The Faith that Pleases God

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Bible quotes from NIV

God (Father, Son and Spirit) reveals to us that it is impossible to please Him without faith. Faith, somehow, is the key to all of this: Trust, faith, belief.  Yet 1 Corinthians 13 reveals that without love, this all sounds a bit like noise and leaves us as being nothing.  To love, to truly love in spite of what you see or hear, seems to require faith.  On the surface, it seems that faith does not require love, yet love does seem to require faith.  Love is the highest form of equity or currency in the Kingdom of God.  When we are struggling to love someone, to truly love, care and show deep concern and compassion, then we must ask for faith.  Having the faith required to love is faith to move mountains.
 

"It seems that faith does not require love, yet love does seem to require faith"

The faith that is required to please God is not necessarily the faith that is needed to walk on water, to heal the sick or the blind or to safely walk in dark places, but to love unconditionally, to love “the Elephant Man” so to speak; to love our enemies.  That requires faith beyond walking on water or even raising the dead itself! Yes, it does please God we have that kind of faith to do the things mentioned above, but if we are not careful, we will stop at those things and not go any further in our relationship with God and our fellow human beings.

"Love is the highest form of equity or currency in the Kingdom of God."

2 Kings 4 tells a story of Elisha, how he dealt with a wealthy woman and about human connections.  With all of his dealings with the woman, “the Shunammite” as he distantly calls her, he always sent his servant Gehazi to speak with her and get what he needs, even if she is standing right there in front of him!  Then one day, the woman’s son died, which was a son that was promised to her by Elisha via Gehazi.  When the woman rode quickly to bring the bad news to Elisha, she passed up Gehazi whom Elisha sent to greet her. She went straight to Elisha and told him the news herself.  So Elisha sent Gehazi, who took Elishas' staff to lay on the childs face, to raise the child.  It did not work.  The son laid stone cold dead. So not only did Elisha have to suffer the inconvenience of going to the son himself, but after several attempts, he personally had to lay on his body, face to face, before God allowed the miracle of life to take hold!   Elisha had to be taught that he needed to be more personal, face to face, not just impersonally send a servant to do all his bidding.  God wanted Elisha to have a personal relationship with the woman, her husband and son.  But in the end, Elisha still told Gehazi to “Call the Shunammite” and let her know the son is alive.  Oh well.

God will heal the sick and raise the dead eventually. God really doesn’t need us for that.  In fact, when He does raise the dead, we are dead ourselves, so where do we help? But love is eternal, it is forever.  Love is something that starts when we are children.  Love grows within us, as we interact with humanity from the time we began to see outside of our bodies and minds.  It starts at home, church and community and then the world.  As we began to expand our horizons across the globe, we run into love challenges.  Those challenges usually begin at home.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking that arguing and sometimes fighting with our siblings or our mates is always from a lack of love. Sometimes it is fear that we may not love them or more to the point, that they might not love us.  It is in fearing that we may lose them that cause us to fight.  We are fighting for our relationship, to save it!  But we may be fighting the wrong enemy.  The real enemy here is fear.  Marriages break up, not just for the lack of love per se, though that is failing us, but because of fear!  Fear is the real enemy here, and when we fear someone, we fear we are losing our love for them.

1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
Fear is an invisible enemy that tortures our souls, minds and hearts. It threatens us with punishment.  It stops us from acting in faith.  We may use faith to overcome fear, but when we also misuse love to excuse our fear, are we not making excuses as to why we hold back and not do something we know we need to do? Example: "I love them enough to not do something because I am afraid it might offend them or cause them to lose faith".  We use excuses for fear to take precedence over love and faith.  We have more faith in our fear and use the excuse of love as the reason we live in fear and not act in faith!  What a paradox!

In Luke, 9:51, Jesus used love to overcome fear when he faced the challenge of walking to Jerusalem, knowing he was going to die.   He ran into challenges, well wishers, people who make promises and lots of suggestions that would have taken him from his goal.   He set his face (he was determined, resolute) towards Jerusalem because his love was so great, he was willing to face these challenges and distractions that came his way.  Fear was not on the agenda for that day.

This is why I feel the gospel that is preached in some places, which is often laced with fear, is not a gospel at all.  It is a fear based religion and that is not what Jesus taught or meant for us live in.

How can we have faith in fear, when fear is the opposite of love, which in turn requires faith? When you have faith in fear, then you have no faith in love.  God is Love.  His Love requires faith on our part to not only believe in and trust, but to live out in our lives. Love requires faith that has to be worked out and built every day.  It requires lots of prayer.  When the disciples had trouble casting out a certain demon, Jesus said this particular kind of demon required lots of prayer in preparation. See Mark 9:14-29.  To cast out demons requires faith. True faith requires love.  At the time, the disciples thought the ability to cast out demons goes along with the ability to walk on water, heal the sick, or move mountains.  If love had taken hold on these disciples, then they would have had the faith to cast out this particular demon. Not just  because they were laced with “power”, but their love would have been able to conquer all things.This would have been not only the faith of God, but the Love of God as well.

