A Mountaintop Experience

A series on the story of redemption
The story of Isaiah
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Isaiah 6:1-13; Matthew 17:1-13 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

Have you ever had a mountaintop experience where you felt closer to God? 

The summer before my junior year of high school, I went to church camp. It turned out to be a weeklong mountaintop experience. I came home fired up about my faith. I wanted to pray and tell others about it. But my excitement slowly evaporated. 

 

Ironically, it was the summer before my junior year of college when a friend shared with me about a personal relationship with Christ. It made a lot of sense, and resulted in a summer long mountaintop experience that literally changed the rest of my life.

 

Isaiah had a mountaintop experience that also changed his life. His was in the temple in the presence of the Lord. It was a scene like you’d find at a rock concert with billowing smoke, flashing lights and sounds that would vibrate in your chest. There were heavenly beings with six wings that called out:

 

^3b “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”    NIV

 

Realizing that he was in the presence of a holy God and that he was a sinful man, Isaiah called out:

 

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”     NIV

 

Then one of the heavenly beings touched his lips with a live coal from the altar and declared, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Here’s what followed.

 

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”                       NIV

 

Isaiah’s mountaintop experience was a calling that led to sixty years of prophetic ministry. He shared the same message that he heard in his vision of the Lord. It was a message to the people of Judah and Israel for them to repent; to turn back to the Lord.

 

There are other mountaintop experiences mentioned in the Bible that were literally on a mountain. Moses on Mount Horeb and Elijah on Mount Carmel. But none is more dramatic than when Peter, James and John followed Jesus to the mount of transfiguration.

 

⁵ While he (Peter) was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”   NIV

 

To be in the presence of your Heavenly Father and to hear his words of love and pride, would be life changing. Truthfully, it would be a mountaintop experience.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Straight Line Story

A series on the story of redemption
The story of David
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
2 Samuel 7:1-17 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

A straight line is the shortest distance between two points. However, if you Google “how to determine the shortest distance between two points”, it gives you this formula:

 

1. Denote the given points as (x₁, y₁) and (x₂, y₂).
2. Apply the Euclidean distance formula, distance, d = √[(x₂ − x₁)² + (y₂ − y₁)²]
3. Simplify the square root.

 

Are you kidding me? All you have to do is take a ruler, connect the two points and draw a straight line. Voila! Easy peasy. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure it out. But, as Lee Corso from ESPN College GameDay says, “Not so fast my friend”.

 

Apparently, the Lord wasn’t a mathematician because he didn’t know how to connect a straight line when it came to his story of redemption. Consider David. But first, to understand his story, we begin with Saul.

 

Rejecting the Lord as their king, the Israelites asked Samuel for a human king like all the other nations around them. The Lord instructed Samuel to anoint Saul as king. He was a man of good standing and was a head taller than anyone else. When he was anointed, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, and he was a changed man.

 

Saul ruled as king for forty-two years and started his reign well. He obeyed the Lord and was victorious in battle. 

But slowly, cracks appeared in his character. Eventually, the Lord rejected Saul as king and instructed Samuel to go to Jesse of Bethlehem; that he had chosen one of his sons to be king.

 

Now Jesse had eight sons and brought them out to Samuel one at a time starting with the oldest. One by one, the Lord told Samuel “No”, it wasn’t him. Finally, the youngest came out, David. He had been tending the sheep and was an afterthought. But he was the one that the Lord had chosen.

 

In secret, Samuel anointed David as king. Following this, the Lord’s Spirit came upon David. But it also left Saul, and was replaced by an evil spirit that tormented him. To relieve Saul of his torment, David was brought to play the lyre. Can you imagine the irony of this and the anxiety of David?

 

Eventually, when David defeated Goliath in battle, he became a war hero. As a result, Saul was extremely jealous of David, and tried to kill him. Because of this, David became a fugitive, running for his life.

 

This is anything but a straight line story. Did the Lord make multiple mistakes? Did he choose the wrong man to be king? Did he know what he was doing; what the ramifications would be? Did he truly have a long term plan in mind? It doesn’t seem like it.

 

Yet, when David finally replaced Saul as king and possessed the throne, the Lord made this covenant with him.

 

¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”          NIV

 

This covenant was fulfilled twenty-eight generations later.

