WHAT WE BELIEVE
There is a God, in fact, only one God, and this God is bigger and better and closer than you can imagine.
This God has revealed himself in three forms: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Nothing in creation “just happened,” this one God is the creator of everything. Now what’s fascinating is that this God made us in his image, which means we’re like him in many ways, but with one big difference — he’s God and we’re not. He’s loving and just and good and more than anything, desires to be in a relationship with us. Yet, God so values that the human experience have both love and choice, that he took what has been called the Divine Risk. We have the freedom to respond to the relationship God’s initiated with us … or not.
We are free to choose to live outside of the realm of the life God created for us, as He reveals in the Bible, and when we do so, we are disconnected from Him by our sin. Put another way, many of the choices we make move us closer to God or further from him. We all do it – and we’ll continue to do so. And, even then, God continues to love and pursue us.
This is where Jesus comes on the scene. God loves us so deeply, that he sent his only son, Jesus, to die so the rest of us could live. Why would he do this? Well, the cost of making choices that separate us from God was spiritual death – at least until Jesus came and his death paid everyone’s debt.
That’s serious love – in fact some call it scandalous – we call it Grace!
Because of that serious love, this gift from God is waiting for anyone who wants to receive it. God gives grace freely and abundantly, and as for us, we need only to decide whether or not to believe and receive this stuff. If we decide to believe it, it begins to change everything — Jesus called it “new life.” It can start now and never stop.
It’s OK to have a lot of questions along the way, we’re still growing in our understanding as well. Although God reveals things to us (including what he’s revealed about himself in the Bible), he remains mysterious and wonderful.
