The core message we have been communicating at CFA for the past two years has been ‘Be with Him; Be like Him’. This took shape during a time away with our elders and deacons in the fall of 2018 and became solid in our hearts and minds during 2019.
Be with Him. Everything centres on Jesus. He wants you to know Him. He wants to have relationship with you. He is the one who saves us, heals us, and works in us. Paul says it best when he writes: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy (Col. 1:16-18).
Be like Him. Flowing out of our knowing him, we become like Him. God’s desire and plan was for us to be conformed to the image of the Son (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49; 2 Cor. 3:18). The purpose of our lives is to reflect God’s goodness, love, and grace, calling others to also be with Him and be like Him.
In being with Him and being like Him, there are a number of things that we want to highly value and focus in on.
I. The Bible, in its original writing, is the divinely inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word of God. It is the final authority on all we believe and all we do.
II. Man was created good and upright, but by disobedience he fell. Through Adam’s sin and fall, all mankind has inherited a sinful nature that we are powerless to change.
III. Resurrection and Eternal Life: We believe in the resurrection of all mankind; the saved to the eternal life with Christ (heaven), and the lost to the eternal damnation (hell).
IV. The Blood of Jesus is sinless, 100 percent sufficient, and God’s only way to cleanse mankind from sin. Jesus allowed Himself to be punished for our sinfulness and our sins, freeing all who believe on Him from every penalty of sin.
V. Salvation: We are restored (redemption) to a right relationship with God (justification) as He leads us to accept by faith (faith in Christ) that Jesus paid our sin debt by dying on the Cross. When we come to Christ, we turn from sin (repentance), we are born again by the Holy Spirit (regeneration) and we acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and Savior (indwelling Lordship of Christ). God continues His work in us as He forms the character and life pattern of Jesus in us (sanctification).
A. Redemption: The only hope for redemption of fallen man was for Jesus Christ to purchase us for God by offering his life as payment of the death sentence imposed by God for sin. He did this on the Cross.
B. Justification: God’s declaration that we are no longer guilty but righteous. Based on the sole condition of faith in the Lord Jesus, it entitles us to all the advantages and rewards of God. To be justified in the opposite of being condemned. It relegates “good works” to an evidence of salvation, and not a cause of it.
C. Faith in Christ: We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection, and His saving work. Faith is a gift from God and not a result of any human goodness, works or effort.
D. Repentance: Demonstrated in all true believers, repentance is the Holy Spirit enabled commitment to turn away from sin in every area of our lives and in the desire to obey
E. Jesus. When we repent, we are forgiven of sins, regenerated by the Holy Spirit and given eternal life.
F. Regeneration: For anyone to have relationship with God, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential. The “regenerating” is God recreating us by implanting a new nature and imparting the spiritual life of Jesus himself.
G. The indwelling Lordship of Christ: Christians are people who have invited Jesus Christ to come and live inside of them by His Holy Spirit. We relinquish our personal authority over our lives to Jesus and acknowledge Him as both Lord and Savior. We put our trust in Jesus alone.
H. Sanctification: A lifelong process whereby God motivates and helps us yield to the Word of God and to the ministry of the Holy Spirit in order to complete the development of Christ’s character in us, enabling us to live a godly life.
VI. Trinity: We believe there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
A. These three are coequal and coeternal
VII. Jesus Christ: We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A. He is the second person in the Trinity, the Son of God. He is fully God and fully human.
B. His Virgin Birth – Jesus was conceived by God the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary’s womb; therefore, although He became fully human, He remained the Son of God.
C. His sinless life – although he was tempted in every way, he lived a perfectly sinless life.
D. His miracles.
E. His substitutionary, atoning sacrifice for man’s sin through death on the cross. Jesus took away all of God’s wrath towards sin and reconciled us to the Father.
F. His physical resurrection from death.
G. His ascension back to His original place at the right hand of the Father.
H. Second Coming: We expect the imminent, personal, visible return of this same Jesus in power and glory to establish His Millennial Kingdom on the earth.
VIII. Holy Spirit: We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit which includes:
A. Bringing man to salvation.
B. Indwelling the Christian, enabling him to live a Godly life.
C. The supernatural gifts of the Spirit.
D. Empowering of the church for its work, life and worship.
IX. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Given at Pentecost, the Spirit’s baptism is the fulfillment of the Father’s promise, sent by Jesus Christ to empower the church to preach the Gospel to the whole earth. Holy Spirit baptism is a subsequent work of grace, distinguished from regeneration and sanctification, releasing the outflow of the Holy Spirit’s power for ministry. We are called to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit. Although usually accompanied by speaking in tongues, other manifestation gifts of 1 Corinthians 12 are evidence of His infilling. The gifts will always operate in harmony with the Word of God and be marked by the Fruit of the Spirit.
X. The Church is made up of all true believer in Christ and is described as both the Body and the Bride of Christ. It is indwelled by the Holy Spirit and commissioned to make disciples of all nations.
A. The prime agency for the work of God’s Kingdom is the Christian local church functioning under the sovereign headship of our Lord Jesus Christ.
B. The church has been entrusted with the ordinances of:
1. Believer’s Baptism
2. The Lord’s Supper
XI. We believe in the spiritual unity of true believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.
XII. We believe that the full gospel also includes:
A. Healing for the body
B. Deliverance from demonic oppression
C. The power of praying in Jesus’ name
XIII. Marriage is a relationship pattern given by God to all mankind and is defined as one man united with one woman in a mutually exclusive life-long covenant. Marriage is a picture of Jesus and the church.