Pastor Pat Cook shares his beliefs about understanding the Bible, emphasizing God's love and grace. He believes in living by the Spirit, the significance of Christ's death in ushering the new covenant, and the freedom from the law through grace. Cook encourages a faith-based life and stresses the importance of community and love among believers.

1. This I Believe
Pastor Pat Cook
October 2013

2. I still don’t understand a lot of
the Bible, but it makes more
sense to me now than it ever did.
Look, God is greater than we can
understand. (Job 36:26)

3. Here are a few things I have come to
believe in my journey.
Since we are living by the Spirit,
let us follow the Spirit’s leading
in every part of our lives.
(Galatians 5:25)

4. I believe God loves me the same
at all times, no matter what I
have done, or not done.
But God showed his great love for
us by sending Christ to die for us
while we were still sinners.
(Romans 5:8)

5. I believe I no longer have a sinful
nature, despite what many new
Bible translations imply.
Through these he has given us his
very great and precious
promises, so that through them
you may participate in the divine
nature, having escaped the
corruption in the world caused by
evil desires. (2 Peter 1:4)

6. I believe that knowing who I
really am in Christ has produced
more good things in me than all
my efforts put together.
But by the grace of God I am
what I am… (1 Corinthians 15:10)

7. I believe that God primarily
sees me as His son, and not His
servant.
Now you are no longer a slave
but God’s own child.
(Galatians 4:7)

8. I believe that God does not count
my sins against me – past,
present, or future.
For God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself, no longer
counting people’s sins against
them. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

9. I believe that my Christian life is
about grace and faith from start to
finish. The way I got saved is the
same way I live my life.
How foolish can you be? After
starting your Christian lives in the
Spirit, why are you now trying to
become perfect by your own human
effort? (Galatians 3:3)

10. I no longer feel distant from God or
dirty before Him, because my
Christian life is based on what Jesus
did, not what I do.
…let us go right into the presence of
God with sincere hearts fully trusting
him. For our guilty consciences have
been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to
make us clean… (Hebrews 10:22)

11. I believe that a better
understanding of the covenants
of the Bible has helped me
immensely in my Christian life.
…rightly dividing the word of
truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

12. I believe that Christ’s death,
not His birth, ushered in
the New Covenant.
God sent his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, to
redeem those under the law…
(Galatians 4:4)

13. I believe that Christ’s death ushered
in the New Covenant, that there was
a period of 40 years when both the
Old Covenant and the New Covenant
were around…
Truly I tell you, this generation will
certainly not pass away until all
these things have happened.
(Matthew 24:34)

14. I believe that Christ’s death ushered in
the New Covenant, that there was a
period of 40 years when both the Old
Covenant and the New Covenant were
around, but the destruction of Jerusalem
in AD70 ended the Mosaic covenant
forever.
By calling this covenant “new,” he has
made the first one obsolete; and what
is obsolete and outdated will soon
disappear. (Hebrews 8:13)

15. I believe that the Mosaic law has no
part in my life, except to remind me
that I can never be good enough for
God through my efforts.
The law was brought in so that the
trespass might increase. But where
sin increased, grace increased all the
more… (Romans 5:20)

16. I believe that the message of
dying to yourself is Old Covenant,
and that the message of “I did die
and now I’m alive” is New
Covenant.
For you died, and your life is now
hidden with Christ in
God. (Colossians 3:3)

17. I don’t believe in cheap grace;
I believe in free grace.
And since it is through God’s
kindness, then it is not by their good
works. For in that case, God’s grace
would not be what it really is—free
and undeserved. (Romans 11:6)

18. I believe that the spirits of
believers are united with
the Holy Spirit,
so we don’t need to “seek” God.
But the person who is joined to
the Lord is one spirit with him.
(1 Corinthians 6:17)

19. I no longer hunger and thirst for
God, because Jesus told me I
wouldn’t have to.
Jesus replied, “I am the bread of
life. Whoever comes to me will
never be hungry again. Whoever
believes in me will never
be thirsty.” (John 6:35)

20. I believe that preaching grace will
lead people to sin less, not more.
Sin is no longer your master, for
you no longer live under the
requirements of the law. Instead,
you live under the freedom of
God’s grace. (Romans 6:14)

21. I believe that I am enough for
Jesus…
…always thankful to the Father
who has made us fit to share all
the wonderful things that belong
to those who live in the Kingdom
of light. (Colossians 1:12)

22. …and I believe
that He is enough for me.
For in Him all the fullness of Deity
dwells in bodily form, and in Him you
have been made complete.
(Colossians 2:9-10)

23. I believe that the message of “do
more, pray better, try harder” is
the main reason people give up in
the faith.
This Good News tells us how God
makes us right in his sight. This is
accomplished from start to finish
by faith. (Romans 1:17)

24. I believe that there are only two
commandments that Christians are under.
Loving God means keeping his
commandments, and his commandments are
not burdensome. (1 John 5:3)
And this is his command: to believe in the
name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one
another as he commanded us.
(1 John 3:23)

25. I do not believe that bad things that happen in
life are from God as a sort of punishment. I
believe that all my deserved punishment was
on Jesus at the cross.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace
was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
(Isaiah 53:5)

26. I believe we need each other, despite
our flaws, maybe even because of
them.
And in him you too are
being built together to become a
dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
(Ephesians 2:22)

27. Although there are lots of
things I don’t believe in,
I’d rather talk about
what I do believe…

28. …the love of God,
and the grace of Jesus.