UBC Wed For Life

With Christmas upon us, we’ve all been inundated by images and concepts related to the holiday. Two figures, more than anything else, are given special attention for Christmas: Jesus Christ and Santa Claus. For believers, that statement may seem laughable. Christmas by definition is the commemoration of Jesus’ birthday, so how can anyone suggest that Santa is just as prominent during this season? Well, before you ask that question, think about the Christmas decorations you saw in the stores you’ve visited recently, the Christmas related commercials or shows you saw the last time you turned on your TV, or the Christmas themed clothing you’ve seen recently. How many times did you see Santa? How many times did you see Jesus or something related to Jesus? Chances are, you encountered much more Santa than Jesus.  That’s a sad reality There’s nothing wrong with indulging in some of the less spiritually based aspects of Christmas, but we do have to stay grounded in our beliefs about why t...

Tis the season to be thankful. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, for most, there is plenty of gift giving, meal sharing, and fellowshipping. Most people tend to be in good moods, or at least, better moods than they might have been before. It’s a season of giving, and in turn, that means it’s also a season of gratitude. After all, for every action of giving, there should be an equal action of gratitude. Well maybe the gratitude isn’t always equal to the giving, but, at the very least, almost everyone will do the bare minimum of saying “Thank You” when something is done for them. For Christians, we have even more reason to be thankful. We are coming up on the celebration of the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. We should be thankful that God saw fit to save us. We should be thankful that Jesus was willing to lay down his life for us. In truth, we should be thankful that we get to be children of God. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful dee...

Solomon’s sin doomed his son, Rehoboam, to a tumultuous reign as king. God is true to his word both when it comes to blessings and punishment. Following Rehoboam’s time as king, the seat of power for Israel was less a throne and more a revolving door. The books of Kings I and II are named as such because they describe the reigns of the various Hebrew kings including and following Solomon. When reading the books, it should be clear to the reader very quickly that long largely productive reigns like those seen with David and Solomon were not the norm. While God had a hand in selecting all the kings that rose to power, none of them had God’s favor going into their reigns the way David and Solomon did. Conversely, God still had his prophets or “Men of God” to deliver His Word and shape events as God desired. Elijah was one of the most prominent prophets in the Bible. When we first meet him, he is giving a prophecy to Ahab, the king of Israel at that time. Now Elijah the Tishbite, from...

As Christians, our ultimate goal with everything we do should be to please God. However, we do not always behave in a way that would allow us to accomplish that goal. One thing is clear, if we are sinning, we are not pleasing God because we are behaving in a way that is in direct conflict with God’s Will. Pastor Pope pointed out that Christians shouldn’t sin and, contrary to what many believe, don’t have to sin. He used words from Peter to illustrate the path that Christians should take to move away from sin. Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckles...

Election season is finally coming to an end. A decision has finally been made, and that decision will require a transition. One administration will have to step away, while another rises to take its place. The U.S. is more than two hundred years old, and presidential elections are held every 4 years. We’ve been here before. Sometimes the transition has led to revolutionary change for the country such as when Abraham Lincoln took office and wound up freeing the slaves and overseeing a Civil War. More often than not though, particularly in recent times, the transition from one leadership to another hasn’t really had as much of an impact as many have hoped.  Too often, when all the promises and bluster subside, most of the problems that were present before the transition remain after the transition. Too many citizens are struggling financially. Too many people are being abused by both the system and their fellow citizens. Too much strife exists in the nation, but it’s not jus...

It’s become common to hear stories of incidents occurring in today’s world that prompt questions like “How can this still be happening in this day and age?” Those questions are born from the belief that our nation, the world, and humanity in general should have progressed to the point where certain problems no longer exist. In the minds of some, racism, sexism, and all other types of bigotry should be things of the past. Yet, looking at recent events that have been unfolding in the U.S., we see that those things have not faded at all. In some ways, they may be just as prominent in society as they ever were. How can that be? Perhaps, it's a little naive to believe that time alone is enough to carry us away from the ills that infest society. Sure, there have been civil rights movements and women’s suffrage movements and other large scale efforts by groups to push society past the problems that plague it. However, maybe the problem is that these things are so ingrained in our s...

