Life Church

A. We believe in the value of all people.

B. We believe in the potential of all people.

C. We believe ones extreme value, and full potential are only realized in and through a relationship with God.  This relationship isn’t about a distant God watching to see if we will mess up. This relationship is about an intimate God who is the source and center of Life. Only with Him can we experience real Life.

D. We believe that this relationship isn’t something to be ignorant about because God has revealed this life connection with Him in the  1. The Bible- so we can understand  2. God,  3. Man, and 4. the Church.

1. The Bible:  God has revealed Himself through the scriptures. What is written is a revelation from God… of God. It was penned by human authors under the divine inspiration of God.  The Bible we have today contains 66 books, written by 40 different people, on 3 different continents, over a 1500 year span. The Bible contains history, poetry, prophesy, letters… yet it fits together in unity because God is the one author, with one story from beginning to end.   Through His word, God has revealed a path of relationship… a great adventure that is bigger than any of our individual lives.  This story is what God has invited us into.

2. God:  God has revealed that He is The Father, The Son (Jesus), and The Holy Spirit.  He is one God in three persons- eternally existing in completeness of love and communion.  So we can see that God is not just about relationships – God is relationship… a perfect community of love within Himself.  It is this God who has invited us into “Life” with Him.

3. Man:  God has revealed that we were created for “Life” with Him… both to experience now and into eternity.  But man has chosen “death” … a self directed path that separates us from God and real Life.  Yet in spite of us being on the wrong path, He is inviting “whoever will come” onto His path of Life… into this relationship of love and communion with Him.

To understand this, we need to see the bigger picture.  God has created us, the highest of His creation, for an eternal purpose…  for God to be known and share Life with His people in what could be understood as “marriage”.  But He knew that if the richness of this type of relationship was to be real, it couldn’t be forced…it must be chosen.  That’s why He gave us free will.  He gave us the gift of choice so love could be real.

So before He even created us, Gods plan was to win our hearts by demonstrating the kind of love that was real.  He knew that He would lower Himself to the level of His creation by becoming a man Himself in the person of Jesus.

In the beginning of time, when man first turned from God, the Bible began to speak of Jesus. (Jesus means savior, Christ means messiah) Throughout the Old Testament He is the one they were looking forward to.  Now, we can see that Jesus is our picture of “God in the flesh”… in whom we can see the fullness of Gods mercy, grace and love.

Because man chose to turn from God, the consequence of not being connected with Him (“sin”) is “death”.  What Jesus did was to show the extent of His love, in that while we were separated from God, He died for us.  And although we all deserve to be separated from Him/ from Life- forever, Jesus took this death sentence for us.

For us today, if we see Jesus for who He is, and trust Him for what He has done… it is like a door of our hearts opens up to Him, and His Spirit connects with our spirit.  The Bible speaks of this as the new birth… or being “born again”.  His Spirit now dwells in the heart of the believer, and God Himself begins to relate within this relationship.

We can see that Jesus has become our provision to take care of our “sin” through dying the death we deserved, and our picture of the loving God who has invited us into eternal relationship with Himself.  In this relationship, the power of sin is gone, and soon the presence of sin will be gone when He returns for us, His “beloved” Church.

4. Church:  God has revealed that He has a people on earth who are living by faith, and are free to grow more in love with Him each day.  These people are called The Church.  The Bible sometimes refers to the Church as “the bride of Christ”, or “the body of Christ”.  Those who make up this body are called to function together through the leading of: 1. God,  2. Gods word,  and 3. the “gifts” He has given His people.

This functioning together is about helping others see what is real… to be the “salt and light” that reveals: 1. the reality of God,  2. the reality of living in relationship with Him, and 3. the reality of our unbelievable eternal future together.

The Church is on a journey.  We remember the past, we live in the present… but we are people of the future.  We are pilgrims on this path of relationship, that is taking us towards our next phase of life with Him.  It is like we are camping, and soon will be at home.  In this future, we will have restored and renewed bodies, living on this restored and renewed earth… with all sorts of fun, with those we love, and our God, the “Bridegroom” –who will amaze us forever!