My Faith

Have faith. Dream. Hope. Don't give up. Believe.

Believe in what? People seem have a need to believe in something - to throw their whole lives into something, whether it be a religion, a person, a creed, or just a nebulous pink-fluffy feeling that everything will be okay someday. There are dozens of Hallmark-card songs out there about "believing." But believing in what?

I believe it's crucial to know what you're putting your faith in. It isn't enough to have faith in faith, or to believe in believing. You have to believe in something. You have to believe in Someone outside of yourself.

I believe in Jehovah, the God of the Hebrew Torah and Christian Bible, the only true God, existing as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, united as One. I believe that He is all-powerful, that He is completely and utterly righteous, that He is loving and just and merciful, and that He created the entire universe in seven literal days as described in the book of Genesis. I believe that the Bible He has given us is holy, completely true and accurate, and our only source of truth for life, faith, and death.

I also believe that, as our Creator, God makes the rules. Rules are meant to protect us. God gave rules to the very first man and woman He created, rules that were meant to create the most peaceful and happy environment for them to live in with Him and with each other; and they broke them. He then gave rules to His people, the Jews, to safeguard them from sin, and they broke the rules, too. He gives all of us consciences to tell us what is right and wrong, and we ignore them. We are lawbreakers and rebels against our Creator.

God is a God of right and justice. As the Creator of the universe, He also has the right to judge it. Because we willfully sinned and committed crimes against Him, He sentenced us to death - not only physical death, but spiritual death: permanent separation from God, from light, from life, from everything good and beautiful, and eternal torture in the black flames of hell.

But that was not the fate that He wanted for us when He created us! He loves us. He loves me. He delights in my idiosyncrasies because He designed them. He knows every feeling of my heart and every thought of my mind, because I am patterned after His own heart and mind. He decided on the color of my eyes and the shape of my smile - the Bible says He knows how many hairs are on my head. His love is as mighty as the greatest waterfall and as gentle as a flowing stream.

Because of this love, He decided to make the greatest sacrifice of all time, the most ultimate expression of love in the universe - He gave His own life in my place, in your place, putting Himself in human flesh and being born from a virgin to live a perfect, sinless life, and to offer that life in place of our own. He took our filthy sins upon His spotless soul and paid every bit of our sentence of physical and spiritual death.

Then, on the third day after His crucifixion, He rose again to life, conquering death and hell for all time. His body was glorified and made immune to death forever. And forty days after His resurrection, He ascended back to heaven to sit down on the right hand of God the Father forever.

The victory is won. The enemy has been conquered. The sentence has been paid - everything, every bit of our salvation has been done by God; and now He offers this beautiful gift to us!

He asks us to accept the fact that we are sinners, that we have broken His laws and that we can't get to heaven on our own merit - that we can never be good enough to pay our own sentence and achieve perfection. He asks us to trust His word and believe that He means what He says, that He is the all-powerful One Who is able to save us. If we believe this, all we have to do is reach out to Him in prayer; and He will meet us with welcoming arms. His payment will be applied to our sin-account and we will be declared paid ... justified ... forgiven!

And when we are forgiven, we are adopted into God's family as His sons and daughters, with all of the rights and privileges of princes and princesses in God's Kingdom. We are given new hearts and new desires. We are given a mission: to take the good news to our families and friends around the world that they, too, can be forgiven.

I accepted God's gift of salvation when I was a very small child; and when I grew older and came to understand both my own great sinfulness and the wealth of blessings that I had been given as a daughter of God, I committed myself at the age of sixteen to put the Lord first in my life and to follow Him in an adult way. I have my commission to take the Good News of Christ to everyone in my world and to follow His orders as a warrior princess. It is my hope and purpose that everything I do, everything I say will show that I belong to Christ and inspire others to want to know Him and His love.

If you have any questions about what I believe and why I believe it, please feel free to leave me a comment anytime on any post and ask me. I'll be more than happy to help you!

~ Vicki