Choice is important for many people. The ability to choose makes many of us feel like we have some control. With the election on the horizon, this seems like the season of choice. For some, every election seems to take on massive importance as if we as a nation are literally choosing between good and evil. That may be extreme, but at the very least, most of us believe that one option is better than the other. It’s all a matter of perspective. One candidate may have the background, history, and experience that appeals to you, or maybe that candidate has an uncanny way of saying things that always seems to match what you believe. It can be easy to get caught up in the hype and come to think that anything other than the election of your candidate would be cataclysmic. If you’re a Christian, such thinking means that you’ve lost perspective. We all live in this world and are citizens of a nation. Performing civic duties are just as important for believers as non-believers. Christi...

The last two spotlights focused on the rise, fall, and redemption of David. He was a flawed man and king, but, in the end, he was a faithful servant of God. David’s misdeeds led to him being punished greatly, but in His mercy, God did not take everything away from David. David acknowledged God’s goodness in his charge to Solomon. “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’ - 1 Kings 2:2-4 Shortly after David spoke those words, he died, and Solomon became king. Solomon was a very different man fr...

In 1492, Columbus inadvertently discovered the New World in a voyage he set out on to prove that the world wasn’t flat. After reaching the New World, he set up several additional expeditions with the blessing of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. His purpose was to spread the word of God to the people living in the New World. At least, that’s the story many of us grew up hearing. While Columbus did indeed use his first voyage to attempt to find a quicker way to India, most educated people didn’t actually believe the world was flat. Also, Columbus didn’t discover anything. That should go without saying as there were already millions of people living in the lands that would one day be called the Americas. However, even if we ignore them, Columbus wasn’t even the first European to reach the New World. The Vikings had already found and set up short lived settlements in North America decades before Columbus’ voyage. Those truths may lead some to question the importance of w...

If you’ve ever attended a church service, you’ve no doubt heard the preacher or someone else in the service refer to “the Enemy.” This enemy is blamed for the misery in the world, the strife in people’s lives, and all manner of negativity that affects us all. Who is this enemy though? People are usually referring to the Devil when they speak of the Enemy. He is well known in and out of Christianity as the avatar of evil, the world’s Big Bad. He is the enemy of all that is good and the cause for our struggles in the world. He’s supposedly held that role since humanity’s beginning. After all, he was the one that led Adam and Eve astray and introduced sin to the world. Is Satan really “the Enemy” though? He is the adversary of humanity for sure, but is he the one to blame for all the troubles in the world past and present? Well, what does the Bible say? Satan was active throughout the it. His role in man’s initial fall was already mentioned. He tormented Job. He tried to ...

  The previous blog entry made a point about the people with which we associate ourselves based on one of the proverbs, but it may be worthwhile to further explore the concept of our associations. Humans are social by nature. That is evidenced by the great civilizations that we have created throughout our history, several of which were mentioned as empires in the Bible (Egypt, Persia, and Rome). Even before big cities and nations became commonplace, humans still gathered in smaller hunter-gatherer type groups. The one constant is that humans prefer to be and work best together.   So, either as a result of the world in which we live or our very own natures, most people will have many other people playing a variety of roles in their lives. We all have families with which we share blood bonds and friends that lack the genetic connection but are just as close to us. We have associates with whom we have casual interactions and acquaintances who we met and interacted with in p...

The topic of the Bible’s proverbs was the subject of a previous entry, but a single entry could do little more than scratch the surface of the wisdom contained in the Book of Proverbs. One of the things that makes the Bible’s proverbs so special is the fact that even hundreds of years after most of them were written, they are still as poignant and relevant as they ever were. In fact, if one wasn’t told differently, a person might believe that some of the proverbs are actually modern sayings.  Another good thing about the proverbs is that they provide insight into God’s thinking and desires in short and easy to understand portions. Reading the Bible is important, but some portions of the Bible may require extensive reading and studying to understand what God is trying to say. That is not a problem with the proverbs. Sometimes it is good to have something simple; something on which you can focus and place in your heart to ensure that it has an impact on your life. Let’s consider...