The Unforgivable Sin
Have I committed the unforgivable sin? This coming Sunday I will preach on The Unforgivable Sin from Isaiah 22. One of my Bible students has asked me repeatedly over many years whether or not he has committed the unforgivable sin whenever he “falls into sin.” He asks this because he thinks that the unforgivable sin is to curse and swear at God out of his own frustration and anger. My response to him is always the same, “The fact that you ask and wonder about this tells me that you have not. Yes, you have sinned, as I have, but you have not committed the unforgivable sin. Those who do commit the unforgivable sin very likely don’t know and don’t care.” Continue reading →
Marks of True Believers
At West Loop, I’ve been preaching on Isaiah every Sunday since the end of June 2015, beginning with How Stupid Can You Be (Isa 1:1-9). This coming Sunday will be my 18th sermon: True Believers (Isaiah 19-20). In this post, I’ll share what the marks of true believers are.
Historically, Egypt has been the enslavers of God’s people and their most memorable adversary. But one day they will be converted, transformed, saved and become the people of God together with Israel. They will display evidences of true believers, such as: Continue reading →
When Christians Make Christianity Ugly
We Christians are firmly convinced that we should choose between:
- God and sin,
- God and money,
- right and wrong,
- good and bad,
- heaven and hell,
- monogamy and polygamy…and rightly so.
Two categories. This can be regarded as dualistic thinking. It is to see everything in two categories and two categories only. It promotes elitism, exclusivity and exclusionary thinking, which invariably denigrates, disparages and denounces those who are not on “your side.”
Affirming and Non-Affirming
(The picture may be the response of some on “both sides” to “the other side.”)
What I will no longer say. Probably until a few years ago, I would have stated boldly and unequivocally, “According to the Bible, homosexuality is a sin.” But I won’t say this any more. It is not because I’m afraid of being “blasted” or “labeled,” which is actually kind of fun. But it is for these reasons:
First, I’d much rather say, “God loves homosexuals, and I love you too.”
Second, it’s because I have a much stronger, better, positive and affirmative message of the good news of God’s grace to declare unashamedly and primarily (Ac 20:24). Continue reading →
Are UBF people and UBF churches humble?
Do you belong to a proud or a humble church? Are you a proud or a humble person? How can we really tell if we are proud or humble? We might excuse our pride, since pride is a subtle and deceptive sin which surely inflicts us all in varying degrees. But excuses or not, God will hold us accountable and we will reap the fruit of either our pride or our humility. Continue reading →
Marry the One you Love or Love the One you Marry
Love and marriage. A friend from Malaysia made a comment to me yesterday. He said, “In the west people marry who they love. But in the east people love who they marry.” With his latter statement he meant arranged marriages. Last week, my relative from Singapore said to me, “You should not marry the one you love, but marry the one who loves you.” He said this because his dear sister is being very badly hurt by a man she loves after she rejected a prior suitor who dearly loved her. Aren’t such statements interesting? Continue reading →
FOLLOW ME Means Repent, Deny Yourself, Lose Your Life and Make Disciples
This pamphlet has three parts:
Part I. The great invitation (Mt 4:19; Mk 1:17).
Part II. The great cost (Lk 9:23).
Part III. The great change (Mt 28:19).
West Loop’s first sermon in 2008: Where is your vision?
Editorial note: While searching for an old email, I happened to find the first sermon preached at West Loop UBF on Jan 6, 2008. It is over 6 years ago. I feel strange and nostalgic reading it. It reminded me of A Real Testimony by Ben Toh from 1998. UBFers will likely welcome what I wrote and may wonder why I am no longer like that, while exUBFers might suffer from varying degrees of PTSD. The full sermon can be read here. What I copied and pasted below is my personal application, which I preached verbatim. Continue reading →
UBF and Dialogue: What Joe, Charles and Pope Francis Say
Admin Note: Having a genuine meaningful dialogue in UBF is a very important issue that absolutely needs to be seriously addressed and practiced. I say this based on comments expressed by Joe and Charles on Facebook and UBFriends here and here. Joe and Charles make life easy for me because they state things with much clarity and with far less words than my rambunctious repetitive rowdy rambling ruminating grandstanding pontificating verbosity! Here’s what Joe posted:
“In my experience, leaders have refused to participate in discussions where they cannot control the rules of engagement, the range of allowable topics, or manage the ultimate outcome. They are willing to meet with you one on one, but I have found that counterproductive because in private they say things to pacify you but nothing comes of it, and when you leave the room they change their tune entirely. There needs to be witnesses present and some kind of accountability. Basically, I’ve found that they refuse to participate in discussions where they might lose face. Dialogue requires letting go of control and being willing to lose face, if necessary, for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of love. It feels scary and dangerous. I understand their predicament. But it is a risk that they must take.”
The Pain of Leaving UBF
(Admin note: I, Bento, did not ask permission from Joe to post this. I’m making an assumption that he would be OK with me doing so since he posted it on Facebook here. I’m posting it because what he wrote touched my heart deeply. It was real, honest, raw and gut-wrenching (and the way everyone in UBF should write a testimony). I viscerally and palpably felt his pain of moving on from UBF.) Continue reading →
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