New is From God

 

New is from God

 

In my years in the church, I have heard one idea expressed again & again: We have to return to the way it was back when. Sometimes that “back when” was weeks or months ago, but sometimes it was years & decades.

 

But when I read the Bible, God tells us more about the new than the old.

 

We are told six times in Psalm to sing a new song to the Lord. In Revelation 5:9 the four creatures & the twenty-four elders sing a new song to the Lamb. In Revelation 14:3 the one hundred forty-four thousand sing a new song to the Lamb.

 

We need to learn to sing new songs to Jesus. We have had conflict over new praise songs or hymns & that does not need to be an issue. We need to sing songs that enable us to truly worship Jesus, but we need to have new songs for a new generation that will come to be saved & enter God’s kingdom.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about singing new songs of worship to Jesus.

 

In Isaiah we are told that God is doing a new thing. We must allow God to reveal to us new truths from the Bible & we must allow God to do new things in our lives as disciples of Jesus & new things in the church which is the body of Christ. We must never be satisfied with what God has done in the past.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about surrendering our lives to Jesus to allow Him to do a new thing in our lives & in His church.

 

In Jeremiah 31:31 God tells His people that He will establish a new covenant with them & in Luke 22:20 Jesus tells His disciples that the new covenant will be established through His blood. Our covenant which was established by God through the shedding of Jesus’ blood is an everlasting covenant that is ours when we surrender our lives to Jesus as our Savior & Lord.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about entering into a new covenant with God through the blood of Jesus.

In Ezekiel 18:31 & 36:26 God promises to give us a new heart & a new spirit. He will replace our old heart which was hardened to God & will replace our old spirit which had been perverted by sin with a heart that is open to God & with the Holy Spirit. According to 2 Corinthians 5:17, this means that we are new creations in Jesus & the old is gone. And that leads, according to Ephesians 4:24, to putting on the new self which is created in the likeness of God in true righteousness & holiness. That empowers us to live in the new way of the Spirit & not according to the old way of the written code, according to Romans 7:6.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about entering into a new covenant with God through Jesus’ blood which enables to be new creations with the old gone.

 

In Matthew 9, when Jesus is confronted over why He & His disciples did not fast, Jesus tells them that you cannot put new wine, the gospel, into old wineskins, the old system of human based traditions. We have put the gospel, the power of salvation to all who believe, into structures that are based in human made traditions. We proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in new ways to reach a new generation & in new places in the world.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about proclaiming the gospel of Jesus in new ways to reach new people.

 

We are entering a new year. May you experience Jesus in new & fresh ways & make Jesus known to people so they may become new creations in Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

Joy to the World

 

Joy to the World

 

Luke 2:9-11

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

 

The coming of Jesus is good news. It is not just news & it is not bad news. It is good news.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about receiving good news because Jesus has come.

 

The coming of Jesus is great joy. It is not just happiness, it is joy. Joy is not based on happenings; joy is a sense of exceeding gladness & a restful delight. It comes through having Jesus as your Savior & Lord & the Holy Spirit indwelling you & forming joy in your life.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about experiencing the great joy of having a love relationship with Jesus.

 

Jesus came as the Savior. He came to save all people from the penalty & power & guilt & shame of sin.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing Jesus as the Savior of your life.

 

Jesus came as the Lord. He is to be the sole ruling authority of our lives. Our lives are to be about doing His will, not our will & we are to be fully surrendered to His Lordship over every area of our lives.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about Jesus being the Lord, the sole ruling authority, of our lives.

 

As we celebrate Christmas this year may you experience the good news & great joy of Jesus being your Savior & Lord. May we celebrate that it is CHRISTmas.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

 

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The Power of God to Create

 

The Power of God to Create

 

The power of God is infinite, there are not limits to His power. But the most amazing aspect of God’s power is His power to create.

 

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” The word create here means that God created out of nothing. There were no raw materials laying around that God used to create everything. There was nothing & He still created the heavens & the earth.

 

In Luke 1:26-38 Mary has an encounter with the angel Gabriel. He tells Mary that she will have a baby & that the baby will be the Messiah. Mary asks how this is possible since she is a virgin. In verse 35 Gabriel says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.” God again created a baby without the necessary human components.

