Comments on: How You Glorify Yourself http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/12/12/how-you-glorify-yourself/ for friends of University Bible Fellowship Wed, 21 Oct 2015 04:34:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3.1 By: Ben Toh http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/12/12/how-you-glorify-yourself/#comment-4716 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:35:04 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=5202#comment-4716 Shucks, my cat pictures are among my favorite posts!

]]> By: Brian Karcher http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/12/12/how-you-glorify-yourself/#comment-4715 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:21:46 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=5202#comment-4715 I haven’t seen any of your posts, Ben, as “self-glorifying” (well ok maybe some of the cat pictures…)

I think it is like the golf swing analogy, where we cannot hit a good golf ball by constantly over-analyzing our swing. Just be yourself, be self-aware and live your life.

I think it is far more dangerous to constantly think about how to give God glory. Be a friend to sinners and God will certainly be glorified.

Those who demand “Give glory to God” sound like the self-glorifying Pharisees when they interviewed the blind man Jesus healed.

]]> By: Ben Toh http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/12/12/how-you-glorify-yourself/#comment-4713 Fri, 14 Dec 2012 15:12:21 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=5202#comment-4713 A friend, semi-jokingly perhaps, commented on Facebook that I might be posting often on Facebook to glorify myself.

There is surely an element of truth to this because of our own deceitful hearts (Jer 17:9), where even our very best righteous deeds are filthy (Isa 64:6).

So, how do we post stuff, and overcome the ever present temptation and our own inner default to draw attention to ourselves (incurvatus in se), so that we truly give God the glory?

]]> By: Brian Karcher http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/12/12/how-you-glorify-yourself/#comment-4701 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:56:45 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=5202#comment-4701 And sometimes former members become better friends with current members!

]]> By: Ben Toh http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/12/12/how-you-glorify-yourself/#comment-4700 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:21:45 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=5202#comment-4700 Many people who have been hurt by UBF have become quite good friends. This bothers some people in UBF, for they feel as though (correctly to some degree perhaps that) the disgruntled ex-UBFers are not overflowing with thankfulness for the “abundant grace and blessings” they received in UBF and continue to enjoy, but only focus on and rehash the “bad stuff.”

Personally, I don’t buy such “guilt-tripping” insinuations that does no one any good. It is far better to take responsibility for our errors, rather than to take credit for our good. No Christian can ever claim the latter because all good comes ultimately from God, and NOT from the “sacrificial Bible teacher.”

]]> By: Brian Karcher http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/12/12/how-you-glorify-yourself/#comment-4699 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:50:22 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=5202#comment-4699 Thanks Ben. You are correct: I am not trying to win friends. Yet in an odd way I’ve made WAY more friends in the past 2 years than in the prior 20 years combined.

But neither am I trying to influence people. Frankly speaking, if UBF people want to submit to the life-time authority of a UBF shepherd, so be it. If they want to deny the abuse and praise God, so be it.

I am “holding up a stop sign” to invoke discussions and publicly documenting “the other side” that UBF had denied for decades. What purpose does that serve? I don’t know fully, but I am convinced I must do it. In 2019 or so there will be another round of people who will need some reference points to make sense of their past choices.

]]> By: Ben Toh http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/12/12/how-you-glorify-yourself/#comment-4698 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:37:29 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=5202#comment-4698 It is “incurvatus in se,”–perhaps my favorite Latin phrase, since it might be the only one I know!

I was just thinking that the re-titling of your blog might not be the optimal way to win friends or influence people, according to Dale Carnegie: http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034

Perhaps, you are not trying to win friends, but you are trying to influence people, and I was just wondering if that might be a prudent way to do so. Just some thoughts, that’s all.

]]> By: Brian Karcher http://www.ubfriends.org/2012/12/12/how-you-glorify-yourself/#comment-4697 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:08:35 +0000 http://www.ubfriends.org/?p=5202#comment-4697 These are healthy thoughts and questions, Ben! I appreciate your self-awareness without being too “curved inward” (sorry can’t recall the fancy word for that at the moment…)

Since I recently re-titled my blog “a public criticism of University Bible Fellowship”, your point about criticizing other ministries causes me to ponder. I’ve decided to keep my title for now, however, and don’t mind being called a critic of UBF because my hope is not to destroy the ministry but to call attention to unaddressed problems.

I do find a narcissistic tendency in me to glorify myself. I find that public discussion is one helpful way to remove such tendencies (though I suppose blogging may have the opposite affect at times). But mainly I find that publicly sharing my thoughts allows my thoughts to be challenged in ways they never could be when I keep them to myself or only share them with people who agree with me. I appreciate ubfriends because it has helped me to see many different opinions and we’ve sharpened each other.

Your thoughts above and the articles in your links show me the importance of balance. Thanks again for keeping the discussion going.

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