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Confessions of Faith Confirmation Class of 2003 |
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Benjamin Barber Everyone has faith in something. It can be money, a possession, or in a leader. My faith rests in the Lord God Almighty. What this means to me is that I have a friend who is forever with me, someone to comfort me. It means I have eternal grace. But most importantly, it means to me that I am forgiven. Everyone has friends, fair-weather friends with you in the good times, best friends for all occasions. But the one thing all friends lack is that they aren ’t always with us. They aren’t omnipresent. But God is. He assures us that He is everywhere. He is there during the good and the bad. He is such a good friend, He would die if it meant we would be saved. Besides God, show me a friend who would do that. He lets us know that whether we are in the best or worse times in our lives, He’s there. He is the shoulder we can always cry on, the voices that celebrates beside ours with every triumph. He is always there for us. He is the perfect friend.Also, it means everlasting, undeserved love. Let ’s face it: God created, God gave us a chance to turn away, and we did. We left God behind, but He didn’t give up. Although we didn’t deserve it, God still loves us. He loves so much that He died for us, so we could live. No matter what we can do, God will love us. Even if we reject Him, God will love us. He loved us to the point of death and beyond. He will always love us.Finally, but most importantly, faith means forgiveness. Belief in God means He has forgiven us. We must be forgiven if we ever wish to know God. If we don ’t accept the gift of forgiveness, we will never fully accept God. We must trust God that no matter how horrible the things we do are, He has already forgiven us. To we humans, that does not sound reasonable. But God forgave over 2000 years ago, when He took every rotten thing a human being would ever do to something or someone else, and paid the price of death for it. Believing and accepting Him is believing and accepting forgiveness.In conclusion, faith to me is an everlasting friend, life that comes and comes, and the forgiveness of every little sin. This is what faith means to me. It may be different for you, but this is my faith. Words cannot express fully the joy in redemption, the beliefs of the heart, or the beliefs of the mind on any written page. But thank you for reading this fraction of what my faith is to me .Crystal Hoornstra My Faith means a lot to me in many ways. It is my faith that brings out certain traits in me. It is my faith that determines my personality and actions. The three main traits that my faith brings out in me are happiness, hope, and care for others. How does faith bring happiness to me? When I believe in God and myself, I feel happy. I remember what God and His Son have done for me and that makes me happy. I thank Him for what He has done, who He has put in my life, and just for bringing me to life. Whenever I am sad, angry, or even lonely, I look up to God, pray to Him, and He brings happiness to me. If I didn ’t have faith to believe in God or if I didn’t accept God’s gift, I wouldn’t be so happy and thankful.Since I believe in God, I have hope. I believe that God has given me life because He has something planned for me. He wants me to accomplish something. What is that something? I don ’t know and won’t know until I’ve lived my life. But in the meantime, I must have hope. If something bad happens, I have to remember that this is part of God’s plan for me. It maybe confusing and unclear on what He is doing, but I must believe in Him. I must not take it the hard way and turn against Him, but must turn to Him and hope. Hope is a big part of my faith.Now after having faith in Him, I can do what God ’s Word has told me to do. God’s Word has told me spread the news and share your faith with others. This is what brings care into me. If I want others to be happy, to have hope, to believe in God, or to have faith, I have to share my faith. I share my faith by caring about them. I show them love and happiness and tell them what God has done for us. I do this to strengthen their faith. Hopefully, this will show them that I care for them, that faith has brought me these things and that if they have faith, they will have these things, too. As a result, I have strengthened my own faith. That is caring, sharing my faith, and at the same time, sharing the new, sharing God’s Word.Believing in God has brought me happiness, hope and care for others.
