The God of the Bible

When God says something, we should listen to what He says. When God says it twice, we should really listen. When God says it three times, we need to stop and listen carefully.

Exodus 34:6

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”

Psalm 86:15

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

Psalm 103:8

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

God says the same thing in each of these three verses. They declare who God is.

God is compassionate.

Compassion is an awareness of others’ distress and a desire to alleviate it.

God is totally aware of everything going on in your life. He knows the joys and sorrows of your life. He knows when you are going through difficult times.

He is not only aware of it but He also wants to alleviate the distress you are feeling.

Some distress comes because of poor choices you are making.

Some distress comes because we live a fallen world.

God is willing and able to give you relief from distress coming from either or both of these sources. 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living trusting God’s compassion.

God is gracious.

Grace is the fact that God loves you no matter what. It is God’s unmerited favor for you.

In the movie The Shack, God say that he is particularly fond of everybody that is mentioned to Him.

God’s love for you and me is based on His character, not our behavior. He pours out His grace so that we can experience it and be drawn into a relationship with Him. Grace is never earned because it can’t be; it is simply given.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God’s grace and then living in gratitude to God for it.

God is slow to anger.

God’s first response to us is never anger.

God hates sin.

God will pour out His wrath on sin.

God loves us.

God pours out His love on us.

When we sin, God does not get angry with us. It breaks His heart when we sin.

Anger is God’s very, very, very last response when it comes to us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not living in fear of God but in a loving relationship with God.

God is abounding in love.

God is love. He is not a God of love. He is love.

God’s nature is love.

God’s desire is to love.

God’s actions show love.

The world tries to picture God as harsh, mean, apathic, and angry.

God abounds in love. God is overflowing with love.

While our first thought might be fear or anger or hurt, God’s first reaction is love.

When God says that He loves you, it is not a sentimental feeling. It is a willing choice to show you favor and work in your life for your best.   

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living relying on God’s love and then passing it on to others.

God is abounding in faithfulness.

God is faithful.

God will always follow through on what He promises.

He will never say things just to impress us.

He will never say things just to make us feel good.

He will never say things to manipulate us.

God always speaks truth in love.

God always follows through with what He says.

God’s faithfulness is not predicated on our faithfulness. Even when we are not faithful, God is.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on the truth that God will always fulfill what He says.

God is not like us. We cannot view God through our human eyes. We have to view God through the lens of what the Bible says about Him.

The Bible says that God is:

Compassionate

Gracious

Slow to Anger

Abounding in Love

Abounding in faithfulness

Let us let God produce those characteristics in us.

Joining the God of Scripture Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                    Joe

Death to Life to Fruit

In John 12:24 Jesus tells us that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Jesus tells us that first there is death.

Jesus tells us that life follows death.

Jesus tells us that fruit follows life.

When we are physically born into this world, we are born with a tendency toward sin. Our natural tendency is to do what we want, not what God wants. We want our will to be done, not God’s The essence of sin is disobeying God, not doing His will.

Death gives way to life when we die to self and come alive in Jesus.

Romans 6:6-8

For we know that our old self was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

We are dead because of sin; but when we die to self, we come alive in Jesus and die to the sin that controlled and defined our lives.

Then, according to Galatians 2:20, when we allow ourselves and our sins to die, we really come to life.

If a person has not entered into a relationship with God the Father through Jesus, they are dead.  When they surrender their lives to Jesus and die to self, they become alive.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is dying to self and coming alive in Jesus.

Life does not mean that we just exist or survive. It means that we live. The word used for real life in the New Testament is the word zoe. It is life to the fullest. It is not just surviving, but really living.

Jesus wants us to know life that is full.

Life that is filled with:

a fulfilling relationship with Jesus

a security in Jesus

an assurance of the awareness that Jesus loves us

hope, peace, joy

This life is a gift from Jesus so that we can enjoy the life that we were created to have.

Every person wants this life. We seek for this life. We have an inborn desire for this life.

The only way to have this life is to give up our life to Jesus and receive His life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the life that we were created by God to have.

When we experience this life, then out of this life will come fruit.

In John 15:5 Jesus says that if we remain in Him, the source of life, we will produce fruit.

In John 15:8 Jesus tells us that it is to the Father’s glory that we bear much fruit. Producing fruit also shows that we are Jesus’ disciples.

Fruit is produced in our lives because it is Jesus living His life in and through us.

When we have Jesus as the vine and we are acting as the branches, we will produce fruit and it will be natural. We don’t see apple or peach or pear trees out there struggling and straining to produce fruit.

Apple trees produce apples naturally.

Peach trees produce peaches naturally.

Pear trees produce pears naturally.

The fruit we will produce is twofold.

First, the fruit will be the character of Jesus in our lives.

The fruit of love.

The fruit of joy.

The fruit of peace.

The fruit of patience.

The fruit of kindness.

The fruit of goodness.

The fruit of faithfulness.

The fruit of gentleness.

The fruit of self-control.

Second, the fruit will be new disciples of Jesus.

Disciples will be produced because the life of Jesus in you will draw people to Jesus and then we have the opportunity to teach them all the things that Jesus has taught us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is having the life of Jesus producing fruit through our lives.  

Out of death comes life.

Out of life comes fruit.

1 Corinthians 4:8-11

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

We experience the death of Jesus as we die to self.

We experience the life of Jesus as He comes to live in us.

We experience fruit as Jesus reproduces Himself through us.

Death Leading to Life Leading to Fruit,

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

This is Not Where I Belong

I hope that this devotion makes sense. This was a very busy week and an even busier weekend. We are doing an outreach event to our community. We are also moving. I plan for this to be the last house I will buy. I am even hopeful that this will be my last earthly move.

