Dressed in Fine Linen..Ole Henrik Skjelstad

...I now live on Mount Zion, a mountain renowned for its stunning scenery.

posted on FB by Merrill Thompson on Sunday, 23 September 2012 at 21:00 ·

His Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. (Rev 19:8)
How many righteous deeds are you able to perform during a day? I must admit I have lost count. They simply flow quite effortlessly and natural from me, so I do not give them much thought. There was a time, though, when I with great eagerness kept a track record of my sins, or to be more precise, my imaginary sins. Ignorantly, I wasn’t aware of the fact that I was dressed in fine linen. I hope you don’t mind if I share a secret with you: I have relocated from Mount Sinai. I have some vivid memories from that place, though. It was in those days that my consciousness was filled with thunder and lightning. My thoughts were billowing with clouds and smoke so that I couldn’t see clearly. And it was when I was there that I had this crippling fear of God which rendered me in a state of mind where I seldom dared to approach Him. I preferred to keep a distance, because as long as the commandments and sin dominated my outlook I had this terrible feeling of always falling short before my Father. I thus thought He was terribly disappointed in me.
I now live on Mount Zion, a mountain renowned for its stunning scenery. It is a joyful and peaceful place. Another fascinating quality with this mountain is that it is always sunny here. Clouds and smoke are completely absent, so the view is never obstructed by a deprecating consciousness of sin. With this new clarity in sight I am empowered to distinguish the real me. Moreover, I am always close with God. Even though I do not always feel His presence I know we are connected in a unique and indissoluble way.
Mount Zion is my guarantee that I am as righteous as Jesus. I see that clearly now. God has not dressed me in fine linen to cover my filthy, dirty self. When God does something He does it thoroughly and not half heartedly. I am clothed in righteous deeds as a sign of my new status; clean through and through. I didn’t earn my righteousness. It was a gift which I received and fully embraced when I switched mountains.
Do you think I live differently now when I know that I am righteous? Of course I do! All of us live according to how we think. To linger on Mount Sinai as new creation is like being a former convict who voluntarily prefer incarceration and bondage to liberty and a life as a free citizen with all the rights that entails. The quality of life soars exponentially when you are a free citizen of Mount Zion...Ole Henrik Skjelstad