What I Believe
I believe the only true basis of Christian fellowship is Christ’s Agape love, which is greater than any differences we possess (Phil. 2:1-2) and without which we have no right to claim ourselves Christians (1 John 3:10-16).
I believe worship of God should be spiritual (John 4:23-24). Therefore, remain flexible and yielded to the leading of the Holy Spirit to direct my worship.
I believe worship of God should be inspirational. Therefore, we give great place to music in our worship (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).
I believe worship of God should be fruitful. Therefore, we look for His love in our lives as the supreme manifestation that we have been truly worshiping Him (Luke 6:43-44; John 13:35).
I believe in the in-errancy of Scripture; that the Bible Old and New Testaments are the inspired, infallible Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
I believe that God is eternally existent in three separate persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (1 John 5:7).
I believe that God is the personal, transcendent, and sovereign Creator of all things (Gen. 1:1-2:2).
I believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human, that he was born of a virgin (Is. 7:14; Matt. 1:23), lived a sinless life (Heb. 4:15), provided for the atonement of our sins by His substitutionary and atoning death on the cross (1 John 2:2), was bodily resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 17:31; 1 Cor. 15:3-8), ascended back to the right hand of God the father (Mark 16:19), and ever lives to make intercession for us (Rom.8:27; Heb. 7:24-25)
I believe after Jesus ascended to Heaven (Acts1:9), He poured out His Holy Spirit on believers in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-4), enabling them to fulfill His command to preach the Gospel to the entire world; an obligation shared by all believers today (Matt 28:19-20).
I believe that all people are by nature separated from God and responsible for their own sin (Rom. 3:23; Is. 59:2), but that salvation, redemption, and forgiveness are freely offered to all by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:23). When a person repents of sin (Acts 3:19) and accepts Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior (Rom. 10:9-11), trusting Him to save, that person is immediately born again and sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14), all of his/her sins are forgiven (1 John 1:9), and that person becomes a child of God, destined to spend eternity with the Lord.
I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 12:1-11), and that they are valid for today and are to be exercised within scriptural guidelines. We, as believers, are to covet the best gifts (1 Cor. 12:27-31), seeking to exercise them in love that the whole Body of Christ might be edified (1 Cor. 14:12). I believe that love is more important than the most spectacular gifts, and without love, all exercise of spiritual gifts is worthless (1 Cor. 13).