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We at St. Michael Lutheran Church
believe, teach, and confess that…
1. The only true God is the God who has revealed Himself in Holy Scripture as the Triune God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--one God, yet three equal and eternal Persons.
2. God created the world perfect and without sin.
3. Adam and Eve chose to do evil, and that by their sin all their descendants are born sinful and guilty before God.
4. All people are therefore unable to save themselves by any effort of their own and are further unable to contribute in any way to a reunion with God.
5. God, therefore, took it upon Himself to save mankind and to reconcile Himself to the world through His Son, Jesus Christ.
6. Jesus is the Christ promised in the Old Testament, true God from eternity and also true man born of the virgin Mary.
7. By His sinless life and perfect death, Jesus Christ paid the price for everyone's sins and won complete forgiveness for all before His Father.
8. By His resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ conquered sin, death, and the devil, guaranteeing to all people the same victory through faith in Him.
9. Jesus Christ is the only way any person can be reunited with God, both here in time and hereafter in eternity.
10. Forgiveness of our sins and the victory of Christ comes to us only by the Word of God found in the Bible, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper (God's Means of Grace).
11. This Word is received by us and made our own, not by any works or merit in us, but by faith given freely by the Holy Spirit.
12. The Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, are God's special revelation to mankind, written by men through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and without error in all they teach.
13. Scripture commands us to baptize--by water and the Word-all people, young and old, as they need, and that in such Baptism God makes that person His own, creating faith and bestowing forgiveness.
14. The Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ Himself for His Christians to eat and drink, and that in the bread and wine are miraculously, but truly present, the real body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
15. The Holy Spirit alone preserves and strengthens us in our faith.
16. The Holy Spirit works great wonders in the lives of the faithful, including the ability to live according to God's commandments, spiritual and material blessings, strength for every adversity, peace, joy, love and the like.
17. Such good works of the Christian life, though in no way earning salvation, always are found with faith and give evidence of that faith.
18. Such good works include love of God, responsibility to
family, support of the Church, loyalty to the government, and the like.
19. All Christians are united in the faith, even though there be external divisions among them.
20. Our Lord desires no external divisions among His Christians, yet also commands that our teaching be purely according to the Scriptures and that we mark those who teach otherwise.
21. Jesus Christ will come once again in the flesh, at which time He will judge the world and establish His heavenly kingdom forever.
22. At that second coming of Jesus Christ, all people will be made alive in their bodies and will receive their eternal reward--those with trust in Jesus receiving everlasting bliss in heaven, those with trust in their own persons or in false gods receiving everlasting torment in hell.
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Three people located under the cross of Jesus Christ.
The First person is hurting and in need of being ministered to.
Only one arm is showing because this person is not yet able to give care until
he has first received care. This person is receiving encouragement, and this is
able to begin to raise an arm in thanks and praise.
Notice all the arms are held palm upwards so that they might continue to receive
the gifts of God.
The Second person is encouraging the first, notice this person has his hand upon the
others shoulder. Although this person might be hurting too, he has grown to the
point of being able to encourage others.
The other arm is being raised in hope, pointing to a future of possibilities;
pointing somewhere between heaven and earth, for this is where the Christian
must live in this world.
The Third person is able to raise both her arms in praise and thanksgiving. These are
both loving arms and arms in love. They are raise on high and embrace the
cross.
At one time or another we are all three of these people. We are the hurting person or
the encouraging person, and especially the praising person. At one time or another we may need charity, or we share charity or we may give charity. This is a picture of the church and who we are as the church, the hurting the helping and the heralding, or maybe, weeping, witnessing and the worshiping, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Weeping in this instance recalls repentance and confession. Witness in this instance recalls the forgiveness of sins and absolution. And worship is the joy we experience when we hear the GoodNews of salvation, the ministry of reconciliation we discover in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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