1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
If love covers a multitude of sins, then where is the accusation? Where is the accuser of the brethren? There is no accuser, there are no more sins, no more demons.  Gone is the evil, gone is the fear.  Faith and Love has prevailed.  And it takes great faith beyond walking on water, healing the sick and raising the dead.

That is the faith that pleases God.

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1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

If love covers a multitude of sins, then where is the accusation? Where is the accuser of the brethren? There is no accuser, there are no more demons.  Gone is the evil, gone is the fear.  Faith and Love has prevailed.

Love by Command

If I were to write a book or an instruction manual on how to live with my family, and you read it seriously, would that make you worthy to live with my family and would you succeed at it?  Would reading and playing out everything I wrote in that book qualify you and truly prepare you for living with my family?  Would that give you the “Right”, the “Qualification”, the readiness to live with my family?  No, especially if I never invited you to live with my family in the first place.  And will you really love me and my family?  All you are doing is playing out a life you will never truly understand and by doing those things in the book, will not prove your love for me and my family.  Yes, it can prepare you and set your habits to a point.

But if I asked you to come live with me and my family and learn to be a part of it, most likely, you would see that I am not following the book I wrote, but set that aside and lived outside of that book, and asked you to follow me. And in that, we learn love, respect, and even obedience.  Does that mean what I wrote in the book is not true or is invalid? No, it just simply means that I wrote the book for your preview and basic understanding, but not for you to live out of. It just gives you a little insight of our lives. The book will never compare to the real lives we live.  You will never understand our lives by what I write in a book until you come to live with us and see what really happens on a daily basis.  However, could you say that once you read the book, started to live with us, that you can see it being “prophetic”?  You will begin to see how things you read in the book start to unfold and being fulfilled in our lives as you live with us!  “Oh! I remember reading about this! Now that I see it, it makes more sense!”

Jesus wrote the book of His life through imperfect prophets and scribes.  He said these laws and prophecies are “forever”.  What does He mean by that?  I keep getting challenged with these words and began to wonder if this is for our spiritual lives today.  I know that these words are “profitable for instruction” and we learn from them. We see how Man lived and the consequences of disobedience.  But I just read an article, Fulfilling the Law,  by J. Michael Feazell, Vice President of Grace Communion International (GCI), about this concept of law and how it was fulfilled.  I began to realize that when I try to defend my case that we are no longer under the law, citing verses such as Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:23-25; Ephesians 2:15 and others, I look at Matthew 5:17-18, and become a bit confused, for a moment.

But I ask, how did Jesus fulfill the law?  And is the law forever?  And is the Law still binding? And does Jesus still live as if He were in a Jewish community, doing all these things the Jewish convert would do? Is Jesus reading the Torah every day to make sure he is in line with the Law?  If Jesus is doing these things now and require us to do them, then the Law was not fulfilled, Jesus did not succeed, and worse of all, Jesus is bound to his own book rather than living beyond the book, the law, the rules that he wrote down for our sake.

I come to realize that the Law, as good as it was, was fulfilled (not destroyed mind you, but fulfilled) in Christ, and we are no longer trying to live by a bunch of rules.   But is it “forever”?  Yes.  It is forever, but does that mean we “Live by them” to act out in our lives?  No.  The end result of the Law is forever; that is, Jesus Christ and him fulfilling those requirements, which is death.  Death is the real end of the Law.  Jesus died for humanity, therefore the Law, which says “If you don’t obey me, you will die”, cannot take our lives. We are no longer under its strict rules and penalties if we don’t live by them.  The end result is forever. It is completed forever. The prophecies are fulfilled forever.  They are fulfilled by Jesus the Messiah.

But is it love to obey the Law?  Is obeying the Law required to show love?

The article I pointed out earlier confronts this confusion as to whether living by the Law helps us to love, or that we love by obeying the Law.  Is that what love is, obeying the Law?  Or is Love much bigger than the Law?  Can the Law (the Torah) we have written down really contain the Love of God?  Christians understand that God is Love. If God is love and we show love by obeying the Ten Commandments and the Law of Moses, then is the Ten Commandments God?  Of course we will say NO!  Yet we try to “prove” our love by obeying the Law written down by Moses.  But are we to try to prove anything?  Are we to obey the Law, or the One who is greater than the Law?  Is Jesus bound by his own Law?  Is Jesus bound by His own Book he wrote?  Or, is the purpose of this book and its laws is simply to point us to Jesus the promised Messiah?  And now that we are in Jesus, are we to love God in Jesus Christ, rather than trying to prove our love through a book?   If you come to live with us, would you keep referring to the book I wrote, or would you just come in and sit down with us and live with us as we live?  Am I to expect you to constantly refer to The Book I wrote every time I say something or do something?  Or will you allow yourself to be surprised and ride along with me and my family as we live out our lives and adventures together?

