Statement of Faith

As a global community of Christian photographers, we have been given talents to share God’s Good News.

This is what we believe about …

The Bible

God wrote the Bible, which is the single most important book ever published in human history and is supreme in its authority, guidance and direction for men and women living in the 21st Century. The Bible stands alone as the Word of God, has no competition with other spiritual or secular books and is the sole basis of our belief. When read daily and in concert with prayer, the Bible brings us into a live conversation with all that is on God’s mind as we follow Him in faith, love and obedience.

God

God is God the Father, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit. God’s three-in-one divine personality can be roughly compared to the human roles of a father, husband and friend; all of whom are able to present themselves simultaneously. As our Heavenly Father, God created the earth and the heavens out of nothing; and He sustains all creation by His grace. As husband, His bride is the Church who understands and grasps the nature of His redeeming work through Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead. As friend and Holy Spirit, He gives us wisdom and discernment for the secular world in which we live while enabling us to hear, obey and follow the truths found in God’s Word that keep our course steady and our paths straight.

Salvation

The central purpose of God’s revelation in Scripture is to call men and women into fellowship with Him. At the beginning of human history, those who God created rebelled against Him; and the idea of walking with God changed. As a result, the close connection of the dearest of friendships was severed; and the words, sin and independence, entered the divine and human vocabulary. Jesus, God’s Son, gave His life to repair the broken relationship between God and all people made in His image. The symbolic nature of this restoration is exemplified in the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the cross.

Our salvation then, is wholly a work of God’s amazing grace. It is a free gift, and it cannot be earned by doing good works. Our spiritual need is first realized by a heart filled with sorrow and a life that wants to make a lasting change in direction. This total act of our individual submission includes asking for God’s forgiveness and leads to our desire to follow Him. We accept Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross as the all-atoning sacrifice for our sins.

As we grow in an understanding of what it means to follow God, we naturally want to serve the One who created us, who redeemed us from sin and who gives us the promise that life with Him continues beyond death and the grave. In Him our future rests, and hell is no longer a threat to our eternal existence.

Jesus Christ

The One responsible for our redemption from hell is also the One who came to earth in human form. He is Jesus, the One whose love for us is so overwhelming that we are unable to fully grasp it. Jesus lived a perfect life of obedience to God the Father; and because His life was without sin, He alone was able to satisfy the consequences of sin that resulted in man’s and woman’s eternal separation from God. He single-handedly closed the chasm between God and all men and all women through the nails that were pounded into his flesh. He died a human death. His victory came when He rose in triumph from the grave, an act where He conquered death and an event witnessed and recorded in world history. Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus returned to heaven where He sits at the right hand of His Father until He comes again to earth to conclude the eternal plan of God.

The Holy Spirit

We believe in His full Deity and that He indwells, instructs and empowers Jesus’ followers. The Holy Spirit comes to reside in us when we acknowledge our sin, seek God’s forgiveness, and by an act of our will invite Jesus into our hearts. We believe ‘walking in the Spirit’ is living in the conscious presence of Jesus and allowing His Words found in the Bible to dominate what we say and do.

The Christian Life

We live with a passionate boldness to tell others what we already know: that life with God is so worth living and a life lived apart from God has no direction, hope or future. We do this with gentleness as we are prompted by the Holy Spirit to invest ourselves in the lives of others. God calls us to meet their physical and emotional needs and to befriend the people in our lives who live blinded by the temporary nature of their existence. We seek to not miss God-given opportunities to let His Name become increasingly known, to share His love, and to help others individually understand, grasp and internalize God’s plan of salvation for them. We pray for the people God places on our hearts, that they may come to know Him personally. When they do, God’s Kingdom grows.

Human Destiny

The most important life-changing decision that any person will ever make is the decision to accept or deny Jesus and His completed work of human salvation. If a man or a woman woefully disavows God’s importance in his or her life, and this refusal to accept Jesus into his or her heart continues over the course of one’s life then physical and eternal separation from God inevitably follows. Once death comes, there is no second chance to invite Jesus into the human heart by allowing Him to take up a place of permanent residence. Simply stated: the human heart no longer exists. Eternal separation from God is the price to be paid for all who believe they chart their own earthly destiny, and that there are no consequences to be paid for the sins they commit in tandem with their defiance. Conversely, for all people who recognize they are in need of Jesus as Savior and come to Him asking for forgiveness, a sense of precious peace prevails; friendship with God becomes new and exciting, and heaven is their reward.

The Church

Union with Jesus brings believers of all cultures and backgrounds into union with one another. All biblical thoughts, words and actions play a role in what it means to grow as the body of Christ. One day in heaven, every knee will bow. The color of our skin, the languages we speak and other differences among us will be for naught. Our collective focus will be squarely on our Lord and Savior, Jesus. It is Him we adore together, and it is Him we await as we look forward to His return to this planet.

Copyright © Connie Wragge