Continue to Send Me Your Questions and Comments
I appreciate all of the emails and comments I have received from the community here. They give me a place to hear from you and know what you are going through. Many of you are going through such hard problems, but it makes me happy and humbled to see you continue to cling to God in the midst of them. I just want to continue to cheer you on in the process of going after God.
My Aversions to Statements of Faith
Every once in awhile I get asked for a statement of faith. I always feel like they are trying to put me in their box. I feel they are looking for a denomination or seminary or some belief in the end times that they can either agree or disagree with. I just want to tell them my goal is simply to help us all love God more.
My aversion to creeds is because they get so formal and are sometimes used to say why I’m different than you. But, I also know what we believe is important.
If you are thinking about joining a church and you may want to check if they believe infant baptism if this is something you want. Maybe you strongly believe against any form of alcohol, but they use it in communion. I understand statements of faith can be helpful.
My Aversion Is More My Problem
This week I got another such request. It was very kind and considerate, and I found myself giving a longer than normal answer. As I wrote, I thought my feelings toward statements of faith are abnormally strong, so I started considering to put one up.
This person response back encouraged these feelings more. She shared how people had deceived her in the past because they hid their true beliefs. They may say they believe in Jesus like you, but find out later that they think you can also be a god like Jesus. Or, they may say they believe in the Bible, but then find out they think man changed the Bible, so God gave us another special book.
While I was not wanting to be put in a denomination because I want Christians to just get along, others really wanted to know what I believe because there are those who want to deceive you.
There Are People Who Try to Deceive
The same day I got this email, I also got an email from another person. She told me how she had gone to someone to get prayer. He told her that God was mad at her for something bad she did and now He couldn’t even hear her prayers. I don’t know anything about her life. Maybe she had done bad things. But now she is seeking a connection with God, and she is told it is unavailable to her. Jesus’ died on the cross for all sin, except hers.
I write in order to help people like her know God does want to connect with her. Nothing will ever separate her from His love. No one can ever remove her from the palm of His hand. She can run to Him and be safe.
So for the growing community that gave me their confidence by following this blog and for those that need to hear God is for them, here is what I believe.
A Simple Statement of Faith That Will Free You From Religion
- I believe in Jesus as the only way to God.
- I believe that the Bible is awesome and I find life in it.
- I believe it’s our role to help others love Jesus more.
- I believe God created us to have relationship with Him and He loves to speak to us.
- I believe God loves every person He created, and it would be wise if I did too.
- I believe the Holy Spirit is in each believer and He reminds us and empowers us to live the abundant life.
- I believe if people don’t want God (choosing not to receive Jesus) they can choose eternity without Him.
- I believe heaven is a real place and it is part of the reward for those that trust Jesus.
I’m sure there are other things I believe, but this seems like the important stuff. Please keep the questions and comments coming. I enjoy connecting with you.
You wrote “I believe that the Bible is awesome and I find life in it.”
i hate to do this to you, but as a new reader, could you be more specific? Is ALL of scripture inspired or only part of it? Do we pick and choose? Or must I consider it all with a message from God to me?
I like what I see here, and I understand you not wanting to get into the literal issue… and translations can be a problem, I run into this all the time when I teach English to my Chinese students in Israe., I just find the word awesome a bit of a cop out…
Having said that, thanks for this site. Excellent articles
Dear Dvora,
Thank you for visiting the site. I wish you the best with your site leading people out of the pain and shame of their past into the life-giving hope found in Jesus. I pray that your site and additional work you do give you great joy and a deeper connection with God.
You obviously have a specific thought you want to get across with your comment. Typically people who have asked me questions like this, especially with emotionally charged words like ‘cop out’ are looking for a fight or tell me where I am wrong. I will try to address your comment, but I also understand that there is more there you are really trying to get at.
I do think the Bible is awesome, but not like a Muslim or a Mormon who value the Bible as a Holy Book but think it has been changed by man. I think the incredible God of the universe inspired over 40 authors to write down their stories and views of God to help us know Him better. And, this incredible God who made sure these authors communicated what He wanted said, He will protect these words to remain accurate according to the His intent.
While I believe the Bible is true, I don’t believe it is complete truth. What I mean is that God is still talking to His creation. There are still things we need to go to Him to hear. When you are wondering about the person you are supposed to marry, you will find principles about a good spouse in the Bible, but you will not find the ultimate answer there. It will not say to marry Pat.
Now we are getting bogged down with specifics where theologians are better at explaining and an area where I’m not intended on going. It may help to know that what you feel you hear God saying to you will not disprove what the Bible already says, but it often will disprove what you may have interpreted the Bible to have said. For instance, people used to use the Bible to prove the use of slavery.
