UBC Wed For Life

                                    It’s Christmas time again, and every good Christian should know the reason for the season. Beyond all the gift giving, time off from work, and other things that have become associated with the holiday, Christmas is first and foremost a celebration of Jesus’ birth. For believers this day commemorates when God gave the world the best gift it could ever receive. Nowadays, nearly the world celebrates Christmas. It’s a practice that has spread across the globe, but in general, only a small amount of the fervor associated with the holiday is directed where it belongs - remembrance of Jesus. To be honest, that shouldn’t be surprising. The significance of Jesus’ birth doesn’t hold the weight it should. It would be easy to blame that on the commercialization of our society and all the distractions that it brings, but in all honesty, Jesus has probably never been appreciated the way he should be. Consider the fact that he was prophesied to be the King of

                                  The previous blog entry discussed God’s ability to plan for the future when providing inspiration for the Biblical texts. The various books of the Bible were written thousands of years ago for a culture foreign to our own, but at times, it can seem like the Bible is full of coded descriptions of what we experience today in the modern world. Take Micah 3:9-11 for example: Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.” The references to Judah and Zion should make it recognizable to most that these verses are not about the U.S. However, anyone in the U.S. who follows politics or current events has heard plenty similar things

                                      Jesus had an interesting way of teaching his followers. Many of his lessons came in the form of parables that explained godly concepts in terms of things his followers should have been able to understand. The use of stories to teach lessons isn’t in itself unusual. The Tortoise and the Hare is one such story. It was one of Aesop’s fables. Like Jesus’ parables, Aesop’s fables consisted of simple narratives that were used to deliver a lesson about what is right or prudent i.e., the moral of the story. What made Jesus’ approach unique is his reasoning for why he used parables. The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables: “Tho

            Jesus was the subject of the previous blog entry, but that entry focused more on what and who Jesus is and what he means for Christians. Understanding that is important, but as mentioned in the previous entry, Jesus was a real human being that lived in and interacted with the world the same as any other person. He lived a life complete with goals, objectives, and purpose. As Christians, we look to the Bible for dogma as we should since the Bible is our blueprint for how to live a righteous life. Jesus’ teachings are very important for that purpose, and it clearly was always part of God’s plan for Jesus’ teachings to resonate with us now thousands of years after his death. Still, it’s important to remember that we weren’t the original recipients of those teachings. For us, Jesus is a godly figure whose impact has proven timeless, but when he lived on the Earth, he was not perceived that way. When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “W

Almost every entry of this blog has mentioned or referenced Jesus in some way. It is, or at least should be, impossible to write a Christian blog without regularly writing about Jesus. That said, Jesus is such a big and important figure that it’s perfectly possible to talk about him constantly and still miss some important factors about him. It’s easy for people to hear about him but not completely understand who or what he is. In our faith, Jesus wasn’t just a man or prophet. We often refer to him as the Son of God, but even that leaves room for confusion. We don’t simply believe he was a child of God in the same way that we are. He was actually God in the flesh. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not over

Lists are popular fodder for YouTube and social media content. While many of them are frivolous in the topics they cover, the format is still a pretty good way to cover topics and present information for both entertainment and insight. So why not create one with the purpose of serving the Lord? There are a lot of things that both believers and nonbelievers get wrong about our faith. So here is a list of 4 misconceptions people have about Christianity. The hope is that in covering this list, nonbelievers will be better informed about the truth of the faith and believers will be better equipped to answer questions and correct misinformation when sharing the Gospel. The life of a Christian isn’t supposed to be easy. The lives of Christians have ups and downs just like with all other human beings. For some reason, this has been used to attack Christianity and suggest that belief has no merit. Some skeptics will even point to Christians going through struggles and ask “Where’s God?” Tha

                                      The previous entry attempted to provide some insight on what the Bible is and why reading it is so important for believers and our mission. As mentioned in that entry, the Bible is a big and complicated book. Reading it can be a daunting task. Further, it is essential that we not just read it but also understand what God is trying to communicate to us. Technology, in some cases, has developed in a way that might make it more difficult for people to live righteous lives. That said, advances in technology can also be put to use by those who choose to pursue God. That should not be a surprise. After all, God is the one that blessed humanity with the knowledge and capability needed to produce the advances in technology we now see. Aspects of the Bible have changed over the centuries since it was put together. God’s Word itself is the same as it always was, but originally the various books of the Bible were written in Hebrew or Greek depending on

                                   Pastor Pope is currently in the middle of a series of sermons intended to help the people of the church and other believers in their efforts to share the Gospel. Sharing the Gospel and bringing people to Jesus is one of if not the most important duties of all believers. Jesus gave that very instruction to his disciples while he was alive. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit - Matthew 28:19 And later spoke on his expectations for the new and future believers following his death and resurrection. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. - Acts 1:8 In its simplest form, sharing the Gospel can be boiled down to simply telling others that Jesus was God in human form. He died for our sins and was resurrected three days later. He came to sav

