RUMINATOR MISSIONS

PHILLIP BOYD IS ON A MISSION.

PHILLIP (our son) IS AN INTERN WITH COMMUNITY SERVANTS THIS SUMMER

PHILLIP WILL BE GETTING HIS HANDS DIRTY FOR GOD BY HELPING LEAD VARIOUS GROUPS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY WORKING ON RESTORING HOMES, YARD WORK, BEING JESUS TO PEOPLE AND ANYTHING THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

PLEASE PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER SUPPORTING PHILLIP THIS SUMMER WITH (ESPECIALLY) PRAYER AND ALSO
FINANCIAL SUPPORT

YOU CAN SEND CHECKS TO:

COMMUNITY SERVANTS INC.
113 STONEWALL DRIVE
SMYRNA TN, 37167

MAKE CHECKS OUT TO COMMUNITY SERVANTS AND EARMARK FOR PHILLIP BOYD

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT COMMUNITY SERVANTS GO TO:

http://www.communityservants.org/

LOVE GOD...LOVE PEOPLE...SERVE OTHERS

JUST AS i AM

Greetings friends and neighbors. What you see...is what you get. That is what people say when they want to let people know that there are no pretenses in their lives. In 1969...what Brenda saw...was what she got. Rodney Lewis Boyd...
131 p0unds of pure, rippling, bone. Obviously...I married above my raising.
When I walked the aisle at church in the response to the request for salvation...I was already saved in Brenda's driveway...but I still walked to the song JUST AS I AM...as they sang all four verses (there are more than four verses...but they always would say all four).

JUST AS I AM, WITHOUT ONE PLEA
BUT THAT THY BLOOD WAS SHED FOR ME
AND THAT THOU BIDD'ST ME COME TO THEE
O LAMB OF GOD, I COME, I COME

By 1970...I was living in the best of times...and the worst of times. I guess I was having a Dickens of a time. I was coming out of my shy, self-imposed shell...as I began playing in that dynamic garage band...THE BLIND DISTORTION. I came out of my room...painted entirely in black...out into the sunshine of the real world. It was in this real world that I met Brenda Sue Williams...the sweet, cute, innocent, Baptist girl. This was the BEST of times. The WORST of times was my inner battle with myself, my flesh, my own personal demons. I tried to find solace in various combinations of drugs, alcohol, various things to huff (sniff) to get high. I grew up in the Church of Christ...but was drifting away from the faith on a raft of insecurity.

Thank God for Brenda Sue Williams. She stood strong in her witness...of Jesus Christ...the Risen Saviour. She showed me the road to salvation and led me into the presence of God. I came...JUST AS i WAS.

In 1835...there was a lady by the name of Charlotte Elliot. She was the editor of CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. She wrote over 150 poems and songs...with the most famous being...JUST AS I AM. In 1949...Billy Graham...a youth evangelist with YOUTH FOR CHRIST...was holding a series of evangelistic crusades...that caught the attention of William Randolph Hearst...new mogul... sent out a memo to PUFF GRAHAM. That meant to give him favorable promotion. From that point on...the ministry took off like wildfire.

The Billy Graham Crusade...adopted the song...JUST AS I AM...as the closing number...to give people an opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. Billy would present a simplistic message about salvation...and then invite people to come down to the front and pray...and receive some
LIT...ER...A...TURE (got to say it with a drawn out Southern drawl). He would then tell them that the buses would wait (many came in buses to the crusade).

JUST AS I AM, AND WAITING NOT
TO RID MY SOUL OF ONE DARK BLOT
TO THEE WHOSE BLOOD CAN CLEANSE EACH SPOT
O LAMB OF GOD, I COME, I COME.

"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit." (I Peter 3:18) He is the JUST...we are the UNJUST. That is why we can come to Him...JUST as we are. He will deal with what we WILL BE...but the initial coming to Him...is JUST AS I AM.

This Rambling...is really not about a skinny kid and his religious girlfriend...and it is not about a human, fallible emissary of the Good News...IT'S ALL ABOUT HIM BABY...IT'S ALL ABOUT HIM.

