Earlier that week your friend had a few questions about the Church, so you pointed him to United's website. As he explored the various features on the site, he came across the fundamental beliefs page.

Looking at your friend's printout, you realize the page is from the website. He's pointing to the section titled "God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit," and you can tell by his face that he's thoroughly confused.

"All the stuff you guys were saying on your site made sense to me," he says, scratching his head. "But then I came to this. Not once do you guys mention the Trinity. How can you not believe in the Trinity? It just doesn't make sense!"

Your friend is obviously interested in understanding what you believe, but you don't want to overwhelm him with an exhaustive answer. Since it looks like his first foray into the topic, you should keep your answer as succinct as possible.

How do you answer?

Send in Your Response
Send your 100- to 200-word answer, along with your name and congregation, to your local pastor and ask him to forward it to United News. You can also e-mail them to UN@ucg.org. We may use your response in an upcoming United News!

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November Ready to Answer Question: What are you thankful for?

As a cashier at a local retail establishment, I say, "Thank you" about 50 times a day to people who rarely even look me in the eye. Everyone is so busy today that they rush around from place to place. If the words "thank you" are said, they either are not heard or are heard so much that they have become cliché. It is a blessing that we have a day set aside to say thank you and really reflect on what that means.

I thank God for drawing me near, for truth in a world full of lies, for Church members who welcomed me from the first time I visited, for relationships I have formed with my new brothers and sisters in Christ, for opening my mind to understand His Word a little more each day and for those customers who look me in the eye.

Karen Denham
Fort Worth, Texas, congregation

What I am thankful for is that God answered my prayer of showing me the truth (Psalm 119:18). I am thankful for a pastor who taught me that it is important to know what you believe but more important to know why you believe it. I'm thankful for the fact that we still have the freedom to worship the one true God in the way He taught us.

I am thankful for my family (physical and spiritual) and my friends. I am thankful that I have the written Word that I can study and learn and apply to my life as I continue to strive to be found worthy (2 Timothy 2:15; 3:16-17).

Milo Cook Jr.
Meade, Kansas, congregation

I'm grateful God exists, that He is agape and that He has given me life and a calling and has not left me without the Comforter Jesus sent—the Holy Spirit. I am grateful for the example Christ set, the Bible and the promise of His coming Kingdom. I'm happy to be as strange as I am as a present-day pilgrim seeking His land. I'm grateful there is a true Church, a newspaper that inspires and encourages me to think and write about it.

I'm grateful there is relative peace and bounty enough that we may still seek Him and that He is still to be found. I'm grateful for His Church (my family), the ministers and members who are of like mind. I appreciate that I was born at a time and in a land with precious freedom of religion and that there was information for me to hear. I'm grateful our Father is patient and merciful.

I feel so inadequate for the tremendous magnitude of His blessings. Being apart from my Creator for any span of time is hard and there are so many earthly distractions. I long for the day that knowledge will cover the earth like the seas, and I long for the blessing and benefit to reach all mankind. There are many hard things now in the present evil world, but thankfully all that will end.

There is beauty within all His creation, including the human spirit, and I appreciate the beauty. I appreciate music, birds sounds, the sounds water makes, soft voices, baby sounds and laughter. I'm very grateful for my faith and that I believe and know the truth. And I'm grateful for you!

Sheri Benjegerdes
Las Vegas, Nevada, congregation