I remember an episode of BBC’s Kitchen Nightmares where a world renowned Chef Gordon Ramsey would come in to rescue failing restaurants by confronting the owners.  One chef of a restaurant showed off his cook books including one authored by Ramsey himself.  Gordon tossed out all the books, including his own, because the Chef of the restaurant was too “recipe” oriented rather than cooking from the heart.  Even the famous Chef Gordon Ramsey doesn’t follow his own book for cooking!  He teaches from the heart, the soul and from taste buds, but especially from a real deep desire and love for cooking!

I do not have a “book of life” my daughter reads to get along with us. We have a face to face relationship and we work together (or struggle with one another) to make it through each day.  Some days things don’t go so well, but I don’t pound a book of laws over her head. I remind her of my love for her and what we taught her.   But that is not the same as posting rules and regulations on the wall and pointing at that all the time (we tried it, it didn’t work).   There is just something impersonal and lacking when rules are posted everywhere and rituals are expected constantly.  There is no room for error. There is no room for grace. There is really no room for love.  Love and grace is only limited to what is written in the book and posted on the walls.  And for me to tell my daughter “You don’t love me unless you keep those rules on the wall”, would be very disturbing.  That will be too conditional and problematic.  She would assume then that I won’t love her either unless she obeys these rules. She will obey them, but would always believe that deep down, I really don’t love her and she would not really love me as we know she could have.  It will impede our relationship. However, our love is unconditional, not dependent on rules and regulations, traditions and appearances.  Yes, she gets moody, refuses to do things with me at times, and even disobey me when I tell her to do something (or not do something).  But I just gently remind her that one day she will be older and I’ll be gone from this world and she won’t have a chance again.  But that is her loss, and I can do nothing to force her unless I find it necessary to do so for her own good. In the long run, she has to live her life.  She will come around.

In the mean time, Love is the program that runs constantly in our home.  Not laws. Yes, we do have “house rules” and “social rules”, but those are not based on whether one loves or not, but on necessity to get along and keep things in order, if anyone calls anything in our home “order”.  But we do our best.  But under no circumstances is there a time I don’t love my daughter and my wife.  That is forever. Period. Law or no law.  We live our lives beyond a book of laws. We live our lives beyond a wall full of rules and regulations. We live our lives beyond tradition.  We may make our own family traditions, but that is only for our lives now and we can change that any time we want.  And we are allowed to make new traditions! The bottom line and the top line, the side lines and center, Love and grace is always, always, always the…rule…if you will…of our daily lives.
Join us with Jesus Christ as we live unfettered in His house.

 

Boyd Merriman

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Jesus As Our Catalyst

Gen. 2:9 “Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

Gen 2:16-17 “The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."  (NASB)

When man was told by God that he (Humanity) can eat of ANY tree in the Garden EXCEPT for the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we would have to make the assumption that he could eat of the tree of life that was also planted there.  We may also think that the tree of life would have been a more “tempting” tree and Adam would have gone there first.

However, we know how that went.  See Genesis 3:1-7 for that story.

But we always had a “what if” going on in the back of our minds: What if Adam took of the tree of life first? 

The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" was not for man, at least, not in this setting or time...yet.  So the next question would be obvious:  Why was it there?  Why did it seem good, taste good, and look good to eat?  Why all this “temptation” in front of man?  Was God teasing man?  Was God trying to find out if man was going to obey Him?  Was it a test?

James 1:13 "When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone"

I don’t think God would deliberately put temptation in front of man that way.  Men have blamed women for being a “temptation”.  So would that imply that Eve was a temptation God put in front of Adam?  No, I don’t think God works that way. You have a dessert on the table.  It is meant for after dinner.  The kids were told (and the husband too) to leave it alone until after dinner.  Eat your dinner first and then you may have some.  Is it a temptation?  Maybe to the kids, but not to mom who said “Don’t eat of it or touch or you will go to bed with out dinner and be grounded for a week!”  Does the cake actually cause this?  No, but it is the result if you don’t follow instructions.  But was that her intent?  Was that God’s intention?  To make someone follow instructions?  To see if they will obey a divine rule?

There is a good reason for this.  Mom knows the reason, God knows the reason. Man does not have to know.

