Grace Enables, Equips, and Reveals

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. 

God’s grace enables, equips, and reveals. God’s grace gives us what we need when we need it to accomplish God’s will and bring honor to Him. All of this so the world may know Him.

In the book of Daniel, we have an illustration of how this works.

In the second chapter of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He calls for all his wise men to tell him the dream and then the interpretation of the dream. None of the wise man can do it, so Nebuchadnezzar is going to kill them.

In Daniel 2:17-18 Daniel goes to his three companions and asks them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning the mystery of the dream so that Daniel and his companions and the rest of the wise men of Babylon will not be killed.

In Daniel 2:19 God reveals to Daniel the dream and what the dream meant in a vision at night. God responds to people when they come seeking Him for mercy. In Luke 18 Jesus tells the story of a tax collector and a Pharisee going to the temple to pray. The tax collector asked for mercy and received it, and the Pharisee who told God how good he was did not receive mercy.

God wants to extend mercy and grace to us; we just have to ask  

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeking God for mercy in time of need.

Daniel then praises God who reveals deep and hidden things. God also is He who knows what is in the darkness because He is light. Daniel also gives God thanks for giving him wisdom and might and for giving him the knowledge that he needed for the situation with the king’s dream.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God’s grace to move us to praise Him.

Daniel then goes to the man who had been ordered to kill the wise men and tells him not to kill them because he has the dream’s interpretation. The man then brings Daniel to the king and tells the king that Daniel has the interpretation.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is having the courage to believe God and put yourself out there so He can be honored.

The king asks Daniel if he can tell him what the dream means. Daniel tells the king that no wise men can tell the king the meaning of the dream but God can because God is a God who reveals mysteries.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing that it is only by God’s grace that we are enabled and equipped and that truth is revealed to us.

In Daniel 2:30, Daniel says that it was not because of any wisdom that he has that God gave him the dream’s interpretation. It was because God wanted the king to know the interpretation. The king needed to know because the dream was a warning for the king. God wants people to know Him and obey His will.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is listening to and obeying the will of God.

Grace is not just for salvation. Grace is also our enabling and equipping to live out our relationship with the God who created us, loves us and by His grace blesses us. Many times, that equates to God revealing some truths from His Word to us.

By God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                             Joe

God's Presence Brings God's Grace

There is an old hymn Grace That Is Greater written in 1911. It was recorded by Bart Millard in 2008. It contrasts the grace of God with our sin and guilt.

It says:

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord

Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt

Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,

There where the blood of the Lamb was spilled.

Grace, grace, God’s grace

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;

Grace, grace, God’s grace

Grace that is greater than our all our sin

God’s grace is greater, bigger, more powerful, overcomes all of the sins I have or will ever commit.

The key in us experiencing the reality of God’s grace is acknowledging that we need grace because we have sinned. It is only when I acknowledge my need that my need can be met. If I play the game that I have not sinned, and thus, have no real need for Jesus and His grace, then I will not experience it.

Hebrews 4:14-16

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 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.

Notice that Jesus has been tempted in every way just as you and I have. Jesus can understand everything we go through. Yet Jesus never sinned. That all means that we can approach His throne, which is a throne of grace, to receive mercy and find grace in our times of need.

Mercy and grace are a part of Jesus’ nature. They are the natural characteristics of Jesus and what He desires to pour out on us. We have to cooperate with Him by seeking His presence and receiving His grace and mercy.

When people want God, He will be found.

When people want God, He will reveal Himself.

When people want God, He will display His glory and power.

There is a pattern in Scripture that, when God sees people desiring His presence, He shows them His presence.

Exodus 40:34-35

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

2 Chronicles 7:1-3

As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. When all the people saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.”

Acts 2:1-4

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

There are several things that are different in each of these situations. But there are two things that are the same.

First, all three situations were initiated by God. God saw the desire of the people and saw their obedience and His presence filled the tabernacle, the temple, and their bodies. These were they places that God wanted to indwell. The tabernacle was the place that Israel met with God until the temple, and then the temple became the place that the people met with God. Then on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to indwell the new place of worship: the believers’ bodies.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing the Holy Spirit to invade and dwell in your body.

Second, the presence of God filled the tabernacle and filled the temple and filled the believers’ bodies. The key in experiencing God’s grace is experiencing God’s presence. God’s presence with us and in us will always bring His grace to us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God’s grace by experiencing God’s presence.

