UBC Wed For Life

                                      A.I. is one of the big buzzwords we constantly hear about. Many of us hear of and have even experienced beneficial uses of it. At the same time, we also hear about some of the negative results of its implementation such as people losing their jobs and harmful environmental impacts. As with seemingly everything humans create, it comes with both good and bad. There are sects of Christianity that believe we should avoid modern trappings and reject technology. It’s easy to understand why they might feel that way. Much of what the modern world has produced comes with harmful trappings and can pull us away from the righteous path. However, there’s another way to look at it. A.I. and many other human creations are just tools at their core. They aren’t bad or good. It’s how they are used that determines whether they please or grieve God. Consider something Jesus s...

                                If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  - 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV) All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.  - Isaiah 54:13 (NKJV) Holy Spirit, I lift this cry straight from my heart, a heart full of love and longing, to the Most High. This cry is not just for my children, but for all children. Those we’ve raised, those still finding their way, and those we carry in prayer every single day. And this cry is not just from me, t’s for every heart that needed to hear it. If this speaks to you, it’s yours too. I give you permission to pray it, share it, and carry it forward. Most High, call them back to You. Holy Spirit, unsettle anything in them tha...

Sympathy and empathy are two words everyone has heard before. They have become hot topics following the events that have transpired over the past few weeks. In the past, the action of extending sympathy towards someone who had suffered a loss of some kind was expected. It was a normal, almost trivial part of living in human society. Nowadays, it seems like people will argue over something as simple as when it's appropriate to empathize with others. That transition is just more evidence that the world has fallen. What exactly are sympathy and empathy though? We’ve all used the words at some point, but do we really understand what they mean? At times, people use them almost interchangeably, but there is an important difference between the two concepts. Webster’s dictionary describes that difference as such: “ Sympathy is a feeling of sincere concern for someone who is experiencing something difficult or painful. Empathy involves actively sharing in the person’s emotional ...

Thank You, Holy Spirit. It was Tuesday morning. I was riding the bus, and this thought just kept coming to me: What if the liquor store was called The Lord’s Store? I couldn’t shake it. Like something in my spirit was saying: There’s a better kind of drink. There’s a better place to be filled. As I was looking out the window of the bus, I saw two men sitting on the curb. Not slouched over, just sitting. Maybe thinking. Maybe waiting. And then I saw a woman walking to her car with a bottle in her hand, in a brown paper bag. She wasn’t hiding it. Didn’t need to. Just walked like this was her routine. I don’t know. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t. But something in me whispered: There’s got to be more than this. Then I looked up at the sign: Liquor Store. Open seven days a week. Selling whatever you think you need. And I said to myself, What if the name was changed? What if it said: Be Filled — The Lord’s Store? Where you get filled, not emptied. Where the Word lifts you instead of the bottl...

Imagine you’re walking down a sidewalk in the city late at night. You come upon an area where the street light is flickering. You see someone standing by the street light with their back turned to you. You think nothing of it at first. It’s the city after all. Someone’s always around. As you get closer, you start to get a little nervous. It’s hard to see the person clearly with the flickering light. The person looks like a tall man. That’s not out of the norm, but his features don’t seem right. His arms and legs seem longer than they should be. He’s unusually thin and he’s hunched over in an unnatural way. You slow to a stop. Something about the man terrifies you, but you can’t quite explain it. Then the light flashes on long enough for you to get a good look at his face. Just like his body, it looks human, but not quite. All of his features are just wrong. His eyes are yellowish, his nose is too small, and his smile is too wide. How would you feel if you stumbled onto this man? You’d ...

                                Reverend Chauncey recently gave a sermon about the importance of belief ( Jesus, Believe Him or Not ). We can call ourselves Christians, but if we don’t actually believe what the Bible says, it’s just a meaningless title. We also can’t just pay lip service to our belief. We have to live lives that demonstrate that belief. Seeing a person that’s strong in his or her faith can make others feel like believing in God is easy, but most of us understand that it’s not. It’s possible for us to come to a point where believing is second nature for us, but it takes time and effort. It’s crucial that we don’t let our battles with doubt discourage us. It may help knowing that we are not alone when it comes to crises of faith. For proof of that, we need look no further than the Bible. One might expect that the people in the Bible were the paragons of belief, but that couldn’t be further fr...