Personal
Statement of Belief in Jesus Christ written
8/1998
updated
5/1999, 8/1999
Published
8/2006
Well, here it goes. With much fear and doubt I am publishing my personal
statement. I have great
reservations: I am not a poster child
for living a life in Jesus Christ. It
seems the more I surrender my life to Him, the worse I stumble. I am amazed at the blessings God has showered
on my despite my unfaithfulness to Him.
I have been blessed with four beautiful children through my wonderful
wife, Linda. I am still married now,
although separated due to my inability to control myself, my dishonesty about
my own feelings, and my stubborn prideful ness in refusing to seek help until
too late. Through all this I have been blessed with a supportive extended
family, a steady job, wonderful Christian men who have given of themselves to
come by my side and lift me up, and the unwavering faithfulness of God
replenishing me every morning with a new lease on life.
The creed below describes
what I believe. But what others see is
how I live. I confess my life does not
always follow my beliefs. I struggle
with this daily.
That is, every day I must die to myself, and submit my will to
God’s. I am in a Christ-centered
recovery program, Celebrate
Recovery, through which the Holy Spirit is leading me in a changed life day
by day. I ask forgiveness of those who
read this and remember the sins I’ve committed against them.
-
Stated:
God
is God the Father, Lord Jesus Christ, His Son and the Holy Spirit. The only way to achieve eternal life is to
believe in God, and the only way to know God is through Jesus Christ.
God
the Father is changeless and all-powerful; God above all gods. He created all that was, is and will be. Our place is to live in faith, service and
obedience to Him. Jesus Christ came to
live as man. He died for us, to atone
for our sins. He was resurrected and
raised to heaven. Only He is a worthy
sacrifice to atone for our sins, there is nothing we can do on our own. We therefore confess our faith in Him and
submit to his lordship over us. Only
through belief in Jesus as the Son of God who died for us and was resurrected
can we enter into eternal life. The Holy
Spirit is our constant connection with God.
It guides and protects us. It is
a personalized expression of God’s love for us, a love we can never fully comprehend.
How to Live:
God
is a living God. Enter into a daily
relationship and conversation with Him.
Bring the example of Jesus into your life. God has initiated this conversation by
providing his Word to us. This is the
Bible. By praying we complete the
two-way conversation. We are to read the
Bible and know it. This is God’s
guidance for us. We are fools not to
know it. By daily reading and prayer we
can carry on a two-way communication.
Answers to our prayers will be revealed to us through the Holy Spirit
and directly through the Bible.
Prayer
is a daily, continuous activity. Prayer
is not reserved for special times. There
is no rule on prayer save one: All
prayers are offered to God through Jesus.
Jesus is our intercessor with God.
We cannot reach God directly, due to our sinful (separation from God)
nature. Jesus, by becoming man, can
bridge the gap from man to God. He is
the only way.
There
are five types of prayer: adoration,
thankfulness, confession, intercession and petition. We must pray all five. Pray in good times and in bad. Pray for others more than for yourself. Pray just for the sake of praying. Ask for guidance in all aspects of your
life. Pray to God just because He is.
Jesus
is our Lord. We must submit fully to Him. He rules and guides our life entirely. He is the ultimate friend. The ultimate role model. The ultimate standard by which we may judge
ourselves. Jesus is not relative, he is
absolute; perfect. Imagine Jesus is
walking beside you, holding your hand, giving words of encouragement, all the
time. I find this image most comforting
in times of trouble.
All
gifts are from God. All things are
His. All glory goes to God. We do not accomplish or acquire anything on
our own ability or merits. Remember this
and be humble. Do not blame God for
hardships. God loves us beyond our
comprehension. We cannot attempt to
fathom what he may have in store for us.
I
don’t believe that God sends calamities to judge us or punish us. There is pain and suffering enough in the
world, why would God send more? Besides,
God has all the time in the world to judge us, why do it now? To send us a message? Remember, God has already told us how to live
(the Bible) and sent his Son to demonstrate it.
If we’ve ignored these powerful arguments why would we be swayed by
more?
