UBC Wed For Life

Amidst limited interactions, virtual schooling, social chaos, and shifting economic realities we find ourselves scrambling for whatever gives a sense of balance across such delicate scales. Finding such balance is an astonishing feat that involves trying to equally divide thoughts and energies across all daily roles and responsibilities. But, is such a division entirely necessary as we learn things that can be applied to all areas of life? With this question in mind, let us contemplate balance as something achieved through recognizing disparities, finding explanations, and reconciling issues. Or, to put it differently, being able to identify problems and formulate solutions by way of knowledge, skills, and personal experience. From this understanding of balance, we can begin to search for places to build bridges across our roles and responsibilities allowing for a sense of stability to be achieved. So, acknowledging our troubles, how we believe they are created, and d...

All Believers have heard the term “God’s Chosen People.” We sometimes hear it in today’s world, when the topic of Jews or Israel comes up. Though many Jewish people in the modern world are secular when it comes to their religious beliefs, many still do practice the faith and consider themselves God’s Chosen. There is a Biblical origin for that idea. When God addressed the Hebrews in the Bible, he told them: For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. - Deuteronomy 7:6 What exactly does it mean to be chosen by God? Does it mean that God favors the Jews over all other people? What does that mean for most Christians? Most of us are Gentiles. We are expected by faith to give God our obedience and love. That doesn’t seem fair if he views us as second class citizens in his kingdom. Well as with most things, God’s workings and references to how he thi...

Coming to know God (Father,Son, Holy Spirit) as the creator of all things, both visible and invisible, makes it a reasonable thing to imagine God as the maker of stories. Starting with this thought helps us to put the power and beauty of words and stories in their proper perspective. From this view, I would like to invite us to acknowledge words used to create stories and stories themselves, as the most effective tools for imparting transformational, transcendental, and spiritual knowledge. As we launch into this journey through words and stories, let us consider God’s words in Isaiah 55: 8-11: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sow...

Jesus did a lot of teaching in the Bible. While the Gospels gave some insight into his life, they focused less on his experiences and more on his teachings and the actions that fed into his teachings and later the fulfillment of his purpose on earth. As expected, Jesus’ lessons were always insightful and impactful. He was the Word made flesh, so the lessons from him were as pure a distillation of God’s desires for us as is possible here on Earth. Between the four Gospels, Jesus touched on a variety of topics and also clarified misconceptions and misunderstandings about what God really desired from his people. Of course, as Christians, we believe that Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection was his major reason for being on Earth, but we shouldn’t overlook his life and what he taught. Many of Jesus’ lessons came in the form of parables. That form of teaching isn’t that foreign to most of us. We’ve all heard fables and tall tales and other stories that are meant to deliver ...

Between Juneteenth and Independence Day, tis the season of freedom. It’s not hard to understand why we would celebrate holidays such as these. Whether it’s a group of colonies wanting to escape the heavy handed rule of a faraway king or a stolen people wanting to escape lives of strenuous and forced labor, the yearning of freedom from oppression is powerful. That was true in the past, and it still is today. We see unrest all around the world because people desire to be free of the negativity and injustice directed towards them. The current uprising in our nation is the example that is most close to home. People are hitting the streets with passion, and some others don’t understand the movement. The fight against slavery is easy enough for everyone to comprehend. No one wants to be the property of others. No one wants to spend their lives being forced to act against their will. However, for some, the connection is not as easy to see in today’s events. It’s true enough that t...

It is a poor sermon that gives no offence; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher." - George Whitefield In these fragile times in which we live, it is painfully easy to bruise one's identity on the words and actions of others regardless of intentions. So “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” are constantly provided to try and ease a discomfort that we can never hide from in this fallen world.     But, why is it so easy for people to become offended? Investigating this mystery leads to the interrogation of every experience that causes an awareness of hurt, harm, and/or danger that leaves a person with uncomfortable feelings. We become uncomfortable when our existence is challenged and when we are caused to doubt the legitimacy of our reality. We begin to question who we are and who others are based on the negotiated meanings that we desire to be known/defined by. It is hard to find peace of mind amidst such certain i...