The Bible is the inspired Word of God.  It is “God-breathed,” and the basis for our faith and for faithful living (see 2 Timothy 3:16.)  Most importantly, the Bible is how we get to know and to know about Jesus. The Bible tells us the story of how God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus to rescue us.

God made the world to be very good, and made people to live in relationship with Him and with each other.  But the very first people, the first beings who had that special ability to live in relationship, chose to try to be in charge themselves rather than to live in relationship with God.  Because of this, we fail to live the way God wants us to live and aren’t able to be in relationship with God the way God intended.  We go through life trapped by expectations that we can't meet--our own, God's, and other people's.

So, when the time was right, God the Father sent Jesus, the Son of God, into the world—to live, to die, and to rise again so that we could live our lives with God.  Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can be forgiven for our failures (sin).  Just as important, we can be set free from the power of sin, death, and evil in our lives—everything that separates us from God--so that we can live the way God would have us live and live in relationship with Him.  Jesus frees us from the expectations we can't meet, asking us only to follow Him.