We
are already forgiven for our
sins. That’s what Jesus died for: you and me; to save us. We do have to confess our sins to God and
repent and sin no more. Three steps: Confess (recognize and acknowledge
responsibility), Repent (admit the wrongness and the hurt inflicted) and Ask
Forgiveness. Yes, I know we are already
forgiven. We need to ask anyway. Forgiveness can never be taken for
granted. We are not worthy of it. Jesus’ death for us was an act of love we
will never be able to fully comprehend or appreciate. Imagine staring into the cup containing the
sins of all humanity, and choosing by free will to drink it, knowing that
you’ll be killed anyway!
We
are also required to forgive others (see the bible), if we expect God to
forgive us. Remember – the other does
not have to be remorseful, repentant, penitent, sad, or even aware that we are
forgiving him. Forgiveness is a
unilateral act of will. Our forgiveness
is not to be held ransom until the offender repents. Imagine if Jesus waited to die until all of
us were repentant.
For
me, Jesus in the
So
why, if God loves us so much, doesn’t He just save us all now and be done with
it? It is precisely because He loves us
so much that He doesn’t! Think about
it. What good is it to intercede and do
things for us? Are we proud of our kids
if we do their homework? Sure we want
them to do well, but that assumes a higher, grading authority (in this case,
the school teacher). If we are the only
judge of our kids’ performance, and we do the work for them, of whom are we to
be proud?
Imagine
how pained God must be when he sees us fail.
He knows in advance what we are going to do. He has already forgiven us the failure; He
has already sent his only son to die for us.
He has created us from dust and his own breath. We are entirely His, and yet we disobey. If God was human, he’d be pretty angry at
us! Think of all the times in the old
testament when God’s anger ‘burned against’ his people and their kings.
But
God loves us. He has sent a new
covenant: Jesus Christ. This means that all we need to do is accept
Jesus as our lord and savior and submit ourselves totally to God’s will. That’s it.
No bizarre rituals. No sacrifices
of animals. No dancing under the moon.
So
how, if God knows what is going to happen, does anything we do make a
difference? Aren’t things
pre-destined? Maybe from God’s
perspective, but not from ours. And
since we’re not God, and cannot fathom what it might be like to be God, don’t
even think about pre-destination (or omniscience) from God’s point of
view. Remember, God is changeless, but
can change the world (hey, what about pre-destination?). It is in God’s nature to respond to
intercessions from us. Think of Lot
praying for
Learn
the meaning of words like Grace, Faith, Sin, Forgiveness, Obedience. These are big words.
We
are all born sinners. Sin is separation
from God. By definition, since we are
not God we are separated from Him, thus sinners. Don’t take it personally (what did I
do?). That’s the way it is. Therefore we all require saving. Thankfully, God has provided a way to do
it. His name is Jesus. Get to know this person.
Do
not try to guess the mind or methods of God.
You’re not qualified and you’ll go nuts trying. Just read His word and listen to His Son.
Do
not make deals with God. There is only
one deal: Live according to God’s will,
believe in Jesus and you’ll get eternal life.
It is true that right living will be rewarded. It is possible that you’ll even be rewarded
in this life. But remember: these are
gifts from God, not payment for good deeds or good living. Gifts are by definition received, not
expected. God doesn’t need us to make a
deal with Him in order to reward us with eternal life. He’s already done it. We just need to follow His plan. There is no other way.
Don’t
worry about what happens to other people.
They all have their own relationship with God. It may look like they are making out better
than you, or are getting away with something.
Keep the eternal perspective. God
will bring judgment in His time. It is
not for you to know. In fact, it’s
sinful to even want to know. That’s hard
for us in this century, but we need to let go of this whole idea that we have a
right to know how everyone else is doing in God’s eyes. Remember:
Jesus, not your neighbor, is the standard. We are all given different gifts, ‘each
according to our ability’. What we do
with them is business between us and God alone.
Place
God at the center of your life. God
loves us. Love God, yourself and
others. Without love of God, we cannot
love ourselves. Without love for
ourselves, we cannot love others.
Recognize
and acknowledge sin as soon as it occurs, repent and ask forgiveness. Then live in contentment trusting in the
Lord. Don’t worry. Offer your prayers to God then live in
contentment trusting in the Lord.
Forgiveness
is a gift you give yourself.
Additional thoughts on 5/99:
Since
writing the essay above I have read the bible cover-to-cover and taken the
Experiencing God course. Obviously the
Holy Spirit was working in my life, as I think I got it pretty close to the
mark. But a few things stand out in need
of clarification:
God
loves us more than we can know, and pursues a love relationship with us. Our promise of eternal salvation is secured
though the death of His son, Jesus Christ.
