What We Believe

Love God.

We are called to love God with all our ability. It is the first and most important instruction from Jesus. This is our primary value so that we can be faithful in our calling, and lead others through this love. A love that changes hearts, minds, and souls.

“Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

— Matthew 22:37-38 (NIV)

Love People.

We are also called to love people. It’s the second most important instruction from Jesus. Loving people is another one of our primary values and is aligned with loving God with all our ability.

“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

— Matthew 22:39-40 (NIV)

“We love because he first loved us. ”

— 1 John 4:19 (NIV)

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ”

— Romans 12:9-10 (NIV)

Love Yourself Like Jesus.

Please do not confuse loving yourself with self-worship (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Self-worship is a sin and different than loving yourself. So what do we mean by “Love Yourself”? A well-known author and religious man named Park Palmer once said, “Self-care is never a selfish act. It is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.” Our love for God and people is always based on how we view, perceive, and love ourselves (Psalm 139:13-16). Loving yourself involves choosing to see yourself as God sees you (Ephesians 1:4). To truly be faithful and grow spiritually, we are called to love ourselves (1 John 4:15-19). The bible encourages us to love ourselves because our God made us valuable and worthy of love.

“ But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”

— 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV)

“For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

— Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.”

— Ephesians 1:4 (NIV)

“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.”

— 1 John 4:15-19 (NIV)