Christmas is Jesus

 

Christmas is a celebration of the coming of Jesus as our Savior and Lord. I found an acrostic of Christmas that I think reflects who Jesus is and why we should celebrate Him, not just at Christmas but all the time.

 

Creator – John 1:3: All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

 

Holy One – John 6:69: And we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.

 

Redeemer – Galatians 4:5: To redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoptions as sons.

 

Immanuel – Matthew 1:23: Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel (which means, God with us).

 

Savior – Luke 2:11: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

 

Truth – John 14:6: Jesus said to him,” I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

 

Messiah – John 1:41: He first found his own brother Simon and to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means the Christ).

 

Alpha and Omega – Revelation 1:8: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Lord Almighty.”

 

Son of God – Matthew 14:33: And those in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

 

Christmas is not about gifts or decorations or food or gatherings or family.

 

Christmas is about Jesus who is the:

Creator

Holy One

Redeemer

Immanuel

Savior

Truth

Messiah

Alpha and Omega

Son of God

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about knowing Jesus in all of His fullness and experiencing Him in your life every day.

 

This Sunday marks my last day as a fulltime pastor. When I was nineteen years old God gave me a dream to serve Him by serving His church and He has faithfully enabled me to do that. He has protected and provided for Jan and me over all these years and I give Him praise for that.

 

I will still be writing this devotion every week and doing a weekly Facebook post every Tuesday beginning on January 3. I have been writing this devotion since January, 2011. I pray that this devotion has impacted your life by drawing you closer to Jesus and I pray that it will continue to do that.

 

May you have a great Christmas and a new year filled with the person of Jesus.

 

In Jesus, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Jesus is the Living Word

 

We are familiar with the story of the birth of Jesus as recorded in Matthew and Luke. In these two gospels we are given two different perspectives of Jesus’ birth. But in the gospel of John, we are given a third perspective, one in which John reveals to us Jesus as God in the flesh.

 

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 

John establishes that the Word, Jesus, was not just with God in the beginning, but that He is God from the beginning.

 

This means that Jesus is not just a godly man or a great spiritual teacher or a prophet. Jesus is God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging and receiving Jesus as who He really is – God.

 

John 1:4

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

 

Jesus is life.

 

Paul says in Colossians 3:4 that Jesus is our life.

Jesus says in John 14:6 that He is the life.

 

Jesus is life means:

He is the source of our life both physical and spiritual.

Our every day lives are to be lived with Jesus as our Lord.

Our lives are to manifest Jesus to the world.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living everyday with Jesus as our life.

 

Jesus is light.

 

In 1 John 1:7 we are told that we are to walk in the light as Jesus is in the light. When we do that, we experience fellowship with other believers, and we are cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus.

 

In John 8:12 Jesus says that He is the light of the world.

 

Jesus as the light of the world means that He will illuminate our lives so we can see where we are going and be able to avoid falling into sin. He as the light gives warmth to us. He will be our peace.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in a relationship with Jesus so that He is our life and light.

 

John 1:14

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son, from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

Jesus is God in the flesh, and He is characterized by grace and truth.

 

Jesus is grace. He does not give us what we deserve because of our sin, but He gives us more than we deserve - forgiveness and eternal life. He does this as a free gift, not because we deserve it or could ever earn it.

 

Jesus is truth.

 

Jesus never lies.

Jesus always fulfills what He says He will do.

Jesus never leads us to wrong or harm.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing that Jesus is God in the flesh and that He is the truth and that He offers us forgiveness and eternal by His grace and not by our works.

 

Before I close this devotion, I want to share with you that on December 31 I will retire from full time pastoring. I will not be retiring from serving Jesus. I will continue to write these devotions. If anyone you know wants to receive the devotions, just have them send me their email address. They can also just go the Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls blog and all of the devotions are there. I also do a Facebook video teaching Monday morning through Thursday morning at 8:00. Beginning in January 1 will be doing the Facebook on Monday mornings at 8:00 on Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls Facebook page and on my personal Facebook page, Joe Byers. I pray that both the devotions and the Facebook teachings with be used by Jesus to help and encourage others.

 

With Jesus as the Word, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Christmas and the Church

 

When we read the story of the coming of Jesus, what does it teach us as the church?

 

Luke 2:12 says, “And this will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

 

Jesus was God in the flesh. He came as a human. In Jesus, God identifies with us as His human creation.

