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.

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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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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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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