In the Middle of the Storm

 

Many people have the idea that being a Christian, a person who not only believes that Jesus is God but who follows Him with all of their life, will never have storms in their life. That followers of Jesus will not have difficult times or struggles in their lives. They will never doubt God.

 

The truth is that, as followers of Jesus, we live in a fallen world and will face struggles, difficult times, grief, and doubt.

 

In John 16:33 Jesus tells us we will have troubles. He says, “In this world you will have troubles.”

 

We read about a storm that the Twelve faced and we read about what Jesus did for them in the midst of the storm.

 

Matthew 14:22-24

Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowds. And after He had dismissed the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.

 

Some storms come because we create them for ourselves.

 

We make ungodly decisions.

We listen to ungodly advice.

We desire ungodly things.

 

The storm that the Twelve find themselves is because they obeyed Jesus. Storms in our lives can come because of our obedience to Jesus.

 

The Twelve are in the storm because they obeyed what Jesus told them to do. The Twelve had to be asking some questions.

 

Why are we out here?

Where is Jesus?

Why is this happening?

Did we do something wrong?

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying God no matter where it leads.

 

Jesus, according to verse 23, was praying.

 

There is no indication that Jesus was doing anything else. He didn’t eat. He didn’t chat. He didn’t sleep. He prayed. Jesus was so intent in prayer that He persisted even though His robe was soaked and His hair was matted. After He’d served all day long (feeding the five thousand), He prayed all night. He felt the gale-force winds and the skin-stinging rain. He, too, was in the storm, but still He prayed.

 

Where is Jesus when we face our storms?

 

Romans 8:34

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

 

The word interceding in this verse is a very strong word. It means making specific requests or petitions before someone.

 

When we are in the middle of the storm Jesus is right where He was when the Twelve were in the storm, He is praying, interceding for us. Jesus is interceding, making requests to the Father for us.

 

Hebrews 7:25

Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

 

Jesus is continually making intercession for us.

 

Jesus intercedes in the good times.

Jesus intercedes in the bad times.

Jesus intercedes in the in-between times.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that Jesus is praying and interceding for us all the time.

 

If Jesus loves us and if Jesus is all powerful and if Jesus is Lord of my life, then shouldn’t my life be storm free?

 

If Jesus is praying for us, why did the storm even happen? Wouldn’t an interceding Jesus guarantee a storm-free life? Yes! That storm-free life will be inaugurated in the eternal kingdom of God that we will one day enter. Between now and then, since this is a fallen world and since the devil still stirs doubt and fear and temptation, we can count on storms. But we can also count on Jesus’ prayers and His presence in the storm.

 

Matthew 14:25

But in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea.

 

Matthew 14:32

And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

 

Jesus comes to the Twelve as they struggled in the storm. And after Peter walked on the water and then sank into sea, Jesus got him into the boat and stilled the storm.

 

The second part of John 16:33 says, “But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

 

Yes, we will face storms in this earthly life, but Jesus will show up and overcome the storm.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting that Jesus will show up and overcome every trouble we face.

 

So, when you and I face storms, we need to remember and trust that Jesus is praying for us, that He will show up for us, and overcome the storm.

 

With Jesus in the Storm Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                   Joe

Blessing and Being Blessed

 

I love Thanksgiving. It is a holiday that reminds me of a biblical concept. The concept of blessing.

 

There are over 200 references in scripture to bless or blessing or blessings. Not surprising that most of these references are in Psalms which is a book of praising God. It is also a book that tells us how God has blessed us.

 

Psalm 29:11

May the Lord give strength to His people! May the Lord bless His people with peace!

 

The word bless means to speak a word of care or grace over us. God’s blessings to us are God gifting us with things all coming to us because of His grace.

 

You and I have nothing that is good that is not a blessing from God and all of it is given by God to us because of His grace and mercy. What God has blessed us with is not because of anything we have done. We deserve nothing that God has blessed us with.

 

Raise the Roof and Removing the Walls is recognizing that God’s blessings to us are about Him and not us and come to us through God’s grace.

 

Thanksgiving is a built-in time in our cultural calendar that allows us to take out time from our life routine to give thanks to God for all the ways He has blessed us.

 

James 1:16-17

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

 

The gifts that flow out of God blessing us are good and they will continue to come from God because God does not change.

 

The God that blessed:

Abraham

Moses

David

Isaiah

Peter

John

James

Paul

is the same God who is now blessing us.

 

2 Corinthians 9:15

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!

 

The gifts that come from God blessing us are gifts that are so extraordinary that our words cannot express enough gratitude to God for them. We have to give God our lives to fully express our gratitude.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is expressing our gratitude to God for His blessings by giving Him our lives.