 

So, what does God’s power to create mean for us in our daily lives?

 

Paul in Ephesians 1:21 says that Jesus is far above all rule & authority & power & dominion, & above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

 

Jesus is more powerful than any human ruler or any spiritual ruler. That means that He can provide us with security in this life & in our eternal life.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about experiencing God’s power that brings eternal security.

 

In 1 Corinthians 1:18 Paul says that the cross is the power of God to those who are being saved. God’s power means that He can turn what appears to be something bad into something good. God’s power makes it possible for the truly bad things that happen in my life to be, by God’s power, made good.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about the power of God turning the bad in our lives to good that benefits us & honors God.

 

Isaiah 40:29-31 says, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

 

God’s power gives us strength & perseverance to live daily in obedience to God in a fallen world. The world wears people down, even followers of Jesus, but by God’s power we can walk the journey of life without wearing out or giving up.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about having our strength & faith renewed by God’s power.

 

God’s power is unlimited & He uses it for our good. We can experience His power by surrendering our lives to Jesus as Savior & Lord of our lives.

 

In God’s Power Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls.

Joe

Change is a Good Thing?

 

Change is a Good Thing?

 

One of the statements I have heard in the church for years is, “We have never done it that way before!” I really believe this is how Saul viewed the Christian movement in his day until one day when he encountered the living Lord Jesus & then everything changed. We as disciples of Jesus cannot stay where we are & follow Jesus & the body of Christ cannot stay where we are & accomplish God’s will.

 

We see many examples of God changing people in Scripture:

David from shepherd to king

Jonah from disobedient to obedient

Matthew from tax collector to apostle

Onesimus from slave to free

 

So, how do we allow God to change us?

 

In Colossians 1:18 we are told that Jesus is the Head of the body, the church. For God to change us we must see life as about Him & not us. The focus of our lives as disciples of Jesus must be Jesus & the focus of the church must be Jesus not us.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about making our lives about Jesus not about ourselves.

 

Romans 12:1 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” We must remember our purpose which is worship & serve God. I can know my God given purpose by knowing Jesus & knowing His word.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing your God given purpose & letting God fulfill in you.

 

In Genesis 12 God calls Abraham to leave his country, his kindred & his father’s house & go to a land that God will show him. We must remember that God has a right to change our lives. Jesus as our Creator created us & has a right to change our lives. Jesus as our Lord has authority over us & has a right to change our lives. Jesus as our Savior died for our sin & has a right to change our lives.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about accepting change because Jesus is our Creator & Lord & Savior.

 

Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has put eternity into the hearts of all humans. We must remember that we were created for eternity not time. We focus on the here & now, God focuses on eternity. Jesus uses all the things that occur in our lives to prepare us for eternity with Him.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about focusing our lives on eternity & allowing God to use everything in our lives to prepare us for eternity with Him.

 

Everything in our lives must be yielded to God & our entire live adjusted to what He wants. The God who calls you is also the one who will empower you to change & do His will. The question is are we willing to allow God to change us?

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                         Joe  

 

 

Jesus is the Light

 

Jesus is the Light

 

In John 1, John says that Jesus was life & the life was the light of men. Jesus says in John 8:12 that He is the Light of the world. Light always overcomes darkness because darkness is simply the absence of light. Jesus as the light always overcomes the darkness of unbelief.

 

In John 3:2 Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night. He came to sit & talk & learn & hide. We think that darkness can hide us & what we do, but Jesus is the Light & illuminates our lives & actions.

 

In John 3:19 Jesus says, “And this is the judgment; the Light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works are evil.”

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about recognizing that the Light, Jesus, has come into the world.

 

In John 19 Nicodemus comes with Joseph of Arimathea to go to Pilate to claim the body of Jesus. They had both been secret disciples of Jesus because of fear of the Jews, but now they come in public & in the light & acknowledge their commitment to Jesus. They had come into the Light.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about coming into the Light, Jesus, & living in that Light.

 

So, how do we, like Nicodemus, come out of the darkness into the Light?

 

1 John 1:5 says, “This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”

 

We must believe the message that God is light & in Him there is no darkness at all. God is light, meaning He is good & would never do anything to cause us harm. God is light, meaning He is truth & will always tell us the truth.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting that, as the Light, Jesus will always speak to us the truth & lead us to do what is best for us.

