Thanksgiving

Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless His name!”

Thanksgiving is not something that we have invented. It is something that God has given us by His grace.

We have the privilege of thanksgiving because Psalm 100:5 says, “For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.”

We have thanksgiving because of God’s

Goodness

Love

Faithfulness

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. Christmas was for years my favorite but over the past several years Thanksgiving has become my favorite.

Thanksgiving is a quiet time I can spend with Jesus and my family.

Psalm 131:1-2

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

There need to be times of being quiet in our lives. Jesus periodically took His disciples away from the pressures of ministry to spend time with Him so they could recharge.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is spending quiet moments with Jesus.

Thanksgiving is a reflective time.

James 1:23-24

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on where I am with Jesus.

It is a time for me to reflect on where I have been and where I am going. In these times of reflection, I look intently at myself and Jesus. I am not looking at my faith family or my wife or my children or my friends and Jesus. I am looking at and listening to what Jesus is saying to me and seeking His Spirit to understand how I need to respond.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is looking in the mirror and seeing what I really look like.

Thanksgiving is a time for expressing thanks to God.

There is not enough room for me to list all I have to be thankful for. I will list some.

I am thankful:

That Jesus has forgiven and saved me

That I have a wife that loves me and lets me be who I am

That my children love Jesus

That I pastor a church that wants to a Jesus’ church

That I live in a small town that doesn’t really have Black Friday

That I have an awesome view from my deck of the beauty of God’s creation

That I live in a town with hot springs to soak in

That I am loved and accepted by Jesus

I treasure a time to just rest and express my gratitude to God for who He is and all that He has done.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is expressing gratitude to God.

Thanksgiving is a time to hear from God.

Psalm 130:5

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope.

I wait on God, not to do something, but to hear from Him.

Psalm 106:13

But they soon forgot His works; they do not wait for His counsel.

Waiting and listening for God is essential for us to know God and to know His will. When I know God and His will, I know how to live.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is hearing God and obeying Him.

The older I get, the more I understand that it is not about the “doing for God”; it is the “being in God” that He values. I am also learning the value of letting God do His work through me in His timing.

Jesus was never in rush but He never lagged behind. He was always where He was supposed to be and doing what He was supposed to do because He lived in the flow of the Holy Spirit.

Thanksgiving gives me the opportunity to reflect and adjust my life to live in the flow of God’s Spirit.

With Thanksgiving Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

What Kind of Follower Are You?

In Matthew 4:19 Jesus invites Andrew and Peter to follow Him.

In Matthew 9:9 Jesus invites Matthew to follow Him.

In John 1:43 Jesus invites Philip to follow Him.

Being a Christian means following Jesus.

It does not mean following:

Rules

Rituals

Religious Duty

Traditions

It means following the person of Jesus.

I am leading a study based on the book Not a Fan. We are not called to be fans of Jesus but followers of Jesus.

The question is: What kind of follower of Jesus am I?

In 3 John we are shown three pictures of a follower of Jesus.

The first picture is found in 3 John 1-8.

3 John 1-8

The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

Gaius is described as beloved.

We are beloved by God as His followers.

We see two huge things about Gaius as a follower of Jesus.

He walked in the truth.

Truth is an essential for followers of Jesus.

Jesus is the truth. – John 14:6

We are to put on the belt of truth. – Ephesians 6:14

We are to speak the truth. – Ephesians 4:25

If we, followers of Jesus, don’t speak and walk in the truth, then we are not being like Jesus and we will never impact the world.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is walking in the truth as we follow Jesus.

He walked in love.

We love not only our friends and family, but we love those who are strangers.

Our love is to look like Jesus’ love. God is love and I am empowered to love like Jesus when I surrender myself to Jesus and become filled with the Holy Spirit.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that without love I am nothing. Love is that important.

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

The second picture is 3 John 9-10.

3 John 9-10

I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So, if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.

This pictures a person who claims to be a follower of Jesus.

He showed an attitude of:

Harshness

Pride

Ungrace

This is an example of the truth that we have to continually surrender our wills to Jesus. We can never reach the point where we think we have arrived and don’t have to submit to Jesus any more.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being humbly submitted to Jesus.

The third picture is found in 3 John 11-12

3 John 11-12

Beloved, do not imitate evil things but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony and you know that our testimony is true.

Followers of Jesus live good.

Followers of Jesus treat others with good.

Good means we live morally upright lives. We live lives that reflect the goodness of Jesus in our every day actions.

Treating others with good means that we relate to others with compassion, mercy, and grace.

Goodness is not done by self-effort but the work of the Holy Spirit.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is reflecting the good of Jesus.

Positively followers of Jesus:

Walk in Truth

Live Based on Love

Act Out of Goodness

Negatively followers of Jesus:

Refrain from Being Harsh

Don’t Act Based on Pride

Dispense Not Ungrace But Grace

As Followers of Jesus, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Truth, Love, and Obedience

In 2 John 1:4-6, John writes, “I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady – not as though I was writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning – that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.”

To walk in the truth means to obey it, to permit it to control every area of our lives. It is much easier to study the truth, or even to argue about the truth, than it is to practice it!

