I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. [1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NLT)]
When visiting our mountain church last year, we sang one of Hillsong United’s hits: This I Believe (The Creed). I don’t think I’ve ever been more enthusiastic when declaring my faith in our triune God and it was a joy to sing out my belief. Recitation of the creeds is usually not a part of that church’s worship service and it was wonderful to have the whole congregation join in loudly singing a united statement of our faith.
I believe in life eternal; I believe in the virgin birth.
I believe in the saints’ communion And in Your holy Church.
I believe in the resurrection When Jesus comes again,
For I believe, in the name of Jesus. …
I believe in God our Father. I believe in Christ the Son.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, Our God is three in one.
I believe in the resurrection – That we will rise again,
For I believe in the name of Jesus.
[“This I Believe (The Creed)” by Hillsong United]
The Nicene and Apostle’s Creeds are the most universally accepted and recognized statements of the Christian faith and many of us regularly recite one of these creeds during worship. Unfortunately, we may say the same words so frequently that it’s easy to have them roll off our tongues without engaging our brains. Last month, during the Father’s Day service, our pastor exchanged the traditional Apostle’s Creed with a paraphrased version. Using different words to say essentially the same thing made me think about what I actually was declaring. That creed’s source is unknown, it isn’t an official part of our church’s doctrine or worship service, and its words aren’t over 1600 years old as are those in the traditional creeds. Nevertheless, its words are a beautiful interpretation of those ancient statements of faith.
We believe in God, the one who comes before us and goes behind us, creating life and opportunities to love and care for the world. We believe in Jesus Christ who walks with us into real life each day. He is God, yet human like us and experienced all life’s joys and pains and challenges like we do. But his love is so great that not sin nor suffering nor even death could stop it. Today the love of Jesus lives and continues to bring new life to the world. We believe in the Holy Spirit who comes like the wind and blows in and through us to bring God’s power and light to all the world. The Spirit breathes life into us, the body of Christ we call the church, and enables us to follow the way of Christ. We believe in God, who goes before and behind, with, in, and through us, bringing hope and life and newness to the world. Amen [Source Unknown]
What is it you believe? We’re told to be ready to explain why we have the hope we have and our Christian creeds are a good place to start. As we’ve seen, they can be simplified and paraphrased. They answer the simple question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?”
His testimony enraged the Jewish high council and he was taken from the city and stoned to death. Stephen was the first of the Christian martyrs but clearly not the last. We’ve all been horror-stricken by the recent news from Egypt where ISIS thugs attacked Coptic Christians on their way to a remote monastery. According to witnesses, the men were told their lives would be spared if they recited the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith. When they refused to do so, they were gunned down. Since December, more than 100 Coptic Christians have died in Egypt in four different attacks. On Palm Sunday, two of their churches were bombed leaving forty-four dead. It’s not easy being a Christian in Egypt.
I’m in the midst of reading a series of seven children’s fantasy novels, The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. Some of them, like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I read as a girl but others are new to me. The world of Narnia is a world to which one wants to return again and again and I’m enjoying my visit ever so much. C.S. Lewis, however, was much more than a writer of fantasy, non-fiction and poetry; he was a well-known lecturer, a brilliant scholar and a renowned Christian apologist.
I found an odd synchronicity in my morning’s reading. The verse for the day was Matthew 7:12, the Golden Rule: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.” Following that was a story by Christian author and speaker Lysa Terkeurst. She wrote about speaking to a group when a woman walked up on stage, stood next to her, and then leaned into her. Standing before an audience of 6,500 women, unsure of what to do, the author simply put her arm around the woman and continued speaking. The woman later said she needed God and thought if she got close enough to the Christian speaker, she just might feel Him. The third portion of my reading included the above selection from C.S. Lewis’ writings.
“A Christian doesn’t die,” declared the pastor, which may have been news to some of those attending the Celebration of Life. “He just moves!” the minister added as an explanation. Indeed, we are just temporary residents here on earth. Death for a Christian is simply a relocation and, unlike most moves we’ve made, it doesn’t require a purging of the items in the attic, garage sales, packing up boxes, or wrangling friends into helping us carry the heavy stuff! This is one transfer that neither requires moving vans nor mail forwarding.
Devotions of the Heart 