.We
are created in the Image of God. We are like God in that we too
create.
But we are unlike God in that we are limited and we create Good and
Evil.
Even our best efforts and our best intentions cannot guarantee the
results
of our actions. We fail and this is our nature. We judge
and
are judged.
.I
believe in Jesus Christ, the only true human face of God. He
alone
is wholly human and wholly God.
.Jesus
was conceived and born of God and humanity. He was the son of
Mary
and Joseph and the Child of God. He taught by word and act that
the
Kingdom of God is here now. He healed and comforted. He
blessed
and forgave. He laughed and cried. He sang and
danced.
He loved. He called disciples to follow him doing the same.
He worked and lived not among the high and mighty and secure but the
meek
and lowly and powerless. He called to account his church,
government
and society. He called us to speak and act with compassion toward
one another.
.When
the world needed a sacrifice he freely gave his life. Though he
was
innocent and his only offence was to offend the authorities they
convicted
him and sentenced him to death. And the mob of humanity went
along
with this. He suffered and died like us that we might know that
God
does not abandon us in suffering and death.
.He
returned from death and he comes again now so that we know that death
is
not the end.
.Jesus
is Christ, the One given by God to call us in the Name of God to follow
God's Way.
.In
Jesus Christ God is offering once and for all grace, reconciliation and
salvation to those who have turned away, stumbled and fallen.
Christ
is the embodiment of God's Grace for us and He calls us to respond by
being
the same for each other. In Christ we see God manifest as love,
grace,
hope, peace, meaning, strength and joy. Yet we also see that love
is not God; nor grace; nor hope; nor peace; nor meaning; nor strength;
nor joy.
.The
Church in all ages and places is the Body and Presence of Christ with
us
and the Communion of those who have received and embody the Grace of
God.
In the Church we are united with Christ, each other, the Church past,
present
and future, and the world.
.I
believe in the Spirit of God who dwells with us and inspires, enlivens,
comforts, strengthens, delights and leads us in feeling, thought and
action
to see, understand and do what is required to follow God's Way.
Anything that inspires, enlivens,
comforts, strengthens, delights and leads us in feeling, thought and
action is spirit. The Spirit
of God is distinguished and known because it is uniquely revealed in
Jesus Christ. The Spirit of
God maintains the Church but is embodied and manifest in the
world.
.I
believe in the resurrection of the body which is the only self
incarnation
we know.
.I
believe in life in the presence of God which is full, complete and
eternal.
.Return
to Tom Jonard's Faith page.