MOUNT OF OBEY

"Mount of OBEY?" never heard of that, I thought as I looked in my journal. Every few pages had photographs from the Holy Land along with devotional thoughts.

My Heavenly Father has been teaching me much about obedience--it's been on the forefront of my mind--but I've never heard of a geographical location in Palestine by that name. Something like "Mount of Obeisance?" "Mount Heed, Hark, or Hearken", or a translation of a similar word...?

Then I laughed at myself. I just hadn't looked close enough. It was just the way it was written. Yup, you guessed it. Mount of Olives. I'd seen the word "Obey" merely because that's what God was dealing with at that time.

It was on another mountainside, in Galilee, in the Sermon on the Mount (as stated in Matt. 5-7), Jesus clearly emphasized to those who followed God with all their hearts: it is utterly impossible for humans to OBEY God completely from the heart, to fulfill the instructions of the "blessed are..." of the beatitudes; to truly love enemies and pray blessings for persecutors; to go overboard in seeking the welfare of antagonists, etc. 

Doesn't it say somewhere in the Bible, "without faith it is impossible to please Him"? I can give my best for God...but that's what Cain did with his offering, didn't he, and he was rejected. I need to let myself be broken, humbled; when I finally find myself flat on my back and saying "I just can't do it," God can begin His work. My business then is to LOVE Him with all my being JESUS who can and DID OBEY his Father to the utmost to pardon me who can't. He drank the Father's wrath for my disobedience, so I never have to be rejected.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, there is this little voice saying I've heard of a Mt. Hood. Maybe there is a Mt. Heed in Palestine? June! Stop that! See why I'll never be able to love the Lord Jesus as I should? I'm supposed to be focusing on Him, but I'm thinking these asinine thoughts... Next thought, and another post: I Ki. 8:58. (I know, I know; people will say that's not good literary technique to talk about a future post instead of concentrating on the present one. Rats; I just missed the Writer of the Year award by that slipup. J)