What We Believe

 

In brief...

We believe all people are freely and deeply loved by Jesus Christ. We believe the Bible is God's word and that it can teach us about his love - and how his Spirit can help us live out his love in our lives.

Read on...

The Bible tells us that God is the maker and owner of the universe. This is his world and he is in charge.

In the beginning everything was perfect. God and humanity enjoyed a perfect relationship. But eventually we said to God that we didn't need him and that we could run the world independently of him.

That's when it all went wrong. That perfect relationship with God was destroyed.

We can't earn our way to heaven

"Why should God let you into heaven?" Ask anyone, and they usually say something like this - "Because I've lived a good life/ been kind to other people/ been really religious."

As if that will impress God. But the Bible tells us we can't earn our way into heaven. We can't earn it and we don't deserve it.

Why can't we earn our way to heaven?

Because the Bible tells us there's a problem called sin. Sin is doing things we shouldn't, and not doing things we should. Even the best person you can think of has sinned; we've all fallen far short of what God requires of us.

Most people know that God is a God of love and that he doesn't want to punish us. But God is also a God of justice and he has to punish our sin.

Because God loves us, he's provided a way back to himself

God solved the problem of balancing his love and justice by sending his Son, Jesus, to die in our place. Jesus' death on the cross means that God forgives our sin and gives us a place in heaven.

Amazingly, God offers us eternal life - as a free gift

We can't earn this free gift and we don't have to contribute anything. If a friend gives you a gift and you try to pay them something towards it, you'll offend your friend!

The Bible tells us that we receive this free gift by having faith in Jesus.

What does it mean to have faith in Jesus?

Faith in Jesus is trusting in him only for acceptance with God. It means we believe that Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and that he died the death we deserved in our place.

We need to do a 180 degree turn

We need to completely change how we think of God and relate to him. From now on, we choose to follow him and live for him.

We need to admit that we've been running our life independently of God. We need to tell him we want to live under his rule - as the o¬ne who created us and is in charge of our lives.

And God promises that when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts and lives, he will be with us and remain with us forever.

You can pray this simple prayer to respond to God:

"My Lord and my God I have lived my life my own way. I now change my mind and want you to be in charge of my life. I have done many wrong things. Please forgive me for my sins. Lord Jesus I trust you now to be my Saviour. Thank you for dying in my place. I ask you now for the gift of eternal life. I give my life to you by the power of your Holy Spirit.
These things I pray in your loving and powerful name."

Amen