At the church where I am interning, we regularly sing hymns. This is something that I'm not really used to; where I'm from, hymns are treated as ancient songs--we have a more "contemporary" service. So, adjusting to hymns has been a bit of an experience for me. However, my opinion of these old songs has been changing now. While I used to wonder if the hymn-writers used to have way too much time on their hands, now I am beginning to appriciate these same hymns. In fact, last week as I was at church, one of the hymns we sang stood out to me in particular:
"My faith has found a resting place
Not in device nor creed;
I trust in the Ever-living One."
It hit me there that my faith, and the faith of all us Christians, are to rest only in Jesus' atoning sacrifice--NOT in "device or creed". But how often do we Christians call ourselves "Baptists", "Catholics", "Pentecostals", or something else? How often do we use our creeds to define ourselves instead of our faith? I understand that there are sometimes differences in faith that require us to form different creeds, and thus we need to identify ourselves by our creeds, but how often do we consider our creed to be more important that our faith? That day in the service, I realized the importance of me personally doing what I can to avoid ever having my faith being weakened or misguided to such a degree that I would place my faith in the Apostles' Creed, a statement of beliefs or mere works.
A creed is a statement of beliefs. It is that, and just that: a statement of beliefs. Ultimately, our creeds are an indication of our faith, but they are not greater than our faith. A statement of belief cannot save us--only belief can.
"My faith has found a resting place
Not in device nor creed;
I trust in the Ever-living One."
It hit me there that my faith, and the faith of all us Christians, are to rest only in Jesus' atoning sacrifice--NOT in "device or creed". But how often do we Christians call ourselves "Baptists", "Catholics", "Pentecostals", or something else? How often do we use our creeds to define ourselves instead of our faith? I understand that there are sometimes differences in faith that require us to form different creeds, and thus we need to identify ourselves by our creeds, but how often do we consider our creed to be more important that our faith? That day in the service, I realized the importance of me personally doing what I can to avoid ever having my faith being weakened or misguided to such a degree that I would place my faith in the Apostles' Creed, a statement of beliefs or mere works.
A creed is a statement of beliefs. It is that, and just that: a statement of beliefs. Ultimately, our creeds are an indication of our faith, but they are not greater than our faith. A statement of belief cannot save us--only belief can.
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