United Church of God Blogs

Do you ever feel like your whole world is spinning constantly? Well, it is, and at amazing speeds. The earth, at the point of the equator, spins at approximately 1,000 miles per hour about its axis and at about 67,000 miles per hour around the sun!

We have received quite a bit feedback on a recent Beyond Today Daily we did on the subject of Christ's resurrection and the Days of Unleavened Bread . This grew out of comments made on a Beyond Today television program where we covered the subject of God's festivals and their meaning for Christians today.

The message of the Kingdom of God will always pierce the clutter of secular messages that steal our time and attention. Last weekend's second round of seminars remind us God is not done adding to His Church.

King DavidKing of Israel, killed the giant Goliath with a sling and stones, a man after God's own heart, only turned from God in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (1 Kings 15:5), had an affair with Bathsheba, Messiah would come from line of David, main author of Psalms and highly musical. said, "For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our fathers; Our days on earth are as a shadow,…" (1 Chronicles 29:15For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
See All...). I like this thought. It tells me how to approach each day and to use the day to advance the kingdom in every way possible. Shadows change as the light of the sun moves across the earth. So do the times and seasons of our lives. If we are connected to God and tuned to the world as it is we can use our life to do God's will and fulfill our purpose.

I'm so thankful that God has blessed us with the Sabbath day (Mark 2:27And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
See All...). God wants us to call the Sabbath a delight.

You cannot understand much of what is taking place in today's world without some understanding of Islam. This religion is at the heart and core of much of the unrest and violence sweeping the world today.

My best friend Katlyn and I have known each other since we were little children. We grew up in the same church area and have always shared a special sisterly bond with each other.

About two years ago, we were separated as I moved to Michigan and then we both moved even further apart to advance our education. The distance has faced our friendship with challenges as life’s dramatic changes, new responsibilities, and areas of growth have been happening to each of us from afar off.

Each week I run through a lot of Web content searching for material and ideas for Beyond Today , The Good News and other media. Some of it might be useful to you in your understanding of today's world. Here are few links to articles to close out December. Enjoy.

Becoming a Christian means changing your way of life to live the way that God wants, primarily by turning from sin. While it's easy to reject sins such as murder, some of the more "harmless" or "fun" sins can be hard to let go of. You may even be fooled into thinking that they are better than what God commands! The story of Saul and King Agag speaks powerfully to this issue, providing a lesson that we should examine ourselves by.

We are very pleased to report that  Beyond Today  will soon begin airing on another cable/satellite television network! As you know, our programs have been airing nationwide on  WGN America  since July 2010 with excellent results. As we continue our fine relationship with  WGN America  we will now also add the  WORD Network  to our television lineup.

After the Israelites entered into the promised land, they had some work to do. It wasn’t just handed over to them. There were other nations occupying this land. Battle after battle they saw God’s hand helping them. Beginning with the miraculous fall of Jericho, Israel went on through the land, conquering. Once the dust was settled and the land was distributed to the tribes, something big happened.

Portia Nelson makes an insightful observation about dealing with mistakes in life in a short essay entitled There's a Hole in My Sidewalk–An Autobiography in Five Short Chapters :

Each week I run through a lot of Web content searching for material and ideas for  Beyond Today ,  The Good News  and other media. Some of it might be useful to you in your understanding of today's world. 

My desktop computer had become quite sluggish in its performance and threatened too cause some real problems for my attitude. Staring at what is called  the "spinning beach ball of death" for more than ten seconds seemed more like ten minutes in the blazing fast world of computer time. This called for drastic measures like cyber-disk doctoring. 

At the start of this day I was definitely not the epitome of rainbows and sunshine. Tired and groggy, I had to force myself out of bed. As I got in the car and began to take my regular route to work, I turned on the radio. Everything changed. At that exact moment a new song began to play. My mind shifted to thinking of how good I have it: God’s graciousness, a loving family and husband, good health, the opportunity to do work that matters, a nice apartment, and the list goes on. Life is good!

I don’t have cable, but I have Netflix. Endless upon endless choices of mediocre programing. Sometimes, I get suggestions from friends what to watch. Most of the time I take the liberty to check something out on my own.

Britain appears to be de-coupling from the great train called Europe. Whatever the Euro project becomes it appears it will be without England.

In many schools across the United States administrators and teachers are implementing the Responsive Classroom approach. In a Responsive Classroom, a teacher sets up a time for the class to meet together in the day, normally in the morning for what is called “Morning Meeting.”

Pearl Harbor Day, 70 years later, December 7, 2011.

December 7, 1941, was the worst day in U.S. military history as a Japanese armada of ships and planes made a devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This Hawaiian U.S. naval base was a tempting target for the imperialist Japanese since America’s entire Pacific Fleet was headquartered at Pearl. The Japanese met little resistance as their planes bombed and strafed U.S. Navy ships and Army aircraft.