God Is and Does

When God tells Moses who He is, He says, “I Am”. God is I Am. He is the God that exists, the God that is.

The first thing that we must come to believe about God is that He exists.

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

The first element of faith is that we believe that God is. The biggest thing that God is, is love.

The second element of faith is that we believe that God does certain things. Everything that God does flows out of His love.

Psalm 86:13

For great is Your love toward me; You have delivered me from the depths of the grave.

God loves us and delivers us from the depths of the grave.

This is not a promise that we will not die physically. It is a promise that God will deliver us from the depths or the hopelessness of death. Depths represent a hopelessness that sets in when we see no hope in a situation. It is walking through a pitch-dark tunnel with no light at the end.

God promises that through His love we, as His people, will never have to face hopelessness. His love will deliver us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living with hope through Jesus’ love.

Isaiah 38:17

Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In Your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put my sins behind Your back.

God, in His love for us, doesn’t want to see us face destruction. In John 10:10 Jesus says that He came to give us a full life. In John 17:3 Jesus says that eternal life is knowing Him and the Father.

Satan wants you to be destroyed.

Jesus wants you to live.

Satan wants you to experience death.

Jesus wants you to experience life.

God puts our sins behind His back.

Psalm 103:11-12

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is HIs love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so does He remove our transgressions from us.

This verse describes what it means for God to put our sins behind His back. He removes them from us so that they are eternally not true of us.

God does not want sin in our lives because sin destroys us and brings death. Unconfessed sin equals death, eternal separation from God. God desires life, not death, for us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is bringing our sin and trespasses before God and having Him forgive us and remove our sin from us eternally.

Zephaniah 3:17

The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

God is with us and will do two very distinct things.

He will be a warrior for us.

In Exodus 14:14 we are told that God will fight for us.

When you look at Jesus on the cross, is there even a question that God will not fight for us? Jesus’ battled on the cross for our salvation.

But the second thing that Zephaniah 3:17 tells us about what God does seems very separated from God being a warrior. It says that God’s love will quiet us and rejoice over us with shouts of joy.

That seems far removed from being a warrior.

I have never fought a war or even a battle. I have played football. A football game is a kind of a battle. It is not a battle for life or death, but it is a struggle to reach a goal that requires effort and sacrifice. I know that after a difficult game that was physically demanding and that lead to a victory, our coach would get us quiet and commend us for our effort. He would rejoice over us.

When God, our warrior, fights for us and wins the victory, which He has done, He does a very strange thing. Instead of exalting Himself, He exalts us by giving us His victory.

The victory I experience is not my victory; it is Jesus’ victory.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is showing gratitude for the victory Jesus has won for us.

Jeremiah 31:3

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

God does not draw us to Himself by using fear or laying guilt trips on us. He draws us to Himself through loving-kindness. God uses mercy and grace to draw us to Himself.

Romans 2:4 tells us that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance.

Many times, we act as if our condemnation, our judgment will cause people to repent.

My experience is that condemnation and judgment move people to be defensive, not repentant. God’s Word says grace, not judgment, leads people to see the truth and turn to God.

Now to be honest, being condemning and judging is easier because it comes from our old nature. It comes from the old sin-dominated nature. Grace and mercy come from the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.  

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God’s kindness to lead me to repentance and giving out that same Spirit-based kindness to others.

Because God Is and Does, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                 Joe