TOP TEN REASON WE HAVE BEEN TOGETHER FOR SO LONG

Hello Lovebirds. Gather 'round and I will tell you a story...a Love Story. Brenda and I have been together for 41 years...we have been married for 38 years (as of July 14, 2010). Many people want to know..."What is the reason that you two lovebirds have been together for so long."

Well...after pondering this question... I have come up with THE TOP TEN REASONS WE HAVE BEEN TOGETHER FOR SO LONG.

#10 I am a stud muffin. I was walking by a construction site once and they grabbed me and nailed me into a wall...and sheet rocked over me. To find me...they had to get one of those newfangled stud finders to located me.

#9 It helps to be married to a goddess.

#8 I keep her entertained with many witty, funny, hilarious jokes. She never gets tired of me commenting on the ARNO ROAD EXIT SIGN...by saying..."Don't go down that road...there ARE NO ROAD."

#7 Brenda has practiced the Ruth Graham method that Ruth used on Billy for many years. Brenda has never thought of the word DIVORCE. She has thought of MURDER a couple of times...but not DIVORCE. NOTE: I am the HEAD of the house...but she is the NECK...and the NECK turns the HEAD...anywhere she wants it to go. NOTE: I have learned the two magic words...YES DEAR.

#6 Brenda first saw me at a band practice of the old group I was part of called THE BLIND DISTORTION For 41 years...she has hung onto the hope that one day...I will be a rich rock star. Keep Hope Alive baby...

#5 We were destined to be. In the photo collage...the pictures of us talking on the phone was a sign. RODNEY: Hello...Brenda...can I come over to play? BRENDA: Sorry...I got to go to church. DAN BOGLE: Boyd...are you trying to date a missionary. NOTE: The real story is that I tried multiple times to call her...and she was always at church...and Dan did make that comment. My plan...go to church and get me some more BRENDA TIME. Little did I know that my Brenda time would turn into JESUS TIME.

#4 It helps when you marry a PRO-VERBS 31 WOMAN. Barnabas was known as the Son of Encouragement. Brenda has always been a Barnette to me...the Wife of Encouragement. Now matter what phase I was going through (the good, the bad, the ugly)...Brenda always encouraged me.

#3 They say that opposites attract. Years ago we did a personality test...and Brenda primary personality was one of a faithful Golden Retriever...and I was a fun loving Otter. Brenda: The Carpenters...Me: Resurrection Band (music to raise the dead)

#2 Phillip Stephen Boyd...21 of those 41 years...keeps a husband and wife on their toes. If for nothing else...we have to keep our heads together to figure out this raising a child thang.

AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON THAT BRENDA SUE BOYD AND RODNEY LEWIS BOYD HAVE BEEN TOGETHER FOR 41 YEARS (38 OF THAT MARRIED)....

JESUS IS LORD

Well...there ya have it. That's my story...and I am sticking to it.

Love Story Kisses

Rodney "I Am A Blessed Man" Boyd

RAISING HALAL (haw-lal)...RAZE HELL

Greetings and Salutations O Ye Halal Raisers. I have got one question to ask ya...that my friend, brother, worship mentor...Wayne "Not Chuck" Berry...asks our congregation of gathered saints...as S.A...Smyrna Assembly.



"ARE YOU BREATHING?!?!?"



Even as the ruminations drip onto the this Rambling...I am wearing a shirt that on the front reads...Wayne Berry & the Groove Machine...and on the back..."Are You Breathing Tour".



As you can see from the first picture... there are a group of people...located in Kenya Africa...RAVIN' ON...and raisin' HALAL.



"Let everything that has breath...HALAL the Lord. HALAL the Lord!" (Psalm 150:6)



HALAL...is one of the Hebrew words for PRAISE.



PRAISE: Halal (haw-lal)=a primitive root, to be clear (originally of sound, but usually of colour); to shine, hence, to MAKE A SHOW...to BOAST,

thus to be (clamorously) FOOLISH...

TO RAVE...causatively...TO CELEBRATE.



This is where we get the word...that is usually presented in our worship services...as a tender, gentle..."holy" praise...HALLELU-JAH..Praise Yahweh...Praise the Lord.