 

The Bible tells us about God’s blessings to us but the Bible also commands us to bless God.

 

Psalm 103:1

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

 

We are to bless God with all that we are and we are to bless His name, who He is.

 

Blessing God means speaking a word about God’s many attributes. It is recognizing the real blessing of God toward us is that we get to know God and experience His presence in our lives.

 

Psalm 34:1

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

 

I will bless God all the time.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

 

I will bless God in all circumstances.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is blessing God because of who He is and doing it all the times in all circumstances.

 

I am writing this to remind not only you but to remind myself that even in a year of extremely difficult circumstances that we have never experienced before, we still have reasons to bless God and celebrate Thanksgiving. The number one reason we can bless God and celebrate this Thanksgiving is Jesus. 

 

I pray that you have a thankful and joyful Thanksgiving and you will use it as a time to bless the Lord with all that you are.

 

Thankfully Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Building the Church the Jesus Way

 

I have lived through a lot of trends in growing the church. There was the church growth movement of the 80’s and early 90’s. There have been many different evangelistic efforts and programs. The latest in ways to grow the church is coming up with ways to market the church.

 

These all seem to me to go against the things that Jesus did as He proclaimed the gospel and ministered to people.

 

There are four times when Jesus told people not to tell others who He was or what He had done.

 

In Matthew 8:4 Jesus tells a leper who He had just healed not to tell anyone that he had been healed but to go show himself to the priest so he could be certified as healed.

 

In Matthew 16:20 Jesus strictly charges the disciples not to tell anyone that He is the Christ.

 

In Matthew 17:7 as Jesus, Peter, James and John are coming down from the mountain after Jesus had been transfigured, He tells them not to tell anyone what they had seen until He is raised from the dead.

 

In Mark 7:36 after Jesus had healed a deaf man, He charged the people who had seen Him do it not to tell anyone.

 

Jesus was unclear on how to market Himself.

Jesus was very clear on how to trust and obey the Father.

 

What does that mean for us as followers of Jesus in the present?

 

First, it means that we are not to flaunt our obedience.

 

Matthew 6:1

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

 

God wants us to obey Him because we trust and love Him. Our obedience is not done to impress others. Our obedience flows out of our gratitude to God for sending Jesus to be our sacrifice for our sin. It is done to please God, not people.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying God because it is what God wants and our obedience pleases Him.

 

Second, it means that God did not choose me because of how great I am.

 

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

For consider your calling, brothers; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

 

God does not love us because of us.

God did not choose us because of us.

God does not use us for His honor because of us.

 

God does all of these because of Him.

 

We, from the world’s perspective, are not wise. We are foolish, we are weak, and we are nothing. Yet God chose us to shame the world and to bring to nothing things that the world says are everything.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is boasting about Jesus, not ourselves or even our faith family.

 

Third, it means we are the servants but God is the power.

 

1 Corinthians 3:5-7

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

 

God is all powerful and any growth in the kingdom and in the church comes through God’s power, not our power or talent. We celebrate the growth as a gift from God and all about Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is giving all the credit to God for any growth that occurs in a church or ministry or our lives.

 

Fourth, it means we are not to grow weary in doing good because we know that we don’t labor in vain and God will give us a harvest when we don’t give up.

 

Galatians 6:9

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

 

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

 

Ministry is never easy but in our present covid-19 circumstances it has become even more difficult. The key is to continue to seek God and to continue to obey God. If we don’t give up, God will bring the harvest because we do not labor in vain. God will bless our enduring obedience.

 

It is not about you and me.

It is all about Jesus!

 

Exalting Jesus by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                         Joe

Going into the Unknown

 

The unknown is scary. We feel like and are being told that we are living in uncertain times. The truth is we are always living in uncertain times.

 

Look at what James says in James 4:13-14, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

We have never known what tomorrow holds but, given the time in which we are living, that reality has become much more real.

 

I am consistently getting offers for books or videos or courses that will help me navigate our church through the covid-19. I also get similar offers to help me know how to pastor our church after covid-19. The truth is no one has ever navigated a church through covid-19 and no on knows what the church will be like after covid-19. So, the truth is, no can tell us or even help us do what these claims offer. It is unknown

 

So, how are we to deal with life right now and how I am going to navigate our church through covid-19?

 

Hebrews 11:8

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going.

 

Abraham was going not knowing where he was going.

 

What was the basis of why he was going? – Faith.

What was the basis of where he was going? – Faith.

 

In Genesis 15:6 it says, “And he believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.”

 

Abraham faced the unknown by faith and God honored that faith and declared Abraham righteous.

 

So, what was the faith based on?

 

Genesis 12:1

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

 

The first thing that Abram did was that he listened to God.