All Scripture is spiritual as it was breathed by God. Therefore it cannot be fully understood without the Holy Spirit directing us into all truth. While I believe the Bible is awesome, I believe a connection with the author is more important. The Bible helps us to understand God, but the purpose is to lead us into a relationship with Him.
See this is getting long and confusing. I just want to help encourage people in their connection with God. It would help me to know what specific heresy you are trying to find out if I have. For now, I stick with my statement that I believe that the Bible is awesome and I find life in it. I hope this helps.
Thanks,
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the reply and sorry it took so long to reply. I think I understand where you are coming from and. Appreciate that you understood I didn’t want to get into an argument.
By profession I am a technical writer and editor. From what you’ve written, I think it may be an issue of semantics. It is God who saves us through Jesus, not the Bible. The Bible, in my view is His revelation to point me to Himself. How would I know that Jesus really is the messiah if I didn’t have a standard to point to, something to measure Him against to verify this is the one whom God sent to save all mankind…
I also agree that only God’s spirit can fully open ones eyes to scripture. Living in Israel it amazes me how people can read the Bible and not comprehend the simplest thing…another issue for another day.
Semantically, the word awesome disturbed me. I think you place a deeper meaning on awesome than I do, perhaps because when I was growing up, everything was awesome!
I’m not trying to see if you follow a heresy per say, just musing on if, when I read your posts, I need to analyze more deeply….
Terminology and hair slitting are difficult. We so want to put God in a box, but for me, the Bible is God’s word, telling me what He wNts me to know about Himself ne His interactions with man and history that 1) are relevant to pointing me to Jesu and 2) that I can understand…. there is much He doesn’t say that I’ll only know when I see Him.
So like I said, awesome, to me seemed weak, but I think I see what you mean. This is not a site on theology, but rather to point people to The “Theo”….
Dear Dvora,
Thank you for your follow-up here. It is amazing how some truths of the Bible, or of God for that matter, that seem so apparent to some are hidden from others. It’s like when God removes the blinders, we feel like we figured it out. 🙂 May God continue to remove more and more blinders off of us so that we can see Him, the Bible, and spiritual things more clearly.
Blessings,
Kevin
Hi Kevin.
I appreciate that this is an old post but it resonated with me and I believe that the messages that you raise resonate with many Christians who have become confused as to what they should believe or what they should say or which Church they should attend.
This saddens me because we have become a splintered Church of Christianity, when we are all just Christians.
I was in search of some inspiration for my own ‘statement of faith’ and was trying to avoid getting drawn into the Christian ‘creed’ or ‘denomination’ box because I believe that Christianity has lost its way.
Christians have lost their way.
I read this post a few days ago and have mulled over it since.
I read it again and I gained further incite from it.
I then came back and read the comments above and gained further incite from those too.
The Bible is the same.
Each time I pick it up I gain another incite from reading the same chapter or verse.
This has happened my entire life.
Genesis reads differently to me today than it did 40 years ago.
It will read differently to me in 20 years-time.
Revelations reads differently to me today than it did 40 years ago.
It will read differently to me in 20 years-time.
I believe that we read and interpret the Bible differently depending on age, creed, denomination, and were our thoughts are at any given time.
The important thing is that we continue to read the Bible and share His word.
Regardless of creeds or denomination, the one constant is that Christians are Christians and we all have a calling……..which is to obey His Great Commission.
To walk with Him.
To talk with Him.
To love Him.
To spread the gospel to all nations.
That is our true calling.
Christianity is in dramatic decline because Christians have failed in their true calling and instead they hide behind semantics of who is right and who is wrong.
They are wrong because they have failed to obey Him and in doing so they are perpetuating the further decline in followers of Him.
Christians need to find the Bible version that they understand and then go and make disciples of all nations. That is what He commanded. That is what every Christian should do.
If Christians gain this understanding and then share Him and His word after reading either the NKJV, KJV, NIV, NLT or the ESV or whatever other Bible version they are accustomed too, then they have obeyed His command. That is the important mission He gave us all, yet most ignore it.
Transcriptions from Hebrew, Greek to English are not understood by many Christians, yet Christians have been drawn into semantics because of the differing versions of the Bible.
I see these differing versions as being the source of confusion and understanding for many Christians but they need to understand that each version is simply trying to decipher meaning and to help us understand the tongue that was used for our modern thoughts and terminology of today.
Blessings to you and your readers.
Thank you for your kinds words. It is sad that many do use differing views of Scripture to be a source of pulling us away from each other. There are many that can find common ground and embrace the full body of Christ. Let’s pray that we can do that more often.
Blessings,
Kevin