What We Believe
The following is our "Statement of Faith" as extracted from the
documents of Presbyterian USA. It is a beautiful prayer and thought
provoking confession of faith.
In life and death we belong to God. Through the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, The love of God, And the communion of
the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of
Israel, whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ, Fully human, fully God. Jesus proclaimed
good news to the poor and release to the captives, teaching by word
and deed and blessing the children, healing the sick. and binding
the broken hearted, eating with the outcasts, forgiving sinners,
and calling all to repent and believe the gospel. Unjustly condemned
for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths
of human pain and giving his life for the sins of the world. God
raised Jesus from the dead, vindicating his sinless life, breaking
the power of sin and evil, delivering us from death to life eternal.
We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father. In sovereign love
God created the world good and makes everyone equally in God's image
male and female, of every race and people, to live as one community.
But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator. Ignoring God's
commandments, we violate the image of God in others and ourselves,
accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature, and threaten
death to the planet entrusted to our care. We deserve God's condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting
love, the God of Abraham and Sarag chose a covenant people to bless
all our families of the earth. Hearing their cry, God delivered
the children of Israel from the house of bondage. Loving us still,
God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant. Like a mother who
will not forsake her nursing child, like a father who runs to welcome
the prodigal home, God is faithful still.
We trust in God the Holy Spirit, everywhere the giver and renewer
of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us
free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds
us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the church.
The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our
faith and life in Christ through Scripture, engages us through the
Word proclaimed, claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with
the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and calls women and
men to all ministries of the church. In a broken and fearful world
the Spirit give us courage to pray without ceasing, to witness among
all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in
church and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.
In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit, we strive to serve
Christ in our daily tasks and to live holy and joyful lives, even
as we watch for God's new heaven and new earth, praying, Come, Lord
Jesus With believers in every time and place, we rejoice that nothing
in life or in death can separate us from the love of God in Jesus
Christ our Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to
the Holy Spirit. Amen.
*Copyright @ 1991 by the office of the General Assembly,
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This document is part of the Book
of Confessions, which is in turn Part I of the Constitution of the
Church
