Why I Believe

 

Why I Believe

 

In 1993 Rich Mullins released a song called Creed. The first few lines of the song say:

I believe in God the Father

Almighty Maker of heaven and Maker of earth

And Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, our Lord

He was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

 

Rich Mullins is testifying to his belief that there is a God & that He is the Creator of all & that Jesus is the Christ & God the Son & that the Holy Spirit is God the Spirit.

 

The chorus says:

And I believe what I believe is what makes what I am

I did not make it, no it is making me

It is the very truth of God not the invention of any man

 

He is saying in the chorus that what he believes was not invented by him or any human & that it is not what he or anyone has made up about God. It is what God has revealed to him about who God is & it is this truth that makes him the person he is.

 

I love this song. I love it because it is truth, but also because I relate to it as to how I have come to know & believe God.

 

My life verse has been for many years Philippians 3:10. It says, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.” Lately I find more & more the culture questioning my faith in Jesus as God & as my Savior & Lord. So, I have asked myself two questions.

 

Raise the Roof & Removing the Walls is about knowing Jesus & experiencing His presence in our lives.

 

Question #1: Why do I believe that Jesus is God & is my Savior & Lord?

 

The answer is that I know Jesus.

 

Question #2: Why do I believe that the Bible is God’s word & it true?

 

The answer is that I know Jesus.

 

Now, when I say I know Jesus I mean I know Jesus as a person. I don’t know Him as a theological truth or a theological concept. And I don’t mean I know about Him like some historical figure. I mean I know Jesus like I know my wife or my son. I know Jesus as a real person, up close & intimately.

 

The word know that is used in Philippians 3:10 means to experience. It is knowing based on having personally experienced someone. In this case I have personally come to experience Jesus.

 

In John 17:3 Jesus defines eternal life as knowing the only true God & Jesus Christ whom the only true God sent. Jesus defines eternal life not as something God gives but as a relationship with God where we know Him. The same word for know is used in this verse. Eternal life is experiencing the personal reality of Jesus in our lives.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing that eternal life is about experiencing the reality of Jesus in our lives.  

 

I believe the Bible because I know Jesus. I have experienced Jesus personally in my life & I know His words when He speaks to my spirit. It is like I recognize my wife’s voice or my son’s voice because I have experienced the reality of them in my life.

 

I am not basing believing that Jesus is God & that the Bible is true on historical or archaeologically or scientific evidence, though there is plenty to justify believing. I am basing my faith in Jesus as God & the Bible as true & the word of God on my personal experience of Jesus as a real person in my life.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about basing faith in Jesus on a personal relationship with Jesus as Lord.

 

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists, and He rewards those who seek Him.”

 

A relationship with Jesus is based on faith. Faith in Jesus that He is who He claims to be in the Bible. The reward for having that kind of faith is we get to experience Jesus in our daily lives as our Savior, Lord, & friend.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about relating to Jesus based on faith in Him as God the Son, our Lord.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                         Joe

Jesus & the Culture

 

Jesus & the Culture

 

We, as Paul did, live in a culture that is not open or even friendly to the gospel of Jesus. Paul shows us ways that we can show the truth of the gospel to our culture in Galatians 6:11-18.

 

Verses 11-12: Overcoming Political Correctness

Paul writes with his own hand to those who are trying to force the believers to be circumcised. He knows they are doing it so that they will not be persecuted because of the cross of Christ. It wasn’t because they sincerely thought that circumcision was necessary for salvation, but so they would not be persecuted.

 

It is easy in our culture today to go with the secular culture & not be fully surrendered to the will of God & just privately practice religion. It is also easy to go with a church culture that attacks & demonizes those who are not followers of Jesus by calling them evil or of the devil. What Jesus calls us to do is neither. Jesus calls us to speak the truth in love living out the gospel in our everyday lives & see those who reject Jesus as victims & love them as Jesus does.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about not compromising the truth but living out the truth of the gospel with the love of Jesus for others.

 

Verse 13: Overcoming Hypocrisy

Paul says that those who were being circumcised to avoid persecution were not doing so to follow the law but to pridefully boast about themselves.

 

Following Jesus is not about just an outward display of piety. Following Jesus is about denying selfish ambitions, dying to the old sinful nature, following Jesus by being a servant to others. That is not just outward action but an inner surrender to Jesus as Lord.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about outwardly & inwardly being surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus.

 

Verses 14-15: Exalting the Cross of Jesus above Everything

Paul says that he will boast only in the cross of Jesus because it is through the cross that the world has been crucified to him & him to the world. Paul was fully surrendered to Jesus as his Lord. Then he says that it is not about religious traditions or rituals or rules. It is about becoming a new creation.

We become a new creation only in Jesus, not by being religious. It is only by Jesus’ death & resurrection & our surrendering our lives to Jesus as Savior & Lord that we become a new creation.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about becoming a new creation in Jesus.

 

Verses 16-18: Praying for Others

Paul prays that the Galatian believers will walk in peace, showing mercy to others. Paul mentions that he bears the marks of persecution on his body. He then prays for the grace of Jesus to be on the believers.