So, back to the tree.  Man is physical.  God is spiritual.  They are incompatible or, worlds apart.   I hear theories that man had a spiritual essence (a glow?) that was present until man sinned.  That is not an option the way the original writing proposes.  However, that tree with the fruit on it, was there for a reason. Was it a dessert? Was it a reward for obedience? Or was it something else? The tree of life may also have been attributed to Jesus Christ later. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. We go to Jesus for everything, especially spiritual knowledge and life.  We know what is truly good and evil through Christ.  And HE gives us that knowledge.  And I think that is where this would have fit in.  You see, this fruit is not compatible with man until a Catalyst is put into place.  Like water and oil, which cannot mix, you will need a catalyst, or another chemical or substance that can help mix oil and water.

Lye is a catalyst used to mix oil (fat, grease) and water to make soap.  By itself, lye is a very harsh ingredient, but with the right mixture with oil, it can be mixed into water to wash out dirt and oily grime.

Yes, I'm making a huge assumption here: That the tree of life was not intended to be a temptation, but a desired fruit if taken with God (Father, The Word and Spirit) as the one giving it at the right time.

The tree of life is that symbolic catalyst, which, had Adam and Eve went to that first (Going to Christ first), then God would have given them the knowledge of what is good and what is evil.  I think the forbidden tree was the second part of what man needed once he went to the tree of life first.  Like the serpent (Satan) who stood by the tree of knowledge, God (Future Jesus) may have been standing by the tree of life ready to give them what they needed.  Then Satan would have been dislodged from the other tree so God can give them the knowledge they needed when they needed it.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not a bad tree. It was not a killer except for the fact that it was incompatible to man, as man was physical in this way.  Once the tree of LIFE, ever lasting life, life of the holy spirit, was introduced INTO man, man changes, his character and his nature changes, so that the tree of knowledge is now compatible to man, to do good, not harm.

The Catalyst for humanity now is Jesus Christ.  When Jesus became flesh, man became compatible.  Before, we could not approach God and His throne.  Now we can!  What changed?  Man changed when God (Jesus, or Emanuel: God with us, God in the flesh) became flesh!  God is already everlasting, so nothing (other than a physical and temporary death by a cross) can cause Gods’ demise.  When the Word (Jesus) came to earth, it is like leavening, which leavens the whole lump, and changed mans relationship with God.  Yes, we are still physical, we still sin and can still die and suffer eternal death. But we now have that option to go to that Tree of Life and live. Then we can now take of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil through that Living Tree, Jesus Christ, and live!  But it is by Gods’ grace, love and encouragement, not by Satans’ hatred, selfish and miserable reasons.

Since God made all things and all that God does is always good, therefore, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a good tree, but not good for man outside of Christ, or in this case, the Tree of Life!

Because of what Jesus did, who came to earth to recreate man in his own image and likeness, then be baptized into that relationship, and take of that Tree of Life, and Jesus will give you what you need and it will be an abundant life!  John 10:10

What are these fruits that Jesus will give?  One hint is "by their fruit you shall know them"  Matt. 7:16 and 20.  Also read Galatians 5:22-23  The holy spirit is a giver of fruit, which includes love, joy, peace, patience, etc.  Once the holy spirit is in you, you have that fruit within you.  It is the power you can trust in, believe in.  Oh, it doesn't do Harry Potter stuff, but you cannot get better power than love.   Galatians 5:22-23, and the holy spirit gives you wisdom, understanding and knowledge of God.   Adam and Eve could not touch that tree because they were not ready for this fruit. You have to be baptized into Jesus Christ, go to him first, go to the tree of life, then receive the power of the holy spirit.  You cannot receive the holy spirit by Satan the devil.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7

Boyd Merriman


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God is not linear - A Christmas Message

God is not linear. He occupies all time and space (Sorry Doctor Who). So when was Jesus born and does it really matter when (or if) we celebrate? Yes, there are pagan rituals and customs that were adopted into Christmas, but then again, we were very sinful and were adopted into Christ, even before the foundation of the world! "Before the foundation of the world" is saying that before time as we know it, God has us adopted and redeemed! So no matter what day it is, whether in the Fall, Summer, Winter or Spring, Jesus came into our humanity. God gave to us before he was born. Jesus was IN our humanity BEFORE he was born (in the physical mother, Mary) so we can, in affect, celebrate his coming into our world nine months earlier! But since God is not linear, he was in our humanity before the foundation of the world. God gave before all time and continues to give and give and give!

So we celebrate Christmas. 

But if we dig deeper, the truth of his coming is far greater than worrying about customs and time. He has redeemed (bought back) all things and all humanity. He has restored us and has reconciled us to himself. There is nothing on earth that has not been brought back to the Father through Jesus Christ. Even our customs, as silly as they are, can be to God's glory and honor. So celebrate, everyday! Be giving everyday!

(My wife was inspired with this message while in the shower and told me about it. Goes to show, even you being in a shower will not stop God's presence)

Jesus + "----------" = Salvation

Here is a formula that has been nagging humanity for centuries:  Jesus + ______ = Salvation.