 

1 John 1:6 says, “If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

 

We must practice what we proclaim. We cannot have fellowship with Jesus & live in ways that are not pleasing to Him. He will still love us no matter what, but we will not enjoy an intimate communion with Jesus if we continue to practice ways that are not what He wants for us.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about living out what we proclaim with our mouths.

 

1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

 

We must walk in the light with Jesus. When we walk with Jesus in the light then we have fellowship with one another & we have cleansing from sin through Jesus’ blood. We get two awesome gifts. We get a family of brothers & sisters who share our love of Jesus & we get sin cleansed from our lives.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about walking in fellowship with Jesus & His family & being cleansed from the guilt & penalty of our sin.

 

In Luke 2:9 when the angels came to proclaim to the shepherds that the Messiah had come, it says that the glory of the Lord shone around them. Jesus came in the Light of God as the Light of God. We have the privilege to know & live in the Light.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

Knowing God by Name

 

Knowing God by Name

 

God has many names & titles. Each of those names & titles reveal to us who He is. We come to know God as the understanding of those names is revealed to us. In Matthew 11:27 Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no ones knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” Jesus came to show us who God is.

 

In the book of John, we are given seven names of Jesus that reveals who He is & thus who God is.

 

In John 6:35 Jesus says that He is the Bread of Life & that whoever comes to Him will never be hungry again & whoever believes in Him will never be thirsty. Jesus as our Bread of Life will satisfy our all our needs.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting Jesus to meet all of our needs.

 

In John 8:12 Jesus says, “I am the Light of the world & that the person who follows Him will never live in darkness, He will have the light that gives light.” Light illumines & thus shows us the right path to take & show us the obstacles on that path. Light also purifies. Jesus as the Light of the world shows us the path we are to walk & lights up the obstacles that are there & He purifies us when we stubble & fall.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about Jesus being our Light of the world & shows us the path we are to walk & walking in that path.

 

In John 10:9 Jesus says that He is the Gate or the Door & all who come in through Him will be saved & that they will come & go & find pasture. Jesus as our Gate or Door is the only way to come into relationship with & experience salvation & He will also be our provision.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting Jesus as our Gate or Door to through whom we receive salvation & provision.

 

In John 10:11 Jesus says that He is the Good Shepherd who sacrifices His life for the sheep. The Good Shepherd protects the sheep & he is even willing to lay down his life for the sheep. Jesus as our Good Shepherd laid down His life for sin so that we could have eternal life.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting Jesus as our Good Shepherd who became our Savior by dying on the cross for our sin.

 

In John 11:25-26 Jesus says that He is the Resurrection & the Life. Jesus is the One who gives us life both physical & spiritual life & He is the One who at the end of this age will raise us from the dead. So, Jesus as the Resurrection & the Life is the source of our earthly life & our eternal life.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about acknowledging Jesus as the Resurrection & the Life as our life here on earth & trusting Him for life with Him in eternity.

 

In John 14:6 Jesus says that He is Way & the Truth, & the Life & that no one came to the Father except through Him. Jesus is the only way to have a relationship with the Father. He is the truth & anything that disagrees with or opposes Him is wrong & a lie. He is the life & His life is the life to be lived out through us as the Holy Spirit fills us.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about Jesus as the Way, the Truth, & the Life living His life in through us by the holy Spirit to show the world who He is.

 

In John 15:1 Jesus says that He is the Real Vine. Jesus as our Real Vine makes us the branches & as the branches, we draw life from Him. Jesus as our Real vine & we as the branches stay connected to Him & thus produce good spiritual fruit.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about us as the branches staying connected to Jesus as our Real Vine & producing good spiritual fruit.

 

If we really want to know God, we study His word to understand His names & as who is become clearer, we obey Him & we get to know Him in a deeper way.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                        Joe

 

 

God Is All

 

God is All

 

Psalm 139:4 says, “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”

 

The Bible without any doubt affirms the truth that God is all-knowing, there is nothing beyond His knowledge. That contrasts with us as humans who are not all-knowing. God’s knowledge is infinite & our is finite.

