Believing

I think Doctrines are an important part of faith, even though following Jesus Christ in love and faith is where the rubber meets the road, what we believe forms that life and calls us continually to what be believe is true. The world we live in often avoids the idea of absolute truth, and yet the very idea that God is; is an absolute truth.  Our beliefs don’t form or define God, but the God we believe in does form and define us.

About God
God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe. He exists eternally in three personalities: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is both holy and loving.  God is.  God is not created, God is the creator.

About Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God. He lived a sinless human life and died on the cross to atone for our sins. He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and will return again to earth. He was born of a virgin, raised from the dead, and calls us to follow Him.

About the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is God present with us, calls us to God, reminds us that God loves, and empowers us to live the Christian life.

About the Bible
The Bible is God’s word, inspired by God, and all things necessary for salvation and to live the Christian life in a moral and loving way are found in its pages.  All Christian doctrine and beliefs must be support in the only inspired book.  The Bible is God speaking to all who will hear, historically, contextually, and directly.

About Human Beings
People are made in the spiritual image of God – we are rational and moral beings who have been given free will.  We can choose God, or we can reject God.  We can choose to love or choose to hate. People are often separated by God because of sin, lives that miss the target created by God for them.  Christ has come to forgive that sin and restore all who believe to a relationship with God.

About Being Made Right with God
Becoming right with God and having our relationship with God restored is what the Bible calls salvation. Salvation is God’s free gift to us. We can never earn it or achieve it by self-improvement or good works. We accept God’s gift of a new life when we turn from our self-directed life and accept Jesus as our Savior. The new life that God gives us is an abundant life in this world and eternal life in the world to come.  “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

About The Kind of Life We Are Called To Live
God glorifies Himself when He saves us, but we glorify God by our good works. We are promised abundant life, expected to live an abundant life, offered a life of love, purpose, meaning, and challenged to life as followers of Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit and Biblical teaching to teach us how to live a “Christ centered life” justification by faith; the work that God does for us, sanctification; the lifelong work that God does in us.

“In essential beliefs we have unity, in non-essential beliefs we have liberty, and in all beliefs we have charity.” ?- John Wesley, founder to the Methodist movement