Nature hates a vacuum.  When a void is made, whether its oxygen or water or a hole in the ground, nature tends to want to fill it with something.   So this blank in the above equation is annoying and we want to fill it with something. Good, bad or otherwise.  So what do we fill it with?  Good works? Holiness? Sinless life?  That is the question theologians have been asking for millennia.

And the reason theologians have been asking this question is because this formula, “Jesus + ________ = salvation” has a lot of assumptions with it.  And that prompted the question “with what?”

So I ask this question, what is this article about? Filling the hole in the ground or asking “why the question in the first place?”.  And that is what I want to talk about. Why ask that question in the first place. Why that formula?

In making this formula, we are making two assumptions, aside the fact that Jesus is responsible for our salvation in the first place. That assumption we’ll keep for now.  Not that I am planning on changing that particular assumption. I’m not.

But the rest of the formula bothers me.  For centuries since Christ, mankind has struggled with this formula some poor forgotten soul has made for us to contemplate and hopefully fill.

The first assumption is the blank.  What can we do to add to what Jesus has done, to equal or result in salvation (or eternal life or other goal we have in mind)?  If we leave it blank, making the supposedly correct answer as “nothing”, then we have a void yet to be filled. True, there is nothing we can add to this for salvation in Jesus Christ, though many believe there is something we need to do.  But if we leave it there, someone will focus on that void in their lives and forget either the goal (what it equals to) or the first part of the equation, which is Jesus.  So our focus is now on what we can do to fill that blank, not on Jesus or the result. It becomes our focus in life, our god so to speak. Like a sore we pick at or something in the room that is not just right.

So let’s remove this horrid blank altogether (thus removing the need for the plus sign) and see what we have now.

Jesus = Salvation

There, isn't that is much better?  But I did say there were two assumptions we have to make and the first one has been removed.

The second assumption is the equal sign.  If we continue this thought, then we will have to make an assumption that there is something outside of Jesus that is equal to him (other than the Father) that if we go through Jesus, then we can reach this goal.  Again, we have to go back to the addition sign to make this fully happen.  That is what caused the poor forgotten soul to write the formula to begin with, he had an equal sign to deal with. Therefore, we will have to remove the idea that something other than Jesus is equal to Jesus.

Should we remove the goal then?  No!  Salvation is what we need and should seek.  But how do we seek or achieve salvation and not have this formula to guide us by?  Simple: change the formula.

So now let’s look at the formula this way, removing the equality of anything outside of Christ.

Jesus Is Salvation

Isn’t that much better?  When we seek true Salvation, are we not then automatically seeking Jesus?  When we seek Jesus, are we then seeking Salvation?  You may put any major theological sounding word there you want; Kingdom for example.  Instead of saying “Jesus + ___________ = Kingdom of God”, why not say “Jesus IS The Kingdom of God”?  So when you are living your life IN Jesus, you are   saying that you are IN the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God is in you!   If Jesus IS Salvation and Jesus is in you, then has salvation already come in our lives?

See how much simpler life can be when you see yourself in Jesus Christ and Jesus in you? You see yourself already in the Kingdom of God instead of just seeking it out in some unforeseen future event all the time.  You can start living in Christ now, thus living in the Kingdom, in Salvation, in Glory, being fully baptized in Jesus because Jesus IS our baptism, our hope, our life, in whom we live, move and have our being!

Know that the vacuum in our lives are not real, it does not exist in our formula for success.  Know that Jesus IS the fulfillment of all things in heaven and on earth, now. 

Boyd Merriman


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A Christian is Free -- And That Scares People

A Christian is free.  They are free from prejudice, are free to talk to Jews, to talk to Muslims, to Tax Collectors and Samaritans.
---And that is the problem. Christians are free and that scares people.--- I am free to be what God created me to be.  But do I act on it?
I don’t listen to the spirit enough as it is, and when I do listen, do I obey?
--- Do I scare you? Sorry to hear that, because Jesus will scare you even more. Too many Christians live in fear.
Jesus had the audacity to walk on water when we know as a fact that it cannot be done! Jesus knows we can't walk on water either.  In fact, he never asked the disciples to walk on water.  Sure, Peter challenged Jesus and he stepped out, but his faith was not on the lack of ability to walk on water, but trusting Jesus to be able to walk on water in spite of our abilities or faith.  He does not ask nor force us to walk on water. He just asks us to let him walk on water. And, like Peter, he allows us to join him in HIS walk on water. Will you let me walk on water too? Or will you stop me and say “It cannot and should not be done because it’s socially, politically, scientifically and religiously incorrect”?