                                        If for some reason, you ever want excuses to be depressed, you need only watch the news for five minutes, and you’ll find more than enough. It seems like America and humanity in general just can’t get it together. Between the various social issues, geo-political conflicts, and existential crises looming on the horizon, it can sometimes feel like we are all hurtling towards oblivion. To make things worse, we don’t see a trend of people turning to God in these trying times. Unfortunately, people are abandoning the faith. This blog has noted that fact on several occasions. There are probably a variety of things to blame for the trend, but whatever the cause of people turning away from God, we can be sure it’s not something that pleases him. It’s easy for us to look at today’s world and feel like things are uniquely bad, but the truth is the world being in crisis is nothing new. Ask the elders and they can probably give you two or three examp

                                       A rapper named Killah Priest has a song that includes the following line: When you pray you talk to God. When you meditate God talks to you. To be clear this isn’t really a Biblically based statement, and the song is secular not Christian rap. Still, the perspective is interesting. At United’s Sunday Encounters, Pastor Pope is in the midst of delivering a series of sermons that explain how we should pray. His sermons revolve around the following acrostic: T - Thanksgiving A - Adoration C - Confession O - Others S - Supplication TACOS is a very useful tool for remembering everything that should be included in our prayers. It helps ensure that we consistently say everything we need to say to God when we pray. However, therein lies part of the problem. We can use TACOS to guide how we talk to God, but if we consistently just go through that checklist, say Amen, and then go on our way to do something else, do we ever actually give God a chance

                                    Several weeks ago Laruen Boebert, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives gave a speech where she referenced a verse from the Bible and seemingly used it to wish death on President Biden. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian should be disturbed by what she said. A politician using God’s Word for such a vile purpose shouldn’t be acceptable. Unfortunately, as has been mentioned on this blog before, it’s increasingly common in today’s world to hear politicians and other famous people who claim to be Christians using the Bible to push their own agendas, spread hate, and promote things that are not Christlike. Often these poor uses of the Bible go unchecked, at least on a public level, but this time was different. In response to Boebert’s comments, almost 20,000 Christians have signed a petition asking for the Congresswoman’s resignation . Whether or not Boebert resigns is less important than the reasoning behind the petition. Your repeated

                                When we think about the New Testament, the teachings of Jesus and Paul are probably the first to come to mind. Jesus, of course, is the focus for the whole New Testament. The Gospels cover his life and death while his teachings, resurrection, and the advent of the Holy Spirit are what provide the foundation for all the other books in the New Testament. Paul, on the other hand, was the prominent figure in the New Testament responsible for the spread of Christianity from the Jews to various groups of Gentiles throughout the Mediterranean Sea coast and Middle East. There is good reason that those two are the stars of the New Testament, but we shouldn’t forget that other voices are also present within the New Testament books. Jesus had twelve disciples and several of them have books that appear in the New Testament. They each bring interesting perspectives. When we learn about the disciples in the Gospels, they are studying under Jesus, and they aren’

                                         Several prophets have short, often overlooked books, dedicated to them in the Bible. Jonah is one example, though his name is more well-known among believers and others who have a casual familiarity with the Bible. It’s not that Jonah’s work was more important than that of the other prophets. His story simply had a component to it that made for better storytelling. We’ve heard about Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath, and Daniel in the Lion’s Den. They are all stories that illustrate who God is in fantastical fashion. Jonah and the Fish is a story that fits right along them. The problem is that in boiling Jonah’s story down to his experience with the fish, we miss out on a lot of what the Book of Jonah is trying to teach us. That’s unfortunately a mistake that we sometimes make with the Bible as a whole. We try to find the big lesson or get caught up in the more amazing aspects of the various Biblical stories and wind up overlooking the

              With the holiday season drawing to a close, almost everyone has observed some sort of long held tradition over the past couple weeks. America, the melting pot that it is, has citizens that celebrate a number of different holidays during this season including Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Day, and Christmas. Christmas, in particular, is an interesting case as it is like a mixed bag of several different holidays. Of course, for us believers, Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. Given Jesus’ importance to us and our faith, there’s no surprise that Christmas is one of the most important holidays to us. That said, Christmas is no longer a holiday solely celebrated by Christians. Many people who do not even believe in Jesus still celebrate Christmas. As a result, Christmas has a number of attached customs and traditions that don’t have anything to do with Christ’s birth. Does that mean we shouldn’t observe any of those customs or celebrate Christmas at all?