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)

Repent and Play Catch

Just a quick thought.

Did you ever notice that when two people toss a ball back and forth, such as a father and child, they call it “Catch” and not “Throw” or "Toss"?

As Christians, I think it’s time we learn to play catch with our heavenly Father instead of throwing.  Maybe that is why we don’t serve humanity well when we bring the gospel to them, because we are too busy throwing, or worse, pitching it at them, rather than learning to play catch, in which we learn co-operation and respect.

I think we need to repent and play catch.



Boyd Merriman

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The Freedom to NOT Sin

Gwin (my wife) and I spoke at a small group recently, and the theme was Freedom in Christ.

One of the freedoms Gwin discussed was "freedom from sin" or "freedom to not sin".  That second one sounds a little strange since God told us to not sin in the first place. So how can freedom to not sin be an option?

Sin, once it entered into the world, into man, was stuck there until Christ.  All the sacrifices and law (Torah) keeping and such, will not do us a bit of good outside of our relationship in the Trinity.  Sin has kept us prisoners and any attempt to do otherwise will only cause us to be "sinless" outside of God (Trinity).  And any attempt at that is a sin.

 Yes.   That is a sin.  Sin is living our lives outside of who and what we are as God created us. Once man chose that path, all that he does is tainted with sin.  Our works are tainted with sin, our prayers, our fastings, our sacrifices and traditions are all tainted with sin. Even our repentance has a sin attached to it like a virus or a "Trojan horse" in an email.

 The story of what we call "The Prodigal Son" (though the story was about the Father) showed our sinful state inside the repentance.  The young man didn't truly repent until after he met up again with the Father.  The son went back because though he knew he did wrong, came back because he could get three meals a day, a clean place to live and a bath once in a while!  Think about this: If he had these things while slopping hogs, would  he have really returned?  Maybe, maybe not. Most likely not.  His "repentance" was to get him into a better place.  But he still would have accepted the position of a servant and relinquished his right as a son!  But the Father would not have that!  He did not even hear his request, his prayer (ever feel like God is not hearing your prayer?) He grabbed his son while his son was trying to give his little penance of a prayer, again, tainted with more sin of being other than who he is, and grabbed him in his filthy, dirty, pig smelling state and thew his own coat of authority as well as the family ring of authority on him and demanded a party for him!   THAT is what this story is all about!  It's about the Father and how MUCH he Love us!  How much He LOVES YOU!!!

The young man lived in sin because that is what he was in Adam! How could he be otherwise?

BUT....that was BEFORE Christ. What Churches today don't get is that Christ forgave that Sin of Adam, man.  He took humanity BACK into the realm of his Kingdom and righteousness "while we were yet sinners", or slopping hogs so to speak.  That doesn't mean we don't sin, nor does it mean we don't need to repent.  Of course we do. But NOW...we have an opportunity to live righteous lives, NOT because we did good stuff and God forgave us when we did these good works, but because of JESUS (Yeshua) who gave himself for our sins!  We are no longer stuck in the post Adamic/pre Christ world of Sin.   We are freed from that prison! Death no longer has us in it's grip unless we allow it!  We are freed from that Sin of Adam!

The belief and repentance factor comes in when we realize that and come to understand our freedom to live and rejoice inside the Trinity!  To dance in the Trinity. Just as the young man who came home didn't fully know the Father or what he would do until the Father showed him and took him unto himself. That was when repentance had it's full affect!  Forgiveness was there before the young man repented (while we were still in our sins)!  We come to the Father, not because we did good stuff to get there, but because of the goodness of Jesus Christ that brought us to repentance before the Father in His train of glory!

But if you don't believe, you will still be in the trinity, but miserable because you insist on trying to be someone you are not.  Like being at a wedding party and refusing to enjoy it because you hate the groom!  You are still at the party,  you are still free to choose either to rejoice or to be miserable. Or it's like being in prison, or hell itself, and refusing to come out. You lock the gates of hell from the inside.

You have FREEDOM, not TO sin, but to actually NOT sin!  Before, in Adam, you had no choice. No matter what you did, you were a sinner, you were under the curse of Adam, under the law, the curse of the Law.  But NOW, in the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, you are FREE from that curse, you are FREE from that world of Adamic Sin, you are FREE to actually live a life of no sin!  Why? Because of  the works of  Jesus, not our good works!

Rejoice in the LORD, Rejoice because you ARE in freedom of the LORD!
Blessings and Freedom to all!

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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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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