By the Rev. Mike Wilcox

To often I am afraid we look for an experience more than a relationship with God.

All of us love and even crave religious experiences but when they overshadow the relationship, they are getting us off the right road to the King of Kings.

We all need encounters that give us high moments but we should seek the relationship that will get us the high moments.

We should not be seeking the high moments to find the relationship. High moments will not last but are great to remember, to pull from when we are not in a high moment to get us through.

There were many valley encounters that the disciples had but only one mountain top encounter and not all the disciples were even there to enjoy it.

When we try to cause encounters that give us high moments we are missing the point. Religious experiences can become idolatrous substitutes for a daily relationship.

No human relation-ships can survive solely on highs.

Highs and lows do not matter.

What matters is a living, vital union with our Father.

It is being with Him and in Him, our spirit linked with His Spirit. John 17:26: “And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”