JUST AS I AM, THO' TOSSED ABOUT
WITH MANY A CONFLICT, MANY A DOUBT
FIGHTINGS AND FEARS WITHIN WITHOUT
O LAMB OF GOD, I COME, I COME

"He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing by the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5) I had to come to a place where I realized, that I could bring NOTHING to the salvation table. I came to the table JUST AS I AM.

JUST AS I AM, POOR, WRETCHED, BLIND
SIGHT, RICHES, HEALING OF THE MIND
YEA, ALL I NEED IN THE TO FIND
O LAMB OF GOD, I COME, I COME

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal/everlasting life." (John 3:16)

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
(John 3:17,18)

This belief that we are talking about is not just a mental assent to the historical facts that you learned in Sunday School. It is a true clinging and adhering to the truth about the DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST. This is dropped into your heart...and manifest on you lips and life/conduct.

"The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life." (I John 5:10-12)

The question is...WHO DO YOU HAVE. Do you have religion (man's attempts to reach God through ritual)...or do you have LIFE (God reaching out to man via the death, burial, and resurrection of the cleansing blood of the satisfactory substitute (propitiation) of Jesus Christ IN YOUR PLACE....just as you are?

"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life."
(I John 5:13) When someone asks you if you are a Christian...or if they ask you if you died this very minute do you know that you would go to heaven...You don't have to answer...I don't know...or...I hope so. You can answer with a certainty that you KNOW, THAT YOU KNOW, THAT YOU KNOW. Why? How can you answer with such certainty?

JUST AS I AM, THOU WILT RECEIVE
WILT WELCOME, PARDON, CLEANSE, RELIEVE
BECAUSE THY PROMISE I BELIEVE
O LAMB OF GOD, I COME...I COME

Are you ready...the buses will wait...and I have some LIT-ER-AH-TURE for you to help you grow in your new found faith.

Love and Pardoned Kisses
Rodney "The Buses Will Wait" Boyd

OF SOIL, SEED, ROOTS, FRUITS

Greetings and Salutations fellow gardeners, farmers, and cultivators...how does your garden grow?

In the beginning...there was a GARDEN...and it was GOOD. Man...and WOman were placed there with the authority to KEEP it...as good stewards of what God had trusted them with...and they gave it away with high treason. Disobedience was the ROOT of ORIGINAL CROP FAILURE. (Read Genesis1-3) This CROP FAILURE reverberated down through history to all man and womankind.

"Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin (cause and effect) and thus death spread to all men (that would be you and me), because ALL sinned." (Romans 5:12)

The soil of mankind was tainted...polluted...corrupted. The SOIL had to be recaptured. It was lost by one man...and one man regained it back for us.

"God the love of Christ compels us...because we judge thus...that if ONE (Jesus) DIED for ALL (that would be you and me)...then ALL DIED; and He (Jesus) DIED for ALL , that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." (II Corinthians 5:14,15)

"But now Christ is RISEN (D.B.R...NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS) from the dead, and has become the FIRSTFRUITS of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man (Adam) came DEATH (cause and effect)...by MAN (Jesus) also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all DIED (cause and effect)...even so IN CHRIST (Jesus D.B.R.)...ALL (you and me) shall be made alive." (I Corinthians 15:20-23)

Now that the spiritual garden has been restored IN CHRIST...we begin to tend our spiritual gardens again. In Mark 4...we see that the soil is our hearts, the seed is the Word, the roots represented the process, and the harvest is the fruit or production of God working in our lives.

NOTE: Read Mark 4:1-20; Matthew 13:1-15; Luke 8:4-10 for full details of the Parable of the Sower/Soil/Seed/Harvest.

The SOIL...is the heart. The seed is the Word.

The soil sample is (1) by the road (2) rocky soil (3) thorns (4) good soil. The seed enemies are (1) birds/satan (2) tribulations or persecution (3) cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, and desires for other things.

