My Summit Experience with the Living God.

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

Dreaming Big and Praying Hard

Charles Finney once said, "When you attempt great things for God, you can expect great results from God."

I was recently reading through Kirsten Strand’s “Community 4:12” Blog. Kirsten leads Community 4:12, a ministry of Community Christian Church (CCC) of Naperville, Ill, which brings compassion, social justice, and community development to under-resourced communities. CCC has adopted the inner-city community of East Aurora, as they seek to live out the Biblical mandate to serve needy, marginalized people. Kirsten has served as the catalyst in this community, through organizing servant evangelism and community outreach projects.

In her most recent blog entry, Kirsten included a hit list of big dreams she is praying for; things she would like to see happen in 2008. At first glance the list looks like wishful thinking, but, as the title of her post (Mountain Moving Prayers #2) suggests, her faith is not in what she can do, but in what God can and will do through her. I got to thinking about Kirsten’s Big Dream list. It’s not too much different than my own. Yeah our dreams are big, but God is infinitely bigger. We serve a big God who compels us to dream big.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Eph. 3:20)

Ephesians 3:20 is a verse that I regularly camp out in, because it tells me that His power is at work (within us), to accomplish all that He places in our human hearts and minds, and so much more; that combined with my life verse of Proverbs 3:5&6,

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Prov.3:5-6)

I am thoroughly convinced that what God desires to accomplish through us is far beyond anything we can rap our minds around. Many times I find myself trying to manage the vision God has given me, when He's simply asking me to be obedient and faithful and let Him do the rest. It is surprisingly refreshing when I am reminded that it is His church and that it is He who gives the increase.

I really appreciate reading about what Community 4:12 is doing. Our God is encouraging me through what they are doing; that others are successfully making His name known in their own community and if we (here in upstate NY) follow the example others are setting, we will see similar success as we make His name known here in Troy, New York. We truly reap what we sow. Dream big. Pray hard. Trust in the God who gives us big dreams, and wait expectantly to be blown away by what He will do with faith the size of a mustard seed.