Having faith is what believing in God is all about. Faith is important to
me. Faith makes me who I am! I believe in you, God, and thank you! Allison Kirby My faith takes a very important part in my life for many reasons. Without my faith in God, I would be nowhere. When all the times look bad in my life, I can always turn to God when I am sad and need His comfort. God is always someone that I can talk to if I feel alone. It always makes me feel better to pray to God because afterwards, I always feel like it made a difference and makes me feel like I am loved. God will always love me for who I am and will always be there for me. I am never alone because He is with at all times. Every once in a while, I have a really bad day. Whenever this happens, I can always pray to God. By doing this, I know that times will be better and that I don ’t have to worry.Also, whenever I feel bad, I go to church. It makes me feel more comfortable and happy with myself. I can learn about Jesus and all of the wonderful things that He did to save everybody on earth. He died on the cross for everybody because He loved us so much. He was humiliated on the cross and took all the punishment of our sins. Jesus really cared about everybody. He loved us so much that He died so that we could go to everlasting life after we die. Knowing that somebody would do that for me and others is truly amazing. It feels good to know that you will always be loved by someone. There will never be a time when He is not with us to doesn ’t believe in us to do the right thing.Making decisions is a hard thing to do. I never want to make the wrong choice because it will affect me in some way or another. Sometimes, I don ’t always make the right choices too. I just do whatever I think would be the best for what I want. I don’t always do what is the best for others and don’t think of the outcomes of the decisions I make. With my faith in God, before I make my choices, I can always think of what Jesus would do if He was in my position. He would do what was the best for other people. He would care for them before He took care of Himself. By thinking of this, it is much easier to make decisions because they will benefit other people and make them happy. It is a great feeling knowing that you can do something nice for someone else and that you can help others. Faith is a special part of my life that can never be taken away.Jessica Lenser The Six Articles of Faith are very important in the daily life of a Christian. One of these important articles is The Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were established by God to Moses. It is important because it is the exact way God wants us to live our lives. It is the law that tells the only way to get to heaven if there was no grace. Without grace, we could never break a single commandment and still make it to heaven. Yes, God made the Ten Commandments, but what does God say about them? He says: “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of their fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.” [Exodus 20:5-6] This means that those who break the commandments should fear God and expect eternal punishment. On the other hand, those who keep the law will receive grace. Because of this, we should keep his commandments.The commandments include: Putting God before all things; not misusing his name; setting the Sabbath day aside as a holy day; honoring your parents; not hurting others through actions or words; not committing adultery; not taking things that do not belong to you; not lying; not being jealous of other people ’s things; and not plot against others. We should try our best to keep these commandments, and to love and trust him.My faith means a lot to me. Having faith means that when I feel troubled I have somewhere to turn to. If I didn ’t have faith, then I wouldn’t feel like there is anything I can do when bad things happen. Without faith, it is like there is no reason to live. If no one in the world had faith, then people would be committing suicide when life just did not go their way. You could say that faith keeps people alive.Faith also give you something to do when you are sad. If you did not have faith, then you would have no one to talk to about your problems. When you have faith, you can talk to God about what is making you upset. You can ask Him to help you, which can make you feel much better. Both faith and the Six Articles of Faith are very important in a Christian ’s daily life. They can both help through tough times and tell how you should live your life. Without these things, it is very hard to live happily.Scott Pfiffner The Ten Commandments have a very significant meaning to me and my faith. They are just like my conscience and remind me what to do at times of uncertainty. Knowing the Ten Commandments also guides me as I strive to follow God’s word. Every time I think of the Ten Commandments, I think about Jesus and how He lived perfectly. The Ten Commandments act as my conscience constantly all the time. Throughout my life, I have been able to make choices on my own. Whether it is at school, home or even while participating on sports teams, I have been faced with many different decisions. As I have grown over the years, I have also started to use the Ten Commandments more and more in my daily life. While making these judgments, I think about the Ten Commandments and how they can guide me in the certain situation I’m in. One pressure that repeatedly put thought into my decisions is brought by my fellow peers. Everyday I am pressured into making decisions that will either make a stronger relationship with God or make me more popular with my friends. Even though I do not make the right choice every time, I try to apply the Ten Commandments to these types of situations. I think of all the commandments in search of the right decision that God desires me to do. The Ten Commandments help me when I think of past mistakes I have made. Once I got mad at my mom because she told me to clean my room. Later I thought of the Ten Commandments and remembered that God told us to Honor thy father and thy mother. I started to act more respectful to my parents after I thought about how I was ignoring the Ten Commandments. During confirmation, I have continually reflected on how my life can improve by following God’s ways. As I keep on thinking about the Ten Commandments, I start to think about Jesus and how He kept them flawlessly. I consider how many times I break the Commandments daily and this strengthens my faith even more. I feel the need to return love which Jesus gave us constantly through his life. I also feel that I have to continuously try to follow the Ten Commandments to the best of my ability in thanks for Jesus dying on the cross for all of our sins. With the help of the Ten Commandments, I can continue to grow and follow God thought out my life.
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