 

God is all-knowing because He created all things, so nothing is outside of His knowledge. God being all-knowing means that His directions are always right. So, we can have complete confidence that when God tells us to do something it is the right course of action. We need to depend upon God’s wisdom & knowledge when we make decisions.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about believing that God is all-knowing, that His directions are always right & we can know that when we seek His direction, those directions will always be right.

 

Genesis 17:1 says, “When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless.”

 

The Bible without any doubt affirms the truth that God is all-powerful. God created the universe out of nothing. He breathed life into creatures of dust. He can accomplish anything He purposes to do. When God asks you to do something He will work through you to do it. We need to trust Him for the power, insight, skill, & resources required to accomplish His will. We need to remember it is one thing to mentally acknowledge that God is all-powerful & another to obediently respond to an all-powerful God.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about believing that God is all-powerful & living daily trusting God to enable us to accomplish His will.

 

God in Hebrews 13:5 says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

 

The Bible without any doubt affirms the truth that God is ever-present. God is always with us. He as our Father never leaves us as His children alone, He is always present with us. God is always with us as His children & He always provides for us as His children.

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about experiencing God’s presence with us all the time.

 

1 John 4:16 says, “So we have come to know and to believe the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in loves abides in God, and God abides in us.”

 

The Bible without any doubt affirms God is love. He loves us with a perfect & unconditional love. God is not a God of love or a God who just loves, God’s essential nature is love. The truth that God is love means that His will is always the best because He always seeks the best for each person. We must believe God is love so that we can trust God & we must trust God to be willing to obey God.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing God is love & living every day abiding in His love & trusting that what He tells us is always right.

 

God will never act contrary to His will. So, God will always act in His power, in His knowledge, by being always with us, & always in love. So, we can live with complete faith in Him & be willing to obey Him fully.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

The Lord is My Banner

 

The Lord is My Banner

 

In Exodus 17:8-16 we see the Israelites at war with the Amalekites. Moses tells Joshua to put an army together & go out & fight the Amalekites & that he will go up on top of the hill with the staff of God in his hands. Joshua obeyed & as long as Moses’ hands were held up, the Israelites would be prevailing in the battle, but when Moses lowered his hands, the Amalekites would prevail. So, a stone was brought so Moses could sit down & Hur & Aaron came beside Moses & held his arms up. The Israelites won the battle. Moses built an altar & called it the Lord Is My Banner.

 

There are two truths that God reveals to us in this passage.

 

The first truth is that God must be our banner. The title the Lord Is My Banner indicates that the Israelites saw themselves as belonging to God. A banner was a standard or flag that armies, tribes, or nations carried in their front ranks to identity who they were as they marched into battle. Moses was saying by naming the altar the Lord Is My Banner that he & the Israelites saw their identity was in God.

 

We are in a battle not with other humans or even the world. We are in a battle with Satan our enemy who wants to kill, steal, & destroy. We only overcome our enemy by believing that we are who God says we are & then living based on that truth. We know who we are through God’s word.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about identifying ourselves with God, acknowledging that we belong to Him, & trusting Him as we obey His word.

 

The second truth is that we as God’s people need each other. The church is made up of recovering sinners who are flawed, imperfect people. But the church is the body of Christ. We as the body of Christ need each other.

 

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul makes the point that we are one body made up of many members & that the eye needs the ear, & the eye & ear need the nose, & the hands need the feet, & the feet need the hands. We as the body of Christ & we need each member so that body can function as God designed His body, the church to function.

 

In Exodus 17 Joshua & the army needed Moses to keep his hands raised to win the battle. Moses was not strong enough to keep his hands raised for the whole of the battle, so Hur & Aaron came along side Moses to help him keep his hands raised. So, Moses needed Hur & Aaron to keep his hands raised so that the Israelites could win the battle.

 

We as God’s people need each other to accomplish the will of God. We cannot do it alone.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about us as God’s people realizing that we need each other & living as the body of Christ in a true community of faith.

 

If we are going to be God’s people who He will use to change our communities, our states, & our nation, then we must see ourselves as belonging to God & have our identity in Him. We also must see ourselves as the body of Christ & realize that we need each other & that we must live as a community of faith.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

God's Church Part 3

 

God’s Church Part 3

 

There are three analogies used to describe the church in the New Testament.

