GOD'S IMAGE
Humans were made in the image of God and therefore created with inherent value and worth. Although the image of God was distorted in all humankind as a result of sin, every human has potential to love, reason, create, dream, lead, relate, trust, believe, improve and reflect God’s image. (Genesis 1:1, 26, 27)
GOD'S SPIRIT
Jesus promised that God’s Spirit would continue to guide, comfort, teach, and transform us as humans to be more like Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we can have the confidence to know that we are never alone. God’s Spirit is always present in our lives to nudge us in the direction of thinking, serving, living, and loving like Christ. The virtues or spiritual qualities that God is cultivating in our lives as Christians include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:25-26, Acts 1:9)
GOD'S FAMILY
The creation story implies that people were designed to be in a relationship with God and each other. The essence of the Gospel message is that Jesus’ sacrificial death made it possible for humans to be reconciled with God and each other. When Jesus presented the concept of the church to His disciples, He was challenging them to reimagine a spiritual family that included every nation. Jesus also predicted that His church would prevail throughout history and become a force to overcome evil in this world. The church is not a building where people gather, the church is actually people who gather to worship and follow Jesus. (Matthew 16:18, 1 Corinthians 12:12-14)
GOD'S LOVE
The Gospel is good news for everyone. Scripture is clear in indicating that God loved us even though we are sinners. The story of the Bible is a narrative about God pursuing a relationship with us. Everyone is invited to follow Jesus by confessing their sins and accepting God's forgiveness. By trusting Jesus as our Savior, we begin an eternal relationship with God. (John 3:16,17)
GOD'S SON
The essence of the Gospel message is that Jesus was God born as a human. He died for the sins of the human world, and was raised back to life. Jesus stated that He was God and that He had been given all authority over heaven and earth. Jesus also promised those who trust and follow Him that they will live with Him forever one day in Heaven. (Matthew 1:22-23, John 1:1-5, John 14:10-30)
GOD'S MESSAGE
Jesus’ life, death and resurrection proved that He was the Messiah the ancient Hebrew Scriptures had prophesied. Jesus leveraged His authority as God to validify Scripture as authoritative for the Christian life and faith. Jesus also predicted and authenticated the work God would do through the apostles in writing the Gospels and the New Testament. What Jesus clarified by defining the Great commandment establishes a Scriptural priority to love God and love your neighbor. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
GOD'S CARE
Jesus was fully human and fully God. He encountered the same temptations, emotions, and struggles that humans experience, and yet never sinned. His life and death indicated that God deeply cares about the pain and suffering of humanity. What Jesus did on the cross is evidence that God was willing to become a person to prove He actually understands loneliness, pain, rejection, loss, trauma, guilt, injustice, even death. God can be trusted to know what we feel, because God became one of us. (Hebrews 4:15)
QUESTIONS?
For more information, and/or a complete listing of our beliefs, please contact the church office at Office@ovbc.org
If you are new to faith, we offer a Sunday group called Foundations, for more