Speaking the Truth in Love vs Lovingly Speaking Truth

Woman Taken in Adultery by Rembrandt

Speaking the Truth in Love vs Lovingly Speaking Truth

Sometimes “speaking the truth in love” is really just candy coated judgmental spiritual pride. How many times have you heard the phrase “I’m telling you this in love” and then felt like you were just punched in the gut. I wonder if we flipped that phrase in Ephesians 4:15 around to “lovingly speaking truth” maybe there would be less spiritual abuse in the church.

 Having the truth and being right shouldn’t overrule the command to show compassion and understanding towards others. In Matthew’s Gospel, when the Pharisees questioned why Jesus ate with sinners, they felt that they were right and speaking the truth according to Jewish customs. They were overly concerned that everyone was following their rules than with the individual needs of those that Jesus was sharing a meal with. Jesus told them to go and learn what the Prophet Hosea meant when he said that God desires compassion and not sacrifice.

Look at the story in John’s Gospel about the woman caught in adultery, those who brought her to Jesus felt that they were right – that they were speaking the truth according to the Law of Moses. They had chapter and verse saying that the woman should be stoned to death. But Jesus’ response was to lovingly speak truth by first deescalating the situation, then extending forgiveness and compassion before telling her to go and sin no more. As James said, mercy triumphs over judgment.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

Happy Hippie Father’s Day

 Remember the days of old; consider the years long past; ask your father, and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you.

(Deuteronomy 32:7)

Wishing you all a Happy Hippie Father's Day! And remember, us old guys be knowing stuff...

Peace, Love, and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

He Is Risen!

He Is Risen!

 I passed on to you what I received,

which is of the greatest importance:

that Christ died for our sins, as written

in the Scriptures; that he was buried

and that he was raised to life three

days later, as written in the Scriptures

(1 Corinthians 15:3–4)

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Save The World

"If we think that bombs, missiles, and drone strikes raining down from the heavens on people that we call enemies is how God is going to save the world, we're not yet credible Christians.

The world is saved by love, and no other way. And the love that saves the world is often a crucified love."

From Brian Zahnd's sermon Beauty Will Save The World, March 8, 2026

"Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they shall be called

the children of God"

~Jesus

 

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

(AI generated image)

That We May Live in Peace

 

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

While the 1st Century Church was living under the iron fist of Roman occupation, they were being encouraged to pray for kings and all who were in positions of authority. Rather than take up arms to secure their freedom from tyranny, they were urged to offer prayers for all local and world leaders so that they could enjoy peace and quiet. Their prayers weren't to be for regimen change, to rid themselves of evil rullers, but that there would be a way for them to live a peaceful life.

They were asked to not only pray for their rulers, they were also to give thanks for them as well. It seems upside down and backwards, but that is exactly how the Kingdom of God functions. More than once Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom of God is not of this world, and most importantly, how very differently it operates.

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:44-45)

"Blessed are the Peacemakers,

for they will be called

the Children of God."

~Jesus

Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

Quick - Slow - Slow

Quick, Slow, Slow is the formula that I try to employ when situations get tense. Not always good at it... sometimes the Redheaded Irishman gets the best of me, but I'm working on it. In these times of polarized politics and civil unrest I think it would help us get past all of the angry rhetoric if we could employ this little formula when we have disagreements. If we could pause for long enough to take a few deep breaths and listen to the other person's point of view, show some respect and empathy then we just might discover that we're closer to a solution than it first appeared.

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires" (James 1:19-20)

Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud) 

What If They Had A War and The Peacemakers Showed Up?

 

What if they had a war and nobody showed up? It might sound like a silly little sentiment, but it’s such a Hippie thing to say. Jesus said that His Kingdom was not of this world and we are told in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 that we don’t war against flesh and blood. Jesus said in the Beatitudes that Peacemakers would be called the children of God. But what is a Peacemaker and is that different than a Peacekeeper? A Peacemaker helps facilitate the resolution of conflict, makes a way for reconciliation, promotes healing, and works towards wholeness and justice for all parties. Whereas the role of a Peacekeeper is preventing the continuation of armed conflict or reengagement of combatants and to protect non-combatant civilians, by the use of force if necessary. The United Nations is an example of an international peacekeeping force. Your local police are actually called "Sworn Peace Officers” whose job is to preserve the peace, maintain public safety and to protect life, limb and property. The UN and local police officers are not Peacemakers - that’s not their mission, but ultimately Peacemakers and Peacekeepers need each other to bring about a peace that has a chance of being longterm and more than just the mere absence of conflict.

What if they had a war and the Peacemakers showed up?

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

     

The Work Will Remain The Work

 

As we start a new year, I ask myself what will I spend my time focused on in the days ahead? Will it be something important or a total time drain? Will I expend my energy doing something meaningful and worthwhile? Will it bring the Kingdom into someone's life.

