John

John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied,

“Bless the Lord God of Israel
    because he has come to help and has delivered his people.
He has raised up a mighty savior for us in his servant David’s house,
    just as he said through the mouths of his holy prophets long ago.
He has brought salvation from our enemies
    and from the power of all those who hate us.
He has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
    and remembered his holy covenant,
        the solemn pledge he made to our ancestor Abraham.
He has granted that we would be rescued
        from the power of our enemies
    so that we could serve him without fear,
        in holiness and righteousness in God’s eyes,
            for as long as we live.
You, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High,
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.
You will tell his people how to be saved
    through the forgiveness of their sins.
Because of our God’s deep compassion,
    the dawn from heaven will break upon us,
    to give light to those who are sitting in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,
        to guide us on the path of peace.” (Luke 1:67-79, CEB)

You, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High and will prepare the way for the Lord!

John came months before Jesus and prepared the people for Jesus’ message of love.

You too are a prophet of the Most High, a herald of the Good News of Jesus Christ and the love of God given to and shared with all people.

Do not shy away from sharing the love you have been given, for that prepares the way for the Lord to be a part of the lives of the people of the world.

Love Out Loud!

Loving People. Loving God.

integrity

Therefore, my loved ones, just as you always obey me, not just when I am present but now even more while I am away, carry out your own salvation with fear and trembling. God is the one who enables you both to want and to actually live out his good purposes. Do everything without grumbling and arguing so that you may be blameless and pure, innocent children of God surrounded by people who are crooked and corrupt. Among these people you shine like stars in the world because you hold on to the word of life. This will allow me to say on the day of Christ that I haven’t run for nothing or worked for nothing. But even if I am poured out like a drink offering upon the altar of service for your faith, I am glad. I’m glad with all of you. You should be glad about this in the same way. Be glad with me! (Philippians 2:12-18, CEB)

Be who you are regardless of who is watching.

Live your life the same way online as you would in person and do what you would do if your mother is watching when she isn’t.

The issue today is most people are at least 3 or more people.

They are:

Someone online
Someone who pleases their mother
Someone in person

Also, there could be more. Are you a different person with different people?

You should always be the same person regardless of who you are with and wether of not you are in person or behind a keyboard. That is being the person God created.

Walk the walk and talk the talk and do it without grumbling.

Loving People. Loving God.

stupid ideas

Nobody should deceive you with stupid ideas. God’s anger comes down on those who are disobedient because of this kind of thing. So you shouldn’t have anything to do with them. You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord, so live your life as children of light. Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth. Therefore, test everything to see what’s pleasing to the Lord, and don’t participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead, you should reveal the truth about them. It’s embarrassing to even talk about what certain persons do in secret. But everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light. Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore, it says, Wake up, sleeper! Get up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. (Ephesians 5:6-14, CEB)

No one should deceive you with stupid ideas.

It seems like a lot of people should read this and learn about not being deceived by stupid ideas.

We should test everything to make sure it is of God.

Follow after Jesus. Love all but test all.

Do not be decided by stupid ideas.

Loving People. Loving God.

Follow me…

Now when Jesus heard that John was arrested, he went to Galilee. He left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, which lies alongside the sea in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. This fulfilled what Isaiah the prophet said: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, alongside the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who lived in the dark have seen a great light, and a light has come upon those who lived in the region and in shadow of death. From that time Jesus began to announce, “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” As Jesus walked alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, because they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away, they left their nets and followed him. Continuing on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father repairing their nets. Jesus called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues. He announced the good news of the kingdom and healed every disease and sickness among the people. (Matthew 4:12-23, CEB)

Jesus saw them along the shore and said, “Follow me and I will teach you to fish for people.”

How do you fish for people? And remember that the way they fished there was by net. So do we set a net trap for people to catch them for Jesus?

Nope, that isn’t how it works. We do not catch people by casting a net.

We catch people by sharing love and showing how God is active here and now.

So love, and catch some people.

Loving People. Loving God.

healthy people

Afterward, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at a kiosk for collecting taxes. Jesus said to him, “Follow me.” Levi got up, left everything behind, and followed him. Then Levi threw a great banquet for Jesus in his home. A large number of tax collectors and others sat down to eat with them. The Pharisees and their legal experts grumbled against his disciples. They said, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to call righteous people but sinners to change their hearts and lives.” (Luke 5:27-32, CEB)

It seems that the Pharisees and legal experts wanted everyone to be perfect before they interacted with Jesus, or they wanted people to be perfect before Jesus interacted with them. And that isn’t how it works.

The church is a hospital for the broken, not a palace for the perfect.

You do not need to be perfected before you come to Jesus. You can’t so that is good news!

Love people where they are and be with them there and know that God’s love is being shared through your life.

Loving People. Loving God.

favoritism

Then after fourteen years I went up to Jerusalem again with Barnabas, and I took Titus along also. I went there because of a revelation, and I laid out the gospel that I preach to the Gentiles for them. But I did it privately with the influential leaders to make sure that I wouldn’t be working or that I hadn’t worked for nothing. However, not even Titus, who was with me and who was a Greek, was required to be circumcised. But false brothers and sisters, who were brought in secretly, slipped in to spy on our freedom, which we have in Christ Jesus, and to make us slaves. We didn’t give in and submit to them for a single moment, so that the truth of the gospel would continue to be with you. The influential leaders didn’t add anything to what I was preaching—and whatever they were makes no difference to me, because God doesn’t show favoritism. But on the contrary, they saw that I had been given the responsibility to preach the gospel to the people who aren’t circumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. The one who empowered Peter to become an apostle to the circumcised empowered me also to be one to the Gentiles. James, Cephas, and John, who are considered to be key leaders, shook hands with me and Barnabas as equals when they recognized the grace that was given to me. So it was agreed that we would go to the Gentiles, while they continue to go to the people who were circumcised. They asked only that we would remember the poor, which was certainly something I was willing to do. (Galatians 2:1-10, CEB)

God doesn’t show favoritism.

