What’s Your Creed?

Several years ago I was on a 26-hour bus ride with 50 soon-to-be high school graduates. I am the type who cannot sleep in cars, buses, or planes. Wide awake in the middle of the night, uncomfortable, sore, grouchy, and lonely (my family was not with me), and with various corporate body odors beginning to gain critical mass, I began to wonder why I was there. Why would I leave family, home, and comfort for nine days to speak to a bunch of 18 year olds about the Christian life, many of whom don't care about what I have to say, and those who do care won't remember (my pout was going pretty strong)? In my stupor I wrote the following creed as the answer to my question.

My creed has three main shapers:

It is historic, drawing on creeds from the early church.

It is contemporary, drawing from our current cultural setting.

And it is personal, drawing on my own calling and feelings.

The reality that struck me as I wrote it is this: If I am not intentional about thinking through my creed daily....hourly....almost moment by moment, I drift to a creed that comes from the darkness of my own heart instead of the light of Christ in me. I encourage you to read it, but more important, write your own. Use mine and make changes or start from scratch, but make it personal and ground it in the love and truth of Christ as found in the Bible.

MY CREED

I believe God is the perfect and exclusive father of all reality and that we know something of Him through Scripture, nature and our inner being.

I believe that though He has made something of Himself known, there is much more mystery to Him than we know and are comfortable with.

I believe Jesus Christ is the one true living Son of God.

I believe that all we know including ourselves was imagined and created by Jesus.

I believe our sin smeared corruption on everything He made.

I believe Jesus’ finished work on the cross was Him taking His perfect creation back.

I believe you and I are lost without Him.

I believe the only way to life in Him is simple faith.

I believe our sinful state causes us to resist this faith.

I believe our resistance has many names: doubt, skepticism, open-mindedness, tolerance, enlightenment, shallowness, niceness, wait and see, hope for the best, I’ve been wounded by the church.

I believe the real names for our resistance are anger, presumption, foolishness, and hatred.

I believe our culture hates even the sound of His name.

I believe a part of us wants to hate even the sound of His name.

I believe our eternal state hinges on deeply held beliefs about Him.

I believe these deeply held beliefs are evidenced more in our daily small choices and behaviors than in the words we say when we talk of our faith.

I believe in the Holy Spirit as our true help to be good and gain comfort in this life.

I believe in heaven and hell.

I believe there is a real spiritual battle raging all around and in us.

I believe that though the battle can’t be seen with our eyes it is more vital than the things we can see.

I believe the greatest power in life for this battle is the power to forgive.

I believe we can truly forgive only through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I believe there are 2 main governing stories which we choose from as the reality of how we live our lives: The story of God & The story of man.

I believe these things about the story of man: It tells you -

Lies about what it means to be a man and a woman.

To draw life from money, things, power, and sex.

Sex is only about pleasure and life is a commodity to be measured in $ and cents.

The customer is always right…. And you are always the customer.

Life must be fair, and you are the judge of fairness.

You are always being gypped and you are ever the victim.

Parents/authority and rules are a prison.

Freedom is your most fundamental right and true freedom is doing whatever you please.

I believe the story of God stands opposed to the story of man and is the one true reality that tells you -

How to be free in true manhood and womanhood.

To draw life from serving others for Christ.

That you are a sinner before you are a customer.

Only Jesus was gypped and that your life abounds with blessing undeserved.

Sex is about wholeness, obedience, and being in the image of God.

In short the story of man begins with personal power but delivers weakness. Conversely, the story of God begins with godly meekness but delivers true power.

I believe that all of us are more firmly planted in the story of man than we can begin to believe. That is why we:

Get more pleasure from buying than from sacrifice.

Struggle with pornography and lust.

Breathe words of death in the form of gossip, cynicism, anger, sarcasm, criticism, and negativity instead of breathing words of life in the form of encouragement, love, compassion, and fidelity.

Think the topic of modest dress is ridiculous.

Are eager to explore outside the rules, and new ideas are better than old rules.

Judge churches like we rate movies.

Base our theology more on feelings than on Scripture.

I believe we are all broken, lonely, hurting and often angry people, but the story of man sells you broken answers that control your life and keep you from God.

I believe many of us are in the most turbulent, dangerous, lonely and scary time of our lives.

I believe this is what the enemy wants. Paradoxically, this is where Christ does some of His best work. I believe there is more light than darkness, but the darkness cannot comprehend the light. I believe Jesus is calling you out of the world of darkness.

I believe that the local Church is the hope of the world, and that this church cares about you and I am called by God, through this church, despite my sin, to speak to you for God and call you out to be His people.