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THE CDC T POINTS - Watch the Video!
Love
We believe in relationships. We believe God is a relational being who created people to be in loving relationship with Him, with each other and with the world. the truth is that this is a broken world with broken relationships and broken hearts. Jesus came to save the world from self-destructive selfishness through His self-sacrificing love. He gives life to the lifeless, love to the unloved and healing to the broken, so that we may be restored to life-giving relationship with God and with each other.
"...Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength...Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."
Mark 12.30,31
WordsWords have the power to heal and to destroy. People have used them to control and manipulate. God has used them to give life and salvation. We believe in God's words. We draw our passion, our faith, our very reason for being from His words. We believe these words are recorded in the letters, poems, stories, visions and accounts that are preserved in what we call the Bible. These words point to Jesus. We learn from Him, depend on Him, are transformed by Him and speak about Him to anyone who will listen. God's words give life and we love Him for it.
"Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
John 6.68
PeopleThe church is not an institution or an organization. it is a community of people called by God. We believe that faith is lived out in community and through community. That’s why we gather together, learn together, worship together, pray together, serve together, love one another and care for one another. God loves people. That’s why faith in Him and love for Him directly affects the way we relate to other people. We find fulfillment in life by being in right, loving relationship with God and with each other. We relate to each other in love, because God has related to us in love.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
John 13.34,
ServiceWe believe that giving is better than receiving. Jesus gave Himself for us in order that we might be free to give ourselves for each other. We believe that God gives us gifts in order that we may experience the immense joy of being in partnership with Him for His work in His world, whether we are pastors of a church or executives in a corporation. He distributes diverse gifts, skills and talents among diverse people for the unifying purpose of glorifying Him by serving Him, and each other, according to the gifts that we have been given. There is great joy, meaning and purpose in partnering with God and moving according to our unique skills, talents, gifts, calling and passion.
"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us..."
Romans 12.5,6
LifeWe believe that eternal life is more than life after death. It’s the difference between living and having life. It’s here, now, today, simply because eternal life is a relational reality. It is life that comes from being in relationship with an eternal God. Salvation means more than being saved from hell. There are many things that we need to be saved from. We need to be saved from boredom, loneliness, bitterness, pain, pride, meaninglessness and self-deception. When we are in true relationship with an eternal God, we have eternal life and we are saved from all of that, and more.
"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
John 17.3
NewnessWe believe that God created all things good in which humans were responsible to act as stewards. But we gave in to selfishness and paved the way for darkness and evil to infiltrate the world that we now live in, a fallen world with traces of its former glory. God created the world through Jesus and He has put into effect a plan to restore it through Jesus. God calls us to partner with Him through Jesus, to redeem the world and fulfill our edenic calling to be stewards of His world. Here, now, today, we serve the world to redeem it from its past with the future hope of a reality in which this fallen world will be restored to newness with the return of Jesus.
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
Revelation 21.1-4 |
