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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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 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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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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