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Continous Discipleship - Confessional Standards
Prayer: God we thank you for the gifts of faith, for the call to faith, and God we thank you for the trust to place in us to spend our life time thinking of you and still not approach the vastness of your glory. Amen.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) states its faith and
bears witness to God’s grace in Jesus Christ in the creeds and confessions in The Book of Confessions. In these confessional statements the church declares to its members and to the world who and what it is, what it believes, what it resolves to do.
Book of Order G-2.0100
Confessions:
Nicene Creed Apostles’ Creed
Scots Confession Heidelberg Catechism
2nd Helvetic Confession Westminster Confession
Shorter Catechism Larger Catechism
Barmen Declaration Confession of 67
Brief Statement of Faith
A Brief Statement of Faith
In life and in death we belong to God.
Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel,
whom alone we worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ,
Fully human, fully God.
Jesus proclaimed the reign of God: preaching good
news to the poor,
and release to the captives, teaching by word and
deed and blessing the children,
healing the sick and binding up the brokenhearted,
eating with outcasts,
forgiving sinners,
and calling all to repent and believe the gospel.
Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition,
Jesus was crucified, suffering the depths of human
pain and giving his life for the sins of the world.
God raised Jesus from the dead,
vindicating his sinless life,
breaking the power of sin and evil,
delivering us from death to life eternal.
We trust in God, whom Jesus called Abba, Father.
In sovereign love God created the world good
and makes everyone equally in God's image
male and female, of every race and people,
to live as one community.
But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator.
Ignoring God's commandments,
we violate the image of God in others and ourselves,
accept lies as truth, exploit neighbor and nature,
and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.
We deserve God's condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation.
In everlasting love,
the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant
people to bless all families of the earth.
Hearing their cry,
God delivered the children of Israel from the house of
bondage.
Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the
covenant.
Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child,
like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home,
God is faithful still. We trust in God the Holy Spirit,
everywhere the giver and renewer of life.
The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith,
sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and
neighbor,
and binds us together with all believers
in the one body of Christ, the church.
The same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture,
engages us through the Word proclaimed,
claims us in the waters of baptism,
feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation,
and calls women and men to all ministries of the church.
In a broken and fearful world the Spirit gives us
courage to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and
Savior,
to unmask idolatries in church and culture,
to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.
In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit,
we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks
and to live holy and joyful lives,
even as we watch for God's new heaven and new earth,
praying, Come, Lord Jesus! With believers in every
time and place,
we rejoice that nothing in life or in death
can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer: God, we pray that we may grow in our understanding of the church, our beliefs and what you expect us to do. Amen.
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