It is not about mutilation of the physical sort.

God doesn’t care if you are circumcised or not. The physical act of circumcision is a part of the covenant to God’s chosen people but does not mean you are in or out of the kingdom of God.

There is nothing that can keep you from the love of God because God doesn’t show favoritism.

Love all, the way God loves you. Accepting even though God shouldn’t.

Loving People. Loving God.

not a human origin

Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the gospel I preached isn’t human in origin. I didn’t receive it or learn it from a human. It came through a revelation from Jesus Christ. You heard about my previous life in Judaism, how severely I harassed God’s church and tried to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my peers, because I was much more militant about the traditions of my ancestors. But God had set me apart from birth and called me through his grace. He was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might preach about him to the Gentiles. I didn’t immediately consult with any human being. I didn’t go up to Jerusalem to see the men who were apostles before me either, but I went away into Arabia and I returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. But I didn’t see any other of the apostles except James the brother of the Lord. Before God, I’m not lying about the things that I’m writing to you! Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, but I wasn’t known personally by the Christian churches in Judea. They only heard a report about me: “The man who used to harass us now preaches the faith that he once tried to destroy.” So they were glorifying God because of me. (Galatians 1:11-24, CEB)

Paul plainly says that the Good News of Jesus Christ is not a fabrication.

There are so many things today that are simply not true. That someone has said or heard and repeated and it is not validated. And faith is something people say can’t be proved. Well, that is true, you can not prove it, so you could say it is fabricated. But I like Paul, know that this is not a fabrication and it is not of human origin. God created the world and stepped down from God’s throne and came to live among us and teach us how to love.

Share what you have heard and do not be swayed by others who say it is a fabrication and not true.

God loves us and calls us to love others.

Loving People. Loving God.

why

At that time John’s disciples came and asked Jesus, “Why do we and the Pharisees frequently fast, but your disciples never fast?” Jesus responded, “The wedding guests can’t mourn while the groom is still with them, can they? But the days will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they’ll fast. “No one sews a piece of new, unshrunk cloth on old clothes because the patch tears away the cloth and makes a worse tear. No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If they did, the wineskins would burst, the wine would spill, and the wineskins would be ruined. Instead, people pour new wine into new wineskins so that both are kept safe.” (Matthew 9:14-17, CEB)

Do you look at others and wish you did what they do? Or wonder why they do what they do when you don’t do that?

There are so many things the scriptures tell us to do and ways to do them. And yet it seems as many people as there are there are that many ways to do something.

People asked Jesus why his followers didn’t do what other teachers were telling their followers to do. It is like judging someone else for sinning differently than you.

We are all walking a road and journeying toward the kingdom. We will all get there, and yet our journeys will be different.

Do not judge yourself based on someone else. Focus your life on God and follow where God leads you.

Loving People. Loving God.

reminder

The Law is a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the real things themselves. It never can perfect the ones who are trying to draw near to God through the same sacrifices that are offered continually every year. Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered? If the people carrying out their religious duties had been completely cleansed once, no one would have been aware of sin anymore. Instead, these sacrifices are a reminder of sin every year, because it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4, CEB)

If temple sacrifices could take away sin, why haven’t they?

They are a reminder of how we are not right with God. They remind us of our sin. Because the blood of bulls and goats can not take away sin.

The Law doesn’t make us right, it reminds us how we are wrong. And we are all wrong.

The good news is, we are made right because of God and that is not in our power to control.

So know you, like me, and everyone else is sinful.

But God made a way!

Loving People. Loving God.

how could I?

An angel from the Lord spoke to Philip, “At noon, take the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) So he did. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian man was on his way home from Jerusalem, where he had come to worship. He was a eunuch and an official responsible for the entire treasury of Candace. (Candace is the title given to the Ethiopian queen.) He was reading the prophet Isaiah while sitting in his carriage. The Spirit told Philip, “Approach this carriage and stay with it.” Running up to the carriage, Philip heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you really understand what you are reading?” The man replied, “Without someone to guide me, how could I?” Then he invited Philip to climb up and sit with him. This was the passage of scripture he was reading: Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent so he didn’t open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was taken away from him. Who can tell the story of his descendants because his life was taken from the earth? The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, about whom does the prophet say this? Is he talking about himself or someone else?” Starting with that passage, Philip proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. As they went down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look! Water! What would keep me from being baptized?” He ordered that the carriage halt. Both Philip and the eunuch went down to the water, where Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Lord’s Spirit suddenly took Philip away. The eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing. Philip found himself in Azotus. He traveled through that area, preaching the good news in all the cities until he reached Caesarea. (Acts 8:26-40, CEB)

“Without someone to guide me, how could I?”

Do you remember the first time you read the Bible?

Did you understand it? Now we may get meaning from the words we read and the stories may make sense (there are some stories I read today after reading them many times that I still struggle to make sense of) but do we get the meaning that was meant by the author?

Now, this is actually true of any story we read. The author had one thing in mind as they were writing, but the words may create an image in my mind that is different than what the author was looking for. I remember the first time I watched a Harry Potter movie with my oldest daughter and the dementors were there and she said, “That is not how I pictured the dementors.” We get an image and sometimes it isn’t what everyone else gets.

That is why the eunuch said, “Without someone to guide me, how could I?”

We need community to discern what the Bible says.

We need community to understand our calling as followers of God.

We need to be in community with others to know what we are called to be in the world.

That is one of the things I love about Bible studies in groups. We hear different images and understandings, and we see the richness to the text and the understanding of loving the world.

Be in community and share your imagination!

Loving People. Loving God.