The Apostle's Creed which is based on an earlier baptismal creed is primarily a biblical summary of the person and work of Christ Jesus. The bulk of the creed is a direct biblical summary on Jesus. But the third part of the creed has a list of belief statements. This podcast explores the significance of this list as a summary statement of consequences or results of Jesus redeeming work on the cross and his resurrection and ascension. Each statement is directly connected to the Bible and its truth.

The Disciples' Model prayer teaches us that it is to our heavenly Father that we pray and it is to his glory that we live. This prayer is an echo of David's prayer in 1 Chron. 29:11-12. This last sentence in the prayer, "For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." is a return to the God-directed focus with which the prayer began, specifically on his glory. All the previous petitions tie in to the promotion of God's will and his kingdom. God, not like us, has all power to fulfill these petitions, which center around God's provision, pardon, and protection. He is our Provider in all these vital aspects of our Christian lives, as subjects in his everlasting kingdom.

When his disciples ask the Master, Jesus to pray he gave them a model prayer. The roots of this prayer is God's prior revelation through the Law, the prophets and the psalms. Listen to the prayer with some of the old Testament verses that are echoed in this brief pattern prayer our Lord taught us to pray.

The Lord Jesus teaches his people to pray, acknowledging God's holiness and kingdom, as well as our need for forgiveness of our sins. In this particular text we see our need to pray for deliverance, for rescue, from Satan and the evil he fosters in the world. Without God's grace we are helpless, but God is strong and he will keep us safe in his care. Jesus defeated Satan on the cross, and we triumph and live in his victory.

A number of Christian churches observe Ash Wednesday. My church does not usually observe the set period known as Lent. But there have been times when I have gone to an Ash Wednesday service. I have found it to be a biblical time of remembrance of our mortality. God often called Israel of old to remember. Remember who I am and who you are before me. Remember what I have done. Remember you will give an account to me. As God told Adam so he speaks to all of us, Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Genesis 3:19 It is a call to confession of our sin and transgressions so that we can receive God's gracious pardon based on the death of Christ Jesus for sinners who put their trust in him. Join with me in a composite psalm prayer of repentance.

Christians are in great danger because of the evil cosmic forces aligned against them. Temptations, i.e., enticements to sin, come against us from Satan, the world, and our own remaining corruption. Prayer is needed that we would not yield to the temptations to sin, but would resist them and flee from them. Why these trials? To mold our character more into Christ's likeness that God would be glorified. Evil surrounds us on every side - we must call upon God our Father in the name of his Son Jesus, for protection and deliverance!

God has some important words addressed to both the rich, the wealthy, and the poor, those with little. Surprisingly, one of the words applies to both alike! This message begins in Proverbs but concludes with Jesus' own words as he observed people giving their offerings in the temple, Luke 21:1-4. God has number of warnings to the rich but both those with wealth and those in want can be guilty of idolatry expressed as the love of money! The rich should not despise the poor, but rather be generous toward them. The poor should not envy the rich, but should themselves be rich in faith.

When a person prays, "forgive us our sins," he is demonstrating his awareness of the high and holy God as well as his own sin and spiritual poverty. It is the proper prayer of a humble person and it brings one into the cleansing, restoring power of God. Christ, the teacher of this prayer, is also the foundation on which forgiveness is obtained - it is Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead that makes forgiveness possible. Having been forgiven by Christ of our great sin debt before him, we need to likewise forgive others who sin against us. How can we not forgive others whose sin against us is not near as great as our own before the holy God?

There is a sect that seeks to say there is a gospel in the first century but they have another gospel for the current generation. They build their view of how they read into and interpret the so called "Three Angels Messages." However, we must remain very vigilant against any other so called gospel, The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 1:6-8, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed." The first angel's message is a call to worship the true and living Creator God. It's wording is like Nehemiah 9:5-7, "Stand up and bless Yahweh your God from everlasting to everlasting! Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise! You are Yahweh, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you. You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, gave him the name of Abraham." The one eternal gospel is the message of Jesus - his person and saving acts in his death, burial and resurrection of Jesus for us sinners. Mark 16: 15 says, "And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. In Luke 24:44-49 we read, "Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, th

From John the Baptist's ministry we see that baptism has always been associated with the forgiveness of sin. Jesus calls his people out of the kingdom of darkness and places them into his kingdom. We must begin with the New Covenant scriptures to correctly understand baptism. It is the sovereign work of the Spirit who brings us to repentance and to Christ himself, who is the object of our faith. Baptism is not so much our testimony of our becoming a Christian as it of what God is doing in us and our submission to the Gospel of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. It is a response to God's call and working in his people's lives. We come to God, confessing our faith in Christ, call upon his name to save us, and gratefully submit to Christian baptism as we begin our lives of allegiance to King Jesus and loyal soldiers in his army. So, do you believe in Jesus? The New Testament commands his disciples to declare their faith by being immersed and raised from the watery grave to "walk in newness of life in Christ" (Rom. 6:4).