This blog is following Yeshua the King upstream on The Way; it is an attempt to integrate the worship of the triune God into every facet of existence.
First, and foremost, I'm a baptized, trinitarian, sola Scriptura savoring, creed hollering, orthodox, roll-up-your-sleeves Christian. I've been married to the same amazing babe for going on 25 years now, and we're traveling light with two Irish terriers, a passel of chickens, several rabbits (meat!), and five baptized olive plants (our kids...Ps 128) whom are being discipled at home in the beautiful panhandle region of North Idaho.
In all of it though, my family and I are endeavoring to obey the call of King Jesus to live out the strenuous, cruciform life for His glory and for the love of neighbor. Praying all the while that it'll be accompanied by repentance, song, and laughter on our lips.
A Personal Confession of Biblical Belief
I believe that my one aim in life, death and resurrection should, and will be, to daily worship and glorify Yahweh the triune God – Father, Jesus, and Spirit – and enjoy Him now and forever; and that I come to understand how to glorify Him by His holy Word, the Bible, which He has given to mankind by the infallible inspiration of the Holy Spirit in order that all people may know with certainty what we are to believe concerning Him and what duties He requires of all His image-bearers.
I believe that God is love, infinite, eternal and incomparable in all that He is: one God but three persons, my Creator, my Redeemer, and my Sanctifier in whose power, wisdom, righteousness, goodness and truth I may safely put my trust.
I believe that the heavens and the Earth, and all that is in them, are the work of God that He created in six days, and that all of it He directs and governs so that they might fulfill the purpose for which they were created; and I who trust in Him will not be put to shame but may rest securely in the protection of His almighty love.
I believe that God created man after His own image in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and that it was by willfully disobeying God that man fell into the death and misery in which all since have been born into.
I believe that all people are fallen in covenant with Adam, our first father, and that we are by nature children of wrath, under the condemnation of God and corrupted in body and spirit, prone to evil and liable to eternal death. There is no possible way to be delivered from this dreadful state of existence except through the unmerited, undeserved GRACE of our Savior, Jesus, who is the new, perfect Adam.
I believe that God has not left mankind to perish in its rebellion and death, but out of His great mercy with which He has loved us He has graciously chosen unto Himself -- in eternity past -- a vast multitude of people from every tongue, color, and nation, to save them from sin and suffering and for them to take covenantal shelter in Jesus the Messiah.
I believe that God has redeemed His elect people unto Himself through Jesus Christ who was and ever will continue to be the eternal Son of God, yet emptied and lowered Himself in such a way to be born of a woman, born under Mosaic law that He might redeem those that are under the Law. Jesus then bore the penalty due His chosen ones sins in His own body on the Cross, and fulfilled in His own person the obedience His elect owe to the righteousness of God. He now presents His chosen Congregation to the Father as His purchased possession, to the praise of the glory of His grace forever. Therefore, I renounce all merit of my own, and place all my trust in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ my Savior.
I believe that Jesus Christ my redeemer, who died for my offences, was raised from the dead for my justification, and ascended into Heaven, where He sits at the right hand of the Father Almighty, continually making intercession for His People; from there Jesus governs the whole Earth – which now is His Kingdom – as head over all things for His Church. Therefore, I needn’t fear Satan nor evil men, being assured that nothing can snatch me out of His hands nor separate me from His love.
I believe that the salvation wrought by the Lord Jesus is effectually applied to all His chosen People by the Holy Spirit who works faith in me, and unites me to Christ and renews me thoroughly after the image of God. He enables me to more and more crucify my fleshly, sinful desires and to live unto righteousness as His gracious work is being completed in me.
I believe that God requires of me under the New Covenant, first of all, that I should with grief and disgust, repent of my disobedience toward my Creator with a true sense of my sin and misery, and by my new understanding of Jesus’ grace toward me, rest upon Him alone for my salvation. Then upon being united to Him, I may receive pardon for my sins and be accepted as righteous in God's sight but only because of the covenantal righteousness of Christ, and received by the gift of faith alone. By all of this, and this only, do I believe I may be received into the Family of God and have the rights and privileges of the children of God.
I believe that, having been pardoned and accepted for Christ's sake, it is required of me that I walk in the Spirit by whom agape-love has been shed in my heart, which enables me to fulfill the obedience I owe to Christ the King; and that I should faithfully perform all the duties laid upon me by the holy Law of God. I should always reflect in my life and words, the perfect example that has been set for me by Christ Jesus my Shepherd, who has died for me and granted to me the Holy Spirit so that I may do the good works which God has prepared beforehand that I may walk in them.
I believe that God has established His Congregation in the world and endowed it with the holy means of grace: the Scriptures, baptism, the Lord's Supper, prayer, and koinonia in order that the riches of His grace in the Gospel may be made known to one-another and to the world. It is required of me as well, that I intentionally use these means of grace with diligence and preparation so that through them I may be instructed and strengthened in faith, holiness of life and in agape-love with other believers; and that I – by the Spirit and by living out a bold, strenuous, self-sacrificing life – carry and push the Gospel message of Jesus' kingship and His atoning death for sinners, out into dark corners of the world. This transforming power of the Gospel is what Christ is now using before He comes again to mercifully place all enemies under His feet, and to slowly and progressively renew the whole Earth akin to what it is like in Heaven.
I believe that just as Jesus the Messiah once came bodily in grace, so also He will come a second time bodily in glory, and will judge all people in righteousness and assign to each one their eternal destiny: either completely destroyed and annihilated with Satan and his followers in the second and final death, or blessed forever with God on the new Earth.
I believe that if a person dies in faith in Christ before His second coming that person or his soul -- meaning his whole-self composed of his body and spirit -- will "sleep" in Sheol (i.e. death) until the second coming of Jesus; and, upon His return again in majesty, all those who were or are His chosen People in covenant with Him, will either be bodily resurrected or transformed alive into perfect, whole, complete blessedness and the full enjoyment of God for all-time in the new Earth and heavens. I take encouragement by this blessed hope and know it is required of me to willingly take my part in suffering hardship here and now as a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, being assured that if I die with Jesus I shall also live with Jesus; if I endure, I shall also reign on Earth with Him.
To the Risen One, Jesus our Redeemer and friend, together with the Father, and Holy Spirit – three Persons, one God – be glory forever and ever, creation without end! Amen and amen.
Advent 2011
Advent 2011
