Would you go?

Jesus called the Twelve together and he gave them power and authority over all demons and to heal sicknesses. He sent them out to proclaim God’s kingdom and to heal the sick. He told them, “Take nothing for the journey—no walking stick, no bag, no bread, no money, not even an extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, remain there until you leave that place. Wherever they don’t welcome you, as you leave that city, shake the dust off your feet as a witness against them.” They departed and went through the villages proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere. (Luke 9:1-6, CEB)

If Jesus asked you to go out into the world and share the story of God’s love, but take nothing for the journey and rely solely on the generosity of others, would you go?

Jesus sent the 12 out and said take nothing but what you are wearing and go where you are welcomed and share love.

We are all called to go into the world and share the love God has given us.

Do we go?

Do you tell the story and share God’s love?

That is all we need to do.

Love Out Loud.

Loving People. Loving God.

Give beyond your means

Brothers and sisters, we want to let you know about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia. While they were being tested by many problems, their extra amount of happiness and their extreme poverty resulted in a surplus of rich generosity. I assure you that they gave what they could afford and even more than they could afford, and they did it voluntarily. They urgently begged us for the privilege of sharing in this service for the saints. They even exceeded our expectations, because they gave themselves to the Lord first and to us, consistent with God’s will. As a result, we challenged Titus to finish this work of grace with you the way he had started it. Be the best in this work of grace in the same way that you are the best in everything, such as faith, speech, knowledge, total commitment, and the love we inspired in you. (2 Corinthians 8:1-7, CEB)

I read this and I know that Paul is telling the Corinthians and us that we should give beyond our means. However, telling them and us about someone who gave more than expected may not be the way to do it.

Usually when I hear that someone else gave a lot of money that doesn’t motivate me to give. I honestly don’t know why.

But Paul here, I believe, is trying to get the Corinthians to give more than they think they can because God has given them what they need and will supply for those needs always.

When we share what we have been given it helps those to who we gave and it is a space for refilling, so it helps us too.

So give generously. Know you will always be refilled.

Loving People. Loving God.

Do…

We know that the Law is spiritual, but I’m made of flesh and blood, and I’m sold as a slave to sin. I don’t know what I’m doing, because I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do the thing that I hate. But if I’m doing the thing that I don’t want to do, I’m agreeing that the Law is right. But now I’m not the one doing it anymore. Instead, it’s sin that lives in me. I know that good doesn’t live in me—that is, in my body. The desire to do good is inside of me, but I can’t do it. I don’t do the good that I want to do, but I do the evil that I don’t want to do. But if I do the very thing that I don’t want to do, then I’m not the one doing it anymore. Instead, it is sin that lives in me that is doing it. So I find that, as a rule, when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me. I gladly agree with the Law on the inside, but I see a different law at work in my body. It wages a war against the law of my mind and takes me prisoner with the law of sin that is in my body. I’m a miserable human being. Who will deliver me from this dead corpse? Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then I’m a slave to God’s Law in my mind, but I’m a slave to sin’s law in my body. (Romans 7:14-25, CEB)

I do not do what I want to do because sin lives in me. We are all saints and sinners. We fight to do what God has led us to do but we live in our sin and fight against the urges in our flesh.

We need to follow after God and believe that God will fill us and help us to get over the urges in our flesh. Sin lives in us and causes us to do things we don’t want to do.

But remember we are all children of God and we all fight urges.

Let us all follow after God and trust that God will fill us and help us through life.

We all struggle and we need to help each other.

Love out Loud.

Loving People. Loving God.

stand firm

“Look, I’m sending you as sheep among wolves. Therefore, be wise as snakes and innocent as doves. Watch out for people—because they will hand you over to councils and they will beat you in their synagogues. They will haul you in front of governors and even kings because of me so that you may give your testimony to them and to the Gentiles. Whenever they hand you over, don’t worry about how to speak or what you will say, because what you can say will be given to you at that moment. You aren’t doing the talking, but the Spirit of my Father is doing the talking through you. Brothers and sisters will hand each other over to be executed. A father will turn his child in. Children will defy their parents and have them executed. Everyone will hate you on account of my name. But whoever stands firm until the end will be saved. Whenever they harass you in one city, escape to the next, because I assure that you will not go through all the cities of Israel before the Human One comes. “Disciples aren’t greater than their teacher, and slaves aren’t greater than their master. It’s enough for disciples to be like their teacher and slaves like their master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, it’s certain that they will call the members of his household by even worse names. (Matthew 10:16-25, CEB)

The world is scary. How do we prepare for everything that will come at us?

Well, the good news is we don’t have to prepare for everything that will come our way. We need to trust in God and believe that we will always be held in God’s hand.

We do not need to be prepared because God is with us and will give us words to speak. We have all done this where we say things we do not know where they come from. God gave us the words to share love and defend the faith.

Know that you are never alone and that God will always be there to help you.

Love out loud.