In 1 Corinthians 12:27 where the church is referred to as the body of Christ.

In Revelation 19:7-8 where the church is referred to as the bride of Christ.

In 1 Timothy 3:15 where the church is referred to as the household or family of God.

 

In each of these analogies there is one big common connection, they are all relational terms.

The parts of the body have to relate to each other properly so the body works together & is healthy.

A groom & bride have to relate to each other properly so the marriage can have unity & be healthy.

A family has to relate to each other properly for the family to be in harmony & be healthy.

 

So, what does God want for His church, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, & the family of God?

 

To Recognize that Jesus is the Head

In Colossians 1:18 Jesus is the head of the body. Jesus is the only one who knows the Father’s complete will for the church. The church is to be Jesus-centered or Jesus-ruled.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about having Jesus as the head of His church.

 

To Be in Unity

In Romans 15:5-6 Paul prays for the church to be in unity so that with one heart & mouth the church can glorify God. If the church is not in unity it cannot glorify God & it cannot effectively proclaim the gospel.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about as the church being in unity with Jesus & with each other.

 

To Love Each Other

In John 13:34-35 Jesus tells His disciples that it their love for each other that will show the world that they are His disciples. People will not be drawn to Jesus if they don’t see His love through His church, but they will be drawn to Him when they see His love manifested in His church.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about loving others, in the church & in the world.

 

To Be Pure & Holy

In 1 Peter 1:16 we are told that just as Jesus was holy, we as His disciples are to be holy. Holiness has two aspects one to be set apart to serve God & the second is to be spiritual pure. We are to see ourselves as servants of God & we are not to be polluted by ungodly motives or desires.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about as Jesus’ church be pure & holy like Him.

 

When the church allows God’s presence & activity to be expressed through us, then a watching world will be drawn to Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                         Joe

 

 

Coming to Know God Through Experiencing God

 

 

Coming to Know God Through Experiencing God

 

If you ask me if I know Paul McCartney, I would say I know about him & in fact I know a lot about him. But, no, I do not know him. If you ask me if I know Jan Byers, I would without any hesitation, yes. Some people know God like I know Paul McCartney; they know about Him. Some people know God like I know Jan Byers because they have experienced His presence or His reality in their lives.

 

God wants all of us to know Him by experiencing His reality in our daily lives. Abraham shows us how this can work in our lives.

 

In Genesis 12 God speaks to Abraham & tells him to leave his country, his kindred, & his father’s house & go to a land that God will show him. God also makes promises to Abraham. He promises to make him a great nation, make his name great, He will bless those who bless him & dishonor those who curse him, & make him a blessing to all the families of the earth.

 

Abraham obeys God & later in Genesis 12 God again speaks to Abraham & tells him that the land He has led him to is the land that He would give to Abraham & his offspring.

 

Abraham came to know God as faithful because he experienced God being faithful to him.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being able to trust God as faithful because we have experienced God’s faithfulness personally.

 

In Genesis 21 Isaac is born. He is the child of the promise that God had made to Abraham twenty-five years before. Abraham was one hundred years old & Sarah was ninety years old when Isaac was born. They were both way past childbearing age, but God brought forth their son. Abraham came to know God as God Almighty because he experienced the supernatural power of God producing Isaac from him & Sarah when it was humanly impossible.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about experiencing God as God Almighty through experiencing the power of God in our daily lives.

 

In Genesis 22 God tells Abraham to take Issac & sacrifice him as a burnt offering. Abraham got up early the next day & took Issac to sacrifice him as God had told him to. When Isaac asked Abraham where the sacrifice was as they walked to the place of the sacrifice, Abraham replied that God would provide the sacrifice. When Abraham had placed Isaac on the altar God stopped him from killing Isaac & provided a ram caught in the bushes for the sacrifice. Abraham came to know God as the God Who Provides because He experienced God providing a substitute for his son Isaac.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing God as the God Who Provides as we experience God providing for our needs daily.

 

God took Abraham into a more intimate relationship with Him as He revealed Himself in different ways & as Abraham obeyed.

 

God wants to work the same way in our lives.

