No Junk. Just Jesus.: About me

What's here:

Very brief bio
What I believe

Very brief bio:

I'm Lynne and I write this blog with backup from some editorial friends who make sure my Scripture references match and my spelling and grammar aren't totally off (though any mistakes remain strictly my own).

At different points in my life, I've lived within:

Fundamentalism / Evangelical Protestantism
Charismatic / Pentecostalism
Progressive Protestantism
Liberal Roman Catholicism, and
Conservative Roman Catholicism

So I speak as one who's knelt on the sales floors of all those dealerships.

I used to be an ordained minister - until I gave that up for God after realizing being formally anything religious served human interests at the expense of God's. So I speak as an ex-seller of pseudo-Christian ideas and goods.

Though I write, worship, and fellowship for all sorts of people in my off- and online life, I'm also a happy Gay Christian, with a wife of many years now. The demons of homophobia and false Christianity tormented me for years before I let the Holy Spirit heal and teach me about God and His real love for His Gay people also. So I speak as one healed by Jesus Christ of one of today's deepest spiritual wounds.

I live my life impressed most with the true God-inspired prophets - those who never raised a hand to anyone but spoke God's truth to power and complacency even when it cost them everything in this world -- and who spent their lives pointing only to God, and never, ever to themselves. In that light, I mean for this blog to never be about me. I'm not a secret - but I'm also not Jesus. And the true Jesus -- His love for real people and His promise of justice -- is all I want anyone to see here.

[Note: the author of this blog was originally a writer at (among other places) the GayBibleChristians.org website, which was up from 2003 to 2009. But neither she nor anyone else here is or has been affiliated with any "Gay Bible Christian(s)" sites you may find online since we allowed that domain name to expire in 2009]

What I believe:

I believe in Jesus Christ as our only Savior and "God with us", the One we are to always keep our faith and trust in [Matthew 1:23; John 1:1, 14:6, 14:8-9; Romans 10:9-13].

I believe Jesus proved His divinity and love for us through His miracles, lived the only human sin-free life in history, and acted out of pure love to save us for all eternity by taking on our penalties on the Cross.
I believe that through His bodily resurrection and ascending to heaven, Jesus wiped out the holds that Satan has on us. I believe that Jesus will come again -- and I can't wait!

I don't believe in taking the Bible document literally -- I believe in taking the meaning within the Bible document literally. [2 Timothy 3:16-17; Ephesians 6:17].

Yes, the original text of the Bible has errors (even grammatical errors). But I believe the Bible, when its speaking the Good News of Jesus Christ and describing God's purpose and plan throughout history, and is understood within the original languages and historical, linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts as God gave them to us, is the inspired, infallible Word of God.
In this light, I believe the Bible trumps everything human beings have ever or will come up with, including our traditions, philosophies, rules, pieties, good deeds, and so on -- even though most religious and secular human beings act and teach to the contrary.

I believe we are saved once we realize how distant our sinful human nature makes us from God, and when our hearts long to turn away from our garbage and toward Jesus' way of doing things.

I believe that it's then -- and only then -- that we receive God's Holy Spirit within us.
I believe that salvation is an offer God holds out in desperate love to every human being on the planet -- and that His saving us is not dependent on any "special criteria" (doing a deed, belonging to a group, saying certain words, etc) that religious human beings have ever invented and pushed on people [John 3:16-17; Acts 2:37-40; 2 Peter 3:9]. With God, we need only apply!

I believe whether we are aware of it or not (and whether we are straight or gay, female or male, black, brown, or white), we are often spiritually damaged through the incorrect teachings and traditions that result from abused and mistranslated scripture [Matthew 7:15-23; Titus 1:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-10].

I believe a great part of our spiritual awakening must include the shedding of these spiritual impostors who stand in for God's real truth as revealed through Jesus Christ and the real Bible.
While we remain damaged and tricked, we are just not going to see the peace, joy, renewed strength, and valued work we are promised as His people (can't have real health if we live on junk food; can't have the real Jesus if we live on junk Christianity).

I believe fellowship with others who live to learn and follow Jesus' Way is vitally important to our comfort, growth, and protection as Christians -- but it's *not* required (otherwise our salvation would depend on "Jesus plus something else", and that's a heretical and blasphemous human idea).

I believe it can also be spiritually (and emotionally and even physically) dangerous to be a part of a "church" (whether straight or Gay) that's filled with religious or other evil spirits (which is most of the time), rather than the Holy Spirit (which is far more rare, just as Jesus and others in the Bible have always said it would be).
I believe that one of Jesus' commandments for those who love Him is to use our brains and our hearts to figure out what's of God and what's not of God by what it actually produces [Matthew 7:15-23].
If we aren't doing discernment in and over Christian churches, denominations, traditions, etc., but simply sticking with what we're told by human religious thought or what we'd like to believe is "real enough", then we're actually substituting something else for God -- and that's called idolatry.

I believe God acts or doesn't act through individuals in the world as it pleases Him and works for His plan -- and He does so completely outside and better than what we see as people who are "called" to ministry.

I believe that sometimes He prompts individuals to lead His people (and He may want them to do that for fifty years or even for just five minutes, before their work is done), sometimes He prompts individuals to speak His truth (perhaps to a thousand people, or a dozen, or perhaps to just one, before their work is done), and sometimes He prompts individuals to make extra effort to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ (maybe to the wilds of some unknown land, or perhaps just to their coworkers, before their work is done), and so on.
However, the solidification and codification of authoritarian hierarchy and prideful Holy Spirit roleplaying within nearly all Christian churches and Christian minds is not only unbiblical (in that it seeks to put a human classification on and control God's Holy Spirit action) but also clearly against Jesus' command [Matthew 23:8-12; Mark 10:42-45]. And it's just arrogant-without-cause [Luke 17:10].

I believe no human being or group of human beings has ever had or will ever have all the right answers, interpretations, or wisdom. Those belong only to God.

Still, there's nothing wrong with discussion and even (truly) loving and (truly) interested-in-both-sides debate -- in fact, Jesus considers our thinking and figuring and discussing quite normal [Luke 10:26]. It's also quite possible we can actually disagree on a number of topics (like how the End Times are or will play out, for example) and still remain in good standing with each other.
On the other hand, we are each and every one of us called to true humility and deep, persistent self-examination regarding what we speak, teach, and cling to as truth. If the example of what we believe (like "God condemns Gays/Lesbians", or "women aren't supposed to lead or teach", or "Black people are only supposed to be slaves"), and how our belief leads us to live, is driving more people away from Jesus than to Him, then we don't have the true Gospel and we are in grave sin [Luke 17:1-2].

I believe we are each called to grow continually in the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

But that means growing real gains in love, patience, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control [Galatians 5:22-23] that just seem to spring from some inner well located deep within us -- and not the faked and pretend-gains fed from the outer and shallow springs of religion, love of fellowship, and so on.
Only when our food and drink comes from the real Jesus Christ will our love and service to the Lord, and to our fellow Christian and non-Christian human beings, matter at all.

Questions, comments, or want to chat about something? Email me (Lynne)!