Mobile Mountain Communities
Imagine a community where honest people work together to fix brokenness. Every person you meet loves you authentically, and you love them in the same way. How would living in such a community change the way you think, feel, and act?
Jesus invites us into that kind of community. In Matthew 5:14, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”
The Greek word for “hill” can also mean “mountain,” and in the ancient imagination, mountains were places where Heaven and Earth intersected—where people could encounter the gods. The ancient Hebrews understood mountains as unique spaces where God meets with humanity and where both dwell together as partners.
Abraham experiences divine testing and blessing on a mountain. God invites Moses up a mountain to receive instruction. And the prophet Isaiah uses mountain imagery to dream of a day when the Heaven-on-Earth space will expand beyond the mountain, filling the world with God’s Kingdom and vanquishing the darkness of evil.
This makes Jesus’ teaching truly wild! He’s saying that Heaven and Earth reunite through people—through us. When Jesus calls his followers a “city on a mountain,” he’s saying they will bring the mountaintop experience to the world. He’s inviting us to become mobile mountains, creating pockets of Heaven on Earth wherever we go.
We do this by letting go of the old ways of fighting our enemies and picking up the practices of Jesus—feeding the hungry, living justly, and loving people patiently. When this happens, the light of God’s way that leads to true life shines through us, piercing the darkness. So let’s find ways to be mobile mountain communities and participate in making God’s Kingdom shine brightly on Earth as it is in Heaven.
God is Close
No matter what we face, we can always seek our unchanging God. We just need to call on Him in truth.
Praying with truth requires recognizing our own brokenness. That means we need to accept and acknowledge that there is nothing we’ve done that makes us worthy of talking to our Creator.
God draws near to us because He is good, kind, merciful, and humble. And we call on Him in truth when we humbly submit our will to His and genuinely delight in Him.
This doesn’t mean we need to call on Him perfectly—we can’t. We simply need to come as we are, and acknowledge our deep need for His grace, mercy, and love. You don’t need to have your life together. You don’t need to be free from anxiety, depression, or fear. In whatever moment you find yourself, God wants you to honestly and intentionally talk to Him.
And even though we might not always sense that God is near, the Psalms remind us that God will come to anyone who calls out to Him. God’s presence is not reliant ...