I Believe...

I thought I would take a little bit today to try to put what I believe into some kind of defined statement. I'm not sure where this is heading exactly, so come along for the ride.

1) I believe that God (YHWH) exists and has existed from the beginning, that He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, that He is a compound unity expressing Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that He is personally interested and involved in my life.

2) I believe that sin entered the world through God's first created man, Adam, and that all men since have inherited a sin nature. I believe that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I believe that sin separates us from God and that the wages of sin is death. I believe that I am a sinner also, deserving of death (eternal separation from God, Who is Life) and that there is NOTHING I can do to save myself.

3) I believe that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Yeshua the Messiah, the Holy Sinless Spotless Lamb of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary into the tribe of Judah, to suffer & die, shedding His blood, in my place and in the place of every other person, that whoever would call upon the name of Yeshua would be saved.

4) I believe that I am redeemed from sin's penalty, not by my own efforts, not with silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Yeshua the Messiah. There is not one thing that I can do that will save myself or ensure my place in eternity with God, except to confess my sins to Him, repent (turn away from my sins), and believe that His blood makes a covering for me to be washed clean of my sins. I believe that as I do this He is faithful and just to forgive me of all of my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

5) I believe that as I take this step of faith and believe in Yeshua as my Messiah, my Savior from sin, I am adopted into God's family, grafted into His family tree (the olive tree, as Scripture calls it). I believe that He becomes not only my God, but also my Father, my Abba. I also believe that with this adoption there comes responsibility to learn my Father's Will and to do what pleases Him.

6) I believe that the Bible is wholly true, wholly the Word of God, and wholly to be followed. I believe that there is not one word of the Bible that has been done away with or that is not valid for my life today. I believe that I need to read, study and meditate on that Word daily so that I can learn more about my Father God, Yeshua, and how I am to live so that He is glorified in me.

7) I believe that my Father God is holy and that I must be holy, as He is holy, because He has so commanded it. I understand from His Word that He abhors worship that is polluted by idolatrous practices, that my worship must be in spirit and in truth, and must be holy, according to His commands. I believe that "a little leaven leavens the whole lump" and that I need to be very careful not to mix worldly or idolatrous practices into my worship of the LORD, thinking that it's made okay by being given to Him. To obey is better than sacrifice, the Word says, and I need to remember that.

8) I believe that Yeshua is returning soon, perhaps in my lifetime, and that I need to be busy about His Work, redeeming the time because the days are full of evil. I believe that He is coming to give to each person according as his work is and that there will be a judgment. I want to hear Him say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of the LORD."

9) I believe that in the world we will have tribulation and that we may well be called upon to live through the time of tribulation that the Bible portrays in Revelations and elsewhere, but that He will return for His own before God pours out His wrath on the unbelievers and disobedient. I believe that we need to be prepared to persevere through tribulation, to hold fast and not fall away.

10) I believe that He Who calls us is faithful and true, that He can be depended on in every circumstance of life, that there is no need to fear because He is always with us, His children, and He will never leave us or forsake us. I believe that His compassions fail not and His mercies are new every morning. I believe that He cares about every detail of our lives and that we can wholeheartedly cast every care that we have on Him because He cares for us.

I think I could probably list an even dozen easily, if not more, but will stop with this. I think these are the basics anyway.

I also wanted to clarify something I wrote in a previous post. In my post Just Like Ruth, I wrote: "So have we--have I--left behind all of my Gentile culture, traditions, and "Christianity" to embrace Yeshua's people and His God?." When I put the word 'Christianity' in there, I was referring to all the traditions of men that have defined Christianity over the centuries, most of which are not Biblical and would not have been practiced by Yeshua or His disciples. So yes, I guess you can say this is another "I believe..." statement. I believe that the Christian church today bears very little resemblance to the community of believers who followed Yeshua in the beginning and that we need to return to the same walk that they had if we are to really "walk in the same way that He walked." I believe that involves obeying Torah because Torah is the foundation of the Gospel. I believe that you cannot separate Torah from Yeshua or from a walk of obedience to Him. I believe that Yeshua was the Torah made flesh and through His life, we can understand how to live a Torah obedient life, a life that brings our Father God great delight and fills us with joy. I believe that walking in Yeshua's ways, studying and obeying Torah, will enable us to fulfill the two greatest commandments, to love the LORD our God with all of our heart, soul, mind & strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. I believe that we need to seek out and study the Hebraic roots of our faith in Yeshua, to learn to understand the Scriptures from the historical, cultural, and Torah context that Yeshua taught them in and His disciples understood them in, so that we can be workers that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, being do-ers of the Word and not hearers only.