Thistlebend is not affiliated with any particular denomination or local church. Rather, it is a ministry devoted to serving and supporting women as they seek to know, love, and faithfully follow Jesus Christ.
Our desire is to come alongside them in their spiritual growth while also strengthening and encouraging the local church.
All of our teaching is grounded solely in the Bible, as we believe the Scriptures to be the final and sufficient authority for faith and life.
What We Believe:
- The Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God and is thus infallible and inerrant in its original manuscripts. As God’s perfect Word, we believe it is of supreme and final authority.
- In one triune God, who is Creator of all. He exists eternally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, having the same nature, attributes and perfections.
- In the deity of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. That without ceasing to be God the Son, became man, being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born to the virgin Mary, in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man. That His redemption of man was accomplished through a) His sinless life and b) death on the cross as a voluntary, substitutionary sacrifice, and in c) in the literal resurrection of His body from the dead. We believe in His ascension into heaven and His present ministry of intercession as our High Priest and Advocate. We also believe in His personal, bodily, imminent return to earth to judge all mankind and to receive His people to Himself.
- In the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who convicts men of sin, righteousness and judgment, and who indwells believers, teaches them the Word of God, and enables them to live a godly life.
- That mankind was created in the image of God. That Adam, as the representative of mankind, sinned against God, and that because of Adam’s fall, mankind has inherited a sinful nature, becoming alienated from God. That apart from Jesus Christ, all men are consequently lost and without hope.
- That all are sinners and are totally unable to save themselves. Salvation is of God.
- That man can be justified and reconciled to God only through the work and power of Jesus Christ. That salvation and the forgiveness of sins is a gift of God’s grace received through personal faith in Jesus Christ. That this faith is a gift of God, not of themselves. That the Holy Spirit regenerates those whom God has chosen to save, causing them to be born again and thereby become children of God and heirs of eternal life.
- In the existence of Satan, the declared enemy of God and His people, who works to destroy the lives and souls of mankind.
- That the purpose of the church is to worship and glorify the Lord who redeemed her. That the mission of the church is to preach and teach the Scriptures, declare the gospel to the lost, and build up the saved to maturity in Christ.
- That the ordinances of the Church, given by the Lord, are water baptism and the Lord’s Table (Communion), as a remembrance of Christ’s death and shed blood.
- In the priesthood of all believers, and that salvation will be manifested by a changed life. That it is the obligation of believers to witness, by word and life, to the truths of God’s Word. New believers are to be taught to obey the Lord. That all aspects of our lives are to be lived to the glory of God under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.