 

When we face what we have never faced before, the truth is each day is an unknown. We may have thoughts and plans but we cannot know the future. But God is all knowing and He knows the future. We first, before anything and above everything, need to listen to God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is always being attentive to God’s voice.

 

Genesis 12:2-3

And I will bless you and make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

 

The second thing Abram did was that he believed what God said. He trusted the promises that God gave him.

 

Hebrews 11:1 defines what biblical faith is.

 

It is having the assurance of things hoped for.

It is having the conviction of things not seen.

 

Abram believed that God would:

Make him a great nation

Make his name great

Bless those who bless him

Curse those who dishonor him

Bless all the families of earth through him

 

Abram never in his life time saw the fulfillment of any of these promises, but he believed them because he believed God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing what God says and what He promises because you believe God.

 

Genesis 12:4

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

 

The third thing that Abram did was obey God.

 

Abram heard what God said.

Abram believed what God promised.

Abram obeyed God and did what God told him to do.

 

Abram was not a young man starting his adult life. He was seventy-five years old. He had a family and responsibilities. He did not use those as excuses. He obeyed God and packed up and left.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying what God says without using any excuses.

 

So, do we live in uncertain times? – Yes!

Are we moving every day into the unknown? – Yes!

 

I have never pastored a church in a pandemic before or dealt with online and live worship times. I have never done hybrid Bible studies. I have never ministered to two congregations (live and remote) before.

 

And you have never worked in a pandemic. You have never dealt with changing restrictions weekly. You have never had to try and educate your children in a covid-19 environment. You have never had to work and coordinate things remotely.

 

So, how are we going to do it? The same way Abram did.

 

We are going to be attentive to God’s voice, to listen to Him.

We are going to trust God’s promises, to really believe God.

We are going to do what God says, to obey Him.

 

When we do that, where are we going to be going? We will be going to the same place Abram was: to God’s presence and to God’s will.

 

With God into the Unknown Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                Joe

Engaging Others With Jesus

 

Question: How can Christians engage with those around us, while both respecting people whose beliefs differ from our own and still maintain our gospel confidence?

 

I believe that God has provided a way to deal with the pluralism. Pluralism is a condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles of authority coexist.

 

Too often, the fact of pluralism is obscured in this country with an idealized vision of “one nation, indivisible” and the pursuit of “a more perfect union.” But our actual existence is often characterized more by difference and disagreement than by unity.

 

The truth is that today we are divided by some deep and seemly irresolvable differences over things that matter to us.

 

God gives us three passages of scripture to enable us as followers of Jesus to engage with our culture, meaning the people, to show respect for their freedom to believe what they choose, but also to maintain a solid foundation on faith in Jesus and to boldly proclaim the gospel of God’s grace.

 

Ephesians 4:1-2

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.

 

The first thing God has provided is our calling to a relationship with Him through Jesus.

 

Our calling as followers of Jesus is not:

To make people believe what we believe

To win a theological argument

To establish what we believe is superior to what others believe

 

Our calling is to live to show the love relationship we have with God through Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in a daily relationship with Jesus.

The second thing God has provided is humility through the Holy Spirit.

 

Pride is something that will always separate us from God because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Pride always will lead us to exalt ourselves above others and create a wall between us and others. It is hard for people to hear and see Jesus in our lives when we are filled with arrogance. 

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living humbly before God and others.

 

The third thing God has provided is gentleness through the Holy Spirit.

 

The word gentleness is the word we get our word meekness from. It literally means strength under control. It means I don’t try to force people but I use the power of God’s Spirit in me to show the character of Jesus to others. It means I don’t demand my rights but give them up to meet the needs of others even when it means I have to sacrifice.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is relating to others with a gentle attitude that shows tolerance even when I disagree with a person.

 

The fourth thing God has provided is an ability to bear with others in love.

 

It is daily giving grace to others. When people struggle, we bear with them, even when it is something they have brought on themselves. It is not judging but loving others. It doesn’t mean endorsing their lifestyle or their decisions or their beliefs, but not condemning them or rejecting them because of what they believe or do.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is showing grace, not condemnation.

 

Hebrews 13:14

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

 

Philippians 3:20

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The fifth thing God has given is the knowledge that this world is not our home.

 

We are created with a desire for the eternal. We are to focus on eternity, not the temporary. Our home is our eternity with Jesus. If that is truly my focus, then I will know that God is in control and I will want others to know Him and experience the security of an eternity with Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living as a pilgrim who is just passing through this life to our real life.

 

The Christian calling is to be shaped and reshaped into people whose every thought and action is characterized by faith in Jesus, by hope because of Jesus, and the love of Jesus. And a people who speak and act in the world with humility, patience, and grace.

 

With Humility and Gentleness Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                    Joe