In verse 4 John expresses joy that people are living their lives in obedience to God’s will. It brings great joy to the Father when He sees His children obeying His Word. It should bring great joy to us as well when we see other followers of Jesus obeying Him.

It should conversely break our hearts when see other believers not obeying Jesus. It should break our hearts when we see anybody not obeying God.

Jesus is not angry when people disobey His Word or His will. It breaks His heart. What breaks Jesus’ heart should break our hearts.

I see it many times that when we who are followers of Jesus see those who disobey God, our reaction is anger, not sadness.

Jesus wants people to obey Him because it is the best thing for them if they do and He wants the best for us. He is for us, not against us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is living in obedience to God and being broken when others don’t.  

In verse 4 John reminds us that walking in the truth is what God commands.

God’s commandments are expressions of His love. They are not meant to burden us down with needless restrictions or useless laws. Each commandment shows us the best way to live and relate to God. They again are for our benefit.

God’s will reveals His heart and God’s heart is always centered on us. We are the apple of His eye. We are His treasured possession.

Many try and make God’s commandments appear harsh. They present an alternative to God’s commands that they claim leads to freedom.

Jesus says in John 8 that abiding in God’s Word leads to being His disciples and that His disciples know the truth and that the truth really sets us free.

Any teaching that opposes God’s Word leads to slavery and death, not freedom and life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing freedom and life through obeying God’s Word.

Then in verses 5 and 6 John reminds us that we are to love each other. This is not a new command. The Mosaic Law commanded that the Jews love their neighbors in Leviticus 19:18 and 34. Jesus commands His followers to love one another in John 13.

When God tells us to love others that is not an act out of our emotions, but an act of our wills. I cannot always control my emotions, but I can allow God to control my will and how I act and react.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving others out of a Spirit-controlled will.

In this passage John blends together three things; truth, love and obedience. It is by believing the truth – in Christ and in the Word – that we are saved. The evidence of that salvation is love and obedience. Love and obedience are strengthened as we grow in our knowledge of truth. We speak the truth in love and obey God’s commands because we love Him. Obedience enables us to learn more truth, and the more truth we learn, the more we love Jesus who is truth.

Instead of living in a vicious circle, we live in a victorious circle of love, truth, and obedience.

In Love, Truth, and Obedience Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                        Joe

Grace in the Middle Suffering

In Ephesians 3:1 Paul says that he is a prisoner and in Ephesians 3:2 he refers to the grace that God has given him.

Most of us would not connect being a prisoner with grace. Paul spent a lot of time in prison. He saw his time in prison because he was serving God as neither punishment nor discipline. He saw it as the natural consequence of serving Jesus in a fallen world. He saw his whole life as defined by God’s grace.

Grace according Philip Yancey is the “last best word”.

Grace is seen in all areas of life.

We say grace before a meal to acknowledge God’s provision.

In England the queen is referred to as “your grace”, acknowledging that as the queen, she shows love for all her people.

There are grace periods for credit cards, rental cars, and mortgages, meaning that there is a period of time after the payment is due when there will not be any penalties if the bill is paid.

In music there are things called grace notes. These are notes that are not essential to the melody but add to the impact and enjoyment of the music. If these notes are not included, they are missed.

Grace contains the essence of the gospel.

The great Christian revelations come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there.

Grace is not something invented by God at the cross. Grace was always there because God is grace. He shows His unearned love, mercy, and favor to every human being.

I love the grace moments we see clearly in scripture.

God appearing to Jacob at Bethel and promising to be with him, protect him, and return him to his home.

God taking care of and providing for Ruth and Naomi and giving them a kinsman-redeemer in Boaz.

God choosing David to be king even though David’s brothers were much more outwardly impressive than he was.

God dealing with Israel and Judah over decades of them obeying and then falling away and serving other gods.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeing God’s grace in the everyday things of life.

In the New Testament we have awesome pictures of God’s grace.

Four of them really speak to me about the extent of God’s grace.

The first is in Luke 19 where Jesus encounters Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus is a much-hated and dishonest chief tax collector. The people hated him and saw him as a traitor to his own people. Jesus saw him as a man who was lost and needed to be reconciled to God. Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house for lunch and reconciled him to the Father.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing reconciliation to the Father through His grace.

The second is in John 4 where Jesus encounters an unnamed Samaritan woman.

Jesus engages this woman in public, breaking down barriers so that she can came to know Him as Messiah, Savior, and Lord. Grace breaks down human-made barriers so that salvation can occur.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing God’s grace breaking down barriers so that people can really know God.

The third is in John 8 when a woman caught committing adultery is brought to Jesus.

Jesus sees the repentance and brokenness of the woman and does not do as the religious leaders did and condemn her. Jesus intercedes for her and then forgives her and releases her from condemnation and shame.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is experiencing the removal of condemnation, shame, and guilt through God’s grace.

The fourth is in John 21 where Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him. Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him and three times gives him instructions to take care of God’s people.

Jesus restores Peter and removes the hurt of Peter’s denial of Him.

We all fail and Jesus knows that, so grace restores us.

Raises the Roof and Remove the Walls is being restored to friendship with Jesus.