 

We as the church need to identify and connect with those who are lost and separated from God. God took the initiative to come to us as humans. Some of the last words that Jesus speaks to His followers were, “Go make disciples.” Just as God came to us, we need to go to the world with the truth of the gospel.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is going to people, not demanding they come to us.

 

Jesus came to ordinary parents and was born in a barn.

 

The church needs to be ordinary people serving and empowered by an extraordinary God. God does not demand that we as His church be extraordinary but to be filled with the Holy Spirit and manifesting the presence of an extraordinary God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting the extraordinariness of Jesus be seen in our lives as ordinary people.

 

Luke 2:8-11

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

 

The first people that Jesus’ coming was announced to were the shepherds. They were considered sinners by the religious establishment of that day. Jesus at the very beginning came for sinners.

 

The church is not for righteous (self-righteous) but for sinners (people who know they are sinners and have turned their lives over to Jesus). The church is made upon of redeemed sinners and not perfect self-righteous people.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging our sin and our sinfulness and trusting Jesus for forgiveness and cleansing.

 

The angels tell the shepherds not to be afraid because they were afraid of what they were seeing and hearing. God knew how broken humans were and still are, and He sent us a Savior.

 

The church must understand the brokenness of the world and proclaim the only solution to our brokenness is Jesus. Jesus is not just the reason for the season. Jesus is for everything, all the time, everywhere. Jesus is the message we as His followers have to proclaim.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is proclaiming Jesus as the solution to the brokenness of the world.

 

The angels proclaim Jesus as Lord.

 

Jesus must be the sole ruling authority of the church. Jesus being Lord means that He is the supreme and sovereign ruler of everything. He is the Lord for our benefit, not for our harm. Jesus is Lord and He is for us, not against us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting Jesus be Lord of His church and proclaiming Him as the Lord who is for us.

 

Jesus came into the world to transform ordinary people who were sinful and broken into people who became God’s family and manifested His presence to the world.

 

I pray that during this season when we celebrate Immanuel, God with us, we as His church will manifest Him to the world that He came to save.

 

As the Church of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Grace is More

In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Jesus tells Paul that His grace is sufficient for what Paul is facing.

 

I for years I thought of grace as only something that God used to provide salvation, but as I grow older, I understand that grace is how Jesus relates to us all the time.

 

2 Corinthians 9:8

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

 

It was by God’s grace that my family moved from Mississippi to Texas so that He could connect me with Jan. The good work was providing each of us with a partner for life to enrich us to do the work that He had called us to do with Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God’s grace to bring people into your life to love you and enrich your life.

 

Galatians 1:15

But when He who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by His grace…

 

God has given me the privilege to serve Him by serving His church for forty-seven years. I cannot think of a better way to spend my life than by serving God’s family. God’s grace has also been seen in God providing for me and my family through the church all those years. God’s family has provided for us materially, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually and this was all a manifestation of His grace.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God through His grace to provide all that we need.

 

Colossians 1:6

Which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing – as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

 

God’s grace allows us to produce fruit. It has been my great privilege to be used by God to help people come to know Jesus as the Savior and Lord of their lives. God has chosen to use me to proclaim His word and by His grace to enable people to grow in their relationship with Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is by God’s grace to produce godly fruit in and through our lives.

 

2 Thessalonians 2:16

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace.

 

God by His grace has brought comfort to me over losses in my life. The loss of parents, the loss of my sister, and the lost of many brothers and sisters in Jesus over the years. God’s grace has brought hope when I had lost hope. When I have thought about giving up, God by His grace has renewed my hope and been my strength to keep on keeping on.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is looking to the grace of God to comfort us over losses and to renew our hope when we face difficult circumstances.

 

1 Timothy 1:14

And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

 

God’s grace has provided my life with people over the years who have believed in me and loved me even when I was unlovable. God in his grace has continued to love me and have faith in me and never given up on me.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is looking to God’s grace to experience God’s love for me and the love of God’s people in my life.

 

Hebrews 4:16

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

God’s grace has given the confidence to share everything in my life with Jesus and know that I would not receive condemnation but mercy and grace to help me and provide me with what I needed.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God’s grace to give me confidence in Jesus to give me all I need for life and godliness.

 

2 Peter 3:18

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

 

By the Grace of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe 

Overcoming Tribulations in Serving Jesus

 

When we serve God, it is not always going to be fun or comfortable or glamorous. It is many times difficult and uncomfortable and laborious.

