Mountain top* - Amy Grant

While i was at the sunday service a couple of days ago, i was thinking about the incident when Jesus brought his closest disciples up to a mountain.

Putting it very simply, while he was up there, he was transformed before the disciples' very eyes. It wasn't a scary incident but a wonderful and exhilarating one. This was because one of the disciples, Peter, was so overwhelmed and amazed at the sight that he just blurted out that they should stay on the mountain top longer!

You can read the whole incident here.

I'm sure we have similar 'mountain-top' experiences in our lives and we wish we could just stay a little longer.

I was thinking about this incident because we were having a mountain-top experience at that time. The time for praise and worship is usually from 8.30 am to 9 or 9.05 am. But that particular morning, we just went on and on.

Maybe just to explain to those not from a Brethren church - in our service, there is no 'led worship' i.e. there is no one person who prepares the songs for that morning. Instead, everyone is allowed to stand up and lead in prayer, or Bible reading or to propose a song to sing.

I think that particular morning, we were really enjoying ourselves being in God's presence, thinking about the goodness of Christ and just worshiping him with songs after songs.

It was truly a wonderful experience - and i guess a pale reflection of how heaven will be like!

At the end, tho, one of elders did remind us that while it is good that we had a great time worshipping Jesus, it cannot and must not be just a fleeting experience, a feel-good encounter. It should result in true worship - living our lives for Jesus everyday.

And this in turn reminded me of the song which is the title of this post. It is rather lengthy but i would like to share all its lyrics here:-

I love to sing and I love to pray
Worship the Lord most everyday
I go to the temple, and I just want to stay
To hide from the hustle of the world and its ways

Now, praising the Father is a good thing to do
Worship the Trinity in spirit and truth
But if we worshipped all of the time
There would be no one to lead the blind

Now, I am not saying that worship is wrong
But worship is more than just singing a song
It's all that you say, and everything that you do
It's letting His Spirit live through you

[Chorus:]
And I'd love to live on a mountain top
Fellowshipping with the Lord
I'd love to stand on a mountain top
'Cause I love to feel my spirit soar
But I've got to come down from that mountain top
To the people in the valley below
Or they'll never know that they can go
To the mountain of the Lord
(Brown Bannister)

*The 2nd track from her debut album when she was still a teenager.