Words of Grace

God has been directing my attention to the connection between the words I speak and grace.

Matthew 12:35-37

The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

I am not a person of grace by nature. I by nature don’t have a lot of mercy. That truth comes out for the most part in my words. In the Matthew passage, we are warned that God will hold us accountable for every careless word we speak. Careless words are words that are useless, barren, or idle. They are words that don’t produce positive spiritual fruit in our lives or in other’s lives.

Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear it.”

The oppose of careless words are words that build up. The thing that allows my words to be building up, words that produce positive spiritual fruit, and not careless words, words that don’t produce positive spiritual fruit, is grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing grace to produce words that build up, not careless words.

The result of careless words is condemnation of ourselves. Words that are careless reflect the ungrace in my own life. Words that are careless don’t help others to know Jesus and experience His grace or grow in grace to be more like Jesus.

When we condemn people, we speak careless words.

When we tell people they are worthless, we speak careless words.

When we lie to people, we speak careless words.

When we try to control people with our words, we speak careless words.

When we try to just win an argument, we speak careless words.

Grace allows our words to be words that give life.

In John 6:68 Peter says that Jesus has the words of eternal life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is speaking words that lead to eternal life.

When our words are careless, they grieve the Holy Spirit according to Ephesians 4:30. The Holy Spirit draws people to the person of Jesus. He testifies to the truth that Jesus is the one and only Son of God. When we speak careless words that don’t come from grace, that drives people away from Jesus and that brings great sorrow to the Holy Spirit.

Our words are not to be:

Bitter

Wrathful

Angry

Hate Filled

Slanderous

Colossians 4:6 says that our speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Careless words are not gracious.

Carless words are not seasoned with salt.

Careless words don’t allow us to, with godly wisdom, answer what others want to know (because they won’t dare to ask)

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is speaking words of grace that draw people to Jesus.

The struggle I had was how to allow God’s grace to do away with my careless words and replace them with words of grace that build up.

The answer I found was in Ephesians 4:32. It says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” The phrase “as God in Christ forgave you” spoke to me. God was saying to me that He had forgiven me even though I did not deserve it. God had forgiven me unconditionally. God had forgiven the second I asked (He had actually provided the means of my forgiveness before I asked). I didn’t have to beg Jesus to forgive me, I just had to ask. When I was reminded of how God had forgiven me, then how could I not forgive in the same way and how could I not speak words of life and grace to others? No person will ever sin against me to the depth that I have sinned against God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is speaking words of grace and forgiveness to others.

With Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                    Joe

Grace Makes Us Who We Really Are

C. S. Lewis was once passing through a room where they were discussing what was unique about Christianity. He stopped and said that was easy; it is grace.

Grace is what we as followers of Jesus have to share with the world. Jesus is grace. He dispensed grace to many kinds of people. He dispensed it to hungry people, sick people, hurting people, distraught people, prideful people, and clueless people.

It is by and through God’s grace we can know who are in Him and what He does in our lives to make us that.

We are confused. We see that in our culture today in how we are confused about what is right or wrong, in knowing our own gender, and in knowing what is true or fake.

In Isaiah 9:6 we are told that Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor. Jesus by His grace is our counselor and reveals to us what is right and what is truth.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is following Jesus’ counsel.

Many people face life feeling totally alone. They are lonely. They feel that no one is there for them and no one cares.

In Matthew 1:23 we are told that Jesus is Immanuel. Immanuel means God with us. When we have a relationship with Jesus, we are never alone. He is always with us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the presence of Jesus in our lives continually.

We come into the world lost and separate from God. We are born sinners.

In John 10:11 Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd. Jesus as the Good Shepherd goes and gets the lost sheep and brings them back to the flock. He then as the Good Shepherd provides and protects us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being part of a faith community with Jesus as our Good Shepherd caring for us.

We all face failure at some times in our lives. The truth is, the more you do in life the more you face failure. Failure does not have to be fatal. Failure does not have to define us.

In Job 19:25 Job knows he has a redeemer. Jesus is our Redeemer. Jesus through His death and resurrection has redeemed us, not just giving us eternal life but also redeeming us from a life with no purpose or meaning.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the fullness of life, eternal and in the here and now.

I meet people weekly who are desperate. They are desperate for love or peace or joy or hope. Some are desperate for essential material needs. We live in a time when many people are desperate.

In Genesis 22:14 Abraham names the place where God provided the ram to sacrifice in place of His son Isaac “The Lord Will Provide”, Jehovah Jireh. Jesus is our Provider. He provides what we need, when we need it.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on God to provide what we need, when we need it.

In Isaiah 9:6 Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. He brings peace between us and God the Father through His death on the cross.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experience peace with God because of what Jesus has done.

We come into the world totally helpless. We need someone to do everything for us. We grow to be more capable, but even having reached our full growth we are many times weak. We need a power outside human power to survive and succeed.

In Isaiah 9:6 Jesus is revealed as Mighty God. He is the all-powerful God who can do the impossible.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the power of God to do the impossible.

We are all broken people. We have hurts, wounds, and brokenness that need to be healed.

In Exodus 15:26 we are told that God is our healer. He heals us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He heals the whole person.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the healing of God in every area of lives.

