Since I had to write this anyway, I figured I'd post it. The question I was asked was "Please describe your personal faith and Christian experience. What do you consider to be the most significant implications of your faith commitments?" The challenge is to do this briefly. Here's what I came up with:
To love and to glorify the Lord my God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength is my abiding purpose and my deepest pleasure. If I do anything apart from this end I do it in vain.
God is glorified chiefly in worship, and true spiritual worship can only be done by God’s people who are united in love and fellowship with each other and with God in Christ, who has made them holy, redeeming them from sin and misery by grace so that their worship may be acceptable to God and so that He might extend to them something of the fullness that God Himself eternally enjoys in His perichoretic unity.
To that end, God the Son became man, and by his teachings and his life he made it clear that he was the same God who had revealed himself to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel: the God of the Covenant. As both the Messiah and the suffering servant of Israel, he laid down his life on the cross, where he suffered the agony of physical torment and bore God’s justly vindictive wrath in order to make propitiation for the sins of his people. After his death and burial, he was raised from the dead and now has all authority in heaven and on earth. He will come again to judge the world and with finality to separate his people from sin so that they may worship him forever.
All those who by God’s grace repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ are united to Christ and are counted righteous in him. They are also mystically united to one another in Christ and called to live as the holy people that they are.
As a member of that holy church I seek to know God more and more so that I may worship him more deeply. Through prayer and meditation I seek to experience pleasure in God. And with the help and encouragement of other Christians I seek to live in a way that pleases God, avoiding not only outward acts of immorality but also unrighteous thoughts, motives, and desires.
It is my duty and my joy to spend time simply delighting in God, praising him for being who he is, and thanking him for his gifts. Even the air I now breathe is not something I have a right to, but is a gift of God---a most valuable gift too, which is not often valued as much as it should be because it is so common. I frequently pray that I would not be blinded to the ways in which I undervalue God’s gifts, but would be enabled to repent of that sin and of the other sins that still live in me. I also pray for the physical and spiritual needs of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and for justice in the world.
God calls his people to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. By not insisting on our own rights, by not complaining about being treated unfairly, by rebuking each other gently and for the benefit of the one who has sinned against us, and by forgiving each other, we honor God and make clear to the world how we are different and how attractive the gospel is. By befriending and defending the outcast and oppressed we demonstrate to the world what God values. By working to ease suffering and by making known the gospel to those who are willing to hear it, we testify to the truth and display to the world the kingdom of heaven, which Christ will make to fill the whole earth at the time God has appointed.
I wait eagerly for that day when I will receive the inheritance of eternal life that even now is guaranteed by the Holy Spirit who lives in me, trusting God’s promise that after the general resurrection I will be free to perfectly love and glorify the Lord my God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength forever.
thanks chris for sharing this. very encouraging and uplifting indeed.
Posted by: bobw at July 29, 2004 12:41 PMReminds me a lot of the early church creeds, at least in structure. Kudos for big words.
It's funny, if I wrote one of those now that I've graduated from Covenant, I doubt it would look anything like my original essay. In fact, I doubt I'd be accepted as a student.
Posted by: KornSt@r at July 29, 2004 2:53 PM