Sunday May 14th, at 9am, “The Apostles’ Creed – #2 Jesus Christ…”. Held at Trinity Church, Newport and led by The Reverend Alan Neale.

Notes from Sunday May 7th “The Apostles’ Creed – God the Father Almighty…”

CREED
What Christians Believe and Why?
Based on CREED – Adam Hamilton

#1 GOD
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth
Sunday May 7, 2017

Creed: noun – a statement of the basic beliefs of a religion; an idea or set of beliefs that guides the actions of a person or group

Consider – FAITH

 

1. The Faith – the deposit of faith handed on from one person/generation to another
“3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures” – I Corinthians 15:3-4
2. Faithful/Trustworthy – one on whom we can depend and rely
“22 They sent Barnabas to Antioch… 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord” – Acts 11:24
3. Faith as gift – the ability to trust
“7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit” – I Corinthians 12

Consider – I/WE BELIEVE
1. Apostles’ Creed – “I believe…”
2. Nicene Creed – “We believe…”

Consider – Our Vocation as Iconoclasts
“Steven Weinberg, a theoretical physicist and atheist, once noted that ‘the world needs to wake up from the long nightmare of religion. Anything we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done, and may in fact be our greatest contribution to civilization.’” (CREED, pg. 18)

Consider – The True God
Exodus 3:13-14. Moses asks, in a polytheistic world, “What do I say when people ask me your name?” and the reply… (note: 1. Eternal Being 2. Engaged and 3. Purposive)

Consider – Evidence?
“Oxford mathematician John Lennox notes that the odds for the self-organization of life on earth are in the neighborhood of 1 to 10 to the 40,000 power – very slim odds indeed. Astronomer Fred Hoyle suggested an often-cited analogy for the improbability of life on earth organizing on its own, saying the chances were about the same as those of a gale-force wind blowing through a junkyard and, after it passed, revealing that a Boeing 747 had spontaneously assembled itself” – (op. cit, pg. 25)
Psalm 19:1

Consider – the articulation of wonder
1. The X-Factor
2. The God of the Theists
3. The God who is personal and engaged

And, Consider Faith matters because…
1. Praise
2. Stewardship
3. Forgiveness/Grace
4. Companionship

St. Paul’s Cathedral, designed after 1666 Great Fire by Sir Christopher Wren. Construction began 1675, finished 45 years later. The dome rises to 365 feet, making it one of the highest in the world.
“In the bowels of the church are crypts where a number of famous people are buried.. On one wall is a rather plain marker, easily missed, upon which are written these words:

Here in its foundation lies the architect of this church and city, Christopher Wren, who lived beyond ninety years, not for his own profit but for the public good. Reader, if you seek his monument – look around you.

… The same, I believe can be said about God as we look around us at the magnificent world God has created” – (op. cit., pg. 34)

Next:
Jesus Christ