My Personal Beliefs

I believe that the God of the Bible is the mighty, powerful, just and loving creator of all things.

I believe that Jesus called the Christ is God's son, that he lived perfectly and is the example for all mankind to follow.

I believe that the prophecies of the Messiah from the Old Testament came true with Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection.

I believe that Jesus died for the purpose of giving mankind a personal relationship with God.

I believe that Jesus Christ rose again from the dead and ascended to Heaven as related in the gospels.

I believe Jesus' assertion that there is no other true God, and that God always existed, exists now, and always will exist.

I believe that God in essence completely and perfectly embodies all of these words: knowledge, wisdom, love, charity, grace, friendship, justice, purity, and peace.

I believe that God looks only at the heart and holds no prejudices.

I am trying to live my life as a "follower of Jesus" rather than a "Christian", if that makes sense, dropping Christian traditions that have evolved since Jesus walked this earth, and opting instead to follow simply what I can see in the gospels. I have also decided I would rather just be me, attempting to mold myself to what I believe God wants of me, than put on a nice smiley face.

I also completely agree with (and clumsily try to follow) the principles in rhymes_with_kerouac's "Following Jesus Manifesto" from his Today At The Mission blog.

The 'Following Jesus Manifesto'

1. Stop talking about Jesus. Just stop. If we loved the people around us half as much as we say we love Jesus the rest of this manifesto would be entirely redundant.

2. Live a secret life. Invest the time, effort and vulnerability necessary to delve deeply into the scripture and prayer. Spend long periods of time in stillness. There is no shortcut to this, there is no other way. Without a deep and secret life we soon find ourselves talking about Jesus instead of being like Jesus.

3. Stop pretending. I'm a Christian, and I suck. So do you. Let's get that out of the way, shall we?

4. Give more than you get. There will always be more than enough.

5. Be present for those around you. Following Jesus has nothing to do with your work, your resume or your income. In fact, nothing that matters does.

6.Treasure broken-ness. Our broken places are sacred spaces in our heart. Honour them. Value them. In doing so you love the unlovely, publicly declaring the beauty of God's image in everyone. Greet the broken with comfort and cool water.

7. Throw a party.

8. Know Jesus well enough to recognize him on the street. This is rather important, because he can always be found on the street - and he usually looks more like a pan-handler than a preacher.

9. Accept ingratitude and abuse as a fixed cost. Embrace them, and then go the extra mile.

10. If you follow Jesus, you will anger religious people. This is how you will know.


I am also trying to live according to the following scripture from Romans 12, verses 9 to 18. They seem nice on the surface, but at times they can be very difficult to live up to!