Guest Blog by Jeremy Gardner:
Chris Waddell was a talented ski racer at Middlebury College. In 1988, on the first day of his winter break he went up a mountain to go skiing. As he was taking on one of the slopes as a warm-up one of his skis popped loose on a turn and he fell. He broke two vertebrae and was paralyzed from the waist down.
In 2009, Chris Waddell became the first paraplegic to reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro unassisted.
Experiences on mountain tops can change our lives.
They can shape us,
give us purpose,
and teach us.
A mission trip is one of those experiences.
Perhaps God used that mountain top experience to change your life.
Now what?
Read Romans 10
In Verse 2, Paul describes the Jews this way:
“For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.”
In saying that they are “zealous for God” Paul is saying that they have great passion for God.
They are excited in their minds about Him. They are stoked, amped, pumped about God.
He then says that “their zeal is not based on knowledge.”
The Greek word Paul uses for knowledge here is “epignosis.” That word is translated “full knowledge.”
Some commentators say it is knowledge from the heart or digested knowledge.
“Gnosis” is head knowledge.
“Epignosis” is heart knowledge.
Paul is saying that the Jews know about God, but it is in their heads. They even have passion for Him, but it is from their minds. It has not made its way to their hearts.
Paul goes on to say that the Jews lack “heart knowledge” because they do not trust in the righteousness of God, but in their own righteousness. They try to do it on their own.
Mountain top experiences like a mission trip are meant to lead you to epignosis… Heart knowledge.
The kind of knowledge that changes who you are.
It changes your purpose.
It comes from recognizing that you cannot do it alone.
It is the kind of knowledge that changes how you live.
