bombastic nonsense

These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overpowered, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns back to its own vomit,” and, “The sow is washed only to wallow in the mud.” (2 Peter 2:17-22, NRSVue)

They are people who lead others astray.

I get called this all the time because I point out to those who use the 6 clobber texts to hold those in the LGBTQIA2S+ community as outside God’s love they are interpreting the texts incorrectly. I am told I need to repent and do what God has called us to do and live by the word.

I have read those texts and looked at the meanings of the original texts and will say again here those texts are about power and control and men in power using that power to take what they want from anyone. It is not about homosexuality or who someone loves.

People espouse bombastic nonsense. They lead people astray.

God shows us all love.

We are called to love.

Do not speak bombastic nonsense. Speak love.

Remind

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. (John 14:25-26, NRSVue)

The Holy Spirit will be with us always to remind us what Jesus taught us. To love all the s what we are to do.

Reminded by the Spirit to love.

We see and hear and are led to love and be love in all we do.

one body

Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:4-13, NRSVue)

We are all one.

We are not all the same.

We do not all need to be the same.

We need to be the part we were created to be.

Do not try to be someone else.

Be you. Be your part. Include all the other parts.

No matter our nationality, economic background, or anything else, we decide should separate us, God made us one. Our divisions do not mean anything in the kingdom of God.

Include all, because DEI is part of Imago Dei!

by the spirit

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that when you were gentiles you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:1-3, NRSVue)

No one can ever say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Spirit.

OK, Paul, is it possible for the Spirit to give utterance to a person who does not follow the teachings of Jesus to say that Jesus is Lord?

I see a lot of people who will say Jesus is Lord and then work to do the exact opposite of what Jesus commanded us to do. They can say Jesus is Lord, but their actions tell a different story.

So who is leading to idols, even if the Spirit gives utterance, does your life show that Jesus is Lord?

Martin Luther said we can not by our own understanding come to believe in God except through the leading of the Holy Spirit, so yes, the Spirit can speak through and work in one who is not following God. So follow the Spirit and not the utterance.

Live Love Out Loud.

They doubted…

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20, NRSVue)

I love how the NRSVue gets the meaning of this passage correct. In the NRSV and other translations, the verse about the disciples doubting reads, and some doubted, or but some doubted. But the word some is not there. There are other places in biblical literature where the some is there. I believe translators were thinking the disciples could not have possibly all doubted this, and it was only some. Yet the text reads, they met Jesus on the mountain, and they worshipped him, and they doubted. They doubted, they questioned what it was they were seeing. It did not keep them from worshipping, yet they could not understand it.

This passage gives me hope. Because if the 11 disciples who walked with Jesus for three years and saw everything he did and heard every word he said doubted and questioned, then there is always hope for you and me.

Question or doubt, but hold to hope.

Love

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you. (John 14:15-17, NRSVue)

This sounds like it starts with a conditional statement. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. But Love is an action it is something we do, and the word for if here can also mean when. When you love me, you will keep my commandments. And what are the commandments?

Well, just the chapter before this in John, Jesus is having dinner with his disciples, and he takes off his outer robe, ties a towel around his waist, and washes the disciples’ feet. When he sits back down, he says to them, “A new commandment I give to you, love one another.”

Love. It is that simple. We love Jesus by loving others.

And the Spirit will help us do that.

Love out Loud.

Guard?

and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day the deposit I have entrusted to him. Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. (2 Timothy 1:12-14, NRSVue)

I find it interesting the author of 2 Timothy tells us, “Guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” As if God needs us to protect what God is doing in this place.

I think this has gotten us to where we are in the USA, trying to protect the ways we were taught the Bible wants us to go. Guarding the faith and keeping out those we deem unworthy.

No one is unworthy, and God does not need our guarding.

Do not be ashamed of the one who came and loved and was executed for showing love.

Live Love out Loud.

ashamed

Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, in the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day the deposit I have entrusted to him. (2 Timothy 1:8-12, NRSVue)

I wonder if Jesus will be ashamed of us for the gospel we proclaim?

Here, the author of 2 Timothy says, “Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord… For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do.”

I said author because 2 Timothy is attributed to Paul, but probably did not actually write it. So whoever wrote it assumed Paul’s identity and tells us to not be ashamed of living a life worthy of the gospel. But as I read this, I think of all the things currently happening in the name of Jesus that honestly have nothing to do with Jesus. People using the name of God in vain to make a dollar, and to hold people down and give themselves more.

It honestly makes me wonder, will Jesus be ashamed of us?

Do not be ashamed to live love and be who Jesus called us to be in the face of those using his name for self-promotion.

Live love out loud.

Not yet?

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive, for as yet there was no Spirit because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39, NRSVue)

This passage tells us of Jesus speaking of the future, when the Spirit has been given, and believers are filled with the presence of God through the Spirit.

This is not the future for us. This is now.

Rivers of living water flow from each of us to shower the world with the love God has given us.

Love out Loud.

Helper

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words. And God, who searches hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27, NRSVue)

The Spirit helps us.

The Spirit is
Helper
Advocate
Comforter
Counselor
Intercessor

The Spirit knows our innermost needs and intercedes for us when all we can do is sigh.

The Spirit helps us in our distress.

Know you are never alone.