Who Has First Place in My Life?

Genesis 22:1–19; 10/11/2026; BCBC/IOUC; Minister Flora Chen

Introduction

Brothers and sisters, peace be with you!  Today, I would like to share with you a very important question: Who has first place in my life?  Perhaps our immediate answer would be, “Of course, God does!”  But, brothers and sisters, what if what God asks us to give up is precisely the person we love the most?  What if what God asks us to surrender is actually the very blessing that He Himself has given us?  And what if God’s will conflicts with our own plans? Can we still say, “Lord, You are still first in my life”?  That is the question we are going to reflect on today. Continue reading “October 11, 2026 Who Has First Place in My Life?” →

When Human Schemes Fall Apart

Genesis 16:1-6  4/10/2026; IOUC; Sister Xiang

Has anyone noticed that the passage we are looking at today is the same passage we studied in August in the message titled “Abram’s Silence”?  Today, our focus is on another person—Sarai.  According to this passage, Sarai was the one who initiated this whole drama of having a child through a surrogate. This is the first time in Scripture that she clearly expresses her opinion in words. She had been silent before, but when she finally spoke, it was anything but insignificant. Her words set in motion a chain of events that would become a spark for more than a thousand years of conflict and bloodshed in the Middle East. Continue reading “October 4, 2026 When Human Schemes Fall Apart” →