 

Prayer is not hard. It is talking to Jesus as our all-power, all-loving Lord. It is sharing our lives with Him & interceding for the needs of others. Communication is the key in any intimate loving relationship & so prayer is the key to our relationship with Jesus.

 

Revelation 12:11 says that they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb & by the word of their testimony because they did not love life even unto death. We overcome cultural pressure & hypocrisy by exalting the cross, living out in love the truth of the gospel, & serving others in Jesus’ name.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

                         Joe

Don't Give Up Doing Good

 

Don’t Give Up Doing Good

Galatians 6:1-10

 

In 1910 William Booth was too ill to attend the Salvation Army’s annual convention. He sent a telegram to encourage the other members. It was a one-word telegram it simply said, “Others.” Paul’s message in Galatians 6:1-10 is saying do good to others.

 

Verses 1-2: Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

 

Paul gives us guidelines for helping other believers.

Restore a fellow believer with gentleness.

Remember that we all are vulnerable to being tempted.

Bear other’s burdens.

 

When we do these things, we fulfill the law of Christ. We fulfill what Jesus desires for us to do.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about, through gentleness & humility & love, doing what Jesus desires for us to do.

 

Verses 3-5: For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

 

One key to helping others is to realize that we must be willing to submit our lives to Jesus & exalt Him, not ourselves. It is to not be dependent on parents or spouse or friends but understanding that Jesus looks at our works done out of our faith. We are to see ourselves as accountable to God.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about submitting ourselves to Jesus & being accountable to Him as our Lord.

 

Verses 6-8: Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

 

A second key to helping others is to understand that God has established spiritual principles just as He established natural principles. God wants us to share the blessings that He graciously gives us with others. What we sow is what we will reap. If we sow to our own flesh, meaning we spend our lives focused on gratifying our old sinful nature, we will reap corruption which means to waste away. When a person lives as self-centered, they waste their life. If they sow to the Spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit, they will reap eternal life. Life lived directed by the Holy Spirit will enable us to live helping others & our lives will have meaning.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about living our lives with Jesus as Lord & enabled by the Holy Spirit to be a help to others.

 

Verses 9-10: And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

 

A third key to helping others is to believe God’s promises. God promises that if we do not grow weary doing good, we will reap a good harvest. We continue to do good by using the opportunities that God gives to help others. We are to help other believers, but others also all have needs. Just as the parable of the good Samaritan illustrates, our neighbor is anyone who has a need.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about reaping a good harvest by doing good to others who have needs.

 

Jesus came to serve & not to be served. We as the body of Christ need to serve & not be served.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe

Keeping in Step with the Spirit Who Enables Us

 

Keeping in Step with the Spirit Who Enables Us

Galatians 5:16-26

 

Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord of Hosts.” We do not accomplish God’s will by human might or power but by the working of the Holy Spirit in us & through us. In Galatians 5:16-26 we see how to overcome our flesh & produce fruit that honors God.

 

Verses 16-21, 24: The Spirit Enables Us to Overcome the Flesh

 

If we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. We who have been redeemed & transformed by Jesus still have an old nature in us that is sinful & opposes the new nature of Jesus that is in us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The old nature opposes the new nature & tries to get us to not do what God desires & what is really best for us. The law is no help because it can only show us what we have done wrong & has no power to help us do what God desires. The Holy Spirit enables us to overcome the old nature & let the new nature of Jesus be manifested. Paul lists the works of the flesh so that when we see them manifested in our lives, we recognize them. When we recognize the works of the flesh, we are to crucify them so that the passions & desires of the old nature are killed. Those who belong to Jesus have died to selfish & ungodly desires just as Jesus tells us to do in Luke 9:23 which says that if we want to follow Him, we must deny ourselves & take up our cross daily. 

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about allowing the Holy Spirit to crucify our old sinful nature & overcome its ungodly desires & passions.

 

Verses 22-23, 25-26: The Spirit Enables Us to Produce Fruit

 

Paul then shares with us the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives. Notice that it is works of the flesh, but it is the fruit of the Spirit. We produce the works of the flesh but it is fruit or what the Spirit produces in our lives that pleases God & that the law cannot produce. Also notice it is fruit not fruits. The Holy Spirit produces one fruit with nine different flavors. The Holy Spirit produces all these character traits at the same time in our lives. These character traits reflect the nature of Jesus in us & through us. Paul then tells how to allow the Holy Spirit to enable us to produce this godly fruit. We live by the Spirit & keep in step with the Spirit. We live everyday knowing that we are filled with Spirit & then obey what the Spirit is directing us to do. But we also need to be careful that, in the process of walking by the Spirit, we don’t become conceited & that we don’t provoke others & that we don’t envy how the Spirit is working in others.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being enabled by the Holy Spirit to produce in us the character of Jesus.

 

We as disciples & followers of Jesus are to be dramatically different than those who are not disciples & followers of Jesus. This difference is to not make us prideful or conceited, thinking we are better than others. It is to enable us to live righteous & holy lives so that others will see our lives & be drawn to what makes us different, a love relationship with Jesus.

 

By the Holy Spirit Raising the Roof & Removing the Walls,

                                      Joe