 

John writes in Revelation 1:9, “I, John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”

 

John experienced tribulation as he worked to build God’s kingdom. He had to have patient endurance because he had been exiled to the island of Patmos because he was proclaiming the word of God and testifying about Jesus as the Son of God.

 

How do we have patient endurance in the face of tribulation because we are serving God and proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God?

 

Matthew 14:28-30

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to You on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

 

Focus on Jesus not the problem or the difficult situation.

 

If we focus on the problem or the situation, then it becomes all that we see. If we focus on Jesus, then He is who we see.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not focusing on the difficult situation that you are facing but focusing on Jesus.

 

Revelation 1:12-13

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

 

Change your perspective.

 

John was facing one way and heard a voice and turned and saw the awesome image of Jesus among the seven lampstands. When we are looking at a situation in one way and Jesus calls out to us, we must turn and look at it from His perspective.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is changing our perspective to see things through Jesus’ perspective.

 

Matthew 10:30

But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

 

Jesus knows you.

 

Jesus knows everything about us, and He knows when we are struggling with difficult situations. He knows when we want to quit and give up. He faced every temptation and every struggle that we face, and He overcame them all and will give us victory over them.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting Jesus because we know that Jesus knows us intimately and loves us.

 

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.

 

Take our eyes off people and put them on Jesus.   

 

When we look to or depend on people instead of Jesus, we will get disappointed. If we make a habit of depending on people instead of Jesus, we become frustrated and angry. When we depend on Jesus, we will experience peace and joy.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is always depending on Jesus and not looking to people to complete us.

 

Luke 1:37

For nothing will be impossible with God.

 

When Jesus is present anything can happen.

 

Jesus healed people of many different illnesses.

Jesus fed multitudes of people with truly little food.

Jesus stilled storms.

Jesus raised people from the dead.

 

Jesus is the God of the Possible, no matter what.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing Jesus can and will do what seems to be to us as humans impossible.

 

Serving God will never be easy in a fallen world but serving God can be possible and fulfilling as we trust God and obey Him.

 

In Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

How You View Yourself

 

I did a memorial service this past week for an old friend who was part of the faith family that I pastored in another community. He was a very unique individual. But the one thing that always impressed me about him was that he had a servant heart and he served others without desiring recognition. So, how do the writers of the letters in the New Testament describe themselves in the introduction to their letters?

 

Romans 1:1-7

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

What Paul Says About Himself:

 

He is a servant.

 

The word that Paul uses translated servant is the word doulos which means bondservant. This is a person who has a debt to pay and is serving another person because of that debt. Paul owed a sin debt and Jesus paid it, so Paul is committed to Jesus to serve Him.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is, because of the debt Jesus paid for us, serving Him with all of life.

 

He is an apostle.

 

Now we are not apostles in the same way that Paul or Peter or John or James were apostles. But we are called to be apostles because that word means one sent with a message. We as followers of Jesus are called to go with the gospel. We have the message that, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can experience salvation.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is going out into the world and sharing the gospel that, in Jesus, people can experience salvation.

 

He had received grace from Jesus.

 

Grace is God’s undeserved and unearned favor on us and love for us. Grace means that it is not because we are good, but because God is good that we can have a love relationship with Him. Grace means that I am saved, and my sins are forgiven because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living based on the grace of God and not our resources or our credentials.

 

Notice also in Paul’s introduction that he spends part of one verse talking about who he is and about four to five verses talking about who Jesus is.

 

In 1 Corinthians 1:31 Paul writes, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

 

Our lives are to boast about Jesus, not ourselves.

Our lives are to proclaim the goodness of God, not our goodness.

Our lives are to demonstrate God’s sufficiency, not our sufficiency.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is focusing our lives on Jesus and showing forth His greatness.

 

Paul ends his introduction by pointing out to the believers in Rome that they are loved by God and called to be saints, disciples of Jesus, and praying that they will experience God’s grace and peace.

 

We must know all the time that God loves us and that He has called us into a relationship with Jesus and that, through our relationship with Jesus, we will experience first God’s grace, and through God’s grace we will experience God’s peace.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God’s love and through God’s love experiencing God’s grace and through experiencing God’s grace experiencing God’s peace.

 

Because of Who We Are in Jesus

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Who Do You Trust In?

 

What do you really trust in and depend on? That is a question I constantly ask myself as I face different circumstances in life.

 

In Psalm 44 God reveals to us some things that we must not depend on. God also reveals who we are to depend on and why.

