Life

 

In Genesis 2 the creation of humans is described. Verse 7 says, “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

 

God gives life to humans.

 

In John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Jesus came to give us abundant life.

 

The word used in John 10:10 is the Greek word zoe. It means a life that is animated and filled with vitality. It is life that is real and genuine. It is living, not just surviving.

 

We live in a lake resort town. There may be as many boats, jet skis and ATVs as cars. So, the last year has been very hard on the economic health of our community. It also has been hard on the emotional health of our community. Friday morning and Saturday morning my wife and I went for our daily walks. We went in the morning before the New Mexico wind comes up. In the last year when we went walking, we saw few cars and few people at the businesses. But on these two mornings there was a lot of traffic and many people at the businesses getting things to head out to the lake. We saw a lot of smiles as we went about town and that is something we have not seen for over a year.

 

What we have experienced over the last fifteen months has been surviving, not living. Humans were created by God to live, not just survive.

 

We need love to live.

 

Jeremiah 31:3 say, “The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued My faithfulness to you.”

 

We need to know that God loves us and that His love is eternal and that His love will never go away or even diminish. God loves us to the max all the time. We also need to know that His love for us is not based on how we perform. His love for us is based on the reality that He loves us. It is about Him, not us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing and experiencing God’s unconditional love.

 

We need purpose.

 

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

 

God has a purpose for each of us. God created us for a life of purpose, a purpose that is for our good and to give us a future of hope.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is to experience and live out God’s purpose for your life.

 

We need peace.

 

In John 20:19 the first time Jesus appears to the disciples after His resurrection He says to them, “Peace be with you.”

 

Jesus knew that what the disciples needed at that point was peace and so He gives them peace.

 

In John 14:27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

 

The peace that Jesus gives is not based on circumstances but on Him and on His faithfulness to fulfill all of His promises.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not living fearfully but living with the reality of God’s peace.

 

We need joy.

 

Joy is really living with the assurance of God’s steadfast love, living fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives, and knowing the peace of God because we have a relationship with Jesus.

 

Joy is not based on our circumstances but on the presence of God’s love and God’s purpose and God’s peace.

Joy will be experienced by having Jesus first in your life and others second and yourself third – JOY.

 

God created you and me to live, not just survive.

 

May you know God’s love.

May you know God’s purpose.

May you know God’s peace.

May you know God’s joy.

May you know the zoe of God and really live.

 

Living in Jesus and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                          Joe

Salt

 

Matthew 5:13

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

 

Mark 9:50

Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourself, and be at peace with one another.

 

Salt has three main purposes.

 

Salt flavors. It mixes with the other ingredients and enhances the flavors. It makes things taste better.

 

We as salt are to flavor others.

 

Colossians 4:6

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

 

Our lives and speech are to be flavored with Jesus. We are to show people though our words and actions Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being a Jesus flavor to the world.

 

Salt purifies and heals.

 

Salt helps to remove impurities from a wound and speeds up healing.

 

In 2 Kings 2 the men of Jericho come to Elisha and tell him that the water in the town is bad. Elisha has them bring him a bowl of salt and he puts in the spring that is the city’s water supply.

 

In verse 21 Elisha says, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed the water; from now on neither death or miscarriage shall come from it.”

 

We as followers of Jesus are to be healing agents in people’s lives. The church is to bring healing into people’s lives through Jesus. We are told in Isaiah 53:5 that by Jesus’ wounds we are healed. Jesus brings physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. We are to be available to Jesus so He can use us to bring healing to people.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about experiencing healing from Jesus and helping others to heal.

 

Salt makes things grow.

 

Salt is used as fertilizer. Fertilizer is made up of salts which contain ions of ammonium, nitrate, phosphate, magnesium, and sulfate. These are all nutrients that plants need. When they are added to soil in reasonable amounts, they provide food that plants need.

 

We are to be people that help other people to grow in their relationship and service to Jesus.  

 

Raise the Roof an Remove the Walls is helping others to grow.

 

Salt cannot lose its saltness, but the purity of salt varies. Salt harvested from the Dead Sea, in particular, grows increasingly stale because of impurities. If the salt is mixed with too many other minerals, the taste will become so diluted it will be useless. The follower of Jesus risks this pollution when we allow the values of the world, like love of authority and power and position to influence us. Those values suppress the purity of who we are to be as followers of Jesus.

 

Another way to interpret this remark about losing its saltness is to look at the purposes of salt, the defining characteristic of salt. If something so crucial to its identity can be lost, how can it ever be restored? This suggests a need for followers of Jesus to treat our role in the kingdom of God as essential and not optional.

 

In the Mark 9:50 passage Jesus indicates that us being salt results in peace. When we are the hands and feet of Jesus that bring healing, not more woundedness, into people’s lives, we help people to grow in experiencing the reality of Jesus. We will be agents of peace by helping people experience the peace of Jesus.

 

1 Peter 1:22-23

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.

 

We are to be pure salt, purified by our obedience to God’s word. We will flavor others, help others to heal, and help others grow.

 

Being Salt and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                        Joe

Why?

 

Why? This is a question that we hear from children a lot. It is a question that, if I am honest, is a question that I voice to God a lot. I don’t ask it in a demanding or disrespectful way but there are times I just don’t understand.

 

In John 9:2 the disciples ask Jesus a question. They ask who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? They were really asking why is this man blind.

 

Jesus answers in verse 3. He says, “It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

 

Jesus is saying the man’s blindness is not the result of anyone’s sin but so that God’s power might be displayed.

 

Isaiah 55:8-9

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

 

The reason we don’t always understand God and ask why is because God’s ways are not like our ways. God doesn’t always do it in the way that we would do it. The reason is that God does not think the way we think. God is infinite and we are finite. God’s thoughts are thus infinite.

 

God knows all and is not bound by time or space. We don’t know all and are bound by time and space. That makes God’s ways and thoughts higher than ours.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that God is infinite and we are not, and that makes God’s ways and thoughts higher than ours.

 

That then leads to what naturally flows from that truth. It is found in Isaiah 55:10-11.

 

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

 

God’s word is like rain and snow that come and water the earth and make things grow and produce food for people, which is the purpose of the rain and snow. God’s word always fulfills the purpose for which He gives it.

 

It produces:

Spiritual Growth

Hope

Faith

Encouragement

Confrontation

Conviction

Truth

Salvation

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God’s word through the power of the Holy Spirit to impact and transform our lives.

 

God’s word can do that because of who God is:

All-Powerful

All-Knowing

Ever-Present

Infinite

Not Being Bound by Time and Space

 

The result of God being higher than us and His word being able to accomplish what God wants is found in Isaiah 55:12

 

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth in singing, that all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

 

Nature will celebrate because God the Creator’s word is accomplishing His desire for all of nature.

 

God’s people will experience joy and peace.

 

God’s will is to redeem all creation, including humans. Then creation will experience celebration and God’s people will experience joy and live in[JB1]  peace.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is, by knowing God as our answer to why, to experience joy and live in peace. 

 

The answer, when we ask God why, is God Himself and the truth He reveals in His word. We have to believe and obey.

 

God as Our Answer in Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                              Joe

---

 [JB1]

Unique Relationship

 

I love the fact that when we as disciples of Jesus have a relationship with Him, it is unique. It is not one size fits all. My relationship with Jesus’ is not exactly like your relationship with Him. And because it is a relationship, it is not like anyone else’s relationship with Jesus. So, there are things in my relationship with Jesus that are unique to Him and me.

 

One of the things that Jesus has shown me is that being wealthy is not part of His plan for me. If I had a lot of worldly wealth, I would not depend on Jesus like He desires me to. It is not wrong to be wealthy and in fact I have known people that Jesus’ plan for them was to be wealthy because they knew how to use it for His kingdom.

 

Another thing that Jesus has shown me is that I am not to own a gun. Now, there is nothing wrong with a person owning a gun. The fact is that our U.S. Constitution guarantees each citizen the right to own a gun if they desire to. I believe that is a right that we should guard. But even though I know how to use a gun, Jesus has shown me that His will for me is not to own a gun. I would depend on that gun for my family’s security and protection instead of depending on Jesus.

 

One of my big struggles is depending on things other than Jesus.

 

The passages I use to remind me to depend on God for my provision and not on worldly wealth:

 

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

 

Luke 12:20-21

But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

 

Material wealth tempts me to look to it for my provision and financial security and wellbeing. These two passages remind me to focus on building God’s kingdom and spiritual wealth instead of building my kingdom and acquiring material wealth.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove Walls is focusing on God’s kingdom and having wealth in a relationship with Jesus.

 

The passages I use to remind me to depend on Jesus for my protection and security:

 

Isaiah 52:12

For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

 

Isaiah 54:16-17

Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created a ravager to destroy; no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from Me, declares the Lord.

 

2 Corinthians 10:3-4

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not of the flesh. We are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

 

When we follow Jesus, we are promised that He will go before us and guard us from the rear also. We are also promised that no weapon will succeed against us and we will have powerful weapon that are not of the flesh but will be able to destroy spiritual strongholds.

 

I am tempted to look to and depend on things other than Jesus to protect me and my family and give us security. So, I focus on Jesus and His protection of me and my family and depend on the spiritual weapons He has given me.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending on Jesus for my protection and using the powerful spiritual weapons that He has given me.

 

We all share some things in common in our relationship with Jesus but we all have a unique relationship with Him.

 

Uniquely in Relationship with Jesus,

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

God Sees You

 

In the movie Avatar there is a phrase that is repeated several times throughout the movie. The phrase is, “I see you.”

 

That is such an important concept. We as humans need to be seen and heard. When we don’t feel that we are being seen and heard we feel we are unimportant, we feel like we are not appreciated and thus not valued. It many times causes people to react with anger.

 

God, since He is our Creator, knows this about us as humans.

 

1 Chronicles 28:9

“And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve Him with your whole heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek Him, you will find Him. But if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.”

 

God knows us completely and He sees us.

 

Job 34:21

“For God watches how people live, He sees everything they do.”

 

God watches us, He sees us and everything we do.

 

God sees us, He knows us intimately, and He knows everything we do.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that God is all knowing and He knows us and sees everything that is a part of our lives.

 

In God knowing us and seeing everything we do, what is His response to us?

 

Jeremiah 31:3

“The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued My faithfulness to you.”

 

God’s response to us, knowing everything about us, is, “I love you with a love that will never go away or even fade.” God loves us to the max all the time, all the time knowing us completely.

 

God sees us and loves us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that God knows me and knowing that He still loves me.

 

We see how that works in real life in Genesis 16 in the life of Hagar.

 

Hagar was the servant of Sarai. Sarai comes up with the brilliant idea that Abraham could father a child through Hagar and that would fulfill God’s promise of Abraham having a male heir. Abraham agrees and Hagar becomes pregnant.

 

Genesis 16:7-14

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” Therefore the well was called Ber-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

 

Here is Hagar in the middle of the desert. She is alone and isolated and she has no place to go. God speaks to her and tells her that He knows her and He knows her condition. Hagar is not a believer. But God still knows her and lets her know that He has got her and will provide for her.

 

Hagar experiences the presence of God and says that He is the God who sees and she names the well The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that God sees us and, in seeing us, God will provide for us.

 

We live in a nation where most of us don’t feel that we are being heard. We don’t believe that anyone sees us.

 

I want to challenge us as the church to see people. Jesus didn’t react to people’s sin by condemning them and rejecting them. He reached out to all people. He let people know that He came for the lost, the sinner, and the unrighteous. He showed them that He saw them. Let us be like Jesus and not label people and reject them, but really see them and reach out to them so they can see Jesus.

 

Remember God sees you and loves you.

 

Seeing People with Jesus and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                  Joe