UBC Wed For Life

When Faith Stops Trying to Win Debates and Starts Changing Lives Being in this world can leave you tired. Tired of arguments. Tired of outrage. Tired of people shouting convictions they do not practice. Tired of public virtue and private vice. Tired of hearing what people believe while watching their lives contradict what they proclaim. Many people today are not rejecting Christianity because they have carefully studied every theological claim. They are rejecting what they perceive as hypocrisy, inconsistency, tribalism, and performance. In an age where everyone has a platform, many have forgotten how to be a witness. Jesus never instructed His followers to win every argument. He instructed them to love. To serve. To forgive. To remain faithful. To carry their cross. To become the kind of people whose lives cause others to question their beliefs and values before their mouths ever say a word. The most compelling testimony is not a perfectly crafted debate. It is a transformed life. Jes...

                   Have you ever considered that our present reality is merely the shell of a deeper spiritual existence—a realm where the Kingdom of God sets the true order of all things? According to Ephesians 6:12:  we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Imagine for a moment that in this current realm, an ecosystem of unseen creatures roam, each embodying the vices that shape who we become. None of these creatures bring life, nor can they be controlled by us. However, we may decide which ones we feed—though we are not always aware of those that feed on us. The Predatory Nature of the Internal Wilderness Stephen King’s IT provides a vividly terrifying view of how this ecosystem could operate. The greatest threat isn’t claws or teeth; it is the way the entity preys on what is ...

                            Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. - Matthew 11:28 (KJV) Come as you are with the weight of worry and frustration that weighs you down. Come as you are with sins too many to name. Come as you are for Our Heavenly Father is waiting. Come as you are afraid, doubtful, sick, full of rage, hate, lost, even those who are homeless. Come as you are prideful, angry, the one who felt unlovable, mistreated, the one who thought no one cared. Come as you are those who are clean on the outside but feel dirty and ashamed on the inside. Come as you are with the mask you may not want others to see, your true self. Come as you are for Our Heavenly Father is waiting with open arms, waiting to love you, for He has never stopped. He reminds us in His Word I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. - Hebrews 13:5 (KJV) Come as you are For once you come to the Father ...

                                    The format and tone of the Bible shift pretty substantially going from the Old to the New Testament. The Old Testament covers thousands of years of history and introduces us to hundreds of different people playing a variety of roles in the story God tells us. The New Testament is the culmination of the story namely — the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While the New Testament is all about Jesus, He didn’t write a single word in it. Other people were tasked with telling His story, delivering His message, and executing His will in the building of His church. Peter was one of the most important figures in the New Testament. So much so that he is recognized as the first Pope of the Catholic church. With such an important impact on our faith, you might think Peter was the paragon of a believer in Christ. Maybe he was, but that doesn’t mean he was perfect. In fact, Peter was ...

  Across Scripture, history, psychology, and lived human experience, periods of deprivation and uncertainty consistently precede transformation. The settings in which these periods occur are both physical and psychological and are biblically referred to as the wilderness. The wilderness appears as a recurring environment in which control is removed and identity is clarified. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness of Midian before liberating Israel. Elijah fled to a cave when death threats stripped him of his prophetic confidence. Jesus Himself, immediately following His baptism and divine affirmation, was “ led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted ” for forty days (Matthew 4:1). This was not accidental wandering but intentional leading, suggesting that barren seasons function as deliberate mechanisms rather than random misfortunes. This observation raises a fundamental question: If wilderness experiences appear consistently in transformational narratives, what divine ...

                  The Story We’re Taught About Power Most of us grow up learning the same unspoken rule: if you want influence, take control. Climb the ladder. Guard your position. Don’t look weak. Over time, this story shapes how we understand leadership, success, and even our sense of purpose. Yet many discover a strange contradiction: the tighter we grasp for control, the more restless, disconnected, and exhausted we become. That inner tension opens the door to a deeper question: Is there another way to live and lead? When Power Fails to Deliver If power, as the world defines it, so often corrodes meaning and connection, is there an alternative vision for greatness, one that produces wholeness instead of harm? More specifically, does Jesus offer more than a moral challenge? Does He provide a workable redefinition of power and purpose that actually leads to life? Understanding True Power Jesus’ life and teachings exhibit a radical possibil...

                 It’s the Christmas season once again. It’s supposed to be a time of merriment and cheer, but this season is turning out to be stressful for many. Prices have risen on goods, food, energy, and other things. As a result, many people are finding it more difficult to partake in their usual holiday activities. That’s understandable, especially for nonbelievers. However, for believers, the troubles we’re currently facing in today’s world shouldn’t steal our Christmas joy. After all, we know the reason for the season. That shouldn’t be treated as a fun little saying. It should be our reality. Beyond the gift giving, family meals, and time off work, Christmas should be about celebrating Jesus, our savior. It’s not surprising that the world forgets why we celebrate this holiday. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image...

                 If you’ve ever stood before a funhouse mirror, you know the shock of seeing your shape stretched, squeezed, or reshaped into something unrecognizable. Have you noticed how societies work the same way, quietly bending people into forms they never intended to take? Scripture gives us such a mirror in the story of ancient Israel, where even the most sacred households produced sons who reflected not their fathers’ faithfulness, but their nation’s corruption. It’s a reminder that culture is not a distant backdrop, but a sculptor shaping souls. Consider Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, infamously described as “worthless men who did not know the Lord” (1 Sam. 2:12). They leveraged their father's holy office for personal gain, distorted justice, and weaponized spiritual authority. Their behavior was a product of their situations and circumstances; it echoed the spiritual erosion of Israel, a nation drifting into moral corruption and...