 

Psalm 44:1-8

O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds You performed in their days, in the days of old; You with Your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free; for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their arms save them, but by Your right hand and Your arm, and the light of your face, for You delighted in them. You are my king, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob! Through You we push down our foes; through Your name we trend down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But You have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to Your name forever.

 

First, the psalmist reminds God’s people what God had done in the past. God drove the nations out and planted His people in the land. God afflicted the nations, but He set His people free.

 

God relates to us with grace. God’s people were not perfect, but they were God’s people, so He drove out and afflicted their enemies and planted His people in freedom in the land.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that God blesses us through His grace, not our deserving it.

 

Second, the psalmist also reminds God’s people what did not planted them in the land or set them free. They did not do it by sword or by their own arm. They did not drive out their enemies with their military might and they did not cause the enemies affliction by their human effort.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is learning to not depend on ourselves but to depend on God and His power and authority.

 

Thirdly, the psalmist reveals how God did it.

God did it by His right hand, by His authority because of who He is, Lord.

God did it by His right arm, by His power because of who He is, God Almighty.

God did it by the light of His face, His grace because of who He is, the God of all grace and mercy.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is, through God’s grace, experiencing the fullness of God, His power and authority in and through our lives.

 

Fourth, the psalmist reveals who God is.

 

God is the King.

God is the only source of our salvation.

God is the source of victory over our foe, Satan.

God is our defender and the One who puts those who oppose us to shame.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing God about who God says He really is.

 

Fifthly, the psalmist again reminds God’s people it was not by their bow or sword that they were saved, and so they were not to trust in who they were or what they could but to trust in who God is and what He can do.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not trusting ourselves or anything that is earthly or human based but trusting God with everything in our lives.

 

And lastly the psalmist tells us how we are to respond to the truths that God has revealed.

 

We are to boast continually about who God is and what He has done.

We are to give thanks to God eternally about who God is.

 

Raise the Roof and Removing the Walls is boasting about who God is and thanking God for what He has done.

 

Our only hope for ourselves, our families, our nation and the world is God’s grace.

 

Trusting in God Only and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

What Jesus Says About Love

 

What is the strongest force in all creation?

 

God? No, God is a person not a force.

Sin? No, through Jesus’ death and resurrection sin is overcome.

Darkness? No, light overcome darkness.

 

Love is the strongest force in all creation.

 

What does Jesus say about how we are to love God?

 

Mark 12:30

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.

 

We are to love God with all of who we are and all we possess, our will, our emotions, our intellect, and our bodies. There is nothing about us that should not love God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving God with all that we are and all we have.

 

How do we demonstrate our love for God?

 

John 14:23-24

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

 

We show God that we love Him by obeying His word. God’s word is the Bible and God’s word is true.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying God’s word and thus showing that we really love Him.

 

What does Jesus say about God loving us?

 

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God loves every person who has ever lived and who will ever live. And according to Romans 8:38-39 nothing can change that.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving God’s love for us through establishing a relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior.

 

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

 

Jesus laid down His perfect, righteous, and sinless life for our imperfect, unrighteous, and sinful lives. Jesus did that because of His love for us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving Jesus’ death to pay the penalty for our sin.

 

What is the result of God loving us and us receiving that love?

 

John 15:9

As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Abide in My love.

 

When we receive God’s love, we will in very real and practical ways experience that love and be able to abide or live every day in that love. God’s love is not just in words but in real actions in our daily lives.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living daily experiencing God’s practical love for us.

 

What does Jesus say about who we are to love?

 

Mark 12:31

The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other command greater than these.

 

We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We are to be willing to do for our neighbor what we would do for ourselves. In Luke 10 Jesus tells us that our neighbor is any other human who has a need. Jesus connects loving God with all that we are and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. You cannot love God and not love others.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving others as we love ourselves.

 

Matthew 5:43-44

You have herd that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate you

enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

 

We are also to love our enemies and those who harm us because of our faith in Jesus. This is a command that can only be obeyed through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving our enemies and those who try to harm us.

 

Why is loving others so essential?

 

John 13:34-35

A new command I give to you, that you are to love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

 

The way we love others will be what marks us as a disciple of Jesus. It is our love, not our morality or our theology, that will show the world that we are disciples of Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that loving others is what shows the world that we are Jesus’ disciples.

 

What is the strongest force in the world – Loving Like God Loves!

