Grace Overcomes Sin

 

The Bible uses three words to describe our rebellion against God as our Creator & Lord & Savior. The words are sin, to miss the mark & trespass, to step over a boundary & iniquity, willful disobedience.

 

In Matthew 9:13 Jesus says that He did not come to call the righteous but sinners. Jesus came to call those who know they are sinners & are willing to acknowledge their sin.

 

In Luke 19:10 Jesus says that He came to seek & save the lost. Jesus came to save those who know that because of their sin they are separated from God & are willing to repent & turn to God.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about recognizing & acknowledging our sin & turning to Jesus for forgiveness.

 

In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul writes that Jesus came to save sinners of which he, Paul, is the worst. 1 Timothy is written toward the end of his life. He had been following & serving Jesus for years. But Paul understood the depth of his sin.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about understanding the depth of our sin & acknowledging the depth of our sin.

 

Romans 5:20 says, “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but when the trespass increased, grace abounded all the more.”

 

There is nothing good about sin, but God is so powerful & gracious that He uses our acknowledging of our sin to make grace abound to bring forgiveness & cleansing of sin. The more acknowledgement of the depth of our sin, the more we know & experience the power & vastness of God’s grace.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about experiencing the power & vastness of God’s grace.

 

Paul acknowledging that he was the worst sinner meant that he understood the depth of his sin & he understood the power of God’s grace that saved him & transformed him. Saul who persecuted the church became Paul, planter of the church, through the power of God’s grace.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about being transformed by the power of God’s grace.

 

I know who I am without Jesus in my life & I am a very bad person. I know that it is only by God’s grace that I have been transformed.

 

When you look at the people that God has used to grow His kingdom & change the world, it was men & women who first understood the depth of their sinfulness & second understood the power & vastness of God’s grace. When we understand those two things, God will use us to build His kingdom & change the world.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about understanding our sin & God’s grace & then being empowered to change the world.

 

God’s grace is so powerful & vast that God uses flawed, broken, & messy people to build His kingdom. So, it is not about talent or giftedness or education or experience. It is about experiencing the depth of your sin & the power & vastness of God’s grace.

 

Raising the Roof & Removing the Walls,

Joe

Following Jesus No Matter What

 

 

 

I have not written for about three weeks because we were on a mission adventure with Jesus. Jesus, out His grace, was with us and enabled us to get to our mission, complete it and get home. Our faith family was gracious and provided financially what we needed, and they and many of you prayed for us and God was faithful as He always is and He answered our prayers. 

 

On the mission we experienced God in many ways and He performed miracles for us. The biggest takeaway from what we did were the people who God gave us the privilege to work with.

 

God impressed upon me two passages as we worked with and got to know and to love the people we worked with.

 

2 Corinthians 2:8-10 says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.”

 

The people we worked with were afflicted by oppression and persecution, but not crushed. They were at peace and knew that Jesus was with them.

 

The people were perplexed to always know and understand how they could continue to serve Jesus, but they were not forsaken. They knew Jesus had them.

 

The people were struck down, but not destroyed. They had been imprisoned and tortured but they still were not giving up. They continued to proclaim Jesus.

 

Each day they knew they could be killed but they wanted others to see Jesus manifested in their lives.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about facing persecution and struggles but allowing Jesus to been seen in our daily lives.

 

The other verse is Acts 20:24. It says, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

 

The people did not consider that death was too great a price to pay so that Jesus would be proclaimed so that more people could become followers of Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being willing to risk everything so that Jesus can be proclaimed and so people can hear and surrender their lives to Jesus as Lord.

 

We as American Christians live in a culture that is not approving our faith but it is not a culture that actively persecutes us because of our faith. We get angry and upset when our culture does not value our faith in Jesus. I met people who daily live under the threat of imprisonment and even death and have joy and peace, not anger and fear.

 

This people are focused on Jesus. They want to know Jesus more and more and make Him known to others. They do not get sidetracked into trivial pursuits but make the main thing, Jesus, their main thing.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about focusing on Jesus and making Jesus the main thing in our lives.

 

With Jesus as the Main Thing, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                   Joe

The World

 

The Bible uses the word world over 250 times. What does the Bible mean when it uses the word world? I ask that because, if we don’t understand how the Bible uses that word, it can become very confusing.

 

When the Bible uses the word world it can mean one of three very distinct things.

 

It can mean the people who live on this planet.

It can mean the system of values that characterize this fallen humanity.

It can mean the physical earth.

 

Romans 1:20 is an example of the world referring to the physical earth. It says, “For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse.”

 

The creation of the earth & all the things on the earth show us there is a God & so we are without excuse for believing in God.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about see the physical creation & knowing there is a Creator God.

 

The world can refer to the people who live on the earth.

 

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

 

God loved the people of the world & He sent God the Son, Jesus, to be the Savior so that, by placing our faith in Him, we would have eternal life.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about knowing that God loves us as His human creation & acknowledging our need for Jesus, the Son of God, to be our Savior.

 

The question then arises: Why do we need a savior? That brings us to the third meaning of world, the value system that characterizes this fallen civilization.

 

The world is fallen because of sin. We come into life with a spiritual bent toward sin. Adam & Eve passed the sin tendence on to us & Jesus is the only cure for our sin nature.

 

We are told several things about the fallen value system.

 

2 Peter 1:4 tells us that the world is corrupt because of sin.

1 John 2:15 tells us not to love the world.

Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to the world.

James 4:4 tells us that we cannot be friends with both God & the world.

1 John 3:13 tells us that the world hates us as followers of Jesus.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about not loving the world & not being conformed to the values of this fallen world.

 

So, how are we to relate to this fallen world?

 

Matthew 5:14 tells us to be the light of the world. We are to allow the Light of the world, Jesus, to shine through us.

 

1 John 5:4-5 tells us that faith in Jesus overcomes the world. John 16:33 tells us that in this world we will have tribulation, but we have hope because Jesus has overcome the world. We are to relate to the world through faith in Jesus as Savior & Lord, knowing that He has overcome the fallen world.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about shining the light of Jesus into this fallen world & knowing that Jesus has overcome the world & shares His victory with us, His disciples.

 

In John 17:14-17, which is part of Jesus’ praying for His disciples, He gives us truths about living in a fallen world.

 

Jesus prays, “I have given them Your word and the world has hated them because they are not of this world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that You take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

 

We relate to the fallen world by being in the world, living as disciples of Jesus based in truth & living out that truth, but not being of the world, not buying into & living based on the values of the fallen world system.

 

Raise the Roof is about being in the world but not being of the world just as Jesus was in the world but not of the world.

 

Raising the Roof & Removing the Walls by Being Jesus’ Disciples in the World,

                                                          Joe

I Love You

 

The phrase “I love you with all my heart” is one that is used a lot to express a true and deep love for another person. I say it a lot to my wife. In saying that, what does it really mean?

 

In the Greek language there were four words we translate love. Only three are used in the New Testament. The one that is not used is eros. It means sexual passion or sexual desire or it can mean a love of the physical attributes of a person. It is not used in the New Testament but that does not mean all sexual desire is wrong. God created us with sexual desire and it is a good thing when used as God intended it, to be expressed in a marriage relationship between one man and one woman. And certainly, appreciating someone who we see as beautiful is not wrong as long as it does not turn into lusting. It is not used because the focus on the New Testament is a different kind of love.

 

The three words used in the New Testament for love are agapao, phileo, and storge. Storge is used only a very few times and it means affection, the kind we feel toward parents and children. Phileo means brotherly love and is the concept of being a good friend to another person. The word that is used by far the most is agapao and it means an unconditional, no boundaries, timeless love that is shown by our actions.

 

Agapao is the kind of love that God has for us and the kind of love that we are to show to Him. The difference between it and the other three kinds of love is that agapao is not based on emotions but of an intentional choice of the mind to love. It is not a person just feeling an emotion of love, it is a person deciding to love and showing that love in actions.

 

In Mark 12:30 Jesus tells us that we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. We are to love God with our entire being, meaning using our mind to do that.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Wall is about loving God with our whole life by intentionally choosing to do that.

 

In Romans 12:2 we are told to let God transform our minds so that we can know God’s will and understand that His will is good and acceptable and perfect. We come to know God’s will with our minds. We let God transform our minds and that allows us to choose to obey God.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about letting God transform our minds so we can choose to obey His will and come to know how good God’s will is.

 

In Colossians 3:2 we are told to set our minds on the things above, eternal things, because things below are of the earth and temporary. We choose to focus our minds on the things of God.  

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about setting our minds on eternal things, not temporary earthly things.

 

In Philippians 4:6-7 we are told not to be anxious about anything but to pray about everything, and that God’s peace will guard our hearts and minds. God’s peace does not just calm our emotions but steadies our minds, our thinking and decision making.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is bringing everything to God in prayer and experiencing His peace in our lives.

 

In Ephesians 6:17 we are told to put on the helmet of salvation. The helmet protects our minds. Salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin and the acknowledgement of our need for Jesus as Savior and Lord.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about experiencing by choosing with our minds to surrender our lives to Jesus as our Lord.

 

In 2 Corinthians 2:16 we are told that have the mind of Christ. We as followers of Jesus have the Holy Spirit forming the mind of Christ in us.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about knowing that as disciples of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is forming His mind in us.

 

1 John 3:18 says, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.”

 

That is the essence of agapao. We choose to love and do it in actions and truth.

 

In Agapao Love by Raising the Roof and Remove the Walls,

                                        Joe

Two Yokes

 

A yoke is a wooden bar or frame by which two draft animals are joined at the heads or necks for working together. A yoke can also be an arched device formerly laid on the neck of a defeated person.

 

These sum up the two types of yokes mentioned in Scripture.

 

The first type that joins us to another to work together is the type Jesus is talking about in Matthew 11:28-30.

 

Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

 

The is a Jesus yoke. The purpose is to give us rest. It is meant for those who have been trying to do it themselves and are exhausted and are at the end of themselves. They can come to Jesus and put on the yoke with Him and He will do the heavy pulling. The result is that we will find rest.

 

The rest we find in being yoked with Jesus is not just physical rest. It is emotional rest. The world is an emotionally exhausting place. It moves our emotions in one direction and then in another direction and even in a third or fourth direction and we became confused and exhausted.

 

The rest we find in being yoked with Jesus gives us mental rest. We live in a world with so much information being thrown at us that it can become overwhelming. When we are yoked with Jesus, He filters out all the lies and useless information. He guards our hearts and minds and frees us to focus our lives on what is truly essential.

 

The rest we find in being yoked with Jesus gives us spiritual rest. There are many, many religious and spiritual views being expressed in the world. It can become frustrating and depressing to try and determine what is truth. Jesus shows us that He is the truth and that when are yoked with Him we are experiencing the truth.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about yoking ourselves with Jesus and resting in Him.

 

The second type of yoke is one where we are enslaved to sin and human based attempts to deal with sin, legalism.

 

Galatians 5:1 says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

 

We can put on a yoke of sin. We can be enslaved to the power of sin to control and direct our lives away from God and to destruction. James 1:15 tells us that sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Our lives being yoked to sin will always lead to death.

 

We can also be yoked to human based efforts to deal with sin. When we try and deal with sin based on rules or rituals or traditions it will lead to us getting trapped in legalism. Legalism is human attempt to earn or deserve salvation.

 

Acts 15:10 says, “Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?”

 

The yoke was for Gentiles believers to be circumcised and follow all the law of Moses. The people of Israel had never been able to do that, so it meant that the followers of Jesus would fall under the yoke of not being able to meet the requirements of the law.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being set free by God’s grace and not having to try and fulfill the law because Jesus has already done it. We can share His victory as we surrender our lives to Him as Lord and Savior.

 

Yoked with Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                           Joe

A Hard Teaching

 

I am doing a study on the hard teachings of Jesus. I find most of the teachings of Jesus very challenging but there is one particular teaching of Jesus that I find very hard to allow God to make true in my life.

 

But I believe it is the teaching that when we, as God’s people, allow Jesus to become the reality of our lives, it will make a huge impact in the world.

 

In Deuteronomy 26:18 it says, “And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for His treasured possession, as He has promised you, and that you are to keep all His commandments.”