God is real and He wants us to experience His presence, not just go through religious traditions.

By God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                         Joe

Grace Overcome Blindness

I love how the Gospels share the day in and day out activities of Jesus. He didn’t go primarily to the synagogue, but to the places that the people were on a daily basis. Jesus did not hide from or isolate himself from sinners. In Matthew 9:13 Jesus said that He came to call sinners, not the righteous.

In Matthew 20 Jesus is leaving Jericho and two blind men are sitting by the side of the road and they cry out to Jesus. They say, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!”

Notice two things about what the men cry out. First, they cry out for mercy. Hebrews 4:16 invites us to draw near to God’s throne of grace with needs, and they brought their need to Jesus and asked for mercy. Second, they refer to Jesus as the Son of David. This is a Messianic title and carries political overtones.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is bringing our needs to Jesus and asking for His mercy.

The crowd rebukes the two men, telling them to be silent. The response of the men was to cry out louder. When people are really desperate for Jesus nothing hinders them from coming toward Jesus. And when people are not desperate for Him, we will find not much going on. Jesus will not just barge in. He waits for us to realize our need and call out to Him. When we do that, the grace of Jesus moves Him to meet our needs.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being desperate for Jesus and not letting anything hinder us from getting to Him.

Jesus then stops and calls them over to Him. Jesus hears us when we cry out to Him. In Luke 18 Jesus tells about two men who went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee bragged about how good he was and how lucky God was to have someone like him. The tax collector humbly asked for mercy from God. Jesus said that the tax collector, not the Pharisee, went away justified. Jesus hears us when we humbly cry out to Him for mercy.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being humble and seeking mercy from God.

Then Jesus asked the one of the men, Bartimaeus, what he wanted Jesus to do. Bartimaeus said, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” That is a question that I hear from Jesus over and over. In this situation it is very obvious what the need of these men was, but Jesus wanted them to admit to Him what they wanted from Him. When Jesus asks us that question, He is inviting us to ask Him to meet our need.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is honestly acknowledging our need and asking Jesus to meet that need.

Jesus, out of compassion, touches the eyes of the two men. Jesus is willing to meet the men’s needs, not out of the men deserving it or earning it but out of Jesus’ grace. Our salvation and our blessings come from God’s grace, not our goodness.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is depending not on our goodness but on Jesus’ grace.

The men’s blindness was immediately done away with. They immediately regained their sight. One of the verses to Amazing Grace says, “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.” The picture of Jesus restoring these men’s eyesight reveals to us what He does for us in relationship to our salvation. The moment we acknowledge our lostness and ask Jesus to save us, He immediately saves us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging our need to Jesus and experiencing His grace through Him meeting that need.

Then the men began to follow Jesus. The purpose of all that Jesus does for us is to enable us to know Him and follow Him. Following Jesus is about having a relationship with God, and Jesus’ death and resurrection provides that.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing Jesus’ grace through the forgiveness of our sin and being enabled to know Him and follow Him with our whole life.

God’s grace, not our goodness, is the key to experiencing an abundant life with Jesus.

By God’s Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                            Joe

I Got You!

One of the great advantages in studying grace for several months is that I see grace more in the everyday things of daily living. I see it in the way that God speaks to me through His Word. I see it in the things that Jan does for me just because she loves me. I see it in the enabling from God to do things that I normally don’t do well. I even see it in television programs I watch. I believe that the more we focus our lives on God’s grace, the truer we will find passages like Romans 5:20-21.

Romans 5:20-21

Now the law came to increase the trespass, but where sin increased grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The more I focus on God’s grace the more it abounds all the more, and as I focus on God’s grace it also reigns or rules my life. When I focus on the negative things in life, then that is what abounds and rules my life. This is not about positive thinking; it is about positive faithing (I know that is not a real word but it should be). It is about believing God more than I believe circumstances or feelings.

In John 16:33 Jesus says, “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” There are troubles, struggles, heartaches, failures, and very difficult times as we live in this fallen world, but that is not what we are to focus on. We focus on the truth that Jesus has overcome the world. We focus on the grace of God that gives us His victory.

As I said, even in television programs, I see God’s grace illustrated. An example is in a series called The Village.

