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