Posted on by Jennifer Tritsch

From My Heart to Yours

It’s been about a year and a half since I’ve shared any of my thoughts with the world-wide web.  Much has happened to me on a personal level, and to be quite honest, I’ve just not had the energy or desire.  From unexpectedly losing my dad on June 27, 2018, to giving birth to a wonderful surprise gift last March, my life has been quite full with many ups and downs along the way.  I have not stopped writing, however.  I have kept up with two personal journals, as well as started writing a book on grief.  I strongly feel it is of the utmost importance to try to harness one’s emotions during tumultuous times, and writing them down is one of the most effective ways I’ve found.  Is it necessary to share those secret thoughts with the world?  No.  In fact, I think it best to more diligently control what becomes public knowledge during such vulnerable times—thus, my sabbatical.  But I have something on my heart that I want to share with you, and the present, global situation we all find ourselves in seems an appropriate time.

Let me begin by sharing my deepest, heart-felt appreciation for those of you who have stood in the gap for my family and me through prayer during the past 21 months.  I know that it has been through the prayers of God’s people that my mother and I have been able to bear the loss of Daddy.  I can’t begin to recount how many reached out to us, through every imaginable way, and offered words of love and encouragement.  (If you were unable to attend the service, but had so desired, Victory Church has uploaded the funeral service on their YouTube channel.  You can view it here .)  It doesn’t feel like we should be approaching the two year anniversary of our loss.  The time has gone by in an absolute blur.  But in looking back, there has been a constant that has remained with me to this very day; and that is what I want to share with you, now:  Peace.

We read in John 14:27 some of the most beautiful words written in red. Jesus Himself spoke them:  

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

John 14:27

Jesus was about to be crucified.  His closest and dearest friends, His disciples, were unaware of His impending passion.  Jesus was doing all He could to prepare their hearts for the turmoil ahead.  They didn’t understand what was about to happen, but they were listening to His words and asking questions.  One of the very last things Jesus did before Calvary was give something of Himself to those closest to His heart: His very own peace.

I have researched John 14:27 in over 20 different versions of the Bible, as well as several concordances and Bible dictionaries; and they all agree.  The peace that Jesus was referring to in this verse was that of personal possession and, as such, a peace that only He could give.  The thought alone that Jesus would chose to leave something of a personal nature with His disciples at that crucial time is beautiful and makes me smile.  But what he chose to leave with them takes my breath with complete awe and wonder.  

Let us remind ourselves this Jesus is 100% man as well as 100% God.  I do not agree with the 50/50 theory, nor do I subscribe to the ideology of Jesus’ being only the Son of God.  The oneness of the Godhead is a different discussion for a different day.  For the sake of this post, I will simply state that my belief is that Jesus was all man, all God, and has all power and authority, alone. 

That being said, the man Jesus was about to endure physical pain that we can only try to comprehend.  Crucifixion was the cruelest form of torture in that day.  His flesh was about to be literally torn into pieces.  Muscles would soon be ripped apart.  Tendons, ligaments, and joints awaited their separation and dislocation. His wrists and feet were about to be pierced by nails anywhere from five to nine inches long, purposefully missing the main blood vessels yet penetrating nerves that would shoot searing pain through the entire body with the slightest movement.  Lungs would fill with fluid. Exhausted muscles would weaken and fail. Asphyxiation would usually be the end result as the body could no longer perform the necessary movements needed to breathe.  However, medical science coupled with biblical accounts lead us to believe our Lord died of a massive heart attack before his lungs failed. 

He was about to endure all of this, and He gave away His peace.

Could this be the reason the Bible tells us His sweat fell as great drops of blood the night before in the Garden of Gethsemane?  Physically, in order for blood to appear in the sweat of a human body, there has to be tremendous stress and strain on the body causing the capillaries in and around the sweat glands to burst, thus mixing blood with the sweat.  The man Jesus had given away the very peace He possessed as He was about to not only endure unimaginable physical pain but, greater still, take on the sins of all the world, for all of time.  

No wonder this peace is referred to in the book of Philippians as one that “passeth all understanding”  (Phil. 4:7).  We cannot fully understand the Holy, Divine kind of peace.  Man’s peace usually comes with the satisfaction of his physical and emotional needs , realization of his goals , provision of his safety, or pacification of his conscience.  A holy peace is an incomprehensible rest in the love of God, a calm in the midst of the storms of life, and a blessed assurance that comes in knowing that He has overcome the world (John 16:33).

This peace is the very peace that Jesus Christ Himself enjoys.  It’s His, and He has given it to you.  This is why you can’t rationalize it, put it in a box, or explain it.  It’s a beautiful, holy peace.  After He had given it to His disciples, He said, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (Joh. 14:27).  The world can’t give you this kind of peace.  We can be peaceful one moment, and terrified the next.  The peace of God obliterates fear.  The world’s peace can be unsatisfying, unsettling, and transient.  The peace of God fills the soul and reaches every part that can’t be touched by man.  It’s a God-shaped, perfect fit that no other puzzle piece can fill.   

I can only attempt to describe how it felt the moment His peace engulfed my broken heart following my dad’s sudden death.  Sorrow would be crashing down on me, coming in wave after wave of intense pain.  I would brace myself as the sobs took over; but just as quickly as they came, they would begin to dissipate.  I felt, as it were, a warm blanket come over me, surrounding me.  It was as if I could almost audibly hear the words, “Okay, that’s enough for now”; and the crying would cease.  I knew then that that was the peace of God—a peace I had never really felt up until that point.  That peace stayed with me, and is still with me as I type these words.  I felt it at the funeral, when we buried him, and all the countless times since then I wanted to pick up the phone and call Daddy.

That’s the peace I want to leave with you, today.  In the middle of this world-wide pandemic of a deadly virus that no one truly understands, in this time of financial worry when millions are without jobs, in this time when we can’t corporately gather in our churches with each other in fellowship and worship, I want to remind you that we have a God-given peace.  We may not understand why all of this is happening, but one thing we can be sure of is that nothing takes God by surprise.  He’s got this.  He’s still speaking to the storms today, “Peace, be still”.  If we have that same peace, then we can do the same thing.  Speak to your storm.  Let the peace of God that passes all understanding rule and reign in your home, today. 

Peace be with you all, in the precious name of Jesus.

Posted on by Jennifer Tritsch

Tempted on the Mountaintop

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.  Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Matthew 4:8-11

I heard it over and over again as a little girl growing up on an Apostolic pew—sermon after sermon about the great mountaintop experience we can have with the Lord:

  • If only we could leap from mountaintop to mountaintop while skipping the valley!
  • The climb is worth all the effort in the end!
  • It’s the highest possible place you can go spiritually in the Lord while still being bound to an earthly body!
  • The great goal in our daily walk is to make it to the next mountaintop!

There always seemed to be some alluring mystery hidden beneath the cloudy haze covering the peak piercing the horizon of my young mind’s eye.  If only I could make it to the mountaintop!  I so wanted to know what it meant to be at the pinnacle of my spiritual walk.

It wasn’t until much later that I learned exactly what it means to be on the mountain.  It means isolation.  It can be a hard and barren place with nowhere to rest.  The conquest of the crest awards the cragsman an exposed vulnerability like never before.  Yes, you may see for miles from the summit; but you often see only a heavy fog covering the land below with a vision no clearer than what you beheld at the base.  The mountaintop experience isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.  It takes a while to get up, and it takes a while to get back down.  You may get weary on the way.  You may even get hurt.  It’s a climb and descent that can prove very trying, indeed.

I have read the above passage multiple times throughout my life, but never have the verses stood out to me as they did with this year’s daily reading.  The words leaped from the page to flip the switch of revelation and illuminate the Scriptures before me.  Don’t you love it when that happens?

The devil led Jesus to the mountaintop.

We often think of the mountaintop experience as being the highest spiritual experience in the Lord.  But this verse lets us know that being on the mountain doesn’t mean you’re supposed to be there.  The devil led Jesus there.  Let that sink in.  How many times have we credited the Lord with our mountaintop experience?  It may very well be divine; but it may not be, as well.

When thinking of some of the great men of God I have known throughout my lifetime that have appeared to be giants in ministry, highly successful, in demand, and at the top of their game, I recall watching them fall into the cleft of compromise; and it makes me wonder if their mountaintops were where they really needed to be at those particular times in their ministries.  They had reached a peak only to stumble and fall, and some fell to never rise again.

What a powerful lesson from the mountaintop!  Make your footing sure.  Whether you’re led there by God or by Satan himself, you need the proper equipment to ensure a secure foothold.  And that leads to the next revelation God gave me.

Jesus was tempted on the mountain.

One might envision the valley as a place of temptation, a place of depression or lowness.  (And I personally know it to be that way.)  But how often do we think of the mountaintop as being a place of temptation?  The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me.  You are exposed, without shelter, and in a very vulnerable place at the summit.  Your heightened vision may give way to pride.  And pride comes before destruction and arrogance before a fall (Pro. 16:18).

I believe it is safe to say that temptation can come literally anywhere in your walk with the Lord.  Nowhere is a safe zone as long as we are in these mortal bodies that are under the curse of sin.  In truth, no one is saved until they make it to Heaven.  The next time you find yourself high in the clouds with Jesus, make sure you’re holding on tighter than ever to His hand.  And above all else, don’t stop praying.  It’s easy to find yourself in your prayer closet when everything is falling apart and nothing is sure in life.  But what about during the good times when all is well?  Those may be the most crucial times to pray.

He needed to receive ministering on the mountain.

We all know how Jesus fought and won the temptation over the devil with the Word of God, and we know the importance of Scripture as a weapon in our arsenal against the enemy.  But something I think that gets overlooked is the very last part of verse 11 where it says the devil left Him and the angels came and ministered to Him.  He was on the mountaintop and still needed to receive ministering.  Just because you’ve reached a spiritual high doesn’t mean you’ve arrived at a place where you no longer need something from the Lord or from others.  You may need to receive ministering, instead of being the one who does the ministering.

We can learn a lot from the valley, but we may learn even more from the mountain.  Your highest spiritual experience may very well be the most dangerous of your everyday walk.  Be aware, hold tight, and pray unceasingly.