How To Have Mountain Top Experiences

In Cass, West Virginia people can find themselves going back into time by about 100 years to the logging heyday of West Virginia. The use of shay engines, which were different from other steam locomotives, allowed logging trains to go up and down the steep 4,770 foot steep Bald Knob.  The virgin timber on this mountain made West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company owner, Joseph Kerr Cass a wealthy man.  Mountains can be a challenge because of rugged terrain and steep inclines requiring time and toil to ascend.(Videos are of the Cass Railroad)

Believers speak of mountaintop experiences with God like those of his Son, Jesus who sought out these places for prayer and solitude with his Father.  What we forget is there were no roads to the tops of the mountains and Mount Tabor (1,886 feet) and Mount Hermon (2,814 feet) are just two identified mountains Jesus climbed. When I was going on a mission trip it was suggested to me to go and pray in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.  The drive was easy but the spiritual pressure was great as a deep sadness crept in until I said to Satan he would not keep me from praying.  Immediately the pressure lifted like the rain clouds covering the 2,461 foot mountain and soon found myself overlooking the valley below. 

In desiring a mountaintop experience, try using the acrostic CLIMB to make your journey and time with God spiritually enriching. 

Consider climbing mountains is a task which requires a commitment and not just a mere whim. If the goal is to meet with God you must purpose in your heart that the result will be worth the effort. 

Locate your place of worship and prayer and make it a special place reserved for just you and God.  Mine is Petit's Gap and when I took my wife Vicki to Virginia, we made a stop at Thunder Ridge to pray. 

Isolate yourself from anyone and anything which could get in the way of your time. Phone, electronics, children are just a few of the things which would detract from your alone time with him.

Meditate on the Word of God.  When I went to prepare for my mission trip, I prayed Psalm 51, asking for forgiveness of my sins and the opportunity to teach others.

Believe God wants to speak to you and be willing to listen for his voice.  Jesus says his sheep will know his voice. 

Mountains with snow, trees, and animals make nice pictures for postcards or photo albums as well as good places for prayer.  Getting there can be difficult but the results will be spectacular. 

My Ode To Sears and Roebuck--Kenmore Could Be No More!

Growing up in Orlando one of the downtown standards was Sears and Roebucks down the street from J.C. Penney.  If you could not find it in one you would walk to the other.  As I grew up I knew my father and mother thought the Kenmore brand was the answer to anything.  My father would buy Craftsman tools as a machinist because if it broke they would replace them.  My father took care of tools and I don't recall him having to do this but it was a nice sales gimmick.  When we moved right after graduation to Virginia Beach, just down the road at the Pembroke Mall was the anchor store, Sears.  When Sears had the Tom Landry series of clothes, we bought my dad a gift certificate. He adored the Dallas Cowboys coach and his ethics and values.  He said he was going to buy a hat like Landry and so he did.  When Coach Tom came out on TV on one very cold game without his famous style hat, dad threw a fit and never wore the hat again.  It was in his closet when he died, having sat there for nearly twenty years.  Sears and Roebuck was famous for its catalog sales and the catalog became associated with going to the outhouse in rural America. In 1969, Sears announced plans to build a new headquarters building in downtown Chicago. The 110-story Sears Tower became the world's tallest building at 1,454 feet when it was opened in 1973. The staggering amount of materials needed to construct the building included 76,000 tons of steel, 2 million cubic feet of concrete, 16,000 tinted windows, 1,500 miles of electrical wiring and 80 miles of elevator cable.  However, the pillar of American retail for over one hundred years had been predicted by the Wall Street Journal to disappear in the next year. 

Though it has been many years since I shopped in a Sears, I will miss the memories of Christmas in Sears and the Orlando parade snaking its way past the Sears and Roebuck store on the corner.  Icons of my childhood seem to disappear at an alarming rate.  Two other things I will miss mentioned in the article were Kellogg's Corn Pops and A & W Root Beer restaurants.  As I get older I am sure more will depart from the landscape but I always thought there would have been Sears and Roebucks. 

