Foundation for Faith and Practice
We believe the Bible to be the written revelation of God, the foundation and life of FSC. We believe it is all wise objective, complete and sufficient in all respects. We believe the Scriptures to be God-breathed and therefore authoritative. The Scriptures are not dependent on anything or anyone but fully authoritative in and of themselves. The Scripture directs the church, leads councils and informs creeds and confessions. The Scriptures are the very Word of the Living God full of power and authority.
Church
We believe Jesus Christ established His Church, made up of born-again believers, the elect of God. All who believe in Christ are placed into His body, the Church. Each believer should be actively involved in a local fellowship of believers.
Church is the representation of the body of Christ where he is the head. (Colossians 1:18) Our church is planted by God to be a light in our community, a place of healing for the hurting and a place of forgiveness for the guilty. Our church is a place of special love and fellowship for our church family with extended arms and open doors to those around us.
A church where we prioritize the scriptures as the timeless, relevant and authoritative voice of God.
A church where we proclaim Jesus Christ as the fountain and foundation for all of life
A church where we present the good news about Jesus Christ to the world to see, hear, believe and be saved
Faithful Stones holds to the principle when Scripture speaks, God speaks. The authority of the church rest and relies on that of the Holy Scriptures.
The Gospel
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
– Romans 6:23
The gospel means “good news” but before we understand the good news we must understand the “bad news” first.
Bad News
The bad news is that all mankind are sinners (Romans 3:23) and therefore guilty before a Holy God. God does not take our guilt lightly. God is holy and righteous and therefore hates evil. The Bible teaches that if you have broken His law that you are a rebel against Him, that you are His enemy (James 4:4), and that His wrath abides on you (John 3:36). The sentence for breaking God’s law is death and eternity in Hell (Revelation 21:8).
We can do nothing to make ourselves right with God. We cannot be good enough, pray enough, confess enough, go to church enough or do enough “good deeds” to erase the guilt of our sin against God. We are helpless in ourselves to reconcile ourselves to God.
Good News
There is hope! Jesus Christ the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27) For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son (John 3:16). In love, Jesus Christ willingly took the form of a man and came to earth. He was born of a virgin and lived a perfect life in complete obedience to God’s law. Jesus was able to meet God’s standard of moral perfection. He never sinned. But even though Jesus pleased God in every way, he died the death of a criminal on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8). The Bible says that He took sin upon Himself and with it God’s wrath (1 Peter 2:24). Although He was perfectly innocent, He paid the penalty for sin on the cross and died, but on the third day He rose from the grave proving that He had satisfied God’s wrath against sin (1 Corinthians 15:3).
God has commanded everyone to repent of their sin which means (turn from it) and place their faith in Jesus’ once for all time sufficient sacrifice for sin. Recognize your absolute inability to please God because of your rebellion and evil before a perfect and holy God, turn from your sin, and believe that Jesus paid for it on the cross and rose from the dead. If you will do this God’s Word teaches that your guilt will be placed on Jesus and paid for, and in exchange you will be given the gift of Jesus’ innocence (Romans 8:10, Philippians 3:9).
Jesus invites anyone who is under the weight of their sin to come to Him and He will bear it. He said:
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
The only way to God is through His son Jesus Christ (John 14:6) This is the only way you can be forgiven of your sin. Once you are forgiven God sees you as perfect and innocent because of Jesus.
What Must I Do To Be Saved?
Being a Christian is more than doing deeds and praying prayers or even identifying yourself with a particular religion or affirming a certain value system. Being a Christian means you have embraced what the Bible says about God, mankind, and salvation.
Being Saved
Romans 10:9 says, If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Jesus promised that anyone who would come to Him in sincere faith and repentance would be accepted by Him and forgiven. That person becomes new (2 Corinthians 5:17), is born again (1 Peter 1:3), has peace with God (Romans 5:1), belongs to God, is adopted by God as His child (Romans 8:15,16), and is given eternal life (John 3:16). This gift of salvation can never be lost! You will have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ for the rest of your life and eternity!
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. – Romans 5:6-11