 

Loving God and Others and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                    Joe

Death and Life

 

We have many words and phrases that we use to refer to a person dying. One of those phrases is passed away.

 

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

 

Paul says that if we are in Jesus, we are a new creation and the old has passed away, the old is dead. The old does not exist anymore.

 

Romans 6:4 says, “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

 

Again, Paul says that we died to our old life of sin and have been raised to a new life and that we have the power now in Jesus to walk daily in that newness.

 

What are the old things that have died and the new things that have come to life?

 

An old thing that must die.

 

James 4:6 says, “But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’”

 

Pride has to die. Pride exalts us in a very ungodly way, and it puts us in opposition to God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is killing the pride that puts us in opposition to God.

 

A new thing that must come to life.

 

Being humble allows God to pour out more grace on us. Being humble means as Peter says in 1 Peter 5:6, putting ourselves under God’s authority. When we do that, it allows God to exalt us by His grace and when God exalts us, we will not fall.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God’s grace to make us humble and letting God rule in our lives.

An old thing that must die.

 

Ephesians 4:31-32 says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you.”

 

Unrighteous anger. Any form of unrighteous anger.

 

Unrighteous anger does not allow us to experience the love of Jesus because we are so focused on our anger, and it stops us from showing the love of Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is turning our anger over to Jesus and not letting it control our lives.

 

A new thing that must come to life

 

The desire and ability to forgive.

 

We in Jesus have the power to forgive others just as God through Jesus has forgiven us. Jesus forgave us unconditionally, completely, and when we asked. We are to forgive others like that.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is forgiving those who have hurt us in the same why that God has forgiven us through Jesus’ death on the cross.

 

Mark 9:23-24 says, “And Jesus said to him, ‘If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief.’”

 

An old thing that must die.

 

Unbelief must die.

 

Unbelief stops the work of God through the Holy Spirit in a person’s life. When we don’t believe God, we don’t let God work because we don’t believe God is or that God is willing or that God cannot.

 

 Raise the Roof and Remove the Wall is letting any doubt about Jesus’ power or love die.

 

A thing that must come to live.

 

Belief must come to life.

 

Belief allows Jesus to do things in our lives that go beyond anything we could hope or imagine. It allows Jesus to be truly Lord of your life.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is putting complete trust in Jesus as the Lord.

 

Letting the Old Die and the New Live

 by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                         Joe

Being a Disciple of Jesus

 

What does it really mean to be a follower or a disciple of Jesus?

 

In 1 John 4 John gives us five evidences that we have surrendered our lives to Jesus and are relating to Him as Savior and Lord.

 

1 John 4:2-3

By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming and now is in the world already.

 

A disciple of Jesus acknowledges that Jesus has come in the flesh and that He is from God.

 

John writes in John chapter 1 that the Word, Jesus, is God. If a person acknowledges that Jesus has come in the flesh and that He is God in the flesh, that person is of God. If a person does not acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh and is God in the flesh, then he is not of God and is expressing the spirit of an antichrist. The first key in being a disciple of Jesus is to believe that Jesus is who the Bible says He is, God come in the flesh.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing Jesus as God in the flesh and living based on that truth.

 

1 John 4:6

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

 

A disciple of Jesus listens to God’s word and receives it as truth.

 

John 17:17 tells us that we are sanctified by truth and that God’s word is truth. As disciples of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit with us, and He will reveal truth and error to us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing and believing God’s word.

 

1 John 4:7-8

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

 

A disciple of Jesus loves others.

 

Jesus made it clear in Mark 12 that the greatest commandment is to love God with all that you are and love others as you love yourself. Jesus said that our love for others is the mark of being His disciple.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is love others in the way that Jesus loves us.

 

1 John 4:13

By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit.

 

Disciples of Jesus are filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:18 that we are to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers us, reveals truth to us, guides us to obey Jesus, and He is our seal and guarantee of our salvation.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being continually filled and thus empowered by the Holy Spirit.

 

1 John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

 

A disciple of Jesus is being led by love, not fear.

 

Jesus’ love is a perfect love and when Jesus’ perfect love is filling us and leading us, we will not give in to fear and let it control us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being filled with the love of Jesus and letting that love lead us and not letting fear control us.

 

Being a disciple of Jesus is not a matter of words we say but of what we allow God to do in and through us. Our belief must be seen in what we do, how we live. If it is not, then we do not really believe. A disciple of Jesus lives out their beliefs in every day living.

 

Living It Out as A Disciple of Jesus

by Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe