We Are Called To Go Up The Mountain

"Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the house of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths" Micah 4:2

"Then Moses went up the mountain..." Exodus 24:15

" [Elijah] was told, 'Go forth and stand on the mountain before the LORD'" 1 Kings 19:11

"Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves." Matthew 17:1

"On the Mountain of God, He sees to it" Genesis 22:14

Mountains are mentioned more than 500 times in the bible. Servants are called to go up the mountain, sermons and laws are provided on mountain tops, God reveals God's self on mountains. The mountains quake, tremble, and sing in God's presence. Mountains are "closer" to God, God's glory is clearly seen in the beauty of the Mountains and can be felt in the breeze. 

On our way up the misty mountains

This year Rae and Garth, through Camp El Olam, have started a service year/gap year discipleship course called Ablaze. This year they have two participants, Tammi and Anina. The object of the year is to spend the year reading the bible cover to cover and exploring the word with daily bible studies, learn to be alone with God and talk with God with regular hours of solitude, and to learn principles of being a Christian with adventures and service opportunities at the camp and in the community. I am privileged to be able to be a part of the leading and participate in the learning of Ablaze by participating in Bible Studies; I am reading through the bible with the girls and get to go on their adventures and service trips. Our first adventure trip was going to The Drakensberg to go on a hike and to sleep in a cave.

The river below our cave

While it was a grand and beautiful adventure, the idea was to participate in a bible based action of worship. It took us just a few hours to hike to the cave we booked, "Pillar Cave" and we stopped along the way to take pictures and to have tea on a boulder. It was very misty and we could not see the top of the mountains but it was the perfect temperature to hike with all of our gear. When we arrived at the cave it was lunch time so we ate what we had packed and set up camp inside the cave. After resting our shoulders we went down to the gorgeous river running below our camp. We each took our bibles and found a place away from the others. There we sat, for about an hour, reading and singing, and praying, and worshiping God in God's creation, on a mountaintop, like so many servants of God before us. Just as we were all deep in praise and worship the sun came out just a bit, through the clouds, and lighted the place on the river we had all settled. It was a beautiful moment of God, revealing God's self to us.

Camping food!
Right to left: Olivia, Tammy, Anina, Me, Shauna

We all went back up to our cave and made a warm supper over our fire and as the mist settled and it became dark outside we discussed what we had studied in our bibles (Genesis at that point).
Of course, sleeping on the floor of a cave is less than comfortable, but when it's dark and you have two little ones asleep there wasn't much we could do, so we tried to sleep, pretty early in the night. We all were awake around 1AM and noticed the mist had settled below the opening of our cave and we could see the stars. It was beautiful! In the morning it was sunny and warm. We had another hour alone with God at the river. This time in the warm sunshine :)

Anina and Me enjoying the rock slides

Because it was sunny and quite hot after sitting in the sun we all put on our swimming costumes and played in the river! Having a wonderful time on the natural water slides...even though the water was absolutely freezing, like seriously, ice cold. Once we were all properly frozen we went back to our cave and packed up. Just as we set out back down the mountain clouds rolled in and it cooled down, but not too cold for hiking. As we walked back we were able to see the tops of the mountains, and in the distance a storm was rolling in with magnificent bolts of lightning and crashing thunder ahead of us for the majority of the walk. The whole walk back (less than half the time it took us to go up) we knew that this display was God showing God's wonder and power to us after a weekend of worship and praise.
Just as we got to the car park the storm reached us with huge raindrops falling fast out of the sky! We all threw our bags into the boot of the car and jumped inside. No ceremonious end to our hike or cheers upon completion of our adventure, just quick doors slamming to get out of the cold rain. It was a very dramatic and hilarious end to our time in the Drakensberg. We drove back towards home, we stopped at a little coffee shop and had a delicious lunch. Once we got back we all crashed. I personally went to bed at 8PM that night and slept soundly all through the night.

Me enjoying the view from the cave

I encourage even challenge everyone, even if you don't have an actual mountain to climb, to find those mountain top times in your life where you can be alone with God. Listen to God's call for you. Appreciate God's wonders in creation and in each person's life. I could feel God moving through the 'berg as we spent intentional time with God. Can you feel God moving in your life? Don't be afraid, as a servant of God you are called, go up the mountain and join God.