it
is an
awesome
experience
to be on the
mountaintop/ for
there is something
about a mountain/ there
is a struggle in every climb/
rarified atmosphere/heightened
feelings/ wondrous expansiveness/
mountains by their very nature tend
to be both lonely and exhilarating places
where we can be alone/ get above things/
sort things out/ see beyond this tiny moment/
and see all the moments of a billion years/ but
also where resolve and will coincide to raise us
above the moment/ to be humbled in the vast expanse
of distant horizons/ to see the pilgrim aspect of our lives/
here for a moment/ passing on through/ not a place to stay/
but we want to stay longer and build our lives in its awesome
beauty/ but the Lord says to us from our vantage point we can
see the valleys and cities where his loving grace needs to be shared
through me and you/ come back now and then/ but our work is out there 

                                                                        ---rus

                            ANOTHER NEW BEGINNING 
       God is gracious and forgiving, his love is steadfast.
                                       Exodus 33 & 34

    7Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far
from the camp, and called it the tent of meeting.  Everyone
who sought the Lord went out to the tent of meeting.  8When
Moses went to the tent, the people rose, and each man stood
at his tent door and watched until he had gone into the tent.
9When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud descended
and stood at the door of the tent, and the Lord talked with
Moses.  10People saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tent,
and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.
11So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to
his friend.  And he would return to the camp, but his servant
Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tent.
    1The Lord said to Moses, "Cut two tablets of stone like the
first ones, and I will write the words that were on the first tablets
which you broke.  2 In the morning, come up to Mount Sinai,
and present yourself to Me on the top of the mountain.  3No man
shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all
the mountain; neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain."
    4So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones.  Then Moses
rose early and went up Mount Sinai.  5The Lord descended in
the cloud and stood with him, and passed before him and
proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children."
    8Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth,
and worshiped.  9Then he said, "If now I have found grace in
Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though
we are a still-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin,
and take us as Your inheritance."
    10And He said: "Behold, I make a covenant.  I will do marvels
such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation;
and all the people among you shall see the work of the Lord. 
It is an awesome thing that I will do with you.  11 I am driving
out from before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the
Perizzite, Hivite and Jebusite.  12Take heed, lest you make a
covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest it be a snare in your
midst.  13Destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut
down their wooden images.  14You shall worship no other god.''
               _{This Bible passage was condensed from the NKJV}

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The Bible Condensed. From Genesis to Revelation (Old Testament and New Testament)
in 365 daily readings plus commentary. This Bible reading plan will help you read the Bible
from beginning end, as one continuous story.