“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And peoples shall flow to it.” Micah 4:1
The photo is a picture of Mt. Rainier in the Seattle, Washington area. It reminds me today of the passage above.
Rainier towers over the other mountains, literally rising from the center of a mountain range. It is THE mountain amongst many mountains…
Today, I can see the other mountains but the top half of Rainier is unseen as it presses through the clouds. It makes Rainier seem average and even less spectacular than the other mountains, but in reality it’s grandeur towers above the clouds and it’s pinnacle still reaches another altitude and realm.
This is the Church…
Established high above the other mountains…
Assumed to be average and not much different from the other mountains, mostly due to familiarity, the Church is actually the only earthly institution towering above the cultural clouds and pressing into another realm…
Fortune 500 companies, multinational corporations, earthly governments may appear to dominate the skyline and landscape by virtue of their perceived power and influence, but it is only a mirage, an illusion, an apparition.
Just like the seeming disappearance of Ranier this morning, the Church is still there, above the clouds, preparing to receive the multitudes which will soon flow to it.
Bill Gather puts it well…(with some ever so slight editing)
God has always had a people. Many a foolish conqueror has made the mistake of thinking that because he had forced the church of Jesus Christ out of site, he had stilled its voice and snuffed out its life, but God has always had a people. The powerful current of a rushing river is not diminished because it’s forced to flow underground. Now the purest water is the stream that bursts crystal clear into the sunlight after it has forced its way through solid rock. There have been those, who like Simon The Magician, who sought to barter on the open market that power which cannot be bought or sold, but God has always had a people. Men who could not be bought and women who were beyond purchase. God has always had a people. His Church.
There have been times of affluence and prosperity when the church’s message has been nearly deluded into oblivion by those who sought to make it socially attractive, neatly organized, financially profitable, but God has always had a people. Yes it’s been gold platted, draped in purple and encrusted with jewels. It has been misrepresented, ridiculed, lauded and scorned but God has always had a people. And these followers of Jesus Christ have been, according to the whim of the times, elevated as sacred leaders or scorned as troublers. Yet through it all, the church marches on as that powerful army of the meek. God’s chosen people who cannot be bought, broken, murdered or stilled. On through the ages they march, the church! God’s church triumphant!
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