MOUNTAIN STREAMS

(c) Copyright 2002

What do you hear on the mountain? You hear things that are
going to echo around the World! What do you hear in the stillness?
Whispers that are going to change the course of history!

MOUNTAIN MEN

By Father David

IN chapter five, verse one of the Gospel of Matthew, we see that there is a definite distinction made between the mountain and the multitude. And seeing the multitudes, He (Jesus) went up into a mountain: and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him."
When Jesus climbed the mountain, He left the multitude behind. Mountain peaks are never crowded. I've climbed many mountains and I was almost always alone. Why? Because it's hard work. Not very many people desire to climb mountains. It's lonesome, and you have to leave everything behind to do it. You'll probably get lots of scratches and bumps, and it might even cost you your life.
There is more light on the mountain. Long after the valley is in darkness, you can still see the sun. The valley is almost always dark--full of people and things, but usually in darkness. The mountain is windy and cold, but thrilling.

If you're going to climb a mountain, you have to have the feeling that it's really worth dying for!--Any mountain--the mountain of this life, the mountain of accomplishment, the mountain of obstacles, of difficulty--if you're going to climb them, they have to be worth dying for, to brave wind and cold and storm, symbolic of adversities. But on the mountaintop alone, you feel so close to the Lord! The voice of His Spirit there is so loud it's almost like it's thundering! The silence on the mountain peak is deafening! You get a real high" on top of a mountain! It's a thrill! It's almost terrifying! Whereas in the valley, the voice of the multitude is so loud, you can't hear the voice of God.

Of course, mountain climbing is extremely dangerous. You're never so near the abyss as you are when you're on the brink! One little misstep will end you right down at the bottom again. It's a strange thing about mountain climbing; it's much easier to climb up than back down again. Once you're up you may never get back--one of the prices you pay for climbing mountains. Many mountain climbers who died were lost in the descent, because when you are climbing up, you can see where you're going, but when you're descending, you can't really see.
How many people who turn away from the Lord and His service really see what they are getting into? They think they're going back to the easy way, but they never realise what they're getting into by going back.--A terrible letdown! You have a peculiar feeling like you don't want to leave the mountain, there's no inspiration in going back down. Whereas there is a certain drive, almost a spiritual inspiration going up, you'll risk anything. But going down?--There's no inspiration, no goal, no accomplishment. You're just sliding back down into the slough--back into the morass of humanity and the mire of the multitude.

ONLY pioneers climb mountains--people who want to do something that no one ever did before, people who want to get above the multitude, beyond what has already been done and accomplished. Pioneers must have vision--vision to see what no one else can see; faith--faith to believe things no one else believes; initiative--initiative to be the first one to try it; courage--the guts to see it through! But on the mountain you are the first to see the sun rise and the last to see it set! You see the full circle of God's glorious creation! You can see the 360 degree circumference of the horizon--the entire scope! It's like seeing all of life from its beginning to its end and understanding.

You feel like you're living in eternity; whereas, down below they're living in time. You see the World in its proper perspective with range after range to be conquered and a world beyond the vision and horizon of normal men! You see distant peaks yet to be climbed, distant valleys yet to be crossed! You see things that the men in the valleys can never see, or even comprehend.

In the valley, you become involved in the multitude and the make-believe and materialism, and you can't see anything but time and creatures of time and things of time, which are soon to pass away. But if you thrust your head above that multitude, you yourself become a type of mountain in their midst, and the multitude will resent and resist and fight you because they can't understand you and don't want you. They don't even want to know there are mountains! They don't want others to hear there are mountains, or have a breath of fresh air from that crystal peak! They want to keep them shut in down in the valley, in the mud and mire!

When you appear to be on a mountain while they are in the valley, they hate you, because it's obvious you are above them, and they don't want anyone to be above them. They want to keep you stuck in the mud like the rest of them. They don't want it to be known that there is any other place to go than the valley, and they will do everything they can to discourage you from climbing the mountain.

DO you realise that since time immemorial, wars have often been fought between the people who lived in the valleys and the people who lived on the mountains?

That's history, believe it or not. The mountain people are always tougher, huskier, hardier, and fewer, but they survived, because they always had their mountains to flee to. The valley people would never follow, as they weren't tough and husky enough to climb, so they would chase the mountain people up a little way and let them go.

They just wanted to get rid of them. The valley people didn't want to conquer the mountains, they just wanted to get rid of the mountain people, who were thorns in their flesh and pricks in their side. The mountain people proved someone could live somewhere other than in the valley, something they said was impossible.

History is full of examples of mountain people conquering valley people, but seldom of the valley people conquering the mountain people.

However, the real danger has always been that when the mountain people had conquered the valley people, they themselves settled down in the valley. So we learn from history that it's better for mountain people to stay at war with the valley people--unending, continuous, inflexible war with the valley, lest the valley capture them too. The greatest danger is when you make peace with the valley, when it becomes safe for you to go down into the valley. The greatest danger is safety and security, because then you lose that freedom and liberty of the mountain, the wild freedom of the mountain!

The valley land is Man's country--the high lands are God's country.

Man dominates the valley, but only God dominates the mountain, and the men living on the mountains know this. But men living in the valleys think they are God, because they dominate themselves. They have become secure and they think they don't need God because they have forgotten there is any God, for they can't see the sky any longer. But those on the mountains experience things which are so frightening and dangerous that they have to live close to God.

It's a rough and a rugged road, and you have to carry a hard and a heavy load.--And the people you meet on the mountain aren't always kind, but they're even worse down in the valley. There aren't many places to live on the mountain--just little rugged shelters and lean-tos. There's not much to eat, it's cold and windy, but it's a thrill even to die there. It's better to die on the mountain than to live in the valley! Whoever read in the newspaper about the man who slipped and fell on the city street? But the man who dies on the mountain, even in a far away country, you'll read about it in the newspapers, because at least he dared to try!

Joshua and Caleb, two of the Hebrew spies in the Old Testament, were real pioneers and mountain men! They were the only two of the older generation who survived the forty years in the wilderness. They must have been close to the same age. Joshua conquered a nation, and at 80 years of age Caleb as good as said, Let the rest of the weaklings take the valleys."--He was still a fighter and a pioneer. He said, I'll take the mountain!"(See Numbers 13:30.) Beaten paths are for beaten men, but mountain peaks are for the mighty pioneers.

If you take the mountain, you'll leave the multitudes behind, and then you'll know who the disciples are! On the mount, only Jesus' disciples came unto Him. When He went up into the mountain, they were the only ones who had the priceless privilege of hearing the World's most famous sermon. The only ones who really heard from Heaven that day were the ones who left the multitudes and took the mountain--the ones who followed Jesus all the way. (See Matthew 5:1.)

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