2315 Strasburg Road Front Royal, VA  22630 540-635-5393 Buckton Presbyterian Church, 2315 Strasburg Road, Front Royal, VA  22630 Buckton Presbyterian Church is a member congregation of Shenandoah Presbytery within the bounds of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic in the Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.)  © Copyright 2010 Buckton Presbyterian Church, all rights reserved. In life and in death we belong to God. Through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,    the love of God,    and the communion of the Holy Spirit, we trust in the one triune God, the Holy One of Israel,    whom alone we worship and serve. We trust in Jesus Christ,    fully human, fully God. Jesus proclaimed the reign of God:    preaching good news to the poor    and release to the captives,    teaching by word and deed    and blessing the children,    healing the sick    and binding up the brokenhearted,    eating with outcasts,    forgiving sinners,    and calling all to repent and believe the gospel.    Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition, Jesus was crucified,    suffering the depths of human pain    and giving his life for the sins of the world. God raised this Jesus from the dead,    vindicating his sinless life,    breaking the power of sin and evil,    delivering us from death to life eternal. We trust in God,    whom Jesus called Abba Father. In sovereign love God created the world good    and makes everyone equally in God's image,    male and female, of every race and people,    to live as one community. But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator.    Ignoring God's commandments,    we violate the image of God in others and ourselves,    accept lies as truth,    exploit neighbor and nature,    and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care. We deserve God's condemnation.   Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation. In everlasting love, the God of Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant     people    to bless all families of the earth. Hearing their cry, God delivered the children of Israel    from the house of bondage. Loving us still, God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant. Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child,    like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home, God is faithful still. We trust in God the Holy Spirit,    everywhere the giver and renewer of life. The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith,    sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and     neighbor,    and binds us together with all believers    in the one body of Christ, the church. The same Spirit    who inspired the prophets and apostles    rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture,    engages us through the Word proclaimed,    claims us in the waters of baptism, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation,    and calls women and men to all ministries of the church. In a broken and fearful world    the Spirit gives us courage    to pray without ceasing,    to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior,    to unmask idolatries in church and culture,    to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,    and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace. In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit,    we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks    and to live holy and joyful lives, even as we watch for God's new heaven and new earth,    praying, "Come, Lord Jesus!" With believers in every time and place,    we rejoice that nothing in life or in death    can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen. Preface In 1983 the two largest Presbyterian churches in the United States reunited. The Plan for Reunion called for the preparation of a brief statement of the Reformed faith for possible inclusion in the Book of Confessions. This statement is therefore not intended to stand alone, apart from the other confessions of our church. It does not pretend to be a complete list of all our beliefs, nor does it explain any of them in detail. It is designed to be confessed by the whole congregation in the setting of public worship, and it may also serve pastors and teachers as an aid to Christian instruction. It celebrates our rediscovery that for all our undoubted diversity, we are bound together by a common faith and a common task. "God fully expects the church of Jesus Christ to prove itself a miraculous group in the very midst of a hostile world. Christians of necessity must be in contact with the world, but in being and spirit ought to be separated from the world and as such, we should be the most amazing people in the world." A. W. Tozer Presbyterians believe the Bible when it says that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  (Romans 3:23) Unlike crime, which involves the breaking of human law, sin is a condition of the heart or an expression of that condition where we are estranged from God and fail to trust in God. Sin expresses itself in particular acts. God has always been faithful to the people of Israel and to the church. Presbyterians believe God has offered us salvation because of God's loving nature. It is not a right or a privilege to be earned by being "good enough." No one of us is good enough on our own--we are all dependent upon God's goodness and mercy. From the kindest, most devoted churchgoer to the most blatant sinner, we are all saved solely by the grace of God. Sin, said John Calvin, is pride. It is not just doing "sinful acts" that break God's law; it is wanting to be in charge of our own lives. It is refusing to trust God for our security, and trying instead to build our own. When we trust God who loves us and trust the life God gives to us, we are open to our neighbors, willing to take the risk of loving them generously. That is what God wants for us. God reaches out to us in the greatest possible love and redeemed us through Jesus Christ, the only one who was ever without sin. Through Jesus' death and resurrection God triumphed over sin. Presbyterians believe it is through the action of God working in us that we become aware of our sinfulness and our need for God's mercy and forgiveness.  God is willing to forgive our sins, if we but confess them and ask for forgiveness in the name of Christ. God further sent the Holy Spirit to be our companion, counselor and guide in living a life of service to God. "The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith, sets us free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor, and binds us together with all believers in the one body of Christ, the church."  (Brief Statement of Faith, Lines 54-57)