There is nothing wrong with using Halal in this manner...but it does miss the sound and colour of the word.



RAVE ON...was one of Buddy Holly's last hits prior to his early departure via a fatal airplane crash on February 3rd 1959. Holly's other hits included That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Not Fade Away...and RAVE ON.

RAVE ON
Wh-eh-ell little things you say and do
Make me want to be with you
Rave On
It's a crazy feeling and I know it's got me reeling
When you say I love you
Rave On

The dictionary definition RAVE is:

1. To talk wildly, as in delirium
2. To talk or write with extravagant enthusiasm
3. To make wild or furious sound
4. To utter as if in madness
5. An extravagantly enthusiastic appraisal or review of something
6. A boisterous party, especially a dance

Wow...when you think about the concept behind that phrase RAVE...and the way we approach PRAISING God with our HALLELU-JAHs....there seems to be a discrepancy.

We can RAVE ON at dance parties...we can RAVE ON at boxing matches...we can RAVE ON at professional football games...we can RAVE ON whatever tickles our fancy...BUT once we enter the hallowed halls of our sanctuaries...we put the RAVE on hold...and bring out our "genteel" praise on.

NOTE: Remember...there are more than one word for praise...and there is always a place for the quiet, reverent, tender moments in the presence of the Lord as we enter into worship HOWEVER...don't forget...it is appropriate to GET YOUR RAVE ON... before the Lord.

Of course the very nature of THE PSALMS in PRAISE... but the last 5 chapters...Psalm 145-150 is a primer for exuberant PRAISE.

As a Speech-Language Pathologist...who studies and treats SPEECH...I know that WORDS...are BREATH DRIVEN. You have a thought in your noggin (aka brain), you breath in (aka inspiration)...you breath out (expiration)...and as you breath out...you set your ARTICULATORS (lips, tongue, soft palate, teeth, alveolar ridge, etc) into motion and you speak what you are thinking...ala BREATH-DRIVEN WORDS.

"ARE YOU BREATHING?" If you are...you have the capability...to PRAISE THE LORD. If you don't...the rocks and the trees...WILL...so...you might as well do...what you were created to do.

This thing called HALAL...is to be done because of His mighty deeds, according to His EXCELLENT GREATNESS. It is to be manifested with trumpet sound, harp and lyre (forerunner of all stringed instruments including the gitfittle (guitar)...timbrel...and DANCE...stringed instruments and pipe...loud cymbals and resounding cymbals...and YOUR BREATH.

Let (allow) everything (including you) that has breath (are ya breathin') HALAL THE LORD. PRAISE THE LORD!

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

The second part of the title of this Rambling mentions...RAZE HELL. When you HALAL...when you shine, make a show, boast, be clamorously foolish, RAVE, celebrate...you are entering to WARFARE...as the gates of hell cannot stand against you. You shake things up in the heavenlies...and you shake things OFF of you. So...my brothers and sisters...RAVE ON.

Love and Clamorous Kisses
Rodney "It's Got Me Reeling" Boyd

GET BACK...TO WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED

Greetings Oh Ye Children of Adam and Eve...how does your Garden grow?

Joni Mitchell wrote the song Woodstock...recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young about the 3 days of Peace and Music...as a musical desire to "get back to the garden."

(WOODSTOCK by Joni Mitchell)

I came upon a child of God
He was walkin' along the road
And I asked him where are you going
And this He told me
I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band
I'm gonna camp out on the land
I'm gonna get my soul free

We are stardust...we are golden...we are billion years old carbon...caught up in the devil's bargain...and we've got to get ourselves BACK TO THE GARDEN.


Joni spoke of the inward desire of mankind...to get our soul free from the entanglement of sin and get back to what was lost in the Garden because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve. (Read Genesis 3:1-24 for full details of the Fall and the cause and effect of the Fall).