 

We are God’s treasured possession. In the King James Version, it says that we are God’s peculiar people. We as God treasured possession are to keep His commandments and thus be a peculiar people who are different than those who are not God’s people. That difference is to show the world the awesomeness of God.

 

1 Peter 1:14-16 says, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”

 

We are to be holy. We are to be set apart for God’s service & for our lives to be lived differently than the world, which by nature is not holy.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being God’s treasured possession, His peculiar people & living holy lives.

 

Here is the hard teaching that shows that we are God’s holy treasured possession.

 

Matthew 5:43-44, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’’ But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’”

 

We are to love our enemies.

We are to pray for people who persecute us.

 

I find this very hard because my natural tendency is to hate those who hate my and curse those who persecute me. But if I did that, I would not be a peculiar person or holy. I would be a common person and unholy. The world needs to see God’s people really being God’s people and manifesting the reality of Jesus to the world.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us.

 

Then Jesus gives us three more reasons that we are to love our enemies and be God’s peculiar people.

 

Matthew 5:45 says, “So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends the rain on the just and on the unjust.”

 

God sends the same natural blessings of sun and rain on all people. When we don’t love and show grace to those who hate and persecute us, we are not being sons of our Father.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being sons of our Father by loving others and showing grace to them.

 

Matthew 5:46-47 says, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”

 

If we only love and show compassion to those who love us and share our values, then what have we done that shows Jesus to others? Jesus loves all people and extends grace to all and makes forgiveness available to all. And if we do the same, then we are showing Jesus to others.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about showing the character of Jesus in our lives to others.

 

Matthew 5:48 says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

 

When we obey and allow God to make the reality of our lives being God’s peculiar people, being holy, and loving our enemies, then we are complete and are showing the complete reality of Jesus manifested through our lives.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being complete in God through obeying Jesus as Lord.

 

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                            Joe

Four Things that Will Change the World

 

I watched the movie, The Jesus Revolution this weekend. The movie never came to our community so I bought the DVD. It is a great movie. It was well done and very honest about the spiritual awakening that took place in the late 60’s and early 70’s. My relationship with Jesus was influenced and strengthened by the Jesus movement.

 

As I watched the movie Jesus spoke to me about four things and then He showed me how these are related and then how they relate to us today.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

 

In Jesus we are new creations. We come to be in Jesus by confessing or agreeing with Jesus about our sin and our sinful condition and repenting of that, by turning away from the sin and turning to Jesus. We as new creations are different than who we were before Jesus. We are to live as that new creation in Jesus by living differently than the world and differently than those who are not in Jesus. It is by how we live and relate to Jesus, other believers, and the world that we show our new creation.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about living as new creations in Jesus.

 

2 Corinthians 10:4-5

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

 

We do not use the weapons that our culture uses. Our culture uses guilt and shame and anger and hatred and lies and deceit and bullying and just being louder than others. We are not to use those weapons. We use the armor God has given us. We use prayer, God’s word, love, grace, and mercy. When we use the weapons of our culture we become like our culture and not like the new creations in Jesus that we are.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about using the divine weapons that God has given us to destroy the strongholds that Satan has set up.

 

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

 

We have been commanded to go and make disciples. We are to go, not stay in our buildings and glare at the world and condemn it. We are to make disciples. We are not commanded to just to make converts. Many times, the church has been content to baptize people and count them on their statistics and feel good. A disciple is one who learns from Jesus through studying God’s word and trusting Jesus with everything in our lives and following Jesus wherever He commands us to go and do.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about going into the world and making disciples who, then in turn, make more disciples.

 

John 13:34-35

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

 

We are to love others just as Jesus loves us. Jesus does not love us because we are so good and loveable. Jesus loves us out of His desire to love us and His commitment to love us, not because of us or what we do, but in spite of who we are and what we have done. 

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about loving others as Jesus loves us.

 

If we as disciples of Jesus define ourselves and live as new creations in Jesus and use the weapons that God has given us by going and making disciples, by showing the love of God in and through our lives, we will be used by Jesus to change the world.

 

Revolutionary Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                         Joe