Peter was free to ask the question about walking on water.  Jesus simply said "come".  But when Peter began walking (which was successful), he began to take his eyes off of Jesus and putting it into his own ability (or lack thereof), to walk on water.   About half way through his walk, he started questioning his rationality by thinking that this is impossible..."What am I doing?"  Jesus never asked Peter to walk on water, but he allowed him to participate with Jesus in His walk.  So why did Jesus say "Ye of little faith"?  Was it because Peter lacked the faith to walk on water?  Or was it that Peter didn't have enough faith to stay in the boat in the first place?  Or was it that he didn't have the faith to let Jesus do the walking and trusting Him to be who and what he is outside of Peters ability to reason or understand?   So we don't have the faith to do certain things, but then our faith should be in Jesus' ability and faith to do it and participate with Jesus.


So if we see someone (like Peter) began to "walk on water", is it our responsibility to tell them that it cannot or should not be done because of our paradigm?  Notice that none of the disciples on the boat stepped out, but then again, they didn't stop Peter either!  I'm not sure if that was good or bad, but no mention of their doubting talk.

Jesus has a habit of doing things in his humanity (flesh) that we cannot do.  Not that we don't have the desire, but our fear of failure and the thought of being told that we "lack faith" can stop us in our tracks and freeze. Or we do what the Israelite did when some marched against the "giants" when told not to.  We don't have the faith to let Jesus do it for us.

---He raised the dead when the body was in the grave for four days, while we say, “Well, he’s dead now, I guess that was God’s will” and never try.
---He turned water into wine, when we turn wine into water.

One man said “Here is some water, what is keeping me from being baptized?”; Jesus says “Here is some water, let’s take a walk together”.

Wow he scares me!
“I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly” ~ Jesus

Lets scare the hell out of people with the help of Jesus Christ!

Boyd Merriman

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Are We Really Free?

Gal. 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

To many, freedom is like winning the lottery: It's something that happens to someone else you don't know. "It will never happen to me" we say.

So when you are given freedom (and  you were), most of the time, we don't act on it. We think we are free intellectually (as we were thus told), but in reality, in our daily lives, we refuse to live out that freedom. Often it's social pressure that forces us (or so we think and allow) to not live in that freedom. Like crabs that are put into buckets, one crab can crawl it's way out to freedom, but put other crabs in the bucket with it, they will grab at the first crab and keep it pulled down into its prison. Each crab trying for freedom, but all the others, (ironically, including the first one) will pull it down.

Freedom has been given to us in Jesus Christ. Question is, will we believe and live it, or allow social pressures (church, state, family or friends) keep you down? Just keep in mind, we are all guilty of pulling others down into our subjective reality. Lift others up so they too can find freedom, and in their freedom, reach down and lift you up with them.

Be free my friends!

Boyd Merriman

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One To Rule Them All

One Father to rule them all
One Christ to find them
One spirit to bring them all
and in the light, bind them.

Boyd Merriman

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Communion

I think one of the most important part of worship service in church is the communion. Yet it is the least rehearsed part of worship. Once a year, once a month, every week?
And when we do have the communion, too often, it is a sad, or very weak service. I went to one where, though they went up to the table, the participants looked…well…introverted, plain faced, dead. Then they took their cup (small plastic) and piece of bread and went back to their seats and sat in self contemplation. At best. Facing forward to the front of the sanctuary, not towards one another.

Then I went to some where the participants were happy, joyfully going to the table, picking up the elements, then stand in a large circle and prayed, and then while smiling at each other, took the communion in a very community way. Together.

How we conduct our church services (God’s church service…sorry about that slip) makes a difference in how we are connected as one building, one church, one community, one where God wants to stay and lead the way.

When I conduct communion services to a group that is mixed (denominational), I remind them of the unity we all have in common, Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus' table. Not the Baptists, not the Catholics, not the Methodists, not the Episcopalians, not the many varieties of the Church of Gods,  not mine, not theirs. It is Jesus' table. Jesus invited humanity to share with one another, not to take it individually in our own little world and own little way.

Communion is the most blatant way of showing inclusion and love for a broken people.

Lets share with one another the communion and love God has shared with humanity.

Boyd Merriman

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I Love You Too

I was thinking this morning about God's love for humanity.  Yes, humanity, not just you and me.
Then when I say "I love you Lord", what am I expecting? For the Lord to say "I love you too"?  Well, yes, but why?

As humans, we tend to look for reassurance, confirmation, a sign; a reciprocated response.  We say "I love you", not just because we love someone, but in hopes that they will return that "I love you" so we can feel confirmed and accepted; loved.  We expectantly wait for "I love you too".

So what are we expecting from God?  Are we still looking for God's love towards us?  Considering the fact that John 3:16 has already told us that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, should tell us that God loved us before Jesus existed as flesh.  But is that enough?  OK, it is also written that God loved us before time, before we were created, and has already had plans of sending Jesus, long before we were created, let alone sinned.


