My Personal summit with the triune God began as I entered into a personal, vertical relationship with the Father, the Son, and theHoly Spirit. It began at the foot of the cross and culminates when I meet Him in the air. This is when I will reach the summit of God’s holy mountain. Until then I will continue to soar to new heights, as the Spirit of God lives in me and through me and guides me along in this journey called life.Psalm 50:1-5
1 The Lord, the Mighty One, is God,
and he has spoken;
he has summoned all humanity
from where the sun rises to where it sets.
2 From Mount Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines in glorious radiance.
3 Our God approaches, and he is not silent.
Fire devours everything in his way,
and a great storm rages around him.
4 He calls on the heavens above and earth below
to witness the judgment of his people.
5 “Bring my faithful people to me—
those who made a covenant with me by giving sacrifices.”
My United summit with the triune God.My vertical relationship with the living, triune God is best expressed in a community environment. There is unity in community. This is my horizontal relationship with the body of Christ, which is made possible as I connect with God on a personal level. I become absorbed into the bloodstream of the body of Christ. I become one with the triune God and the Church as I become grafted into the True Vine, which is Jesus Christ (John 15:1ff).
The cross represents these two connected levels of relationship.We cannot have one without the other. Jesus said,
“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40) NLT
John later wrote,
11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
14 If we love our Christian brothers and sisters it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.
16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?
18 Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. (1 John 3:11-18) NLT