                                      A.I. is one of the big buzzwords we constantly hear about. Many of us hear of and have even experienced beneficial uses of it. At the same time, we also hear about some of the negative results of its implementation such as people losing their jobs and harmful environmental impacts. As with seemingly everything humans create, it comes with both good and bad. There are sects of Christianity that believe we should avoid modern trappings and reject technology. It’s easy to understand why they might feel that way. Much of what the modern world has produced comes with harmful trappings and can pull us away from the righteous path. However, there’s another way to look at it. A.I. and many other human creations are just tools at their core. They aren’t bad or good. It’s how they are used that determines whether they please or grieve God. Consider something Jesus s...

                                If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  - 2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV) All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.  - Isaiah 54:13 (NKJV) Holy Spirit, I lift this cry straight from my heart, a heart full of love and longing, to the Most High. This cry is not just for my children, but for all children. Those we’ve raised, those still finding their way, and those we carry in prayer every single day. And this cry is not just from me, t’s for every heart that needed to hear it. If this speaks to you, it’s yours too. I give you permission to pray it, share it, and carry it forward. Most High, call them back to You. Holy Spirit, unsettle anything in them tha...

Sympathy and empathy are two words everyone has heard before. They have become hot topics following the events that have transpired over the past few weeks. In the past, the action of extending sympathy towards someone who had suffered a loss of some kind was expected. It was a normal, almost trivial part of living in human society. Nowadays, it seems like people will argue over something as simple as when it's appropriate to empathize with others. That transition is just more evidence that the world has fallen. What exactly are sympathy and empathy though? We’ve all used the words at some point, but do we really understand what they mean? At times, people use them almost interchangeably, but there is an important difference between the two concepts. Webster’s dictionary describes that difference as such: “ Sympathy is a feeling of sincere concern for someone who is experiencing something difficult or painful. Empathy involves actively sharing in the person’s emotional ...

Thank You, Holy Spirit. It was Tuesday morning. I was riding the bus, and this thought just kept coming to me: What if the liquor store was called The Lord’s Store? I couldn’t shake it. Like something in my spirit was saying: There’s a better kind of drink. There’s a better place to be filled. As I was looking out the window of the bus, I saw two men sitting on the curb. Not slouched over, just sitting. Maybe thinking. Maybe waiting. And then I saw a woman walking to her car with a bottle in her hand, in a brown paper bag. She wasn’t hiding it. Didn’t need to. Just walked like this was her routine. I don’t know. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t. But something in me whispered: There’s got to be more than this. Then I looked up at the sign: Liquor Store. Open seven days a week. Selling whatever you think you need. And I said to myself, What if the name was changed? What if it said: Be Filled — The Lord’s Store? Where you get filled, not emptied. Where the Word lifts you instead of the bottl...

Imagine you’re walking down a sidewalk in the city late at night. You come upon an area where the street light is flickering. You see someone standing by the street light with their back turned to you. You think nothing of it at first. It’s the city after all. Someone’s always around. As you get closer, you start to get a little nervous. It’s hard to see the person clearly with the flickering light. The person looks like a tall man. That’s not out of the norm, but his features don’t seem right. His arms and legs seem longer than they should be. He’s unusually thin and he’s hunched over in an unnatural way. You slow to a stop. Something about the man terrifies you, but you can’t quite explain it. Then the light flashes on long enough for you to get a good look at his face. Just like his body, it looks human, but not quite. All of his features are just wrong. His eyes are yellowish, his nose is too small, and his smile is too wide. How would you feel if you stumbled onto this man? You’d ...

                                Reverend Chauncey recently gave a sermon about the importance of belief ( Jesus, Believe Him or Not ). We can call ourselves Christians, but if we don’t actually believe what the Bible says, it’s just a meaningless title. We also can’t just pay lip service to our belief. We have to live lives that demonstrate that belief. Seeing a person that’s strong in his or her faith can make others feel like believing in God is easy, but most of us understand that it’s not. It’s possible for us to come to a point where believing is second nature for us, but it takes time and effort. It’s crucial that we don’t let our battles with doubt discourage us. It may help knowing that we are not alone when it comes to crises of faith. For proof of that, we need look no further than the Bible. One might expect that the people in the Bible were the paragons of belief, but that couldn’t be further fr...

                         The ruins of the Tower of Babel still speak to us of its ancient ambitions. This history of our ambition isn't buried in sand, it's built into skyscrapers, carved into boardroom tables, and coded into our social media algorithms. From Eden's first grasp to Babel's final collapse, humanity keeps building the same tower with different blueprints. When Unity Becomes Uniformity And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” -  Genesis 11:4 (NKJV). The Tower of Babel wasn't just architecture; it was identity construction. Here was humanity's second great attempt at meaning-making through power, the sequel to Eden's reach. But notice what they sought: not God's glory, but their own name. Not divine connection, but human consolidation. Babel represents the ul...