What We Believe

Sin

Why start with such an unpopular word?  Because what is written below is meaningless unless you have a correct understanding of sin.  Sin is not just an action.  It is not simply doing something wrong like stealing or lying.  Sin is the complete and utter rebellion of our hearts against our Creator.  It is our nature.  It is humanity's desire to be it's own god and decide for itself what is right and wrong.  Our greatest need is for God to move toward humanity--our nature, left to itself will never decide to move toward God--and this is what he has indeed done in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  His love, grace, and delight in his people does not allow him to stand by and allow us to die in our sin.

God

We believe in a relational God who has eternally existed in relationship as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We believe in a personal God who cares deeply about his world.  We believe in a God who hates evil, loves justice, and longs to be known.  We believe in a God who created humanity in his image and therefore hurts when you hurt, cries when you cry, and laughs when you laugh.

We believe in a God who mourns over the injustices of the world, and therefore sent his son to begin the process of putting the world to rights--making things the way they are supposed to be.

We believe in a  God who will not allow himself to be limited to one characteristic such as love.  Is God love?  Of course, but he is also a King, a Judge, a Redeemer, a Creator.  To limit him to one characteristic is to make him into a god that humanity creates instead of the God who creates humanity in his image.


Jesus

"Every day we may see some new thing in Christ.  His love hath neither brim nor bottom."  Samuel Rutherford (17th Century)

We believe that if you want to know what God is like, you need to look at the life and work of Jesus. As you look you will see Jesus' infinite love, beauty, justice, and grace.  We believe he will offer himself to anyone who admits their need, regardless of their past or present circumstances.

We believe that it will cost you everything to follow Jesus, but we also believe in Jesus' promise that those who lose their life, will indeed find it.  And this new life includes freedom, forgiveness, rest, and hope.

The Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit opens humanity's eyes to the beauty and glory of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit helps us pray in our weaknesses, softens our hardened hearts of rebellion against our Creator, and is the guarantee of our eternal experience of the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Jesus told Nicodemus (a religious leader of the day) that he must be born of the Spirit if he were to see the Kingdom of God.  This is the biggest difference between a follower of Jesus and one that is simply religious.  A follower of Jesus has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and recognizes the depravity of her heart and the need for a Savior.  The religious lives out of his moral strength; the follower of Jesus lives out of the recognition of her moral weakness.


The Bible

We believe the Bible to be the authoritative and final Word of God.  One of Jesus' earliest followers, Paul of Tarsus, writes, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

We believe as you read, ponder, and pray over the pages of the Bible you will find God revealing more and more of himself to you.  We believe the Bible is not a "how-to" book, but a beautiful story of God creating, redeeming, and completely restoring the world he loves.