 

Time and energy are very much in short supply these days and with so many distractions pulling in so many different directions, the day-to-day demands of life and the multiple streams of media promoting the latest cause célèbre it becomes almost impossible to stay focused and on task.

The Sermon on the Mount gives us the framework for Kingdom Life and what is important to focus our time, energy, and resources on.

I think that The Clergy Coaching Network said it quite succinctly:

"The work will remain the work.

To love your neighbor.

To be generous with a stranger.

To protect the water, the air, the soil.

To heal old wounds.

To not make new ones.

The work remains the work.

In fact it has all become,

suddenly, even more important."

So, the work will remain the work! It's not so much a New Year's resolution, I'm not one to make or for that matter keep New Year's resolutions. It comes as more of a resolve to stay on track, to keep on keeping on as we used to say.

Keep the faith and keep on truck'n

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

It's Not a Spectator Sport!

 

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

(1 Peter 2:9-10)

...from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

(Ephesians 4:16)

It's not a spectator sport!

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

I Should Love My Opponents And Want Only The Best For Them

This morning, I snuck out of the house while everyone was still asleep. My goal was to satisfy a buttermilk pancake craving I've had for the last three days, but my dilemma was which diner to go to. Ultimately, I decided to go to a diner where I knew a few guys met on Friday mornings to discuss the Bible over breakfast hoping to at least say hello. As I was leaving, one of the Brothers recognized me from a previous chance encounter and introduced me to the group. I shared some of my thoughts about theology, that no matter how sound it might be, it is wrong if it leads to the mistreatment of others. I was asked what I was going to be doing for Jesus today, and I said I was going to be blogging today about loving our enemies... so that brings me to a topic that has been on my mind for the last week or so...

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in heaven" and then follows up with the rhetorical question; "Why should God reward you if you love only the people who love you?" This is so different from what we are seeing right now in our hyper-polarized Nation where tribalism and revenge politics rule the day.

If we are truly Children of God, then we cannot participate in the hatred of those whom we disagree with. No matter how right you think your cause is or how evil you believe the other side might be there is no room for hatred in the heart of someone who calls themself a Christian. We are called to a higher love, we must see everyone as precious in the eyes of God. Every person deserves to be treated with dignity and respect no matter how strongly we disagree with them. We are all entitled to our own opinions and with that we are all entitled to be wrong - but we are also entrusted with the care of our fellow human beings.

"The one major thing you have to remember is that the man next to you is your brother, and you'd damn well better treat each other that way because if you don't, then we blow the whole thing, but we've got it right there." (Announcement from "Chip" Monck, Woodstock 1969)

Our politics may be "Right" or "Left" or somewhere in the middle but first and foremost we are God's children and therefore Brothers and Sisters in God's eyes.

“But I tell you who hear me:

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

bless those who curse you,

and pray for those who mistreat you."

~Jesus (Luke 27-28)

Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

Fair Use Notice

The Miracle of The Feeding The 5,000

Five Loaves and Two Fish pendant by Kerri W.

I have been thinking about the miracle of Jesus feeding a crowd of over five thousand hungry people with just five loaves of barley bread and two fish. This particular miracle appears in all four of the Gospels, all with very similar details. In the made for TV series The Chosen, Jesus is portrayed as blessing the five barley loaves and two fish, after which they are placed in several baskets where they miraculously multiply to near overflowing before being distributed to the hungry people by the disciples. But I wonder if Hollywood got it wrong.

What if the miracle actually took place in the hands of the disciples, the bread and fish multiplying each time they broke off a piece? Then, what if it multiplied as each person took it and broke off what they needed and passed it to the next person? What if it simply multiplied again and again, over and over in their hands exponentially until every person had more than enough to eat to the point where there were enough leftovers to fill up the twelve baskets as the Gospels claim?

I realize that this way of thinking about the feeding of the five thousand probably doesn't exactly follow the pattern of Jesus' other miracles which seemed to happen in an enormous and sudden fashion. Many of Jesus' miracles involve some form of participation on the part of those receiving healing or water being turned to wine or catching a huge load of fish after a futile night of empty nets. The feeding of the five thousand has some of the same elements of participatory faith, but the Gospel accounts of Jesus feeding the five thousand lack that Cecil B. DeMille flair of enormity and suddenness that Hollywood loves and that leaves me imagining five thousand individual miracles happening right in the very hands of the recipients.

The point I'm trying to make is that participation in the miracles of Jesus just might be a series of small acts rather than a big showy event. Maybe you can't feed five thousand people at once, but you can show acts of kindness and generosity to one person at a time. We can go through life being overwhelmed by the great needs of the whole world feeling that we can't make a difference, and that might be the reality. But we can make a world of difference in one person's life.

From him the whole body,

joined and held together by every supporting ligament,

grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

(Ephesians 4:16)

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

St Kevin's Feast Day June 3rd

 

I'm no saint, but I was named after one... Happy St. Kevin's Feast Day.