Loving People. Loving God.

light

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. So be careful to live your life wisely, not foolishly. Take advantage of every opportunity because these are evil times. Because of this, don’t be ignorant, but understand the Lord’s will. Don’t get drunk on wine, which produces depravity. Instead, be filled with the Spirit in the following ways: speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; sing and make music to the Lord in your hearts; always give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; (Ephesians 5:6-20, CEB)

We are children of the light. We do not follow stupid ideas.

Light drives out the darkness.

This is why we as people of the light are people of integrity. Because anything we do in the dark will be revealed by the light. We need to do what we do and say what we mean all the time.

God knows our life and still loves us and wants us to share love.

Be the light and loe out loud.

Loving People. Loving God.

Are you in the light?

Dear friends, I’m not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the message you heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shines. The one who claims to be in the light while hating a brother or sister is in the darkness even now. The person loving a brother and sister stays in the light, and there is nothing in the light that causes a person to stumble. But the person who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and lives in the darkness, and doesn’t know where to go because the darkness blinds the eyes. (1 John 2:7-11, CEB)

If you claim to be in the light and hate anyone you are not actually in the light.

We need to love all and if we have hate for anyone you are not living as God calls us to live.

Live Love out Loud and share what you have been given.

Be the light the world needs.

Loving People. Loving God.

where is your focus

As the time approached when Jesus was to be taken up into heaven, he determined to go to Jerusalem. He sent messengers on ahead of him. Along the way, they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival, but the Samaritan villagers refused to welcome him because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to consume them?” But Jesus turned and spoke sternly to them, and they went on to another village. As Jesus and his disciples traveled along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Human One has no place to lay his head.” Then Jesus said to someone else, “Follow me.” He replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and spread the news of God’s kingdom.” Someone else said to Jesus, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those in my house.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand on the plow and looks back is fit for God’s kingdom.” (Luke 9:51-62, CEB)

This passage always seemed harsh to me. Jesus says Follow me and people say they need to take care of some things first and Jesus says if you want to follow you need to leave everything behind.

But Jesus did say he came to pit father against son and mother against daughter. We need to be focused on the kingdom of God and not our earthly home. The things of this world are not important. The kingdom of God and our sharing the love from it are what is important.

Live your life so that that kingdom is front and center.

Love out loud.

Loving People. Loving God.

follow

Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell this to anyone. He said, “The Human One must suffer many things and be rejected—by the elders, chief priests, and the legal experts—and be killed and be raised on the third day.” Jesus said to everyone, “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will save them. What advantage do people have if they gain the whole world for themselves yet perish or lose their lives? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Human One will be ashamed of that person when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see God’s kingdom.” (Luke 9:21-27, CEB)

Οπισω μου is the Greek for follow me. Actually, though it is more follow after. It is also the text that is in the scripture where Jesus says to Peter, get behind me Satan. You see to follow Jesus means we know our place. We are not walking alongside as if we are friends. Jesus is God and we are following behind where God is leading us.

To be following Jesus we have to see the back of his head.

So follow Jesus and know you are not in the lead.

Loving People. Loving God.

being known

At the time, when you didn’t know God, you were enslaved by things that aren’t gods by nature. But now, after knowing God (or rather, being known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless world system? Do you want to be slaves to it again? You observe religious days and months and seasons and years. I’m afraid for you! Perhaps my hard work for you has been for nothing. I beg you to be like me, brothers and sisters, because I have become like you! You haven’t wronged me. You know that I first preached the gospel to you because of an illness. Though my poor health burdened you, you didn’t look down on me or reject me, but you welcomed me as if I were an angel from God, or as if I were Christ Jesus! Where then is the great attitude that you had? I swear that, if possible, you would have dug out your eyes and given them to me. So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? They are so concerned about you, though not with good intentions. Rather, they want to shut you out so that you would run after them. However, it’s always good to have people concerned about you with good intentions, and not just when I’m there with you. My little children, I’m going through labor pains again until Christ is formed in you. But I wish I could be with you now and change how I sound, because I’m at a loss about you. (Galatians 4:8-20, CEB)

When you didn’t know God you were enslaved by things that are not a part of the kingdom.

But then when you learned about God, then you know God. No, we don’t know God we are known by God. God comes to us and motivates us to understand God’s love for us. The Holy Spirit moves us to believe and trust in God. We can only know God or be known by God because the Holy Spirit moves in our lives.

Know that you are known by and loved by God.

Believe it and trust it.

And Love Out Loud.

Loving People. Loving God.

fail

Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Don’t you understand that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test. But I hope that you will realize that we don’t fail the test. We pray to God that you don’t do anything wrong, not because we want to appear to pass the test but so that you might do the right thing, even if we appear to fail. We can’t do anything against the truth but only to help the truth. We are happy when we are weak but you are strong. We pray for this: that you will be made complete. This is why I’m writing these things while I’m away. I’m writing so that I won’t need to act harshly when I’m with you by using the authority that the Lord gave me. He gave it to me so that I could build you up, not tear you down. (2 Corinthians 13:5-10, CEB)

We need to be watching who we are so that we are people of integrity. We need to examine our lives so we do not fail the test of being a part of the kingdom. Even though we can’t fail the test.

But we need to say what we mean and mean what we say and live lives that project love in all ways.

Live love out loud.

Loving People. Loving God.