Belief Matters

A few years ago a friend said to me, "When it comes to religion, I go by what my mother taught me. She said,

'It doesn't matter what you believe about God as long as you practice what you believe.'"

This person's mother was probably saying that no matter what people believe, they should practice the golden rule which is "do unto others as you would want them to do unto you." That sounds good in a conversation, but unfortunately doesn't hold true in real life.

The fact is, belief matters more than any other one thing in our lives when it comes to our behavior. Every single person on earth has a belief about why he/she was born, what the purpose of life is, how we are to live and what happens after death. And those beliefs are what serve as the basis for peoples' actions. No matter how thoughtless something we do might seem, it comes from our beliefs, from the way we view life and the world.

Throughout history we see example after example of people who committed the most horrendous crimes against other people and we wonder how they could do such things. But if we could get into their minds, understand their beliefs, we would see why they did what they did. In many of these instances, the people that did such terrible things actually thought they were in the right!!!

This coming Sunday we are going to begin a sermon series on the Apostles' Creed. One might wonder what this ancient creed has to do with people living in the 21st century. But these ancient words contain the basic truths of Christianity, the beliefs which have served as the foundation of life for millions of people throughout the last 2000 years. And those beliefs remain as vital, powerful and above all--true--as they were 2000 years ago.

If your life is going to matter, first your beliefs have to matter. Join us this Sunday, October 10 as we begin to mine the spiritual riches of the Apostles' Creed!