My faith is in the living God who created all that exists and who continues to sustain all of creation. Because God is the creator of all, God is also the Lord of all. This means that no part of creation is independent from God and no person or power has authority over God.

     All that God created was very good.  Peace prevailed among all creation, and in relation to God.  However, the people that God created to rule over creation disobeyed their creator, and destroyed the perfect peace they were ment to enjoy.  Guilt and fear began to characterize every relationship.  As one of the people whom God has created, I have experienced the guilt and fear... Guilt because I have disobeyed my creator, and fear because I know that the Lord of all punnishes disobedience.  However, God's people were not left with out hope.

     Hope and peace are yet possible because God took the initiative in restoring the relationship between all people and their creator.  God entered into a covenant by chosing a people through whom all the nations of the Earth would be blessed.

     My faith is also in Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of God's covenant promises.  In Jesus Christ, the almighty God entered into history at a particular place and time and took the limitations of our earthly bodies.  Jesus became like us, and could stand in our place as a sacrafice for our sins.  Because Jesus is God, the death of Jesus on the cross was enough to save all people from their sins.

     Through Jesus Christ, we can know the living God.  We learn from the words and the deedsof Jesus that God is concerned with freeing the captive by physical or mental chains, and for those who are spiritualy opressed, as well as freedom from the oppression inflicted by the unjust upon anyone whom God has created.

     My faith is also in the Holy Spirit.  This spirit is the one whom Jesus sent to teach, comfort, convict, and empower God's people.  With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to be God's people  With the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to be God's witnesses to the world.

     As God's witnesses, we do not stand alone.  We are part of the church, which is made up of all whop trust in God's promises.  Togeather, we seek to reconcile all people to God and to each other.

     We long to share the Good News of God's grace to others, and we invite them to share in the abundant life Jesus gives to the church.  This life is expressed in the Baptism and in the Lord's Supper.  In Baptism, people enter into the covenant community and become entitled to it's special care.  In the Lord's Supper, we not only remember the sacrifice of Jesus that makes our reconciliation possible, but we are renewed by the presence of the risen Lord with us at the feast.

     My faith in the Living God gives me hope and joy, because I know that Jesus Christ will return.  Jesus will then restore God's perfect peace and reign in Glory orever.