The series focuses on a group of residents in a New York City apartment building. All of these people are in some way broken. The difference I see in the people in this series is that they know they are broken. There is even a hint that some of them may even know that God is the solution to their brokenness.

One of the characters is a pregnant seventeen-year-old, the daughter of a single mom. Her father has just come back into the picture. The girl has an accident and delivers the baby early, and there are some complications with the delivery, and the baby may have suffered some brain damage. The girl had planned to give the baby up, but when the baby is born and she sees him, she loves him, and even with the potential brain damage, decides to keep him. She reaches into the incubator and touches the baby and says to him, “You’re not broken because I’m your mother and I have got you.”

When I heard that, I realized that God was speaking that to me and to you. We came into a broken world as broken people. The Bible reveals to us that the world is fallen because of sin. The Bible also reveals that we have all sinned and come short of God’s holy standard. But the Bible also reveals to us that Jesus came as the perfect person (unbroken) and gave His life, taking my sin and giving me His righteousness.

When Jesus says that in this world, we will have trouble, He is saying we are broken people living in a broken world. But when He says to “take heart, I have overcome the world”, He is saying, “I am your Lord and Savior and I have got you.”

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.

The grace of God means that God is our Abba and He has got us.

By God’s grace you and I are:

Loved

Healed

Restored

Redeemed

Renewed

Made Whole

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is “God’s got you!”

In God’s Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                           Joe

Grace is Stll Amazing

The first verse of Amazing Grace says:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found

T’was blind but now I see

Many find the word wretch describing humans as offensive. I find it very accurate in describing me before I experienced the grace of Jesus. My thoughts, my desires, my words, and my actions were self-focused, negative, and ungodly. They were wretched because I was a wretch.

Grace does not minimize or ignore the terrible reality of our sin. Grace emphasizes the depth of our sin by focusing on the unthinkable price paid to redeem us from it.

Romans 5:6-8

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one would scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare die – but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus died for utterly unworthy people, not for good people who deserved it. It shows Jesus’ unfathomable and unearned love for us. It is so huge and unlimited and powerful that it frees us from our sin.

In admitting that we are wretches, sinners that are undeserving of Jesus’ gift of salvation, we acknowledge that it is all about Him and His finished work on the cross. We tend to try and qualify ourselves so that we are no longer powerless and unworthy. We are no longer wretches. That makes grace no longer grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging the awesomeness of Jesus’ gift of salvation.

A person with a strong and healthy heart has no need of a heart transplant. It is the person with a weak and sick heart that needs a transplant. God offers grace to the needy. To the people who know they are sinners, not the people who see themselves as righteous with no need for God’s grace.

In Luke 5:31-32 Jesus says that it is not those who are well who need a doctor, but the sick. He had come to call sinners to repentance, not the righteous.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging our needy condition and thus our need for the grace of Jesus.

According to Ephesians we were not just sick in our sin, we were dead in our sin. The fact that we were dead in our sin means that we were utterly incapable of earning salvation. My salvation is completely the result of the grace of Jesus.

Our utter incapability of earning salvation should lead us to bring our need to the only one capable of securing salvation for us – Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is bringing our need of salvation to Jesus.

Since we were dead in our sin, then what was needed was life. When a person is dead, only new life can bring them back to life.

Ephesians 2:4 says that God, because He is rich in mercy and because of great love, made us alive.

Jesus didn’t die on the cross to make us better people, to reform us, or to make us look better on the outside. Jesus died to give us new life. The only thing you can do for a dead person that is going to make a difference is to give them life. Jesus out of His grace gives us new life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing new life in Jesus.

Grace:

Changes us from sinner to saint

Gives us a new heart

Meets the real needs of our lives

Brings us salvation

Enables us to experience new life

Because I was a wretch, I needed the grace of Jesus.

Because I received the grace of Jesus, I am now a God-declared righteous person.

In God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                        Joe

Grace Overcomes

Grace overcomes. There is no better picture of grace overcoming than what is pictured in Mark 5.

Jesus and His disciples had crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to the Gerasene region. He encountered a man possessed by a demon.

In this passage we see Jesus by grace overcoming the forces of Satan and society.

