Shade Tree Wisdom 11/2/11

          We recited the Creed in the service on Sunday.  We do it every service, and I am glad to join those other millions to confess our faith out loud and boldly.

          It is not so much that we “put Jesus in the center”, but that God reminds us again how things simply are.  It reminds me who Jesus Christ is, and what God planned to heal my sins and bring me to eternal life.

          To hear all those other voices chiming in so that the sound is loud enough, is a bold thing to do.  Especially in this culture where everything seems to go by vote and nothing is taken as true any longer. To stand and say, “I believe” means that I am saying out loud and before everyone that I find this truth TRUE.  I am doing what Jesus said,
               “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
               Him will I also confess before My Father,
               Which is in heaven.” Matthew 10,32

          And St. Paul when he writes his letter to the Romans, said to them – and they were living when confessing Christ might prove fatal, said,
               “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth
               The Lord Jesus,
               And shalt believe in thine heart that God
               Raised Him from the dead,
               Thou shalt be saved”. Romans 10,9

          So when I recite the Creed I am given a touchstone by which to guide my days, one that does not change, and that is true direction for the living of my days.

          When I say, “I Believe” I am reminded again that my God is Eternal, a caring, loving, personal God to whom I matter.  I am not alone, I am never alone, because the One of whom I say “I believe” has promised that He would be with me “even to the end of days”.  God bless us all as we recite and confess our belief.

GPD 11/2/11