Excerpts from Wanderings in the Hills
It was fall, and as I hiked through the beautiful multi-colored maples covering the side of the mountain I was utterly unprepared to behold the grand sight I would soon encounter . We called this area "God's country" for only He could have imagined and created such majestic beauty, As I rambled through an opening there stood before me a dense forest of Beech trees. Even if a picture is worth a thousand words, words alone can not sufficiently express the majesty of the white wooded forest standing before me. Nature truly is one of God's beautiful creations. Through nature, God teaches us, speaks to us, and provides for us.
As I reflect in my mind on that view, it stirs up thoughts of the depth of the purity and righteousness of our God. In Isaiah 1:18, we are told, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." When Jesus washes us clean from sin, He makes us "white as snow" by giving us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are then set on a path of growing in faith. (We can also read Psalm 51:7 where the Psalmist wrote, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.")
In Matthew 17:1-2, we find white associated with the righteousness and the glory of our eternal God. "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light."
There's one more experience I'll share. The trip was in the dead of winter with snow on the ground and ice-covered small pools of water. On that trip, it was already dark as we arrived at the first campsite and after setting up camp, we crawled in and went to sleep, totally oblivious that we had set the tent on a slope. While sleeping, I began sliding, and I awoke in the morning with just my chest, head, and arms residing inside the tent.
There is an excellent spiritual lesson contained in that experience. 1 Thessalonians 5:7a tells us, "For they that sleep sleep in the night;" In our spiritual walk with the Lord, we must always be aware of our surroundings, fending off the lies and fiery darts of the enemy, for the trappings of Satan are forever there to confound us. He is an enemy who never gives us rest. One little slip and we will find ourselves away from the safety of the Lord, out in the cold, in danger of losing our first love, and struggling to reignite the flame which once burned bright in our hearts.
It was fall, and as I hiked through the beautiful multi-colored maples covering the side of the mountain I was utterly unprepared to behold the grand sight I would soon encounter . We called this area "God's country" for only He could have imagined and created such majestic beauty, As I rambled through an opening there stood before me a dense forest of Beech trees. Even if a picture is worth a thousand words, words alone can not sufficiently express the majesty of the white wooded forest standing before me. Nature truly is one of God's beautiful creations. Through nature, God teaches us, speaks to us, and provides for us.
As I reflect in my mind on that view, it stirs up thoughts of the depth of the purity and righteousness of our God. In Isaiah 1:18, we are told, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." When Jesus washes us clean from sin, He makes us "white as snow" by giving us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are then set on a path of growing in faith. (We can also read Psalm 51:7 where the Psalmist wrote, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.")
In Matthew 17:1-2, we find white associated with the righteousness and the glory of our eternal God. "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light."
There's one more experience I'll share. The trip was in the dead of winter with snow on the ground and ice-covered small pools of water. On that trip, it was already dark as we arrived at the first campsite and after setting up camp, we crawled in and went to sleep, totally oblivious that we had set the tent on a slope. While sleeping, I began sliding, and I awoke in the morning with just my chest, head, and arms residing inside the tent.
There is an excellent spiritual lesson contained in that experience. 1 Thessalonians 5:7a tells us, "For they that sleep sleep in the night;" In our spiritual walk with the Lord, we must always be aware of our surroundings, fending off the lies and fiery darts of the enemy, for the trappings of Satan are forever there to confound us. He is an enemy who never gives us rest. One little slip and we will find ourselves away from the safety of the Lord, out in the cold, in danger of losing our first love, and struggling to reignite the flame which once burned bright in our hearts.
Excerpts from Wanderings in the Hills
It was fall, and as I hiked through the beautiful multi-colored maples covering the side of the mountain I was utterly unprepared to behold the grand sight I would soon encounter . We called this area "God's country" for only He could have imagined and created such majestic beauty, As I rambled through an opening there stood before me a dense forest of Beech trees. Even if a picture is worth a thousand words, words alone can not sufficiently express the majesty of the white wooded forest standing before me. Nature truly is one of God's beautiful creations. Through nature, God teaches us, speaks to us, and provides for us.
As I reflect in my mind on that view, it stirs up thoughts of the depth of the purity and righteousness of our God. In Isaiah 1:18, we are told, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." When Jesus washes us clean from sin, He makes us "white as snow" by giving us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). We are then set on a path of growing in faith. (We can also read Psalm 51:7 where the Psalmist wrote, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.")
In Matthew 17:1-2, we find white associated with the righteousness and the glory of our eternal God. "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light."
There's one more experience I'll share. The trip was in the dead of winter with snow on the ground and ice-covered small pools of water. On that trip, it was already dark as we arrived at the first campsite and after setting up camp, we crawled in and went to sleep, totally oblivious that we had set the tent on a slope. While sleeping, I began sliding, and I awoke in the morning with just my chest, head, and arms residing inside the tent.
There is an excellent spiritual lesson contained in that experience. 1 Thessalonians 5:7a tells us, "For they that sleep sleep in the night;" In our spiritual walk with the Lord, we must always be aware of our surroundings, fending off the lies and fiery darts of the enemy, for the trappings of Satan are forever there to confound us. He is an enemy who never gives us rest. One little slip and we will find ourselves away from the safety of the Lord, out in the cold, in danger of losing our first love, and struggling to reignite the flame which once burned bright in our hearts.
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