PreacherMike

Here, for Holy Week, is Highland’s Foundations of Faith statement:

We believe in one all-powerful God of love,
who made the world good
and made humankind in His image,
to enjoy fellowship with Him and with one another,
and to care for His creation as imitators of Him.
He deserves all our worship and praise.
But we sin against God;
disbelieving Him, disobeying Him, hiding from Him,
we strive to become our own gods;
ruining our relationships with Him, with our neighbors, and with nature,
we are lost in death and deserve God’s condemnation.
Yet in His justice and mercy God has acted to redeem His creation,
choosing a covenant people to bless all peoples of the earth.
In His grace and faithfulness, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.

We believe in God’s only Son, Jesus Christ,
fully human, fully God,
the Word through whom all things were made.
Jesus came to the earth to teach the Truth and to proclaim the reign of God,
preaching good news to the poor,
release to the captives,
healing for the sick,
and forgiveness of sins.
He called all people to repent and believe the Gospel,
the Good News that salvation is found in Him alone.
He was crucified for us,
and on the third day God raised Him from the dead,
defeating the powers of evil and death
and securing for humankind forgiveness of sins
by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone.
He instructed us to observe the Lord’s Supper in His memory
so that by participating in His body and blood
we regularly commune with Him and with one another.
He ascended to the Father, where He is now our priest and advocate in whose name we pray.
He is Head of the Church under which our congregation governs itself.
He will return to judge the living and the dead
and to deliver us from death to life eternal with God in heaven.
He invited us to join Him as his obedient disciples
in the work of His ministry, the proclamation of the Gospel,
and the forming of disciples.

We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the gift of God promised through Christ for His children and for the Church.
The Spirit convicts the world of sin,
and is the pledge of our adoption as God’s children.
The Spirit intercedes for us in prayer;
and claims us in the waters of baptism,
in which believers are immersed for the forgiveness of sins
to be united with Christ in His Body.
The Spirit of holiness and freedom liberates us from sin,
and claims us as servants of purity,
conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ in our attitudes and conduct.
The Spirit binds us together with believers of all times and places
in the one Body of Christ, the Church;
and calls and empowers men and women for various ministries
for building up the Body
and carrying out Jesus’ ministry in the world.
The Spirit inspired the prophets and apostles to speak God’s Word,
guiding the preservation, study, and proclamation of Scripture,
both Old and New Testaments,
the unique revelation of God under which we stand,
our authoritative guide for faith and life.

To God be the glory in the Church and in Jesus Christ
throughout all generations,
for ever and ever! Amen.