 

God will speak to us by the Holy Spirit through the word of God, the Bible. When we obey God, we will come to experience Him in a new a different way & we come to know Him more intimately.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about hearing God, obeying God, & coming to know God in deeper & intimate ways.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                        Joe

Transformed

 

Transformed

 

Romans 12:1-2 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

 

God does not focus on giving us heartwarming devotional thoughts. God intends to save us & radically transform our lives. This is the work of God.

 

Moses was a shepherd until he encountered God at a burning bush in the desert, until God transformed him into a deliverer & leader of a nation of over one million people. David was the youngest son in a family who didn’t expect David to amount to much until God transformed him into the greatest king of Israel. Elisha was a farmer until God transformed him into a great prophet. Mary was preparing to be an ordinary small-town Jewish wife & mother until God transformed her into the mother of the Messiah. Peter & Andrew were simple fisherman until God transformed them into apostles. Saul was a persecutor of the church until God transformed him into Paul, a planter of churches.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about God transforming people into who He created them to be.

 

What has to occur in our lives so that God can transform us?

 

In Isaiah 66:1-2 God says, “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; what is the house that you would build for Me, and what is the place of My rest? All these things My hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look; he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My word.”

 

We have to humble ourselves under God’s authority. If we don’t humble ourselves before God then we will try to make ourselves who we want to be & miss being transformed into who God wants us to be.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being humble before God.

 

We have to admit that we are broken & wounded without God. If we see ourselves as not broken then we will not let God fix us & if we see ourselves as not being wounded then we will not let God heal us.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about allowing God to fix & heal our brokenness & woundedness.

 

We have to have a holy awe & respect for the authority of God’s word. God’s word reveals to us who God is & who we are in relationship to God. If we don’t completely trust the truth of God’s word, we will not be transformed by God to be conformed to His will.  

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting & obeying the truth & authority of God’s word.

 

Psalm 139:13 says, “For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” We must acknowledge God as our Creator. If we do not acknowledge God as our Creator then He has no right to transform us, but if God is acknowledged as our Creator then He has the right to transform our lives in any way He wants (which is always for His glory & our good).

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about acknowledging God as our Creator.

 

God is fully aware of His eternal purposes for our lives & the enormous heavenly resources He is prepared to pour out on us to ensure His will comes to pass in our lives. We must submit our lives to God as living sacrifices so He can transform us into who He created us to be.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

Sinners, Not the Self-Righteous

 

Sinners, Not the Self-Righteous

 

In Luke 6:27-28 Jesus encountered a tax collector named Levi or Matthew & called him to follow Him & Levi left his tax collecting booth & followed Jesus. In verses 29 through 30 the Pharisees & scribes begin to grumble at Jesus’ disciples about why they & Jesus were eating & drinking with tax collectors & sinners.

 

Jesus says to the Pharisees & scribes, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

 

In Luke 19:1-10 Jesus encounters Zacchaeus & goes to his house for lunch. Zacchaeus during the meal repents & places his faith in Jesus. In verse 10 Jesus says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”

 

Jesus makes it very clear that He came to seek & save the lost & call the sinners to repentance.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing that Jesus came to seek & save the lost & call sinners to repentance.

 

I have read several things lately stating that Jesus did not hang out with sinners just to being hanging with sinners but to transform their lives. That is truth to a certain point, but He did spend time with the people that His culture labeled sinners. Yes, He spent time with them to transform their lives & bring them into a faith relationship with God. He also spent time with them because He loved them & did not want them to die & go into an eternity without God.   

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about spending time with people who do not know God because we love them & want them to know Jesus as their Savior & Lord.

 

Jesus never saw a person’s lifestyle as an insurmountable obstacle to a person being saved. Jesus reached out to tax collectors, Samaritans, women caught in adultery, lepers, & Gentiles. All of these people were concerned outcasts or sinners in the culture of that day.

 

The church is the body of Christ. We are to be carrying out the mission of Jesus. Jesus’ mission was to bring people into a faith relationship with God so that they could be saved & have eternal life. So, are we as the church carrying on Jesus’ mission?

