How o You View People?

 

How do you view people? Many base their view on physical appearance or social standing or financial standing or political affiliation or on spiritual beliefs.

 

How did Jesus view people?

 

John 3:16 tells us that God loved the world. World here is referring to the people, the people of the world.

 

So, Jesus loves us. He loves all humanity. He loves us regardless of our physical appearance or our social standing or our financial standing or our political affiliation or our spiritual beliefs. Jesus does not always agree with our beliefs or our life style but He loves us and wants a relationship with us.

 

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.”

 

Paul is saying that as followers of Jesus we don’t look at others from a human-based or worldly viewpoint. We look at them from a Jesus point of view.

 

In Luke 19:10 Jesus says that the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

 

In Matthew 9:13 Jesus says to the Jewish religious leaders that they need to learn what this means, “‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

Jesus loves us and that is why He goes out to seek and save the lost and to call sinners into a relationship with Him.    

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving the lost and the unrighteous and being one who Jesus uses to go and share His love and grace with others.

 

What do these lost and unrighteous people look like and how did Jesus reach out to them?

 

In John 4 Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman who had been married five times and was living with a man she was not married to. She was an outcast from her own community. Jesus does not condemn her but shares truth in love with her and leads her to faith in Him as the Savior.

 

Jesus lovingly shares truth with us to lead us into a relationship with Him as our Savior.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeing people as Jesus did and lovingly sharing truth with them to enable them to know Jesus as their Savior.

 

In Matthew 8:2 a leper comes to Jesus and asks Him to heal him if He is willing. In Matthew 8:3 Jesus says that He is willing and He touches the leper and heals him.

 

Jesus does not stand off from the lost and unrighteous but He enters into their lives and touches them.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is us being the hands and feet and voice and heart of Jesus and entering into the lives of others and touching them with Jesus’ love.

 

In John 9 Jesus encounters a blind man, the man blind from birth. The disciples wanted to discuss who had sinned that caused this man to be blind. Jesus does not enter their discussion; He just heals the man.

 

We all have been born with a bent toward sin or a nature that desires our will, not God’s will. Jesus shows He can and will change things that we’re born with. Jesus says in John 9:5 that He is the light of the world. He brought physical light into the blind man’s eyes. He brings the light of the truth of the gospel to our spiritual eyes.

 

Rise the Roof an Remove the Walls is allowing Jesus to bring the truth of the gospel into our lives and sharing that truth into other’s lives.

 

Jesus sees the lost and unrighteous as hurting, wounded, broken, and messy. We want to stay away from people like that, but Jesus wants to bring relief for the hurting; healing for the wounded; fixing for the broken; cleaning for the messy.

 

We need to be like Paul by not regarding anyone from a human-based viewpoint but seeing them from a Jesus viewpoint. We need to love them just as Jesus does and enter into life with them so we can show them the love and grace of God.

 

Jesus was different from His culture and viewed and treated people differently than His culture did. We need to be different like that, so that others can see Jesus in us.    

 

With a Jesus Point of View Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                Joe

A Chosen Race and a Holy Nation

 

Have you ever had the experience of reading a passage of scripture that you have read many times before but you read it one day and God speaks to you through it and reveals a truth that you had not seen before? Well, I had that experience again this week. I was reading 1 Peter 2:9 this week and God showed me something that I had not seen before.

 

1 Peter 2:9

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.

 

The things that God showed me were that we are God’s chosen race and His holy nation.

 

Those who Jesus has called out of darkness and into His light are His race and His nation. Jesus brings people from all human races, nations, cultures, and languages and unites them into a people that does not judge themselves or others by their race or ethnicity or nationality or culture or language. They don’t say these things don’t exist, but they don’t measure people by them. They see each other as part of the same family, the family of God.

 

What does this truth mean for me? What does this truth mean for us as God’s people?

 

It means that our focus needs to on Jesus.

 

Hebrews 12:2

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

We are not to fix our eyes on what is different or what could separate us but on what unites us. No matter our race or nation or culture Jesus loves us and went to the cross for us. So, the receiving of that truth makes us family.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is fixing our eyes on Jesus and letting His death on the cross unite us.

 

It means that God’s kingdom is what I am to seek.

 

Matthew 6:33

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

 

We are not to work for or seek to honor or to serve anyone but Jesus. That means the kingdom of God comes before my race or my nation or my culture. I see others who are followers of Jesus as part of the same kingdom that I am a part of and they are serving the same king, Jesus, that I am serving.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in community with other followers of Jesus, serving the kingdom of God and our King Jesus.

 

It means that my first love is Jesus and I will love others in the way I love myself.

 

Mark 12:32

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.

 

In 1 John 4:18 we are told that perfect love casts out fear. When I love God and that is the focus of my daily life, then it will cast out any fear, I have no fear of people who may look or speak differently than how I look and speak. It will cast out any suspicion that I might have of someone of a different culture.

 

When loving God with all that I am is my priority, that will lead me to love as He loves. Jesus loves us as we are, and when I let God’s love guide my life, then I will love others like Jesus loves others. And in John 13:35 Jesus says that it is our love for others that will mark us as His disciples.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving God with all that we are and allowing that love to empower us to really love others.

 

The time is now for the church, God’s community of faith, to show the world a new way. A way that does not measure the worth of a person by their race or ethnicity or language or nationality or culture but by the truth that God loves all His human creation and died for all of us and wants a relationship with all of us.

 

It is a way that loves others as Jesus loves us.

It is a way that forgives others as Jesus forgives us.

It is a way that unites God’s children and invites all people to come into a relationship with Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

 

In Unity with All God’s Children Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                       Joe

Why Not the Church?

 

There is a new movement in Christianity today, it is the movement of people who are Christians to check no preference when it come to religion. It doesn’t mean that they don’t believe in Jesus or even that they don’t have traditional belief in Christianity. It means that many people who identify as Christians don’t identify with the church.

 

Now, as a pastor I have to ask myself why. What about the church turns people who are Christians off? What about the church doesn’t appeal even to people who believe in Jesus as the Savior?

 

Now, please understand that I am part of the church. I have been part of the church since I was a baby. I went to Sunday School, Training Union (yeah, I am old), RA’s (they wouldn’t let me go to GA’s) and VBS. I have served a local church since 1975. So, I am not speaking as an outsider; I am speaking from the viewpoint of an insider.

 

In Luke 19:10 Jesus said that He came to seek and save the lost.

 

Jesus came to bring salvation to those who were lost. He came that by His life, death, and resurrection to bring spiritual life to people who are spiritually dead.

 

In Romans 3:23 Paul tells us that we are all sinners. We are either recovering or saved sinners or we are still sinners living in that sin.

 

In Romans 3:24 Paul tells us that we are justified by God’s grace as a gift through the redemption that comes through Jesus.

 

I believe that many of us in the church have forgotten where we came from and what the means of our salvation is. We have forgotten that before Jesus, we were lost sinners without any desire for God and no hope. We also have forgotten what our means of salvation is – Jesus. It was not because we’re good or could ever be good enough or ever do anything to deserve it. That is totally by the gift of God’s grace.

 

We then tend to see our mission as the church to go out and by our own effort and our own goodness make the Kingdom of God happen and make people do what we think they should do. Jesus says His mission was to take the truth of God to people and by His grace and love enable people to want to come to follow and serve God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Roof is following Jesus and yielding our lives to fulfill Jesus’ mission of lovingly seeking the lost.

 

In Matthew 9:13 Jesus says to the religious leaders, when they questioned why He ate with tax collectors and sinners, that He didn’t come to call the righteous (those that thought that by their own effort they were righteous), but the sinners (those that knew they were not naturally righteous).

 

Many of us in the church are not where Jesus was in the world with people who need Jesus. We want to stay away from the unrighteous, whereas Jesus was out and among the unrighteous daily. The church is to be a group of people who are broken, wounded, hurting, messy people coming to receive acceptance and finding healing. We are not to be a group of people who make people feel judged and condemned.

 

We see how Jesus dealt with the unrighteous, the woman at the well and the woman brought to Him who had been caught in adultery and Zacchaeus.

 

He was honest with them.

He loved them.

He accepted them.

 

The result was that these people were transformed and received the gift of salvation.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being honest, loving, and accepting to all people.

 

In Galatians 5:22-23 Paul lists the nine flavors of the Fruit of the Spirit. They are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

 

These are the characteristics that are to define our lives as being Holy Spirit filled followers of Jesus.

 

I have heard many in the church be critical of restrictions on the church.

 

Restrictions like:

Not being able to pray in schools

Not being able to refer to God in public events

Being critical of public figure mentioning God

Not treating the church with special respect or not giving the church special treatment

 

I agree that we are seeing growing restrictions on what the church can do and where the church can do it.

 

But let me ask a question. Are there any laws or any restrictions on being loving or being a joyful person or being a person of peace or being patient or being kind or treating others with goodness or being faithful in what you say or the promises you make or being gentle or exercising self-control?

 

No, there is no law against any of these things. Paul says against such there is no law. Even in the countries where the most severe restriction against the Christian church exists there are no laws against who we are to be in Jesus.

 

If we, the church, would just live out the reality of Jesus in our lives as the Holy Spirit enables us, then others would see Jesus and be drawn to Him and His family, the church.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is showing Jesus to the world through how we live daily.

 

Maybe people are not wanting to be part of the church because the church does want to be a part of their lives.

 

With Jesus, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                         Joe

Finishing Strong

 

Monday, June 7 will mark 46 years in ministry for me. I walked into the office of First Baptist Church in Archer City, Texas and began a journey that took me to south Louisiana and to four areas in the state of New Mexico. It has been an adventurous journey, at times filled with great joy and other times great sadness. No, I am not retiring tomorrow or next week or next month, but it is closer and I think about it more now than in June of 1975. So, as we grow older and life changes, what should be our goal?

 

In 2011 Billy Graham wrote a book called Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well. The last of those caught my attention. My goal is to finish well, to finish as strong as I started this journey.

 

I love God’s Word and believe that the Bible is God’s Word. I believe that we are to look to the Bible as the authority for all that we believe and do. So, I looked to the Bible to enable me to know how to finish strong. I found in the Bible a model for how I want to finish.

 

Joshua 14:6-12

Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-Barnea concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord your God.’ And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as He said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.”

 

I believe that is what finishing strong looks like.

 

Remaining strong in believing God’s Word.

I want to believe God and obey Him till I go be with Him. I want the Bible to determine what I do, not feelings or circumstances but what God says.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing and doing God’s Word.

 

Remaining strong in my passion for God’s will.

 

I want to continue to have a passion to share Jesus with others. I don’t want to win an argument or win a debate or force what I believe on others. I want to show others who Jesus is and to show His love for them and have them come to love and follow Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is doing God’s will

 

Remaining strong to be in a spiritual battle.

 

I believe that the strongest spiritual weapon we have is prayer. I want to be a prayer warrior. I know there will come a time when physically I won’t have the energy to do what I have done ministry wise in the past, but prayer is power and I can continue to join with Jesus through prayer.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing you are in a spiritual battle and using the spiritual weapons that God has given us.

 

Remaining strong in letting God direct me to new things.

 

Our walk with Jesus is not to be reckless, but is to be risky. God talks a lot in His Word about new. I never want to rest in my comfort zone but always be open for God to do a new thing in me and through me.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting God move us into new things.

 

Remaining strong in being young.

 

I know that chronologically I will age. I know that my body with lose strength and vigor, but I never want to grow old in my spirit or old in my mind or old in my desire for God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being renewed in our spirits every day.  

 

I started with a passion and a faith that Jesus is the answer for my life and the lives of broken and hurting people everywhere, and I want to finish with that same passion and faith.

 

Remaining Strong by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                              Joe