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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Have a Brave and Courageous Christmas

Did you know that "Merry" did not originally mean happy?

We often look to Robin Hood and his Merry Men as being a bunch of happy guys in tights dancing around in the forest.  Strange thought using todays idea of men hanging out like this.

But the word Merry meant strong and courageous, often with a purpose and mission.  We could say our soldiers right after 9-11 were Merry Men and Women.  When they saw the Twin Towers collapse, like the soldiers and the supporting citizens during WWII, they volunteered by the hundreds of thousands. 

Christians are to volunteer by the hundreds of thousands if not millions to be Merry during this time and stand up for what Christmas is really all about.

Be Merry this Christmas

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 Realize?

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We have all been watching the news, and the war on terrorism is still going on.

Actually, it has been going on for countless thousands of years and God has been fighting that war since Satan came into being.  Since Adam listened to that first lie, "you are not" (God won by the way).

The problem is on both sides here. On the Christian side as well as on the Terrorists side.  How?

The real deep issue is that neither side knows who or what they are in Christ! 

That's right!  The reason the terrorists are doing what they do is because they have no idea who they are and that Jesus is right there with them ready to lead them to the Truth of who they already are! God has already accepted them and since we Christians are more about punishing them or trying to "save their souls", we are not focused on teaching them the truth of who and what they are!  It's because we Christians don't know either!

That is ironic.  We are just as lost when it comes to preaching the gospel. The Gospel means "good news", not threats of hell if we don't dunk them in the baptismal pool!  Our anger and hatred (admit it, many Christians HATE them, not love them) towards these people are actually impeding our ability to reach them and bring them to the TRUTH of their SALVATION IN CHRIST!  WOW! What Great News! What Gospel! 

Now it is true they have to believe it in order to live it, but first WE must believe it. If we hold any doubt of who and what we are, if we are holding ourselves, our families and our churches back from that VITAL TRUTH, then we will NOT succeed in reaching these people!  Nor can we succeed in reaching our families, friends and neighbors, let alone our enemies!

So lets start believing, really deep down inside, in our very psyche, our souls if you will.  

YOU are the child of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and you have been accepted freely by God through  Jesus Christ, and you belong to the Father!  You are loved and accepted and God will NOT let you go!

That's it, PERIOD!

Now, lets love our enemies and give them this same good news!  Not pray for their destruction, but their realization.

We must realize, and to realize something is to "make real of what is otherwise not real to you" (my definition).  If you don't realize it (make it real deep down inside you) then you cannot really make it real to them either. Now of course, GOD is the one who makes all things real, and God will be the One who opens their minds to this reality. But God also uses YOU and ME (don't let the stones cry out) to do this.

Are you ready?

For God so loved the WORLD (thats everyone including our enemies).

Jesus said "Forgive them for they know not what they are doing" and said that while they were still beating and killing him! They didn't repent, they didn't realize it, in fact it is BECAUSE they didn't realize it that Jesus forgave them. For they do not know....or realize...what they are doing. Get it??

Do you really get it?  Now live it and give it.

With blessings, and "goodwill to ALL [humanity]"

Boyd Merriman

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Enjoy Life to the Must!

 "Holy Must Batman!"

Do you have a Holy Must? 


Luke 2:49,
And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I  must be about My Father’s business?”

Luke 13:33
Nevertheless I  must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.

John 3:30
He  must increase, but I  must decrease.

John 9:4
I  must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.

2 Peter 1:14
knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me.

Of course, there are many musts throughout the bible and no need to visit them all.  But I had begun to wonder if our lives are filled with musts, or are they filled with “would be nice if” or “I should” or, here’s a good one, one in which we come close to endangering ourselves to blaming God for our failures…”If the Lord willing…”

Must, is a powerful statement. "I must" is saying “to heck with the excuses, the worries, the finances, the neighbors, families, friends, and even pastors and churches!  I MUST…..”

Do you have a “Must” in your life? Or are you living a wish?  Wishing to me is being “wishy washy”.  “I wish(y-washy) I had a way to go“ turns into “I MUST go and there is a Way!”

I do not want anyone to fuss at me for seemingly ignoring key scriptures such as:

James 4:12-16
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.


But should we use that as an excuse to not move forward?  Should we lay back and do nothing based on assuming that it’s not God’s will?  We look for signs of God telling us to move forward when God simply never put the sign up there that we should stop!  If you drove down the road and saw an intersection, but there was not a stop sign, would you stop? Do you need a “Go” sign?  Or do you simply drive on through assuming that the other road crossing this intersection is the one with the stop sign?

Luke 11:29 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, "This is a wicked generation. It asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”

We keep looking for Go signs where there are none except this:

Matthew 28:19-20  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Emphasis of course, is mine in this quote)

That is our Holy Must, and in our everyday life, we have our Musts we ascribe to.

What is it that you Must do?  Build a business?  Go back to school?  Become  more active in your church?  Spend more time with family?  YOU have to dig deep inside yourself, (ask the holy spirit for help on this one) and find your MUST in your life.

I highly recommend popular book "The Shack" by William P. Young, the Holy Spirit is depicted as Sarayu, a small, delicate and eclectic woman of Asian descent, who loves to dig out weeds in your "garden", which is deep into your soul.

I also highly recommend "Your God is Too Safe" (Rediscovering the Wonder of a God You Can’t Control.) by Mark Buchanan, which helps you get out of your "Border Land", much like The Shack helps you get out of your Shack of a life.

Ecclesiastes 9:10
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might,….”

 Don't just live a musty life, enjoy life to the Must!

Boyd
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Boyd Merriman

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