Meet Me at the Mountain for a Feast
One week from today Jim and I will begin our yearly journey to one of our favorite places – the Great Smoky Mountains. We go to attend Polishing the Pulpit, a conference for Christian people of all ages and areas of service in the church. I can’t say enough good about this gathering of people, so I won’t even attempt to do that. I would, however, like to share with you some of the feasts you can enjoy should you be able to attend.
PTP is a physical feast for our family. Not only do we get to visit with some of our immediate family daily, we also get to see many people we love and appreciate from our work in the Kingdom…and we get to do this in a beautiful setting. The joy of getting to eat together, have coffee together, sit and talk together, and attend classes together is a real physical feast.
An emotional feast always awaits me while at PTP. God blessed each one of us with an array of feelings and emotions – joy, love, laughter, sadness, tears, happiness. I have never come home from PTP without having felt and expressed many of these emotions. The beautiful singing brings tears of joy to my eyes. The smiles on almost every face lift my spirits. Seeing young couples who realize the importance of letting their children experience an event like PTP makes me happy. Being able to sit and talk with a sister who may be sad or uncertain about something going on in her life helps me to feel needed as an older Christian woman. The sheer number of people who believe as I do touches me in an emotional way.
The spiritual feast at PTP is beyond comparison. Classes for every age and on many topics are available at nearly every hour of the day and evening. Teachers who have studied long hours and prepared relevant lessons are there to share their knowledge with us. Opportunities for private counseling are available for those who may need it. I have sat at the feet of some of the best teachers and preachers I have ever heard at this event. If a person could go away from PTP without feeling like they have been to a spiritual feast, I would be very concerned about them.
When I think of mountains in the Bible, I remember the words of God in the Old Testament through the prophets Isaiah and Micah: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in his paths” (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2). In the New Testament, I think about Jesus in Matthew 5 going up on a mountain, sitting down, and beginning to teach the people what we call the “Sermon on the Mount.”
I never visit any mountain range without thinking about God’s power and majesty. His creation speaks to me and tells me that He is all knowing, all powerful, and with us at all times. When we attend PTP, surrounded by the beautiful creation of God, we enjoy a marvelous feast.
I sure wish you could meet me at the mountain and enjoy the feast with me.
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To learn more about Polishing the Pulpit (and, hopefully, register to attend!), visit their webpage.
[Editor’s Note: On Friday, August 19, we will post a list of where members of A Legacy of Faith will be speaking or leading singing throughout the week of Polishing the Pulpit.]
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