I have a pastor friend who loves to hike and camp in the mountains. I’m not talking about the simply going to a structured State or National Park camping site. It’s not parking your RV or pitching your large tent in a numbered parking site. No, my friends, joy lay in the roughing it, carrying your pup tent, food supply and water on your body type camping. It was hiking the back-country alone that inspired him.
My friend’s bucket-list dream was to hike the full Pacific Crest Trail. That is a 2,650 mile trail that stretches from Mexico to Canada. The trip takes about 5-6 months to complete. Hikers trying to hike the whole trail typically start in April/ May and finish in September.
My friend lived close enough to the trail that he had hiked portions of the trail several times. You start in the dry/desert type mountains near Mexico and continue through the high Sierras and end up in the rain forest area of Washington.
The first part of the trail can be quite warm and dry, even in April/May. Therefore, some people set up water/refreshment spots along the trail to offer help to the hikers. My friend was one of those people. He would go to a place where the trail crossed the highway in Big Bear, Calif.
He liked setting up ice chests full of ice cream and sodas to offer to the hikers to help refresh them. He also loved engaging them in conversation to find out where they were from, what type of employment they had and how their experi- ence hiking the trail had been so far. The hikers were very grateful for the treat – especially the ice cream.
In the first few chapters of the book of Acts, Peter preaches to his fellow Jews a couple of times. Both messages follow miracles. Peter was quick to point out that it wasn’t him or anything special he or the other apostles had done that was the source of the miracles. It was done in the power and name of Jesus of Nazareth. He didn’t hold back any as he preached. Jesus was an innocent servant of the Lord; as a matter of fact, He is the Messiah. He had done nothing but good. He was sent by God, but you shouted for Him to be crucified and sent Him off to be killed.
Hearing that struck them to the heart. That dried up their souls. Peter continued, “You had Him put to death, but God showed that He was exactly who He said He was, God’s Son. God raised Him from the dead – and those of us standing here before you are witnesses to that fact.”
“What should we do?” they asked, feeling crushed in their spirits. The answer was, “Repent and be baptized, identifying yourselves as believers/followers of Jesus.” In essence Peter says, “You see, even though you did what you did in ignorance of the truth, it was all within God’s design. It was for your salvation.”
Peter was saying, “He will bring refreshment for your parched and dry souls as you hike this dry and long trail of life.” If you will, permit me to say it this way: God set up a stand that is offering refreshment to us, if we will just stop along our trail and accept it. It is in repenting of our wrong thinking and actions and accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior that we find refreshment.
– Just a Thought Dale Fillmore is lead pastor at New Day Church.