Mark 5:2-5

And when Jesus stepped out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountain he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

Here we see the power of Satan to kill, steal, and destroy. The man was:

Spiritually and Emotionally Tormented

Physically Harmful to Himself and Others

Living in an Environment of Death

This man had lost his peace and purpose for living.

This man had lost his home and family.

This man had lost his decency and his humanity.

Satan is our enemy and wants to destroy us and make us children of disobedience, who disobey God’s will.

Mark 5:6-13

And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before Him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For He was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great heard of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged Him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” So He gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

We see the destructive power of Satan as the demons enter the pigs and they rush down the steep bank and drown themselves. But we also see the reality of who Jesus is and His power to overcome Satan. The demons acknowledge who Jesus is, the Son of the Most High God. The demons recognize Jesus’ power by begging Him not to send them out of the country. The demons recognize Jesus’ authority by doing what He commands them to do.

Jesus out of His grace uses His power and authority to rid this man of the demons.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is knowing Jesus can and letting Jesus overcome Satan’s influence in our lives.

Mark 5:14-17

The herdsman fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.

Society had labeled the man possessed by demons. They labeled him as a crazy, dangerous, demon-possessed man. When they saw him, they didn’t see the person; they saw the label. But when they saw him with Jesus, they realized he had changed and they didn’t know what to do with that. They also were fearful of Jesus because He had done something that they believed to be impossible. Their response was to ask Jesus to leave.

Society is fallen and naturally doesn’t understand Jesus. They feel safer when Jesus is at a distance. Jesus in His grace still works even in the midst of a nonbelieving society. Society does not determine what Jesus can do. Grace works in any and every situation.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting in God’s grace, no matter the situation.

Mark 5:18-20

As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged Him that he might be with Him. And He did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

The result of Jesus by grace overcoming Satan and society was the transformation of the man. He was no longer controlled by Satan, but by grace was directed and guided by Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being transformed by the grace of God.

By God’s Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                        Joe

Grace is Accepting the Outcast

Jesus shows grace in many ways. He did not let circumstances or what others expected Him to be or do stop Him from displaying grace.

In Mark 2:13-14 Jesus calls Mathew to leave his position as a tax collector and come and follow Him, Jesus. Later Jesus appoints Matthew as one of the twelve apostles. Jesus called a man who, because of what he did for living, was hated by his people, the Jews.

Jesus shows grace by accepting and calling an outcast to be not just a follower, but one of the Twelve.

Then in verse 15 Jesus is at Matthew’s house eating with Matthew’s friends. Matthew’s friends are other tax collector. Eating with another person in eastern culture shows acceptance. Jesus not only accepted Matthew; He showed acceptance to many other outcasts.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to manifest His grace through us by us accepting those who are cultural outcasts.

In verse 16 the Pharisees question why Jesus was eating with sinners. Jesus responds in verse 17 by saying, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteousness but sinners.”

Jesus can do nothing for those people who see themselves as righteous apart from what Jesus did on the cross. When we recognize our sin and admit our sin and our need for Jesus then we can and will experience the acceptance and forgiveness of God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is acknowledging our sin and seeking Jesus as the solution.

In Mark 2 :18-19 Jesus is asked another question. Since the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, why did His disciples notfast?.

In verse 20 Jesus asks why the wedding party would fast and not celebrite while the groom is still with them. He tells them in verse 21 that there will be a time to fast after the groom has left.

Jesus says that He as the bridegroom is reason for celebration, not fasting.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is focusing our lives on Jesus and celebrating Him.

In Mark 2:21 Jesus points out that no one sows a new cloth patch on an old garment. If they do, it will shrink and make the hole bigger and worse. In verse 22 Jesus says that you don’t put new wine into old wineskins because it will burst the old wineskins and both the wine and wineskins will be ruined. You put new wine into new wineskins. Jesus came with something new, the gospel, and it needed a new container, a new structure. If not, then everything will be ruined.

 

Jesus is pointing out that grace cannot be contained in the old structure of the law. The gospel needs a new container. It needs the faith community of the church to effectively impact the world.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting grace, not rules and rituals, control your life.

Jesus in these passages is:

The Physician who heals the sick.

The Bridegroom who brings joy to His friends.

The Tailor who fixes the hole.

The Winemaker who provides new wine.

Grace is accepting outcasts and the unlovable no matter what others think and living based on a relationship with Jesus, not religious rules.

In Grace Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                      Joe