From Childish Faith to Maturing Faith

As a child I had an American Flyer Sante Fe diesel train set with all types of cars, houses, people, and businesses on a board beneath my bed.  When I wanted to play with it, all I had to do was slide it out.  I would spend hours imagining myself as the engineer, moving the train into the yard to pick up things for the cars and then on my way.  Just for laughs I looked at what this system would cost today.  Just the engine system of three cars was nearly five hundred dollars. 

When we speak of new Christians, they are referred to as babes in Christ.  John in his first epistle speaks to fathers, young men and children and commends them for their spiritual progress.  Christian growth moves from the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins, to the withstanding attacks of the evil one, and finally the knowledge of one who the Alpha and Omega.  In the last part, a Christian who knows Christ and how he lived may well be able to relinquish this world and its allure. (Matthew Henry Commentary)

Paul says in I Corinthians 13 he has put away childish speech, thought and reason.  As an adult I think back to my childhood and the foolish thoughts and actions of my youth and regret many of them.  The same can be said of my Christian growth.  As a babe in Christ I was only focusing on the fact my sins were forgiven.  In time, I learned about the attacks of the enemy and what was needed to fend off the assault.  As I continue to grow in Christ, the things of this world which fascinated and attracted me no longer have an appeal.  Given Paul's words in Ephesians 4 of why God has given the church leaders, it shows the need to instruct believers so they can grow and attain the full measure of Christ. 

Some Christians will stay as babes and be tossed around like a cork on the ocean wave or blown around like leaves.  Just as growing up requires determination, so does maturing Christian faith.  We know adults who act more like children then their own children.  Likewise, some Christians will get saved and remain in the same seat in the church until they are removed by the pall beareres at their funeral.  Others will remember their first love, Christ, and seek to be just like him in mature speech, thought, reason, and ultimately, service. 

What Are You Expecting?

Many of us who grew up eating Heinz ketchup remember the commercials of the slow-moving, sweet, red sauce oozing from the mouth of the bottle onto a plate of golden french fries.  Not wanting to wait, some people pound the bottle with the palm of their hands, sometimes with horrible results on the clothing of someone across from you.  The Heinz bottle has been in our kitchen refrigerator for as long as I can remember beside their mustard and relish.  Oswald Chambers writes, "Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes."  In Lamentations 3:24-26 the author writes: "I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD."

However in this fast paced world, expectancy has been replaced by the need for immediacy.  Microwave or convection ovens replaced the conventional oven we had in our homes as children and have reduced cooking time. In the three to four hours it takes to make bread, we can run to the 7-11, make a sandwich and get in a quick round of golf.  For a few years the super-sonic jets from Europe to the United States reduced travel time for those who could afford the price.  Once on a trip to Orlando, we were stopped on I-4's eight lane highway during rush hour traffic.  My daughter asked what was happening and she returned with another question.  "Daddy, do we have traffic jams in Wellsburg?" (population less than 3,000)  "Yes, baby girl," I replied, "Two cars at a red light." 

Some people pray expecting answers like the service at fast-food restaurants--you speak into a faceless speaker, drive around to pay money and pick up your food.  We get irritated because God has not immediately responded to our request.  Job felt the same way:  "If I called and He answered me,
I could not believe that He was listening to my voice." Job 9:16   We want God to supply all of our needs according to our timetable.  I was told to finish the Sunday morning service by 12 Noon because this group had other things to do.  My answer was if we are going to spend eternity in heaven worshipping God, should we not practice worship now in anticipation of heaven? 

We rush from the rising of the sun till well after dark to accomplish our agenda and may be too busy to allow God to come in as He likes.  We schedule him like an appointment refusing to listen because it is not God & Me time. Once all my telephone did was ring when someone called but today it holds my agenda, calendar, and appointments.  I am so scheduled by others and myself I sometimes forget my expectation as a believer is to hear from One who loves me and wants to talk with me and listen to me. 
With caller ID I know if I want to answer the phone when it rings.  If God started using the phone to reach me I would surely answer that call.  I should not expect that to happen any time soon. 