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about us as the church carrying on the mission of the Head of the church & reaching out to those who are outcasts & sinners. And,

 

The Pharisees & scribes saw these sinners as hopeless. Jesus saw them as victims of the lies of Satan and, as their Creator, He wanted to redeem them & He knew they were not hopeless & that He could redeem them. If we as the church are not reaching hopeless, broken, messy, ungodly people, then we are not doing a Jesus kind of evangelism. We are to proclaim a gospel of grace that transforms sinners into saints. We are not here to proclaim a gospel of works or a gospel of money, success, & health, but of eternal salvation through Jesus’ grace.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about proclaiming the gospel of grace that leads to people receiving eternal salvation.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

God's Church Part 2

 

God’s Church Part 2

 

The church is the people not the building or the ministries or the organization. It is not what the church does, but who the church is that God is focused on. If we, as the church, are who we are supposed to be we will do what we are supposed to do. Actions flow from who a person is.

 

1 Peter 1:16 says, “Be holy, for I am holy. The church is people who have been made holy by God.” The church is people who have been made holy by God. We are not born holy or righteousness. It is by a person accept Jesus’ death on the cross to pay for their sin & submit to His authority as Lord that makes them holy.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being made holy by Jesus’ death on the cross.

 

In John 13:34-35 Jesus tells His disciples that He is giving them a new commandment that they are to love one another & that this is the mark that the world will know that they are His disciples. The church is people who love others. Jesus also says in Mark 12:30-31 that we are love God with all that we are & love others as we love ourselves. 

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about loving God & loving others as He does.

 

1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the might hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.” The church is people who humble themselves under God’s authority. Humbling ourselves before God allows God to exalt us & allow us to cast all our cares on Him. Humbling ourselves under God’s authority is not defeat but a great victory.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about be humble before Jesus as our Lord.

 

In John 19:30 Jesus cries out, “It is finished!” The church is people who know that Jesus work on the cross is a finished work that brings salvation. We cannot save ourselves so we have to trust in Jesus’ death on the cross to save us. It is Jesus & anything else, it is Jesus only that brings salvation.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about trusting Jesus & Jesus only for our salvation.

 

The church is not a creation of humans, but of God. It is God’s people forming the body of Christ & being used by God to take the gospel of God’s grace into the world.

Useful to the Master

Useful to The Master

 

In 2 Timothy 2:20-21 Paul writes to Timothy, a young pastor, & he says, “Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”

 

Many times, we as humans focus on the person’s ability or personality or education or experience. God focuses on calling & character. When Jesus chose Matthew to be His follower, He didn’t choose him because he was good at balancing a money ledger. Jesus didn’t choose Peter because he was a great fisherman. Jesus chose them because, in His sovereign will, He saw that they were people who were willing to allow Him to cleanse them so they could be useful to Him, their Master. Jesus did not need their abilities; He needed their availability.

 

So, as followers of Jesus we are to be vessels that are cleansed & usable to the Master, Jesus. Some vessels are wood & clay meaning that they cannot be used for honorable purposes. Some are vessels of gold & silver & they are vessels that can be used for honorable purposes.

 

So, what is the key to being vessels that can be used for honorable purposes? It is what the vessels contain.

 

Colossians 1:27

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 

We must contain Jesus. In Galatians 2:20 Paul says that he has been crucified with Jesus & it is no longer he the old man who lives, but he lives now by faith in Jesus. When Jesus lives in us, we are usable to Him because it is not us doing but Jesus manifesting Himself in & through us.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about having Jesus living in us so the world can see Him & not us.

 

Ephesians 5:18

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

 

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 1:8 Jesus tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem to receive the Holy Spirit & then they will be His witnesses to the world. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to be witnesses for Jesus that He will use to change the world.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about be filled with the Holy Spirit & empowered to be witnesses for Jesus.

 

2 Corinthians 3:4-6

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

 

We must have in us the sufficiency that comes from God. No one called is sufficient to do what God is calling them to do in their own ability & strength. God always calls us to something beyond what we can do. The reason is that we then have to depend on Him & look to Him to be our sufficiency. Everyone God calls He empowers by Him being our sufficiency.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about depending on God to be our sufficiency to do what He calls us to do.

 

God created us to be vessels that can be used for honorable purposes that are useful to the Master. He will provide what we need to be that, but we have to choose to do His will.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe