape the rest of my life that is lived in the lowlands.
Amen