 

Almost Heaven--Camp Cowen

In John Denver's ode to country living, Country Roads, it speaks of West Virginia life and the beauty of its people.  Yesterday we drove our daughter, Stefani, to just such a place.  Sandwiched between the mountains of West Virginia and the Birch River is a place many in the state would consider "all most heaven" and for good reason.  Camp Cowen is both rustic and beautiful with the cabins covered by a canopy of sixty, eighty and hundred foot trees that may have been around when West Viirginia became a state.  As I watched the families bringing their children, I began to notice something in the faces of the adults.  They looked around with growing smiles and longing looks as if they had come home.  I was fascinated by the Cowen mystique since I had never gone to church camp as a child.  Adults joined in with the children and they played bean bag toss.  Others greeted other adults as long ago relationship of a by-gone day. 

I asked Rob Ely, Director of Discipleship, Camping and Youth about this.  Though this title is well deserved for the years of work he had given to Cowen and youth across the state, he is as much a kid as his charges for the week.  When he smiles, it is infectious and inviting.  Dick Clark has been called the eternal teenager but they have never met Rob Ely.  While most ministers his age are settling into pastorates, he is still running around the camp in shorts, shirt and sneakers.  As he greets the children who have come back year after year, Rob calls them by name.  While the title is listed on the web page for the camp, words like coach, friend, encourager and lover of God are written across his countenance.  When asked if any of the adults volunteering this week had once been children here, he advised me many had and said they were "giving back".

Susie, this week's director also added she found Christ here as a child and coming back yearly she developed relationship with people across the state who hold her in Christian accountability to the ideal of Cowen and prayed for her as well for this week.  She further added that as she enters the gates into Cowen she feels the presence of God.  Our daughter's counselers greeted each child in the cabin, helped them get settled and began learning their names.  One was Emily, a married twenty-one year old college student at Concord who is seeking to enter medical school.  She left her husband for the week to serve with little girls because she too had found Christ here and over the years knew this was a place of ministry for her. 

We left for Cowen yesterday morning at 8 AM and returned from a four hundred mile plus trek about 10 PM.  Thinking about this blogpost all the way home I realized the "giving back" was not out of obligation or debt but a profound commitment to share the same Chriist with other children just as it had happened to them.  For the parents who journed long and for churches who make this a priority, the "giving back" may one day bear much fruit.  My good friend Tom Smell has a picture of him when he was a few months old in the arms of a missionary at Camp Cowen, and if it pays off for Stefani as it has done for Tom, Susie, Emily, Rob and unknown thousands of people who have entered the gates of Cowen, then we have shown her a bit of "almost heaven". 

What You Can Learn From A Child's Magazine

Years ago while visiting the doctor's office as a child, I would devour the Highlight's magazine.  I would find the hidden objects and laugh at the cartoons.  The stories fascinated me and the jokes would be shared the next time I was with my friends.  Today, in the Mentzer household, we have the monthly Highlights for Stefani in a basket in the family reading room--the bathroom.  Recently I read an older issue from November 2010 and read the story of the White House turkey.  The issue focused upon the history of the pardon given to the turkey going back to President Lincoln and his son Tad who begged his father to intercede for his pet turkey. This issue showed President Obama extending his hand pardoning the turkey and setting it free. 

However, the whole story is even better.  Two turkeys are selected from birth and fed to the point they grow to nearly sixty pounds.  The association of turkey farmers gives the White House two turkeys, one to be pardoned and the other to be prepared and served for the White House family.  Then it struck me the similarities of another event when two are present and one dies and one lives.

In Leviticus 16, the Chief Priest was to lay his hands on the head of a goat and confess the sins, rebellions, and transgressions of the people of Israel and then someone would lead the scapegoat into the wilderness to die.  We see this same scene played out on Calvary when God laid upon the head of his Son, the sins of the world and was led out of the city to die at the place of the skull, Golgotha.  In this same procedure, God made Jesus to payment and extended his hands to us and pronounced pardon.