Yet here we are waiting for a response of "I love you too" as if we were talking to another person we have been relating to for years. Do we do that with our spouse?  Of course they love us, why would they put up with us for so long?  Yet, we are still waiting for "I love you too" as if by chance, maybe they did stop loving us?  Is it possible that God stopped loving us?  Will we ever get that response of "I love you too" from God?




Yes, we should say "I love you" to our spouse, our family, our friends and neighbors, and we should say "I love you" to God as well, but from the heart, from the love we truly have towards that person.  But if we are expecting a response to our "I love you", then are we baiting? Are we feeling a need to be reassured, confirmed?  Are we sending out signals that we are feeling alone and in need of something?  Do we need that response so we can go on a few more steps?

Yet, maybe that is what God is waiting for from us.  Not out of need for our love or for reassurance.  God loved us and has told us that and has never stopped telling us that from the beginning of time.  So maybe our response shouldn't just be "I love you Lord", but "I love you too".  Out of response to God's already loving us the whole time.

Lord, I love you too.

Boyd Merriman

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Do You Want Overcooked Broccoli or Ice Cream?

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Or: You can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd.

This is a good analogy for me since I am an Ice Cream Junkie! (Now you know where I got that round thingy my belt is holding in)

Imagine, you are with your friends and out on the town, having a great time. Then your friends decided to stop at the local ice cream shop to have some ice cream.  Wonderful! Everyone agreed and went in, including you.

But then you started to worry about your health, your diet (or other weird things like that), so you decided to order Steamed Broccoli.  Sounds silly? Of course it does!

But isn’t that what we try to do in God’s Kingdom?

Humanity is in an ice cream shop eating over cooked broccoli! (It’s over cooked because Ice Cream shops are really not in the broccoli business)  Now if that don’t sound silly, I don’t know what is! (But then again, Ben and Jerry has been known to come up with broccoli ice cream, but that is another story)

Let’s get with the Kingdom program!  Jesus has you in His Shop and you are trying to order from a vegan menu!  It’s like crying out "Steeeeer-rike!" at a foot ball game, or playing punk rock at a ballroom dance, or as the old Roger Miller song goes, “You can’t roller skate in a buffalo herd”.

But you can try.

Boyd Merriman

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Round and Round We Go

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One of the things we need to question in our evangelical quest to “save as many souls as possible before all hell breaks loose" is, who, how and why.

But I keep going back to what Jesus Christ said about himself and the Father.  “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.”  John 6:65.

Well, that’s fine and dandy, except, what if the Father never calls this person?  What do we do then?  I suppose we tell them “Tough luck kid, I guess you’re going to be punished in hell for the next zillion years even though you didn’t have a chance to begin with!”

That doesn’t seem to be fair, especially from a loving God and for such a short, miserable life this person had. And how would we ever know if God is calling them later or not?  Should we give up? Try to save them ourselves?  Wait on the Lord as some would say? (Waiting is not a bad idea by the way)

But we are still in panic mode trying our best and hope to God all these otherwise nice people don’t go to hell.

What work we do! What love for these people we must have!  What commitment, zeal…and full of ourselves!  What a waste of time! And God seems to be doing absolutely nothing unless we act!

Seems foolish to me, considering how weak and broken I am.  So I am reminded of the foolishness of God which is still far wiser than mans wisdom. 1Cor. 1:25  Maybe we are missing something here.

Because yet another verse, which seems to contradict the first one, says, “No one can come unto the Father except through [Jesus]”.  John 14:6

Stop the car! Pull over! Let’s pull this map out and read it again!  First, we can’t go to Jesus unless the Father draws us to him, and we cannot go to the Father except through Jesus, whom we cannot go to unless the Father, (which we cannot access without Jesus) draws us to Jesus!! What gives?

If the only way we can access the Father is through Jesus and the only way we can access Jesus is from the Father invitation, then we can only assume we are already in contact with both, Father and Son!  How?  By the Holy Spirit that was sent by the Father through the Son!!  NOW we see the connection!   Because the Holy Spirit was sent to earth (and by default, to humanity) by Jesus, we are complete in Jesus if you understand that the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity as God, (Emanuel; God with us).  This was done already a long time ago!  There is nothing we can do!  If we try to save people thinking they have no access, then we are bypassing what Jesus AND the Father AND the Holy Spirit has done already!  We were not told that we can come to Jesus through evangelism, though by evangelism, we come into the knowledge of our existence in Christ.

Either we are already in Jesus because of what they did, or there is absolutely no hope for humanity: saints and sinners!