The cast of characters is God, Adam, Eve, and the serpent (little s) who we see in later Scriptures is identified as the devil (little d). God gave A & E everything they needed...and restricted them from one tree...the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day they eat from that tree...they would surely die. (Genesis 2:16,17) The tempter crawled into the Garden and tempted the woman...and placed doubt in here mind about what God said and then countered what God said with twisted lies and logic. (Genesis 3:1-5) While the serpent was talking to the woman...we see that Adam was WITH her, and he ate also. (Genesis 3:6) Later on... the first mention of a car is found..."So He (God) DROVE the man out...and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to GUARD the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-23) This is the GARDEN that Joni Mitchell...and CSNY allude to.

The problem is...that any attempt to "get your soul free"...and any attempt to "get yourself back to the garden." will fail...because...you are "caught up in the devil's bargain"...and only ONE THING can buy off the devil...another's life for the life of the fallen A & E.


The Beatles....who said "All You Need Is Love...and then they BROKE UP."..lamented that they wanted them...and us...to GET BACK TO WHERE YOU ONCE BELONGED.

There really is a cry of the human heart to GET BACK... to where we were created to be. Many people have tried...and continue to try...to GET BACK TO THAT PLACE THAT YOU ONCE BELONGED...by either trying to transcend who they are...or cover up who they are by using everything from metaphysical mumbo-jumbo, drugs, alcohol (the accepted drug), attitude, bravado, intimidation, masks, sexual pleasure, pleasure in general (hedonism), pornographic lifestyles, (FILL IN THE BLANK)...of whatever you use to attempt to GET BACK TO THE GARDEN.


"For if while we were enemies we were RECONCILED to God through the death of His Son, much more, having bee reconciled, we shall be SAVED by His life...and not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have NOW received the reconciliation...therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin (disobedience) entered into the world...and death trough sin (cause and effect of disobedience in the Garden) and so death passed to ALL MEN (Woodstock Generation included) have sinned." (Romans 5:9-11)


"For the love of Christ controls us...having concluded this, that ONE DIED (Jesus) for us ALL (everyone), therefore all died...and He (Jesus) died for all...so that those who live might NO LONGER LIVE FOR THEMSELVES...but for Him (Jesus) who died and rose again on their (the all) behalf." (II Corinthians 5:14-15)

Well...one thing is right..."There is NO PLACE like home."...but it will take more than wishes and dreams, clicking of ruby slippers...or a good witch with a wand to make that happen. It will take more than just being good, sharing all things in common for 3 days at a music festival.

"He (God) save 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)


NOTE: Our problem is...that we are trying to GET BACK TO THE GARDEN on the basis of how we do...on how much we do for others...on our own goodness...and we keep running into Romans 3:10, 23..."As it is written...there is NONE righteous...NO...NOT...ONE...and "We have all FALLEN SHORT of the glory of God." We keep circling back to a garden of weeds, crop failure, drought, etc...in our own strength.

"For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so 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)

NOTE: We keep trying to GET BACK TO THE GARDEN...TO WHERE WE ONCE BELONGED... by trying to die for ourselves...the UNJUST FOR THE UNJUST...and we end up with the same dead spirit as when we started...with the same longings.


FINAL WORDS...FINALLY

The sentiment is NOT wrong...we do have that hole in our soul that longs to GET BACK TO WHERE WE ONCE BELONGED...but the method of filling that hole is like trying to fill a BLACK HOLE in outer space. It is impossible.

The ONLY WAY TO GET BACK TO WHERE WE ONCE BELONGED...is via Jesus.

Sometimes Christians are accused of being closed minded about this thing called salvation and reconciliation to God. We are ridiculed because we don't subscribe to "all roads lead to Rome"... or there are "many paths" to God. The reason that we are so closed minded...is because Jesus is so closed minded.

"Jesus said to him, I am THE way...and THE truth...and THE life...no one comes to the Father... but THROUGH ME." (John 14:6)

As C.S. Lewis states that Jesus is either (a) Liar (b) Lunatic on the same level as a poached egg
(c) Lord.

I choose Lord...the ONLY WAY BACK TO WHERE I ONCE BELONGED.

"Therefore I any man/woman/mankind is IN CHRIST...he/she/we are NEW CREATIONS... old things past away...behold...new things have come." (II Corinthians 5:17)

Love and Garden Kisses
Rodney "Got Back To Where I Still Belong" Boyd