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One of the things I enjoy the most about living in Caracas is looking out the window each day and seeing this towering Avila mountain above me.  The Avila is only a mile away and about a mile and half high and covers the whole length of the city, creating a beautiful landscape of the city.   If you think the mountain’s view from the city is beautiful, you should see the view of the city from the mountain top.   Last year I use to live walking distance from the mountain hiking trail, so I made it a habit of including the hiking trail in my exercise routine, mostly to get a glimpse of the inspiring view.   Mountains are cool whether you looking at them from the bottom, or looking out from the top.       

   I am not surprised that God used a mountain as the place to come down and reveal His glorious presence to his chosen people.   I am sure it was no accident that Mount Sinai was in the path of Israel’s Exodus.  God chose a mountain for the perfect analogy it makes of the journey men most make to enjoy intimacy with God.   It takes work, sacrifice, training, to get to the top, but once your there, the view is all worth.  Not just the view of God, but also the view of the world below.  The one we have to go back to each day.  It’s different from up there; you can see better the big picture of Gods purpose for us.   Isn’t that why we go looking for God? So that we come out seeing better after the encounter: Able to forgive, able to commit, able to love like never before.  To journey to the mountain of God is rewarding.   

   That was our theme for the month of July.   We did a 40 day series at church using this idea from a devotional book with that title.   I loved the idea as soon as I read it, so we did the campaign at the Bosque Church.  We finished the series with an actual day of hiking up the Avila Mountain.  We thought that it would be a great way of making the series memorable.   Though not everyone liked the idea as much as I did, and only about 20 people from church went on the hike.  It was a great time of fellowship for us who made the journey.  We made it to the top in one hour and then we had some snacks, a devotional thought and some time of testimony, prayer and worship.     

 My wife shared a testimony of how the last time she had been up the Avila she carried her inhaler in hand and used it frequently to keep her asthma under control.   Don’t make the mistake to think that just because she is so thin, she must work out a lot.  That would be farthest from the truth.  Zandra does not exercise.   So when we suggested the idea of the climb she counted herself out.   I knew it would take me a lot of convincing to get her to go.  But as it turns out, a song I wrote did the job.   The song was a reflection about our tendency to stay at the foot of the mountain, not wanting to go father, watching Gods glory from afar.  “Being so close and so far away at the same time.”      After I sang the song in our college ministry, she decided she had to go up the mountain. And she went.  Amazingly that day she did not have to use the inhaler once.       Estiben also shared his testimony. He had just graduated from college and his non Christian friends wanted him to go celebrate that day with them, but he chose to come with us on the mountain hike instead.  He shared how in this last year since he has been a Christian his life and priorities have changed so much that he himself could not believe who he had become.  He was sure that he would have been drunk that day with the rest of his friends if he hadn’t met God.       

  Did you notice in the story in Exodus that though Aaron and the priest were invited to go with Moses to the mountain, not to mention Israel’s invitation to the foot of the mountain.   Their response was “no thank you” or as Moses put it, “they kept their distance, because they were afraid.” What were they afraid of?  God?  Or committing to this journey?   Apparently it wasn’t God, because soon after they gave up on Moses and God and built for themselves another God of gold and attributed their deliverance from the Egypt to this newly made idol.  They were not afraid enough to replace God for a golden calf.  So perhaps what they were afraid of was leaving their comfort to seek intimacy with God.  “Give me a religion that suits me and fits my schedule,” seem to be what they had in mind.  They wanted the benefits with out the cost.   Sounds crazy, right? Who would turn down such an awesome invitation from God Himself?       Unfortunately its not as crazy as you think, we do it all the time.  Jesus says that he is at the door knocking, whoever opens the door he will come in and dine with him.    that’s in Revelation, which is probably close to our times than the Exodus was, or even to Jesus times. Remember the parable of the king who threw a banquet party and invited his special guest, but they didn’t show up, so he had to go and invite anyone off the streets to come and eat all the food so it wouldn’t go to waste.  So you see through history how we keep turning down Jesus’ invitation for intimacy.    We like the sound of the invitation but wonder whats the catch; is there cost involved?  Must I read the bible? Have a regular prayer life?  Going out of my way to love my neighbor?  Invest time and effort into Gods kingdom?  Yes, yes, yes, and yes.   I guess that’s why so many prefer to stop and not go past the foot of the mountain.  That’s where we like it, “Not too far, but not too close.”   Where are you on your journey to intimacy with God?  What is your response to his invitation?