The grace of God makes us:

Steadfast in Faith

In Relationship with God and Others

Found

Successful

Content

Peaceful

Strong

Healed and Fixed

In God’s Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                       Joe

Grace is Undeserved

Pictures of grace are all over the place. I have been intentionally looking for them in my daily life and finding more than I ever thought I would. Grace is also all through the Word of God, New Testament and Old. One of the greatest pictures of grace is found in 2 Samuel 9.

In verse 1 David wants to know if there is anyone in Saul’s family that he can show kindness or grace for Jonathan’s sake. David is asking if there is anyone in the family of Saul to whom he can demonstrate the same kind of grace.

David does not ask if there is anyone deserving or qualified or smart or powerful who I can show grace to so that they can help me. He simply is looking for anybody related to Saul that he can show grace to. This is an unconditional desire.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is desiring to share grace with anybody.

There is a son of Jonathan who is a cripple that is still alive.

Ziba seems to emphasis that Jonathan’s son was crippled. Yes, there is someone but he is a cripple and you really don’t need to bother with him.

In verse 4 David simply asks where he was. David does not care that he is crippled, he just wants to show him grace. David finds out that he is Lo-debar. Lo-debar means barren place. The young man was crippled and living in a barren place.

In 2 Samuel 9:5-7 David has the young man, Mephibosheth, brought to him. Mephibosheth falls face down before David and says, “Here is your servant!” David then tells him not to fear and that he will show him kindness for the sake of Mephibosheth’s father. He tells him that he will restore all the land of his grandfather and that he will eat at the king’s table.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is grace giving us the desire to release others from fear.

In verse 8 Mephibosheth asks what is your servant that David should show regard for a dead dog should as him. The term dead dog refers to a person who is worthless. Mephibosheth saw himself as a total worthless, valueless person.

Mephibosheth is an unknown, of no importance, and crippled. He is of no benefit to David or his kingdom. There is absolutely no reason David should care about him.

David is desiring to show grace to Mephibosheth not because who he is, but because of David’s relationship with his father, Jonathan.

In verses 9 and 10 David gives orders that Ziba and his sons are to work the land that David restored to Mephibosheth. Then David says that Mephibosheth will eat at his table, the king’s table.

Verses 11-13 tell that Ziba and his sons worked the land and that Mephibosheth ate at David’s tables as the king’s son.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is accepting God’s grace and living as a child of God.

Grace restores us to intimate fellowship with God.

Grace heals us from our brokenness.

Grace restores, heals and forgives us based on Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Grace works in us based on Jesus, not us.

Grace rescues us from a life of bareness and purposelessness to a life of spiritual nourishment and purpose.

Grace makes us God’s children.

Grace abounds more and more where sin is.

Grace makes us all equal in God’s sight.

Grace covers all our disabilities and limitations.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the fullness of God’s grace.

Romans 5:20

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded more. So that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through the righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.   

No matter the sin, the disability, the limitation, the fear, the hurt, or the doubt God’s grace overcomes.

In God’s Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                          Joe

Grace Leads to Compassion

One of the things that flows out of grace is compassion. Compassion is sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it. The word compassion in the New Testament means to be moved as to one’s bowels. The bowels were seen as the seat of love and pity.

In Matthew 14 Jesus is told about Herod executing John the Baptist. Jesus then withdraws to a desolate place. He is not doing this out of fear but Jesus is following the Father’s schedule and it was not time to die, so he withdrew to avoid any attempt of Herod to try and arrest Him.

In Matthew 14:13 it says that even when Jesus withdrew, the crowds followed Him.

Matthew 14:14 says when Jesus went ashore, He saw a great crowd and He had compassion on them. Then it says that He healed their sick.

Compassion that flows out of the grace of Jesus leads to healing.

Isaiah 53:5

But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought peace, and with His wounds we are healed.

Jesus’ compassion does not just feel bad about our illnesses, including sin, but He alleviates them. Jesus is not reluctant to heal our physical, emotional, and spiritual illnesses.

Jesus is the healer.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing healing through the grace of Jesus.

The crowd stays out in the desolate place with Jesus for many hours. Jesus’ compassion led Him to be concerned about them not having any food. When His disciples come to Him and tell Him to send the people away so they can get food, Jesus tells the disciples to give them something to eat.

The disciples’ response is that they don’t have enough food to even begin to feed all the people. Jesus tells the disciples to bring Him what food they have.

Jesus has the crowd sit down. He takes the five loaves and two fish and thanks the Father for them and then breaks the food and gives it to the disciples and the disciples distribute them to the crowd.

When the people had eaten and were satisfied, the disciples took up twelve basketfuls of leftovers.

Jesus feed five thousand men plus women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish.

Jesus’ compassion led Him to meet the people’s need for food.

Jesus is the provider.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the provision of Jesus through His grace.

Jesus’ grace is unlimited. No matter what healing is needed, Jesus can do it. No matter what the need is, Jesus can provide.

When Mary didn’t understand how she, a virgin, could conceive a child and when the disciples didn’t understand how it was hard, even impossible, for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus gave the same answer – With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Jesus’ grace gives us humanly impossible results.

Through Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

                                          Joe