Last week, I replied to a question from a friend about why I write on Church Set Free. His response back to me was I had written a doxology. I think it may be more my own private creed. So, in order to make myself a little better known to you, I decided to reveal my creed. Because it’s why I write both on my own blog, and here in this community of believers.

Other than the Nicene Creed, I believe God is love.

I believe God loves you, whoever you are. Wherever you are. Whatever you are.

I believe you don’t have to be free from sin or perfect or even close to it to have an intimate relationship with Him.

I believe He holds His arms out in a waiting embrace for you. I believe once you come to Him, He’ll never abandon you. He came with love and grace to set you free from chains of shame and guilt. I believe that’s the message of His Gospel.

I believe spending time along with God daily brings me closer to Him. It’s a relationship I want to not only maintain, but do my all to grow and flourish.

I believe prayer works, even the smallest of prayers, because He is always listening. He might not answer right now, or the way I think they should be answered, but sometimes He does.

I believe, like the apostle Paul, “that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not death, life, angels, or ruling spirits. I am sure that nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us or nothing below us—nothing in the whole created world—will ever be able to separate us from the love God has shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

I believe I am only one of His body of believers gathered together to declare His Message of love to whoever will listen.

As a member of this online church, this disparate body of believers, I desire to spread the Message of Jesus – his Good News – so everyone knows Jesus was not just about being a substitution for our sin – He is so much more than that.

Jesus welcomes you into God’s family and gives you a permanent and forever home alive and abounding with everlasting love, grace and mercy. His Spirit dwells inside your heart. This heart-to-heart connection is one I live, write about, and want you to have, too.

Is it all fun and roses? Absolutely not.

I still have hardship. I have doubts and questions. I write about those, too, and how to reckon with them with the help of the God I have come to know and love.

Because I believe I have been set free by that love.

And I want you to be, too.