Scripture.

God’s love for humanity has been proven by the gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who calls us back into relationship with God. By his birth, life, death and resurrection, Jesus saves us from sin and shame and frees us to share in his life and joy. As we wait for his return, his Spirit is at work in us, transforming our hearts and minds through God’s word; the Bible. As Christians, scripture is our first authority. The justification given humanity through Jesus opens up the heart of the believer to pursue holiness through the divinely inspired words of scripture. It is here that the believer comes to know the majestic God of grace and love.

Tradition.

We like to rest on our choice of God. But our freedom to chose is the result of God’s act of revelation. God was revealed to us. Humanity received knowledge of God’s will, favor and grace. Relationship with God was made possible. This active relationship with God has been practiced and passed down from generation to generation. This is tradition. Our beliefs cling to the God revealed and passed down through the traditions of the faith. These revelations are most clearly stated in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds.

To read the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed click HERE.

Reason.

God has gifted humanity the ability to think, discern, consider and chose. Through faith, humanity’s intellectual abilities are renewed through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is by the power of God within us that we can now reason right from wrong, light from dark, death from life, truth from lies. It is by the gift of reason that humanity might conform no longer to the patterns of this world, but instead be renewed through the scriptures and traditions that point us to and cultivate life in Jesus Christ.

Experience.

One would think that the living word of God, the traditions that have been received and passed down and the gift of reason which opens our eyes to the truth of God in Jesus Christ would be extravagant enough. Yet God also gives the experience of these transformative gifts, that each believer might stand in assurance of the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ. It is through the experience of living toward the will of God that the complexities of proof wane in comparison to the inward knowledge that, “I was lost but now I am found.”