Dear Trekker,
It is early, quite early for me, on a July morning in the heart of Pennsylvania. Once again, I have the responsibility and honor to challenge and encourage guests at the Officers. Christian Fellowship Retreat Center, White Sulphur Springs, nestled in Milligan’s Cove at the foot of Will’s Mountain just west of Bedford, PA. The closest town is Mann’s Choice, one of those towns so small it says ‘entering’ on the front of the sign, and ‘leaving’ on the back. Well, not really! We always said WSS was God’s choice for OCF when we found this historic old inn 30 years ago.
In a couple of hours I will fulfill one of my weekly responsibilities as conference speaker. I will give a morning devotional, a ‘pep talk’, if you will, to about 30 of the sharpest young teenagers and college students you’ll ever meet. All week the subject has been, “Pondering the Parables”. I thought I was going to write today about why Jesus taught in parables. Even Mark in his gospel account said he taught nothing without speaking a parable. One does not want to read that too literally, but Jesus was the master story teller. And trekker, you and I might want to sharpen our story telling skills as well. People remember stories, tell stories, are moved by stories and find stories attractive. You know “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Well, nothing enflames the imagination quite like a good story. In our postmodern world, the experts are telling us we better be good story tellers if we want to communicate the truth. A word to the wise!
But as I awoke in the night and sit here at the desk in the quaint book-lined study of the little cottage adjacent to the old hotel, having my heart massaged by the Spirit, I am thinking you might like to know what I am going to tell these young when they tumble sleepy-eyed into the old meeting room. Parables can wait for another MEN! I turned to Mark a few minutes ago, Chapter 1:35-38. I believe I will talk to them about ‘the call’ and ‘the price to fulfill that call’. There is something here for me and you, too, my trekker friend.
The master trekker, Jesus of Nazareth, seemed to have a thirst for intimacy with his Heavenly Father. No, he didn’t seem to have a thirst. He had it! He respectfully said he could do nothing if the Father did not do His work in and through him. Intimacy begets intimacy! Jesus needed a quiet, solitary place to be alone. The more ‘successful preacher, healer, demon-driver-outer’ he became, the more people wanted a piece of him. But the more people demanded the ‘output’, the more Jesus coveted and knew he needed the ‘input’ from his Heavenly Father. This was essential! Jesus could not live without an intimate, all-consuming, relationship with His Father. Know something. I don’t think we can either. Without a daily fill-up all of us are set-up for burn out in the busy, bulked-up, high energy culture we live in. Are you thirsty for God? Thirsty for Living Water? I hope so. If we are always giving out, as so often we are, we must deliver our soul daily to God for His replenishment… for God to feed our spirits, soothe our fragile emotions and mold our thinking powers. Prayer is so key. Not to pray is to ignore God and His fool proof provision for our daily preparation to engage and celebrate life. If we are to meet men, we must meet God first. Prayer doesn’t do our work daily, but first, it is the work.
Seems as though the more success we receive in any endeavor, the more opportunities come our way. We become the .go to man.. Success breeds success. I spoke on a parable last night that highlighted this very fact. Remember the chap with ten talents? He was blessed and given more when he used what he had. And people will demand more, the more we get the job done. The cycle never seems to end.
So, likewise, the crowds flocked around and followed Jesus. They wanted more. The Son of Man had neither space nor a room of his own in birth or life. He had no place to lay his head! Foxes have their holes, birds their nests, the Son of Man. nothing! Hence, He knew that priority #1 was the call early to a solitary place daily!
Jesus was driven by a mission that compelled him to pay the price of the call. “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.”. Can we afford to do any less, Trekker? Frankly, I don’t believe so. The world will seek to conform us to its mold. People will seek to crush us into their mold. But intimacy with Jesus must come first, last and always. The Father desires a relationship with us. He doesn’t ‘need’ us to do His work, though he ‘privileges’ us to be ‘Jesus with skin on’ in our generation.
Well, in another hour or so I am in ‘the tank’ with the young people. This is what I am going to tell them. Hopefully it will stir them to love and good deeds, knowing the call is to Jesus alone. May we all pay the price of climbing this mountain of exhilarating intimacy… daily!
Trekking with you and the Father,
Jim Meredith