 

¹ This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham…               NIV    Matthew 1

 

The Lord’s plan of redemption is not a straight line story. It’s not easy peasy. But he does have a plan and that plan includes you and me. It may not be a straight line, but it’s His plan, and we are a part of his story.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

Hitting Rock Bottom

A series on the story of redemption
The story of Gideon
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Judges 6 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

You’ve probably hit rock bottom before. I have. My most painful experience happened a few years after getting married when our first child was still born. Everybody has their own story to tell.

 

Hitting rock bottom for the Israelites was directly related to the Midianites. For seven years, the Midianites and their allies would invade Israel, ruining their crops and taking their animals. Finally, the Israelites called out to the Lord for help.

 

That’s where Gideon’s story began. Like most of the Israelites, he was hiding in fear. One day, while threshing wheat in a winepress, an angel of the Lord addressed Gideon in the most surprising way.

 

¹² When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”     NIV

 

Of course, Gideon was anything but a mighty warrior. In fact, the first thing he said was to accuse the Lord of abandoning the Israelites. In reality though, the Israelites had abandoned the Lord by worshipping Baal and Asherah.

 

¹⁴ The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”     NIV

 

For Gideon, to “Go in the strength you have” meant taking that first small step towards living up to the name that the angel of the Lord had given him… mighty warrior. The defining moment occurred when he obeyed the Lord and took down his father’s Baal altar and Asherah pole. The following incident occurred.

 

³³ Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel. ³⁴ Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.      NIV

 

Even though Gideon wasn’t in a position of strength, the Spirit of the Lord came on him. From then on, Gideon was more decisive; more directed. Although he still needed encouragement from the Lord, he wasn’t hiding anymore.

 

Israel was constantly going through a cycle of sin and redemption. Like Israel, we do the same thing and sometimes hit rock bottom. But there is a silver lining. Here’s how Eugene Peterson put it in Matthew 5 from the Sermon on the Mount.

 

³ “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

⁴ “You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.     MSG

 

We normally don’t feel blessed when we hit rock bottom. But sometimes redemption finds us there.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

“Hey kid, catch”

A series on the story of redemption
The story of Joshua.
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Deuteronomy 31:1-8; Joshua 1:1-9 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.]

  

Athletes are frequently paid to endorse products. My favorite endorsement featured a football player with the nickname of “Mean Joe Greene”. He was a big, burly defensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers back in the 70’s.

 

He did a commercial for Coca Cola where a little boy passed Mean Joe in the stadium tunnel after a game and gave him his bottle of Coke. Mean Joe gulped it down and as the little boy started to walk away he said, “Hey kid, catch”. Then he tossed his jersey to the boy, whose life was changed forever.

 

Not all endorsements are for products. Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, but Moses was old and would not lead them across the Jordan River. He passed the baton of his leadership to Joshua by endorsing him.

 

First, Moses spoke “to all the people of Israel”, telling them that the Lord would “cross over ahead of you”. Like a general going into battle, he would defeat their enemies and take the land.

 

Then, Moses introduced Joshua as the leader who “will lead you across the river” and gave this endorsement in Deuteronomy.

 

⁷ Then Moses called for Joshua, and as all Israel watched, he said to him, “Be strong and courageous! For you will lead these people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors he would give them. You are the one who will divide it among them as their grants of land.          NLT

 

After Moses died, the Lord spoke directly to Joshua. He promised Joshua that He would give Israel the land; that no one would be able to stand against him; that the Lord would never leave him nor forsake him. Then the Lord instructed Joshua to study his Law; meditate on it; and “do everything written in it”.

 

Finally, as if that wasn’t enough, the Lord gave this promise to Joshua.

 

⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”     NIV

 

If Joshua had any insecurities or doubts about his ability to lead or the Lord’s faithfulness, the Lord’s words would certainly give him the faith and courage to persevere through the adversity that was ahead of him.

 

Despite our lack of faith or courage at times, the Lord’s plan of redemption moves forward. His promise to love, forgive and never leave us is still true today. And because of that, like Joshua, we can be strong and courageous.

 

It’s kind of like having Mean Joe Greene say, “Hey kid, catch”, and throwing us his jersey. Our life will be changed forever.

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

The link below will show you the Mean Joe Greene commercial.

 Mean Joe Greene commercial