At COTA our job as the body of Christ can be summarized by what the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9-10 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."  

 

Peter says that those who have put their faith in Jesus are new people, that is we are made new by the mercy we have received in Jesus Christ.  He then says, we have been made new, so that "you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light."  The central belief of our faith is that Jesus Christ has called us out of the darkness of our sin and rebellion, and through grace has placed us into the marvelous light of being in relationship with the one true and living God.  

 

So our lives are forever changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and now we are to be about proclaiming this glorious truth.  So as we gather together, we do so to grow in our understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and what He has done for us, continually applying it to every aspect of our lives.  As we grow, when then go out and seek to proclaim His glorious gospel in all areas of our lives.  The way we seek to do so is not just in words, although we are to be bold in our proclamation of the gospel, but also with the way we live our lives, and the way we love one another.   So our lives, that have been radically been remade by the grace of Jesus Christ, now center on and revolve around the good news of what Christ has done for us.