The good soil...hears the word...accepts it...and produces results at various levels. In Luke 8:15...the good soil is described like this: "But the ones that fell on the GOOD SOIL/GROUND...are those who (1) having heard the word (with a noble/good heart) (2) keep it (2) bear fruit with patience/perseverance.

We must cultivate...and till the soil of our hearts in preparation for the reception of the seed. As powerful, as good, as wonderful as the seed/Word is...it can still be made of no effect if the heart/soil is not prepared. Not only are we to prepare the soil for the initial planting...but also as the growth takes place.

NOTE: In the seed is the everything needed to produce what it is suppose to grow. If you plant seeds of doubt...you will produce doubt in your life...if you plant the word of God by faith..you will produce faith.

Once the soil is prepared...and the seed (proper seeds ) are planted...you will not necessarily SEE if anything is taking place. The process of growth is first beginning UNDERGROUND. Just because you don't see crops...does not mean crop failure. Even when there is activity above the soil line...there still is a process going on where you do not see any FRUIT...or PRODUCE. That does NOT mean something is wrong about the GROWTH PROCESS. Even when FRUIT..PRODUCE is MANIFESTED...it still may be not RIPE.

So many times we INTERRUPT the process or attempt to EAT the fruit before it is ready for its PURPOSE. We take a bite of an apple that is not ripe...spit it out and curse the apple. Poor apple. It is only doing what it was created to do.. to grow...ripen and then do what its destiny is...sweet delicious APPLE PIE.

We don't go out and DIG up the SOIL...to see if anything is growing...because we would be no better that a bird, or thorns, or scorching sun...negating the process of growth of the seed.

"And He (Jesus) said, the Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground...and should sleep by night and rise by day...and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." (Mark 4:29)

God's HEARTBEAT...is FRUIT PRODUCTION. In this cursed and fallen world....satan is out to do everything he can to stop production of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self control in our lives. (Gal. 5:22,23)

The heartbeat (if he has a heart) of the devil, satan, the accuser, the liar, the murderer...is to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). Jesus came to give LIFE and that more ABUNDANTLY (fruit production) (John 10:10)

The desire of farmer devil is OPPRESSION...the Vinedresser God wants OPPRESSION REMOVED.

"And you know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God ANOINTED Him (Jesus) with the Holy Spirit and power...and how He (Jesus) went about doing good...and healing ALL who were OPPRESSED by the devil...for God was with Him." (Acts 10:38)

Jesus layed out his Garden plan..."The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has ANOINTED ME (See Acts 10:38) to preached the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19/Isaiah 61:1-3)

This ANOINTING that Jesus was anointed with...that he quotes about in Isaiah 61...is the same anointing...that Isaiah spoke of as His (God's) people were under the oppression of an earthly oppressor (the Assyrians). "It shall come to pass in that day that his BURDEN will be TAKEN WAY from your shoulder and his YOKE from your neck, and the YOKE will be DESTROYED because of the ANOINTING OIL" (Isaiah 10:27)

Anointing was oil that was poured on, rubbed into, smeared on...to mark the anointed for the purposes of God. In the believers life...this is symbolic of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

This ANOINTING...that was on God's people...that was all over Jesus is the YOKE DESTROYING...BURDEN LIFTING OPPRESSION REMOVING POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST.

Finally...the key to good fruit production versus crop failure is staying connected to the vine.

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not BEAR FRUIT...He takes away; and every branch that BEARS FRUIT, he prunes, that it may BEAR MORE FRUIT. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. ABIDE (continue in, dwell in, take up residence) Me, an dI in you. As the branch cannot BEAR FRUIT of itself, unless IT ABIDES IN THE VINE...neither can you, unless you ABIDE IN ME. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who ABIDES IN ME, and I in him, BEARS MUCH FRUIT; for WITHOUT ME...YOU...CAN...DO...NOTHING." (John 15:1-5)

NOTE: Read The Secrets of The Vine by Bruce Wilkenson.

Believer, Believer...how does your garden grow?

Love and 30,60,100 fold Kisses
Rodney "Farmer Boyd" Boyd