UBC Wed For Life

Plenty of people say they are Christians, but you can choose two Christians at random and ask them both what they believe and you probably won’t get the same answer from both. Sometimes the differences may be minor. Other times you may get responses that seem mutually exclusive. It’s strange that something like that could be true given that Christians supposedly all get their beliefs from the same source, the Bible. Pastor Pope addressed the issue and used a series of sermons to explain what we at United should believe. Pastor Pope started at the beginning with the first being to ever exist, God. Belief in Christianity begins and ends with God. The problem is that our perception of God is not always representative of who and what God actually is. As Pastor Pope pointed out, in some ways we’ve created our own version of God that is not fully based in truth. As always, we must turn to the Bible to get back on track. First, God is omniscient. What he knows is b...

The Bible has its share of heroes. It also has at least one bonafide superhero: Samson. He would fit in well alongside comic superheroes like the Hulk. His life was full of incredible feats. When he was still young, he killed a lion with his bare hands (Judges 14:6). He single handedly beat up 30 men who cheated some other people in a contest to answer a riddle that Samson posed (Judges 14:19). He killed a thousand Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone when they attempted to attack him (Judges 15:14). His strength couldn’t be denied. In that regard, he’s drawn comparisons to characters from great stories from mythologies around the world, such as Hercules. In fact, many may not realize this, but Samson and Hercules actually met. Well...not in the Bible of course, but Hollywood has a way of making the strangest things happen, and the two characters were brought together in a movie called Hercules, Samson, and Ulysses. We’ve seen that type of thing before. There are several ...

The last blog entry addressed the idea of persecution in the name of the Lord and determining whether examples are real or not. Sometimes in serving the Lord we may receive a legitimate backlash. However, as discussed, when our efforts to serve the Lord aren’t completely genuine, then sometimes the backlash isn’t actually persecution against a servant of Jesus but instead, rebellion against perceived attacks, However, therein lies the problem, just as the persecution we face may not be genuine, our service to God may not always be genuine either. Jesus touched on this a little during one of his many teaching moments. “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. - Mat...

Being a Christian isn’t easy. It requires a commitment to Jesus’ teaching and God’s commandments. It requires resisting the almost constant temptations of the flesh. It requires acceptance of the Holy Spirit and moving away from one’s old self and the ways that would grieve the Holy Spirit. To be clear, it requires sacrifice. Those who choose to follow Jesus often find that much of what brings them joy prior to finding Him has to be discarded to be in agreement with Him. All those difficulties are internal for the most part. They are examples of the struggle that every follower must take on against his or her own worldly nature. However, the Bible tells us that we will face external hardships too. Living a truly Christian lifestyle will put you at odds with the world, and you will face persecution because of that. Jesus himself made that point several times. He even included it in the Beatitudes. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for their...