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Because He First Loved Us

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19)

We praise God for blessing the 2011 Canadian SBC with 270 attendants from June 30th to July 2nd, 2011, which was held on the Queen’s University campus, located in Kingston, Ontario. 14 Canadian chapters from eastern Canada, 1 representative from Calgary UBF joined the 2011 Canadian UBF SBC. The theme of this conference was the love of God. From America, the newly appointed UBF general director Dr. Abraham T. Kim and Pastor Mark Vucekovich, Julie Jesmer (NIU) and her son Augustine came to support this conference with prayer. Their presence encouraged us greatly. Through this conference, we prayed to receive God's infinite love and to respond to His love, making practical decisions of faith in our life and ministry.

On the opening night, Matthew Northey gave the opening message based on 1 John 4:19. Though he is the lone member of this new pioneering ministry in Kingston, he kept his faith and laying the foundation of God’s work. We were encouraged us to discover God's love through the conference. Then, Andy Stumpf (Waterloo UBF) gave the first main lecture: "I will betroth you to me forever” based on Hosea 2. God's love is expressed poignantly through Hosea's obedience to God's command to marry his unfaithful wife. Gomer’s infidelity can be compared to our idolatry because we have prostituted ourselves to various things and people of this world. This is a touching story because God is crazy in love for us and he wants to restore our love with him forever.

On the second day, Andrew Han Jr. gave us the most famous verse about God's love through John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." For the second main lecture, Joshua Brinkerhoff gave the message on the parable of the Lost Son based on Luke 15:11-32. This passage describes the lostness of two sons. The first squandered his wealth and life. The other son was lost in his self-righteousness. From God's point of view, God longs, waits, welcomes, and restores any kind of sinner because of his great love for us. We were moved by the waiting love of our heavenly father for sinners like us. Immediately after the morning message, all the attendants wrote testimonies and shared in groups. The evening lecture was given by Paul Lee Jr. Fallen men want to retaliate after they are wounded. However, Jesus said on the cross, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:24) Jesus prayed for forgiveness. God's love is demonstrated by the cross of Jesus and for the forgiveness of our sins. Paul Lee Jr.'s testimony of changed life from that of a small-time punk into a campus shepherd was an unmistakable evidence of power of Jesus’ death on the cross.

Until then, we had learned about what God's love did for us. From day three, we learned about what are our responses to the love of God. Firstly, Samuel Mukwedeya’s morning devotion on “A New Creation in Christ” (2Co 5:17) reflects a changed life. Accepting Christ helps us to be inwardly changed and we can grow in his holiness and likeness and we must also bear fruit. Jason Northey, in his message “Remain in Jesus” (Jn 15:1-17) described that fruit-bearing in the likeness of Jesus is Christian’s measure of success. We can do this when we have an intimate relationship with Christ. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. Practically speaking this means to do small things for God’s flock with great love of Jesus. It is because Jesus first loved us. Furthermore, we must love one another because it is Jesus’ command. Ernest Chan gave his evening lecture on Jesus’ command: “Love One Another.” (Jn 13) Love is not just feeling, it is an intense spiritual struggle. This command is given to the disciples and only when we love one another can we be recognized as disciples of Jesus. Instead of complaining, we must say thank you. God wants to use us as his channels of love by obedience to Jesus’ command to love one another.

On the last day, we learned how to grow our love for Jesus more and more through the Lord’s Prayer (Mt 6:9-13) which Sheila Htoo preached to us. We prayed for M. Rebekah Lee of Ottawa UBF who was undergoing a surgery in Korea in order to remove a fist-sized tumor. The SWS message was given by Philip Wong: “You are a Holy Nation.” (1Pe 2:9) Loving God means to identify ourselves as God’s people. We are to declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. The closing message was given by Andrew Christopher based on the World Mission Command. (Mt 28:18-20) Loving Jesus means to obey this command not only to other campuses in Canada, but it extends to the whole world. May God answer our prayer topic to pioneer the remaining 140 nations!

We thank God for touching our hearts with the love of God. We could see the evidence of this love of God through powerful messages and graceful life testimonies (Leonard A., Joseph M., Alexei T., Rita T., Jennifer L., Wah-Paw, Lesedi M., Marcel R., Jia Z., Paulina L., Tino M.) and One Word testimony speakers (Preston, Allan, James, Wade, Yvonne, and Jessica). Many people shared tearful testimonies of repentance during their group studies. Now, as we returned to our mission fields, may we extend this love of God to students on 256 Canadian campuses and for the whole world!

M. Luke Hong’s prayer topics for Canada:

1.       Pioneer 256 Canadian campuses (updated number of colleges and universities in Canada, researched by Dr. Henry Kim).

2.       Double ministry in each chapter by the next Canadian SBC.

3.       Restore sacrificial spirit in order to serve campus students.

Reported by David Jumeau (Montreal UBF)