I am going to heaven when I die.
That’s not boastful; God has promised it. I will be drawn close to God and share in His
nature. I cannot comprehend how
wonderful that will be.
Think
of Jesus sweating blood, and dying of a broken heart at the thought of being
separated from God. This oneness we have
never known, since Adam’s sin. But if
the removal causes death, how wonderful must be the restoration.
God
is a Living God. He is working all the
time in the world. He made us and the
world, and He cares for us. I can’t
imagine a loving God walking away from His creation. Don’t let anyone tell you that God doesn’t
care about the world.
Jesus
is the Way, the Truth and the Life. This
Truth is absolute, not relative. Don’t
let anyone tell you that you can pick your own truth.
Love
is demonstrated through obedience. This
is a little tougher to comprehend. But
the way we show our love for God is to obey His commands, and to obey His
Son. When we say ‘Jesus is Lord’, that
doesn’t leave room for disobedience.
Either He is our Lord or He is not.
We each must decide. We cannot
pick and choose the commandments to obey.
Does the servant dictate to the master what commands he will obey? No. If
we call Him Lord, we are left with no alternative but to obey.
Obedience
to God is not worthy of reward. Does the
master reward the servant for doing what he is told? No. We
have our commandments, we now must obey them.
Upon obeying them, we cannot then try to justify ourselves before the
Lord, saying ‘See, I did what you commanded’.
Obeying commands is the bare minimum. That is what all servants are required to
do. If a reward is to be had, it is only
by the grace of God, not because we deserve it.
I
continue to be amazed at the correlations and truths in the Bible. Think of Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God. Where was He born? In a stable, where all lambs are born! Is that cool or what?
Jesus
did not come to supplant the Old Testament, but to fulfill it. He is the embodiment of the Law. From this I learn (or rather, the Holy Spirit
has revealed to me) that we, as modern Christians, still need to read,
understand and follow all the instructions of the Old Testament. When I read the prophets, and how the Jews
rebelled against God, it is as if I am reading about us today. We still prostitute ourselves to false gods,
and reject our loving Father. Yet even
while doing that we revile Him for not coming to our rescue. For all our trinkets and technology we are no
better than the lost people of olden times.
All our treasures have been heaped into a wall around us to make God
even more distant from our lives.
Additional Thoughts 8/99:
The
devil tempts us. That is a given, and
there is no avoiding it (he is, after all, trying to defeat us
Christians). The question is, what will
we do in response?
Keys:
a) Reject the devil whenever
exposed by the Holy Spirit.
b) When bad choices are made,
turn back to God immediately (be obedient).
Don’t listen to Satan deceive you about the consequences. He neglects to tell you about the consequence
of sin: Death.
c) When sins are committed,
remember that you will always receive forgiveness when you ask for it in
repentance.
d) Turn from the devil quickly,
at the first little sign, or else you may get sucked into the vicious
cycle. Don’t think that you can ‘handle’
a little sin and stop later.
So
how has my life changed after I surrendered lordship of it to Jesus? I not so stressed about life. When I truly gave my heart to Jesus, I
let Him take over control of my life.
Knowing that God is in control and the Holy Spirit is guiding me gives
me freedom to live. I don’t have
to worry about things anymore. By
surrendering to the one person worthy of my surrender, I have gained freedom
from having to sin!
And
my life is more peaceful: I don’t have
to ‘white-knuckle’ it through temptation anymore. I don’t have to rely on my own strength to do
right. I call out to Jesus, and in my
weakness I allow His strength to lift me up.
I find that I cannot simultaneously dwell on Jesus and sinful
thoughts.
Don’t
get me wrong – I still have to do things I don’t want to do! I am called to enter into situations and
relationships that scare me, or at least move me out of my comfort zone. But all I have to do is act. God assumes responsibility for the
results. When I let God assume his
rightful place at the top of my life, I relieved myself of the responsibility
for making everything right.
I
am now able to focus on: getting right
with God; getting right with myself; getting right with others.
I
am currently in a 12-Step recovery program.
I hope someday to write my testimony and publish it here.
I
am a work in progress. Keep in touch…
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