You’re probably very aware that there are lots of different churches around, sometimes even right next to each other… all claiming to be Christian. It can be very confusing! Usually the foundational points are the same but there are differences in how we worship and how to interpret the Bible… and whilst it would be impossible to do it justice here, we hope that following may help. At the heart of most churches, including LBK is a being called Jesus Christ.
Who is Jesus?
God’s desire above all else is to spend eternity with us in a loving relationship that begins now and lasts forever with him. In order for this to happen, he needed to make himself known to us in a personal way. He needed to understand how we feel about things, and to understand our suffering, and so it is important that He too experienced these things. God chooses to reveal himself to us in Jesus, and we can know God by knowing Jesus… someone who lived on earth and felt things that we feel.
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” John 14:9
Being from God, Jesus was also able to deal with the things that prevent us from knowing God fully. Whether it’s our guilt or times we’ve hurt others, or lied or cheated… the bible calls it ‘sin’, and Jesus chose to go to a cross where he was crucified for our sins.
“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
The impact of this event was beyond words, but on a personal level, he took our sin upon himself to effectively clear our name, he defeated the forces that prevent us from knowing God, and ultimately, because He did this for each and everyone of us, He shows the depths of God’s love for us. That He would go to such lengths so that we can once more by united with God for all eternity! This IS good news!
And because God loves all He made and wants others to know about His love for them, He chooses to work through the lives of ordinary people who have themselves chosen to believe and trust Him and asks us to share this good news through our actions and our words.
What’s amazing, is that because He wants people to know Him and because He wants that eternal relationship to start as soon as we turn to Him, He unites Himself with us in The Holy Spirit, who helps us become all we were designed to be and empowers us to share the good news by making Him known. This is why, we want to encourage Christians to share their faith, and to put into action the following commandment…
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…” and “Love your neighbour as yourself” Matthew 28:37-38
And so essentially God wants us to know Him as loving Father, whom we can know through Jesus and can continue to relate with in the Spirit and therefore you have what Christians call the Trinity: One God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
What does this look like in our every day?
With God revealing himself to us in Jesus and choosing to be part of our world at a particular time and in a particular location, we have to take seriously the information provided by those who were either present or around close to that time and place, particularly if they are writing about Jesus. Therefore the bible, although written by people, we believe to be inspired by God (through His Spirit) and is all important for us to understand and get to know Him. The bible ultimately points people to Jesus and is invaluable to us as Christians.
Yet because this is a relationship with a loving God, we can relate with Him particularly through prayer (see our prayer page).
In Church
It its hugely important that if Jesus is the revelation of God, and the bible is revealing Jesus to us, then our worship and teaching needs to be centred on the Bible.
Whilst the Bible is hugely important and invaluable, and God can certainly use it to speak to us through the words, it is also important to hear them in the context of those who would have heard them initially and this can be an equally exciting and revealing adventure as we seek to hear what God might be saying to us but also to those its original context.
We hope that makes sense but the vicar is always available to explore any questions you might have. To help you, here is a video that outlines the Christian faith.
Short video for you to watch about the Christian faith
Thanks to Christianity explored for allowing use of this video