What Are We?

Hmm. Paul asks a good question. It's actually made me stop and think. I appreciate the question; but what I appreciate more is that Paul can't label me. I like it that way. I don't like labels. Here is a little bit of how I feel about THE Church. I wrote this back in December of '04. We don't belong to a denomination. That's not to say that we are in the “non-denominational” groups, such as Church of Christ. I would throw the Churches of Christ (at least the ones in this area) in the denominational group, although they claim not to be. We have been to several churches/denominations seeking like-minded believers and establishing our doctrine. What we've realized is that you don't let a church or denomination establish your doctrine. You let the Bible and the Holy Spirit establish your doctrine. We have not been to a church where we believed the complete doctrine of any denomination. We do, however, believe some of each church. Every church we've been to has been a blessing to us in one form or another, and we always have taken something away. Sometimes it was “Boy, I'll never set foot in there again!” We personally have been to Church of Christ (was raised in that most of my young life), Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal and some “home” or small group fellowships. Have met some really nice people along the way. Some who I believe are totally sold out to the Lord.

For me to list my complete faith and doctrine stance would take a long time and would probably have to be broken up over several post, but I'll hit the high-lights.

• I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

• I believe the Bible is a literal book, written by man but inspired by God (my preference is KJV). [Theres a couple posts at this link titled Literal Bible]
  

• I believe that Jesus came down from heaven to die for the redemption of all man.

• I believe that His blood purifies and redeems us.

• I believe that we can put away our sinful nature and live a holy life, pleasing to the Lord.

• I believe that you can have assurance of your salvation that no one can take from you.

• I believe that you can forfeit/loose that salvation through life decisions.

• I believe in the New Testament church.

• I believe that the Holy Spirit still works in the way it did in the New Testament.

• I believe that Jesus Christ is coming back a second time to gather his Church/Bride home with Him.

Obviously, this is pretty broad. I didn't hit a lot of hot topics (I tend to skip over the end-times discussions like tribulation, millennia, rapture and so-on) and some that I've argued a lot of my life (baptism, communion, speaking in tongues). Some I'm still trying to figure out.

We are at a church/fellowship (no denominational ties or even name for that matter - started out as a house church) now that is made up of families that don't agree on many of these issues. They may debate them in private or men's-round-table-discussions, but typically aren't preached about from the pulpit. We are there because it is safe for my family to worship there. We have been to places that we may have agreed with more of the preaching, but you didn't dare let your children go to Sunday School or play with many of the other kids out of sight or hearing range. I believe that your children should be involved and should be able to make friends at church.

What it boils down to is believing the Bible. Seeking God's wisdom. Listening to the Spirit. Trusting in Christ Jesus.

Paul, if this is too broad and didn't answer your questions, let me know and I'll take another stab at it. Maybe ask more direct or specific questions; like: what is your stance on...? Or maybe you don't really care. That's fine too.

God bless!

Update

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive. I was hoping to get something logged in January, but obviously that didn't happen. We have had quite a time the last few months. Early in December we were coming home from a church meeting at a church we used to attend. The weather was pretty nasty (first REAL snow of the year) and I wasn't used driving the van we purchased in May. To make a long story short, we rolled the van in the ditch, ending up on our side. Kind of an interesting experience. Praise God no one got injured (except my wife getting whiplash). We got the van fixed, but it's given us problems since. The strange part is that the problems are in no way related to the accident.
We also had a water line rupture in the back yard causing it to flood. I mentioned it to the guys at church. "Just start digging at the water leak" they told me. I fell for it. I started digging. I dug for four hours the first day and didn't even find the water line. Two hours the next day...still no line. Two days after that, one of the guys from the church came over to help dig. We finally found the line five and a half feet in the ground. We dug all day and couldn't find the leak. Next day two more guys from the church came over to dig. They found and fixed the leak. We still have a large hole in the back yard that I'm slowly getting filled in.
We've been pretty busy at work. There's a big gathering of orthopedic surgeons in Chicago happening in March that my company always attends so we've been gearing up for that.
The family went through the flu a couple weeks ago. I was the only one to escape it's clutches.
I've really been enjoying some music that I downloaded (legally) off the web. It's all scripture set to music. I've really been enjoying a group called Scripture Song. It's kind of folky. I find it a refuge at work. You can visit them here and download songs from each of their albums. I've got to get some of the CD's. We found them from this web-site that has a lot of different groups/artist that primarily put scripture to music. I can't recommend it all because I haven't listened to them all, but some of it's quite enjoyable to me. Just go to the MP3 page.
I preach next weekend at church. The message that been working through my mind goes along with the message that the elder of our church preach last weekend. Should be interesting. Hopefully my message won't seem conflicting to his message.
We are six animals lighter these days. We got rid of our goats. I didn't have the time or money to get a suitable enclosure built for them. Crazy animals escaped everything I tried in the past. They need something more like San Quentin then standard fencing. Rebellious animals! Our pigs have joined our chickens in the freezer. Fresh bacon, ham and sausage...can't beat it. We have also eliminated all roosters from our flock. We were finding things not-so-desirable in our eggs. We should be in good shape now, and our neighbors should hate us less for not having the natural alarm clocks going off at 4:00 a.m.
That's enough for now. It's getting late for me.
God bless!