A PIECE OF MY HEART...believe it or not!

How many of you are on facebook?

It is the new craze for connecting with people. What I love about it is the opportunity to connect with people I have lost touch with. Recently, I connected with a relative of mine that I have not seen in several years. We began to talk on facebook and it didn't take long before our conversation was directed towards God and faith.

In the conversation, I found out that this relative of mine is really struggling with his faith. He is confused with what he believes and confused about whether or not what he believes is truth or not.

One night he asked me this question:
"What did you believe before you were Assemblies of God?"
"and what made you choose Assemblies of God?"

Before I could answer his question, I had to think about it. That was truly a loaded question. Certainly one that was thought provoking to me.

I began to ponder on the things that I believe and why I believe them. It is easy to say "I believe", but when asked WHY - how many of us can say why we believe.

Nobody said it better than my son a couple of years ago: shortly after enlisting in the Air Force, my son came home on leave. It happened to be around Veterans Day, our church was having a special service honoring the veterans, and our senior pastor asked our son if he would say a few words about how difficult it is to serve our country and serve our God at the same time. I will never forget my sons comment:

"While completing my training in TEC school, I found myself to be roommates with an atheist and a Catholic. Since our beliefs were very different, we found ourselves to be in quite the challenging conversations. Sometimes there was such a darkness in my room I would have to just get away. I found myself having to know what I believed and why I believed it. It was no longer good enough for me to say 'I believe because my parents believe' or 'I believe because my dad is a pastor'. I had to stand on what I believed and not on what my parents did."

Wow. That is the kind of faith, the kind of belief that my "searching family member" is seeking. He is looking for that kind of faith.

How about you ...

what do you believe? and more importantly WHY?

ROMANS 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."

Too many times we get caught up in "religion", what Paul is saying here in Romans 1 is that the Gospel of Christ is for EVERYONE. It doesn't matter what the name is on the front of your church building.

If you are struggling with what to believe or not to believe ... test it with the Word of God.

Is the church that you are attending teaching what Gods Word says?
Test it.
Prove it.
but most importantly know what the Word of God says.

The Assemblies of God has 16 fundamental truths. One of the reasons I chose a A/G church to attend is because I believe every 16 of those truths line up with the Word of God.

It also was a good idea that I chose Assemblies of God (ha ha) since my husband is an ordained A/G minister!

Can I share with you a few things that I believe?

1. I believe that all scripture is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
2. I believe there is only one true God! (Deut. 6:4)
3. I believe in the deity of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:23)
4. I believe that it was man who willing succumbed to sin (Gen. 1:26,27)
5. I believe that salvation is for everyone (Luke 24:47)
6. I believe in Water Baptism and remembering Christs suffering thru taking Holy Communion (Matthew 28:19)
7. I believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 2:4)
8. I believe in the Divine Healing of the sick (Isaiah 53:4,5)
9. I believe in the Blessed Hope ... that Jesus rill return for His church (1 Thess. 4:16,17)
10. I believe in the Millennial reign of Christ (Zechariah 14:5)
11. I believe in the final judgement (Matthew 25:46)
12. I believe in a new heaven and a new earth that Christ is preparing for His children (2 Peter 3:13)

CLICK HERE to view all 16 fundamental truths of the Assemblies of God

KNOW WHAT YOU BELIEVE MY FRIEND,

FOR ONE DAY, YOU TOO WILL BE ASKED....

"WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE AND WHY?"

and that is a piece of my heart today;