UBC Wed For Life

As stated in the previous entry, a sense of belonging is important to most people in today’s world, and it is particularly important that the church be able to instill a sense of belonging in the people that visit it. For this reason, Pastor Pope and the other ministers at United have continued delivering sermons that tackle the issue of belonging. A few of the Sermons use acronyms and acrostics to illustrate concepts that feed into the concept of belonging. For example, Pastor Pope introduced BRAVING, which breaks down into B oundaries R eliability A ccountability V ault I ntegrity N on-judging G race Each of these concepts feeds into belonging in that all address things that must be in place or must be demonstrated by the members of a group for each of the members to feel like they can trust each other. Pastor Pope defined trust as being the willingness to take something that is sacred or important to oneself and make it vulnerable to the actions of someone else. Trust is vital f...

  Humans are relational beings. That is how God made us. He always intended for us to interact and commune with other people. Given that fact, there should be no surprise that the desire to belong is a driving force in the lives of most people. Most of us are born into a biological family, which serves as the first group to which we can belong. From there we seek out our cliques of friends, which serve as the first groups to which we can choose to belong. Many of us take it even further and join a variety of other groups like social clubs, fraternities/sororities, and, unfortunately in some cases, gangs, all to feel like we belong to something. Every believer is automatically a part of a big group, the Body of Christ. However, we also are a part of smaller units within that bigger body in the form of our church families. A couple of important questions should be asked. Do the members of those church families truly feel like they belong? Do people who are not members of th...

Judas Iscariot: Here was a man who drew as close to the Savior as it is humanly possible to be. He enjoyed every privilege Christ affords. He spent three years with Jesus Christ, and he was intimately familiar with everything Jesus taught. Yet, he remained in unbelief and went into a hopeless eternity. The Prophecies   Judas’ role of betrayal of Christ was ordained before the foundation of the world and even prophesied in the Old Testament. "And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15) . God ordained the events by which Christ would die, and yet Judas carried out his evil deed by his own choice. Psalm 41:9   9 Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted,  Who ate my bread,  Has lifted up  his  heel against me. The Lord Jesus quoted verse 9 in connection with Judas. One of the disciples who had lived with the Lord Jesus, travele...