Saint Kevin was an Irish saint who had a special connection with nature and he loved solitude.

I can relate so well to my Irish namesake. I crave quite times in nature, preferably the Redwoods but my backyard garden works fine too.

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

This Is How We Know What Love Is

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

(1 John 3:16-18)

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

(Commissioned illustration by L. Patterson)  

Not a New Year's Resolution

I like to start each new year, and actually each new day, thinking about focus. I ask myself what will I spend my time focused on this day? Will it be something important or a total time drain? Will I expend my energy doing something meaningful and worthwhile?

 

Time and energy are very much in short supply lately. I find myself distracted and pulled in so many different directions by the day-to-day demands of life, not to mention the distractions of multiple streams of media promoting the latest cause célèbre.

I recently saw an internet meme via The Clergy Coaching Network that I think will serve me well as opposing voices demand allegiance in this highly polarized world that we find ourselves in today.

"The work will remain the work.

To love your neighbor.

To be generous with a stranger.

To protect the water, the air, the soil.

To heal old wounds.

To not make new ones.

The work remains the work.

In fact it has all become,

suddenly, even more important."

So, the work will remain the work! It's not so much a New Year's resolution, I'm not one to make or for that matter keep New Year's resolutions. It comes as more of a resolve to stay on track, to keep on keeping on as we used to say.

Keep the faith and keep on truck'n

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

No Exclusions or Exceptions

Read the fine print, there are no exclusions or exceptions to "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Jesus was quite clear, as were the writers of the New Testament, that we are called to love - even in the face of hate. We are told that if we don't love those around us how can we say that we love God.

Love is the higher law!

 “The most important commandment,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Jonestown Remembered

On November 18, 1978, over 900 people died in the jungles of Guyana at the People's Temple Agricultural Project, more famously known as Jonestown.

This tragic event disturbs me today as much as it did 46 years ago. At the time I was a young Hippie Jesus Freak leading a small group of Christians and seeing that horrible abuse of power changed my view of church leadership forever.

Jim Jones' "throne" in the Jonestown pavilion, scene of mass murder/suicide November 18, 1978

So Jesus called them all together and said, “You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of the others - like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.” (Matthew 20:25-28)

The Apostle Paul wrote... "Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand." (2 Corinthians 1:24)

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1Peter 2:9)

Jonestown - Wikipedia

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Thoughts on Persecution

The Arrest of Christ by Dieric Bouts

It’s been said that Christians suffer from a persecution complex, maybe, but being persecuted is to be expected if we are following Jesus. I wonder if our reactions to persecution are in line with Jesus’ teachings about how to handle those who would treat us badly?

Jesus said in John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, know that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, I have chosen you out of the world, and you don’t belong to the world. This is why the world hates you.”

What did Jesus do when “Christianity” was under attack? Jesus told his disciples to stand down. But St. Peter pulled out his sword anyway and struck Malchus, one of those who came out to arrest Jesus. Then in a revolutionary act of compassion Jesus healed Malchus and told Peter to put his weapon away, that He didn’t need anyone to defend Him. Then, hours later in an example of the upside down Kingdom of God, Jesus prayed that his executioners would be forgiven.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This teaching of Jesus is echoed by St. Paul in Romans 12:14 where he admonishes us to “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

Let's be a blessing and not a curse!

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

 

Good Friday

 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:16)

Peace, Love, and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Jesus Flipping Out

"Jesus Overturning" by David Hayward

(image used with permission)

When I see politicians peddling Bibles I can't help but think of this illustration by David Hayward titled "Jesus Overturning".

Jesus wasn't very tolerant of financial and political power mingling with the religious system of his day.

We would do well to keep in mind whose tables Jesus flipped over and whose tables he ate at.

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

("Jesus Overturning" by David Hayward, copyright nakedpastor.com)

Quite Places

I haven't written much in a while, life has been particularly difficult lately and has handed us some challenges with no clear path to take. Finding the time to post has not been easy and being able to string together a few complete sentences to create a coherent paragraph has been nearly impossible for me.

Raising an autistic teenager who now refuses to take prescribed medication is turning out to be one of the most challenging experiences ever in my life and right now that responsibly is all consuming.

At this moment, I'm sitting in a church parking lot on a rainy May morning. Not because I thought that's where God would be but mostly because I needed a quiet place to think. I like it when I can be by myself and in my own head away from the noise of other's thoughts and demands and away from an un-medicated emerging mental health crisis.

But, it is in those quiet places that do I meet God. Those quiet places can be almost anywhere, most often for me it's out in nature.

I must go now and take care of some responsibilities, but I'll try to post more often. And I'll keep trying to find those quiet moments alone with myself and God.

“Be still, and know that I am God"

Psalm 46:10

Peace , Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)