Breaking free from cycles of harm.

Reflecting on second Peter 2, 4 through 22 on the Daily Bible refresh with Dr.

Brad Miller.

Hello good people.

Welcome to Daily Bible Refresh.

My name is Dr.

Brad Miller, here with you every single day to offer you a fresh take on the everyday reading of the Bible.

We take the Revised Common Lectionary, a three year cycle of a daily reading of the Bible.

We're in Year C and then we take that and we read a reading from the New Testament.

We read from the Message version to make it understandable.

We make it relatable by giving you a couple of points to ponder, to think about applicable to apply it to your life.

We do all that from our website voiceofgod daily.com which is the home of the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible study method.

We do all that and have a prayer too.

So let's have our reading for the day.

It's from 2nd Peter 2:4 through 22 reading from the Message God didn't let the rebel angels off the hook, but jailed them in hell till judgment day.

Neither did he let the ancient ungodly world off.

He wiped it out with a flood, rescuing only eight people.

Noah, the sole voice of righteousness, was one of them.

God decreed destruction for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

A mound of ashes was all that was left.

Grim warning to anyone bent on an ungodly life.

But that good man was Lot, driven nearly out of his mind by the sexual filth and perversity, was rescued, surrounded by moral rot day after day, that righteous man was in constant torment.

So God knows how to rescue the godly from evil trials.

And he knows how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire until judgment Day.

Predators on the prowl.

God is especially incensed against these teachers who live by lust.

Addicted to a filthy existence.

They despise interference from true authority, preferring to indulge in self rule.

Insolent egotists.

They don't hesitate to speak evil against their most splendid of creatures.

Even angels, their superiors in every way wouldn't think of throwing their weight around like that, trying to slander others before God.

These people are nothing but brute beasts born in the wild, predators on the prowl.

In the very act of bringing down others with their ignorant blasphemies, they themselves will be brought down losers in the end.

Their evil will boomerang on them.

They are so despicable and addicted to pleasure that they indulge in wild parties, carousing in broad daylight.

They are obsessed with adultery, compulsive and sin seducing every vulnerable soul they come upon.

Their specialty is greed and their experts at it, dead souls.

They left the main road and are directionless, having taken the way of Balaam, son of Beor, the prophet who turned propheteer, a connoisseur of evil.

But Balaam was stopped on his wayward tracks.

A dumb animal spoke in a human voice and prevented the prophet's craziness.

There is nothing to these people.

They're dried up fountains, storm scattered clouds heading for a black hole in hell.

They're all loudmouths, full of hot air, but still they're dangerous.

Men and women who have recently escaped from a deviant life are most susceptible to their brand of seduction.

They promise these newcomers freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption.

For if they're addicted to corruption, and they are, they're enslaved.

If they've escaped from the slum of sin by experiencing our master and savior, Jesus Christ, and then slid back into that same old life again, they're worse than if they had never left.

Better not to have started out on the straight road to God than to start out and then turn back.

Repudiating the experience and the holy command.

They prove the point of the proverbs, A dog goes back to its own vomit and a scrubbed up pig heads for the mud.

Wow.

A lot of profound things in this reading here today from Second Peter.

It's really challenging imagery, isn't it?

And it's been used in many ways historically to promote fear and judgment.

So let's dig into a little bit how we might understand the deeper messages about healing and transformation that are here.

So here's some points to ponder about this passage today.

The first one is about understanding power and accountability.

And while this passage uses very strong language about judgment, we can read this as a powerful statement about accountability for those who abuse power.

The author here particularly condemns those who use their authority to exploit others and perpetuate harm.

In our contemporary context, this speaks to the importance of addressing systems that abuse people and about dealing with survivors.

A second point is liberation from a cycle of harm.

There's vivid metaphors here about being enslaved to corruption.

From a progressive perspective, we can understand this as speaking to the ways systems of oppression, of cycles of harm, both bind the oppressed and the oppressors.

True freedom comes not through domination or exploitation, but through breaking cycles and creating communities of mutual care and respect.

Another point, community protection.

The author here is talking about protecting the newcomers vulnerable people.

And this reflects on the early Christian commitment to protecting those at risk of exploitation.

And today this would challenge us to examine how we create truly safe and nurturing communities, especially for those who are healing from trauma, religiously, politically or otherwise, and those who are seeking authentic spiritual community.

Here's your action step.

I just invite you to examine your relationship with power and privilege.

Where might you hold some influence that could either harm or maybe help others?

Consider a concrete way.

You could use whatever position you have in life, your resources or your voice to protect the vulnerable in your community.

This might mean speaking up against some abuse or supporting an organization that helps people who have survived abuse or examining policies in your own church or your own community or your own social circles that may inadvertently enable exploitation.

Going to pray about all this in just a minute.

Did what I tell you about we have a great resource for you if you really would like to dig deeper into the Bible with me.

Every day I bring you Daily Bible Refresh to give a reading of the scripture.

But you know you need to do it on your own.

So I just invite you to go to voiceofgoddaily.com that's our website and there you're going to find the ABC 1, 2, 3 Bible Study Guide.

It really is.

It's just a few pages long.

It will give you your guide, a daily framework in order to do your own Daily Bible Study.

ABC123 Bible Study Guide.

Pick it up@voiceofgoddaily.com let's pray.

Oh God, you are divine.

Love and we acknowledge the pain caused by spiritual authority which is misused and where communities become places sometimes of harm rather than healing.

So help us to recognize any power that we may have and use our power wisely and compassionately.

Guide us in creating spaces where we can find genuine freedom and belonging.

Give us courage to speak truth to power and wisdom to break cycles of harm.

May we be agents of your liberating power and love in a world that's hungry for authentic community.

Amen.

It's always a beautiful time to be with you here.

Our Daily Bible Refresh for every day.

Every day we drop the daily reading of the scriptures, the New Testament.

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I really want you to invite you to join me tonight, tomorrow and bring a friend here to the Daily Bible Refresh.

Until then, My name is Dr.

Brad Miller reminding you that God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love doesn't dry up.

It's created new every morning.