The Ultimate Journey

by James Ray

The bus station below the hill seemed almost as if it would burst with its pressing transient population. The hordes of people pushing between large vehicles and en route to destinations were totally unaware of my presence or my notice of them from the hill above.

Long ago, other crowds hurried past this very point below this hill. They too were en route with hardly a passing glance up the hill. That day long ago and the presence of those up above on the hill generated little more than a curious glimpse.

I had followed the steps of greatness throughout America and Europe. I had surveyed the footsteps of Brainerd, Judson, Livingstone, Meyer, Spurgeon, and others whose footsteps of faith and courage inspired me. I had walked in footprints of blood and climbed through dungeons. I had surveyed the darkness and felt the iron chains. I had visited their graves.

The trail of the faithful and martyrs merged from a thousand directions until the many paths blended into one road—Calvary Road. Those footsteps had led here to this hill above the bus station. More realistically the thousands of footprints had not merged into this road to Calvary but out from it. There were those who had followed the steps of Christ and who had gone throughout the earth. They had noticed the hill and had been changed forever for their notice.

I retraced the ultimate steps from the cave at Bethlehem to the well at Samaria—to the Sea of Galilee—to Gethsemane and at last to this hill. What happened here? This hill represented the center of eternity, the central point from which all time pivots. The man dying up on the hill was called Jesus.

In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself by Numerous Names. A name tells all about a person—his family, his background, his roots. But what ONE NAME could describe God’s roots when He is eternal? What ONE NAME could tell FINITE MAN about an INFINATE GOD?

In Exodus, Moses at the burning bush asked God what His name was. God replied, “I am the Lord” (Jehovah—the Ever Existing One). “I have always been.”

The first words of Scripture began with “In the beginning, GOD....” The word God there is “Elohim,” meaning “Greatness and Glory”—Omnipotence. God was saying, “I am all powerful.”

Abraham was told to take Isaac, his only son, to the mountain and sacrifice him. He was to slay Isaac with a knife and make him a sacrifice to God. Before the knife came down into the heart of Isaac, however, God stopped him. God had arranged for a ram to be caught in the thicket. That ram would be the sacrifice instead of Isaac. God revealed Himself that day to Abram as “Jehovah-Jireh,” meaning “The Lord will provide.” God was saying to Abraham, “I am the God who will provide.”

There are 12 names of God in the Old Testament, all describing one who cannot be described in mere words.

Ask Adam — “Who is God; what is His name?” He would reply, “God is ELOHIM—THE ALL POWERFUL ONE.”

Ask Abraham — “Who is God; what is His name?” He would reply, “God is JEHOVAH-JIREH—THE ALL PROVIDING ONE.”

Ask Moses — “Who is God; what is His name?” He would reply, “He is JEHOVAH—THE EVER EXISTING ONE.”

Throughout 4,000 years of human history, there were not enough names to describe One such as God whom the Heaven of Heavens could not contain. Finite man could never put One so great in a name or a word.

THEN CAME THE DAWNING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT and the rivers and streams of the continents finally found their way to the ONE GREAT OCEAN—JESUS. The stars and planets locked in their orbits around the great sun. All the ships made the Harbor. The Scribe at last combined all the volumes containing the wisdom of the ages into one. He closed his book and laid down his pen. The cover read JESUS. The mysteries of all ages were UNVEILED by a birth in Bethlehem.

The Wise Men and stargazers for 4,000 years had searched the heavens and then they found the STAR they had been looking for. They came to Herod and said, “We have seen His star in the east.”

All the names of God were gathered up and poured into One—THE NAME JESUS. The Name of Jesus and the Person of the Father are welded together by ISAIAH WHO SAID: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6, KJV).

The Apostle Paul explained it this way: “For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9, KJV).

Paul said we have reached the end of our search. In Jesus BODILY IS ALL OF GOD WE SHALL EVER NEED TO KNOW.

That body, then, dying up on the hill, represented all of God that there was. This hill had been the starting point of all the footprints I had retraced. The spring had enlarged into a stream. The stream had widened into a river. The river had made its way to the great ocean, touching every shore and flooding every land.

Millions had been caught in the wake of its flood and were washed and redeemed.

That redemption was reflected in the words of Cooper:

“God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.”

The echoes of Calvary resounded into a mighty universal chorus of the redeemed.

The dungeon glowed with light as so profoundly described by Wesley:

“Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light!
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.”
The guilty souls sighed relief:
“There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.”

The slave trader who showed no mercy and knew no grace turned in his whip for a cross and wrote:

“Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see!”

The atheist threw down his infidel writings and picked up the Book of Hope. The forsaken embraced a “Love that would not let him go.”

The blind reveled in visions of light. As Bunyan’s pilgrims, the great throng marched upward toward the Celestial City of Light, taking with them millions on the . . .Ultimate Incredible Journey To Heaven!

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