Real L.I.F.E.
(Living In Full Exchange)
The following statements reflect what we believe it means to under God's grace and in the power that results from exchanging your life for the life of Christ in and through you:
-
It means serving God because He has fully and permanently accepted us through Jesus Christ, not because we want to gain His acceptance or become more pleasing to Him through our works.
-
It means motivating Christians to live out of love and thankfulness, rather than guilt and duty.
-
It means believing firmly in Biblical absolutes and trusting in the life of Christ within to enable us to live by those absolutes, but rejecting attempts to legislate the Christian life through human rules.
-
It means unconditionally accepting people at their current level of spiritual growth and development without condoning their sin, just as God does, then encouraging them to grow in an atmosphere of grace.
-
It means creating an environment of honesty and transparency that models God's love and acceptance.
-
It means placing the primary emphasis of the Christian life on inner motivations rather than outward behaviors, believing that when inner motivations are right, the right outward behavior will follow.
-
It means refusing to deny or minimize the pain that comes into our lives because of our own sins and failures or the sins and failures of others; rather, it means viewing pain as a means of experiencing God's grace and life.
-
It means following the relational style of Jesus, who accepted and forgave sinful, lost people, even though they may have failed miserably.
-
It means interpreting the biblical commands as describing a mode of life befitting someone who has already been accepted by God, not as laws that bring us more merit with God.
It means resting IN the life of Christ and operating from our new identity in Him, not in our own strength, but His.
 |
|
 |
|
Why the Ship Logo?
We think a sailboat is a perfect picture of our options for living. We can live like sailboats, totally empowered by and dependent on the life of Christ in us and through us. Or we can operate like rowboats, toiling to exhaustion with our own energies and abilities as if we didn't have Christ as life. For years, we both "lowered our sails" and lived as rowboats, but God has shown us a better way of life. For us now, "to live is CHRIST!"
God has created us to SAIL!!!
|
|