Now what is the evangelist to do? Or have we misunderstood what we are to do?  We think we are called to save souls.  Well, to a certain limit, yes, but for what, and for whom?  It isn’t a matter of saving people from, but for.  Isn’t our main priority to announce the Good News of God’s Kingdom which, if I’m not too far mistaken, Jesus is King of right now?  If Jesus is the King of a Kingdom, then we can only assume there are subjects (citizens) of that Kingdom. And Jesus’ Kingdom includes all of humanity. So the real question is, what are we “saving” them, or better yet, leading to them understanding, for? 

All we are called to do is to announce the Good News of this Kingdom and teaching all nations (peoples, who are already a part of this Kingdom) to observe and learn their role in this Kingdom! And to help people see who Jesus is, who they are in Jesus, and to help them receive (not get) the understanding (via Holy Spirit) and accept the “already done” into their daily lives.

Either we are going round and round trying to save people (just in case Jesus missed a few), or God has already resolved this circular puzzle.

May this circle be unbroken.

“Lord, please open our eyes to your Kingdom already at hand”

Boyd Merriman

 




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I am afraid of what others might think!

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I heard that many times in life, and have found myself using it as well. That has stopped many people from enjoying life, moving forward and taking risks. Including me.

But what does this mean when we look at it in the reality of who and what we are in Christ?

I will go over each word individually, but also as part of the whole. For every word spoken in this sentence, adds more problems exponentially.

I: "I" is a big word.  It is all about Me.  Me, myself and I.  MeMeMeeee! The first thing we do is start off with “me” when we should be starting off with the Triune God.  So we say “I” instead of saying “Our Father”.

I am:  Like Adam, we begin to replace God, the Great I AM, with our own version of “I am”.  (Gen. 3:10) We have ideas of what we are outside of who and what we are in Christ. If we start with the true “I AM”, the Trinity, then we would not be so focused on this broken "I am".

Afraid:  Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). So right off the bat, we are not using the fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love.  The very first words of Adam to God after he took of that forbidden fruit were, “I was [am] afraid”.   Fear sums up all of the troubles and sins of humanity.  And the first victim of that fear was God.  Adam and Eve found a new fear and hid themselves from God.   But Jesus Christ removed that fear.  So why are we still hiding from God and from each other?  We still hold on to that fear because we are still seeing ourselves as “I am” rather than seeing God.

Of What:  Yes, of what?  What are you afraid of?  An unknown?  “I am afraid of what” is a good question.  We too often don’t even know what we are afraid of, so we lash out against God and everything and everyone else. 

Others:  That committee of others.  Whoever they are. Like the “what”, we don’t even know "who".  We have yet to meet them.  So we just call them “others”.  What is so detrimental about this is that the “others” might be your family, friends and neighbors!  Why are we afraid of them?  What have they done to deserve such a critical view of them?  It shows how critical and accusing we have become.  Again, like Adam who blamed God and Eve for his fears and troubles.

Might: Not will, just “might”. We are not even sure that they will think or not think. We just stop our lives in mid stroke just based on a “might”, a "maybe", a “not sure but just in case”.  There is no reality to this fear except our own.

Think:  Not do, just "think". Now when did the thought of others actually hurt you?  The only way the thoughts of others can hurt you is when they act or speak out those thoughts.  But we have not gotten that far yet. We are still just on “think”.  Maybe they did think these things (whatever it is that we think they thunk), and IF they did, they may have changed their thoughts immediately and started thinking right (called repentance). Or maybe their thoughts were very good towards you (Like God’s thoughts towards Adam and Eve were good), but we are afraid of them anyway, even though they may not have thought them at all.

Put them all together and you are revealing a whole mess of broken theology at work in your lives!

When you really think about it (speaking of which), you will find that our fears are based on selfishness and believing that others are taking their valuable time and concern and negatively placing it towards you and that what they think are actually evil thoughts!   In reality, they are actually our evil thoughts towards them!  How dare we to stop living based on our misconceptions of our family, friends and neighbors. And who said they were thinking about you anyway you selfish “i am”?  They have their own concerns!

Who knows?  The "Others" may want to support you in your mission in life! And if they don't, that is their life, not yours.

“I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 Yes, Jesus said “might” (KVJ), but not because Jesus is holding back, but because we still allow our selfish, paranoid fears to hold us back from the reality of who and what Jesus is and our wonderful relationship we have with God.  We can now live back in His garden, living off of the Tree of Life, who is Jesus.

“I am afraid of what others might think” is so wrong on so many levels!

If Jesus thought like that, he never would have walked on water, or healed on the Sabbath, or picked grain on the Sabbath! He is the real "I AM" and I AM is not afraid of what others might think!

I will admit that some people do have broken relationships with someone thinking negatively towards them, but chances are, they are thinking negatively towards a lot more than just you and the life you are living in Christ. It is them, not you.

Boyd Merriman

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