What We Believe
We believe the most important thing is to want what God wants. God's intentions were made very clear when Jesus answered a question asked of Him in Mathew 22:36-40. The question is "What is the greatest commandment?" Jesus answered with, "Thou shall love the Lord your God in all your heart in all your soul and in all your mind. This is the first and great commandment." He goes on to say, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Then finishes up with this statement, "On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." Everything we do depends on these two commandments.
This is what God wants, and this is the reason He gave His only begotten Son, so we can recieve forgivness of sins and have opportunity to enter into this relationship with Him.The Greek word translated love is agape. Agape is what God is, 1 John 4:8&16. We believe in order to fulfill the two greatest commandments we need God's love. In 1 John 4:19 John wrote, "We love [agape] because He first loved [agaped] us.
We believe that God wants to pour His love into our hearts just as He did in the first century church, Romans 5:5.
Jesus said in Mathew 5:17, "I have not come to destory the law and the prophets, but to fulfill." Jesus lived a life agaping His Father in all His heart, in all His soul, and in all His mind. Jesus lived in the Father's agape, and that is what enabled Him to keep His Father's commandments. We are commanded to keep the commandments in 1 Jn 5:3. We believe the only way to keep the Father's commandments is to abide in His agape. The sorce of His agape can be found in His Son. Paul wrote in Romans 8:39, "nothing can separate us from the agape of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus said in John 15:9, "As the Father has loved [agaped] me, so have I loved [agaped] you, abide in My love [agape]. In verse 12 Jesus states, "This is My commandment, that you love [agape] one another even as I have loved [agaped] you.
We believe that to fulfill Jesus's commandment, which is the heart of the Father, we need to enter into a love relationship with Jesus based on agape not phileo (man's love).
We believe there is a great outpouring of agape coming, that will produce prefection in the saint and answer the prayers of Jesus in John 17:20-23.
We believe there will be a new church that will fit the pattern Paul wrote about in Ephsians 5 27, "a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, a church holy and blamless."
~Also~
Before Jesus was glorified (just like we are going to be when we leave this earth to live forever as joint heirs with Jesus, Ro 8:17), He walked and lived His 33 and a half year life just like you and I. The difference between Jesus and us is He never knew sin. The verse Paul wrote in Romans 3:23 "all have sinned and missed the glory," never applied to Him. His life in God's glory is what God wanted for His creation from the beginning.
We believe Jesus was human just like us, with no special abilities of His own, thus the reason He said in John 5:19,30, "That of myself I can do nothing." When the rich man called Him good, Jesus asked, "Why call Me good? There is none good but one, that is God." Mark 10:18.
Jesus took no credit for the way He was able to live His life. He knew what He was, was a direct result of the power and glory and agape that came from His Father. David wrote in Ps 18:32, "It is God that girds me with strength, and makes my way perfect." Jesus knew His life was a product of the Father, and we will know and live by the same truth, when we are conformed into the image of Jesus who is the firstborn among many brethren, Romans 8:29. I maintain that you can't be the firstborn of something if there is nothing like you that follows.
The Father's plan is that we become what Jesus is. He is the first man to carry out the Father's eternal purpose, Ephesians 3:11. Just like the first Adam enjoyed an unbroken fellowship with his Father before the fall, so Jesus who knew no sin, 2 Corinthians 5:21, also enjoyed unbroken fellowship with the Father which produced the image and likeness of the Father in His life, Hebrews 1:3.
We believe the reason for the virgin birth is twofold. Jesus was born outside the blood linage of Adam which placed Him on the same foundation as the first Adam before the fall. Second His Father was un-fallen which influenced His life differently than the influence of our fathers, Luke 2:40. Jesus is a walking example of what the Father's intentions were for man. Jesus lived an un-fallen life and became like His Father.
Jesus said in Mathew 5:8, "blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." Jesus always had a pure heart and therefore His relationship with the Father was unbroken which produced a life of power and love, not a life of weakness. It wasn't till the last few moments of His life hanging on the cross, when, He who knew no sin became sin. This caused Him to cry out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus experienced for the first time in His life what we all accept as common, separation from God and life. The impact was so severe, that He died from a broken heart.
Another reason we believe Jesus was a man like you and I is found in the writings of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, "For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead." Vs 22, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive." Since a man opened the door to spiritual death, it has to be a man to close the door, by living a life fulfilling all the laws of God, proving to all, that a man could live for God. Jesus closed the door to spiritual death and reopen the door to life in the spirit.
In John 9:33 the blind man who was healed said it best, "If this man where not of God, he could do nothing. Just like us if God doesn't move in our lives then we can do nothing, John 3:27.