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Friday, February 1, 2008

Pray through your creeds...

--I believe in God, the Father Almighty
Thank you God that your are my Father. You adopted me and called me your own. You called me from darkness and death, and you breathed new life into me, marking me as your own, and giving me inheritance in heaven! You are mighty and you alone are God, there is none like you, and there is no other! You are a God perfect in all of your ways, and infinitely above me. You are the strong man who keeps me safe.
--Maker of heaven and earth
All of creation is yours, and you made everything perfect! From something so large as the space and all the stars within, to something so small as the atom and all the parts within. All of creation praises your name and stands as proof of your goodness and your perfection. A grand, majestic designer who intimately created everything and knows all his creation by name!
--And in Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ! The name above all names! The man who was fully man and fully God! Perfect in all his ways. All the prophets and patriarchs looked forward to him, and now we look back to him! Oh, so sweet a name, the embodiment of your love for us!
--His only begotten son, our Lord
While we are adopted children, Christ Jesus is the only son who shares the full likeness of you our Father! We are mere humans, mortal and created. But Jesus is not like us in that regard! He alone is the Son of God who has the essence of our Father! He is Lord and we serve him! Though he sympathizes with our humanness, he is God incarnate, and when we see Him, we see you, God!
--Was conceived by the holy spirit
While he is a man, he is not like us. He is the only begotten of God! While we are born from fleshly fathers, Your Spirit came upon Mary and from You he was conceived! Fully man, yet fully God! Emanuel, God with us!
--Born of the virgin Mary
Such special privilege that was bestowed on Mary! Found lovely before God and was blessed by bringing fourth our Lord! Thank you Lord for keeping your promise to Eve, in that even though childbirth will be marred by sin, through childbirth your Redemption will come! Mary was the vessel you chose, pure as a virgin, never known by a man, and in that innocence you thwarted the wisdom of man and by your Spirit brought fourth our King!
--Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Your only begotten, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, was subjected to death by one of your magistrates! A man who should have bent the knee and taken his place as subject to his Lord, that was the man by which Your son suffered! May we (as we will when we purely follow you) suffer for Your namesake, and know that this suffering is temporal. May we know that as our Lord suffered and was hated by men, so we will suffer and will be hated by men! Thank you that our suffering is not what we deserve, and may we bless those who persecute us, even as our Lord cried our forgiveness as he hung in our place!
--Was crucified, died, and was buried
This was the death we deserved! Thank you so much for your grace and mercy! May we never forget that is was not free, but our Lord payed for it dearly! He was crucified for us, died our death, and was buried in our grave! May we rejoice and praise your name and never forget this pure love!
--He descended into hell
It was hell that we deserved, and the just punishment for our sin was poured unjustly on the innocent lamb! May we never forget this! We deserved hell and we were snatched from is grasp by innocent blood, the blood of the Son of God!
--On the third day he rose from the dead
Praise God that death could not hold our Lord! Because Jesus conquered hell and death, so we shall never die and never taste the fires of hell! Without the resurrection Jesus would have saved no one, but to finish his work, and display his deity and establish his authority over sin and death, he DID rise from the dead!
--He ascended into heaven
Now that the plan of redemption has been accomplished, he awaits us in heaven, and is preparing our new home! He returned to You and has rejoined his triune fellowship! Because he is in heaven, and he intercedes for his adopted, blood bought, children, we can now fully apply His salvation and we are being sanctified into a pure, spotless bride!
--And sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
The King of Kings and Lord of Lords, our Lord, now sits upon the throne of David! He has all authority in heaven and on earth! Our King has established his kingdom, and now sits in glory, adorned by the throne He alone deserves, and with the crown of thorn transformed into the crown fitting the King of Kings!
--From there he shall come again to judge the living and the dead
As our King and our Lord, he will judge all mankind. For those who do not believe, he will judge them justly and they will be condemned and sentenced to hell. For those who do believe, their condemnation he has taken upon himself, and he will reward us according to our deeds! All men, alive or dead, will stand before Christ Jesus, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He alone is Lord! Thank you God that confession will be one of joy for those of us who know you!
--I believe in the Holy Spirit
Your Spirit! The person who awakens us from our death, the breath of life that calls and regenerates us! The Spirit of life that sanctifies us and works in all of your adopted children and creates in us what was accomplished on the cross! The One who convicts us from our sin and causes us to repent and love you! Thank you for your Spirit!
--The holy catholic church
We as Christians have one universal church, and all of us, though we may disagree on doctrine because we see through the glass darkly, we all have one Lord, one baptism, and one salvation! Your church, Your bride, can cling to your son, and because of this we are brothers and sisters who will eventually in heaven love one another perfectly and see you perfectly! Cause us to love one another as we are family, and give us unity as we hope in the same Savior!
--The communion of the saints
We are a community! No man is an island, and no man was intended to be so! As it was not good that Adam was alone, and so you gave him Eve, neither is it good for us to be alone! We are a community, and we are called to love one another, building one another up and encouraging and edifying one another, bearing each others burdens, and spurring each other on to Your Son! Thank you for the family you have brought us into, and help us to be a family!
--The forgiveness of sins
Praise God that our sins are forgiven! We no longer have to fear you as judge, and we can love you as Father! Christ payed once and for all the punishment for our sins, and because of this we are no longer slaves to sin, but we are now alive in Christ! We were born slaves and now we are set free! We will sin until the day we die, but now that we know you, our sins are washed by the blood of the lamb, and we can now please you and do good!
--The resurrection of the body
We may die, but we will not stay dead! We will never taste the second, eternal death! We will be resurrected with perfect bodies, no flaws and no pain! We will not be disembodied spirits floating around as some naively believe, but just as you created us with bodies, so we will have bodies again! All those who died before us and trusted in you, and each of us who will likely die as well, we will once again have our bodies, but they will be perfect and flawless and we will praise you eternally with them!
--And the life everlasting
We are mortal, and we have a beginning, but we will have no end! We will praise and worship our Lord and our God, seated on his throne, forevermore! Time will not enslave us in bondage as it does now, but we will be so enraptured in worship and praise, and we will see purely what we see so dimly now, we will have everlasting rest, everlasting peace, everlasting praise! Thank you for all these gifts and all these truths, and we will have eternity to do so!

AMEN

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