I know that may sound sad, but I see it as a great joy.

In 1 Peter 2:11 we are called aliens and strangers in this world.

In Hebrews 11:13 we are called strangers and exiles.

This world is not my home. I am simply a pilgrim.

A pilgrim is someone passing through with a destination they are going toward and a purpose while they are going.

That means that as followers of Jesus we have a purpose as we live this life on earth.

So, what is our purpose?

We as people who have surrendered ourselves to Jesus have a purpose with three aspects.

Aspect #1: We are to glorify God.

1 Corinthians 10:31

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

Glorifying God means to:

Honor God

Exalt God

Worship God

It means that I make Jesus the #1 priority of my life with no rivals or nothing else competing for my devotion.

Aspect #2: To build the kingdom of God.

In Matthew 4:17 Jesus begins His preaching ministry and His message is clear, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

Jesus came to establish God’s kingdom, and as Jesus’ followers we are to focus our lives on the kingdom.

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus tells us to seek first, meaning above everything, God’s kingdom and His righteousness.

In Colossians 3:2 Paul tells us to set our minds on things above and not on earthly things.

These passages make it clear that our lives are to focus on God and His kingdom.

Aspect #3: Make disciples.

In Matthew 28:19 Jesus tells His disciples to go and make disciples.

Many times, we focus on making converts. We want people to acknowledge Jesus as their Savior and have their sins forgiven. That desire is good and God desires that also. It simply does not go far enough. Jesus wants disciples. He wants men and women who love Him and, out of that love, let Him live His life through them. Jesus wants people whose daily life is totally focused on Him.

These three aspects all lead to one purpose: a life that is lived in obedience and submission to Jesus to the extent that others see Jesus in us as His followers.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living knowing that our lives belong to Jesus and with full commitment to doing His will.

Pilgrims have a destination.

In Philippians Paul says, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Our destination is heaven.

Building 429 has a song called Where I Belong. The chorus to the song says:

All I know is I’m not home yet

This is not where I belong

Take this world and give me Jesus

This is not where I belong

We are created in the image of God and designed to live with Him for eternity. We will not want to do that on the earth in its present condition.

According to John 14 Jesus has gone and prepared a place for us and one day He will come and take us to be in this place. The greatest thing about that place is that Jesus is there.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that heaven is my ultimate home and living based on that truth.

That is why the thought that this will be the last home in which I live on this earth is not a sad one.

I am not in a hurry to die, but death does not have the last word. Jesus has the last word and His word is that in this life I will face trouble, but He has overcome the world.

Jesus shares that overcoming of this world with us and we have the victory.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing victory in Jesus.

As a Pilgrim Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Who We Are in Jesus Part 6

I want to continue to share about who we are in Jesus because of God’s great grace.

The truth is that all the things that the Bible tells us we are as followers of Jesus is what we ARE. Not what we could be or should be; it is who we ARE.

1 Thessalonians 1:4

For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.

We are chosen of God.

We are chosen to be God’s children.

We are holy.

We are dearly loved.

We are jealously protected.

I can remember that as a child I was pretty good at anything athletic so I was chosen early to be on different kinds of sports teams. I never thought about how kids that we picked last or didn’t pick felt. I experienced that feeling of not being chosen when our teacher one year decided we would have weekly math competitions. I was not good at math and I was the last one chosen every week.

God chose us because He wants to have a relationship with us, to love us and to have us love Him in return.  

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living knowing that we have been chosen by God to be His children.

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Peter reminds us that we are a chosen race.

We are a royal priesthood.

A priest is one who represents the people to God and God to the people. We are a people that God has chosen to bring the love and person of Jesus to others.

We know the truth of God and we need to share it.

We have experienced the grace of Jesus and we need to dispense it.

We have the love of Jesus and we need to show it.

We are a holy nation.

In Leviticus 11:44 we are told that because God is holy, we are to be holy.

In 1 Peter 1:15 we are told that because God is holy, we are to be holy.

Holiness means to be set apart.

God being holy means that He is set apart from us as His creation. He is uniquely different than anything in all creation.

Our being holy means that we are set apart for His use and His purposes.

The fact that we as God’s children are holy means we live for Jesus, not ourselves.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting Jesus set us apart and use us for His purposes and honor.

We are a people for God’s own possession.

In 1 Corinthians 6:20 and 7:23 Paul tells us that we have been bought with a price. We are to glorify God and serve Him.

The price with which we are bought was Jesus. The Father loved us so much that He chose to give Jesus’ life to pay for our sins.

We are God’s possession because He paid for us. We belong to God exclusively.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living knowing that we belong to God.

Jesus has called us out of darkness into His light. Because Jesus has done all this for us, we are to proclaim His excellencies. The result of knowing who Jesus is and what He has done and who He has made us in Him is to thank Him, praise Him, and worship Him.

1 Peter 2:11

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

We are aliens and strangers in this world and to the prince of this world.

Jesus said that the world hated Him, and that if we followed Him, the world would hate us as well.

We cannot love the values of this world and love Jesus because the values of this world are in opposition to the truth of Jesus. We have to choose.

God’s Word tells us to choose to be aliens and strangers to this world and be citizens of His kingdom.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living as strangers and aliens to the values of this world.

1 Peter 5:8

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

We are enemies of the devil.

The devil hates us because Jesus loves us.

There is no peaceful coexisting with the devil. Jesus says that the devil wants to kill, steal, and destroy, and he will not stop doing it.

Jesus has defeated the devil and, through Jesus, we have victory over him.

Being followers of Jesus means we are enemies of the devil.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving Jesus and being enemies of the devil.

We need to remember who we are in Jesus and live based on those truths.

As Followers of Jesus, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                              Joe