UBC Wed For Life

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...