The root of the Greek word for grace is charis which means “I rejoice” or “I am glad”.

Grace should make us rejoice and be bold as we live.

What does the world learn about God’s grace when they watch us as the followers of Jesus?

In and With Grace, Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Reconcilation

Reconciliation is the process of making enemies friends. It is bringing two parties together as friends.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Paul uses the word reconciled or some form of that world five times in this passage.

Paul makes it very clear that God wants to reconcile people to Himself. God wants us to be His friends.

In this passage Paul tells us:

What God has done.

How God did it.

What our part is in God’s plan.

What God has done.

God has provided the opportunity to be reconciled or to be made friends with God.

According Genesis 1:27 God created us as humans in His image. We are the only thing that God created in His image. One of the things that it means for us to be created in God’s image is that we are capable of having a personal, intimate, love relationship with God.

God’s desire for each of us as His human creation is that we be friends with Him. That we live in intimate relationship

The way God did this was in two ways by one instrument.

When we are reconciled with God, we are made into a new creation.

When we were born, we were born with a nature to sin. Our default setting is that of sinning. This is why Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 that you  

must be born again.

When we surrender our lives over from our authority to Jesus’ authority, we are born again and become a whole new creation. We get a new nature that is empowered by the Holy Spirit to obey God.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving a new nature and living in that new nature.

When we are reconciled with God, we take on us His righteousness because He took our sins.

Being reconciled with God means that I am righteous, not because of anything I have done but because God has declared me righteous based on Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is accepting God’s declaration that I am righteous and living that way.

This new nature and new righteousness come solely because of Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is all about the cross.

Our part in God’s plan of reconciliation is that, once we have experienced being reconciled to God, we are to become ambassadors of God’s reconciliation. We then become the messengers of reconciliation.

That means I don’t view any person according to the flesh. I don’t view people from a human viewpoint, but I view them as Jesus does.

In Matthew 5:44 Jesus tells us to:

Love our enemies

Pray for those who persecute us

I recently sat in a meeting with a group of church leaders and a discussion arose about the homeless in our community. The discussion became about how bad and dishonest these people were.

That is not being ambassadors of reconciliation.

Being ambassadors for reconciliation is:

Loving my enemies

Praying for those who persecute me

Loving people even if they disagree with me or don’t like me

Not judging people based on outward appearance

Sharing the truth of Jesus’ love, mercy, and grace

Allowing Jesus to overcome man-made barriers to the Gospel

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being ambassadors of God’s message of reconciliation.

With Jesus, Reconciling People to Himself and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe

Grace & Punishment

All choices carry consequences. Good choices lead to certain outcomes. Bad choices lead to certain outcomes.

God, in His love for His human creation, pours out grace, and grace can overcome the consequences of our bad choices.

In 2 Peter we are shown the greatness of God’s grace and the seriousness of His judgment. 

2 Peter 2:4-10

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until judgment; if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes He condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what

is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly

distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Peter makes sure that we understand that God will punish sin and rebellion against His authority.

Peter mentions:

The fallen angels being cast into hell and chained up in gloomy darkness.

The ungodly people of the ancient world who refused to hear and respond to the truth.

The wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah who lived their lives focused on sensual pleasures.

All three of these groups had access to the truth and opportunity to change. They chose to ignore and reject God and His will to do their own will.

Bringing judgment is not God’s preference. God is love and a God of grace and mercy. He loves His human creation and desires to grace us, not judge us.

But God is a just God and will judge and punish sin. When we make choices that are sin, we face the danger of judgment.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is recognizing that sin leads to God’s judgment.

We also see God’s grace in this passage.

God’s grace saves Noah and his family from the flood.

Genesis 6:8 says that Noah found favor in the eyes of God. Favor is grace. Noah was given grace by God.

It was not Noah’s life that caused God to save Noah. It was God’s grace that caused Him to save Noah.

Out of God’s grace we are told twice (Genesis 6:22 & 7:5) that Noah did what God commanded. This obedience came after God had pour out grace on Noah.

Peter calls Noah a herald of righteousness. This again came after God graced Noah.

When God gave Noah grace, Noah’s response was obedience and proclamation of God’s truth.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is receiving God’s grace and responding in gratitude and obedience.

Noah was not a perfect person.

In Genesis 9:21 we are told that Noah drank wine and got drunk and he then passed out naked in his tent. His sons had to come in and cover him up.

God does not require perfection. Grace overcomes our imperfections.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is not depending on always doing it right but on God’s grace.

 God’s grace delivers Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Peter calls Lot a righteous man.

Lot selfishly chose the Jordan Valley area. This area was lush and green. It was the best pasture land around and Lot chose it as where he wanted to go when given the opportunity by Abraham. Lot moved to live close to Sodom and Gomorrah and then eventually into Sodom itself.

And even when Lot was told what God was about to do, destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he was reluctant to leave.

In Genesis 19 after Lot and his daughters had escaped the destruction, Lot had sex with his daughters and produced children.

Lot didn’t look very righteous from a human point of view.

God declared him righteous based on His grace.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God’s view of us to be who we are.

Sin brings punishment, but God’s grace overcomes the sin and punishment.

By and Through the Grace of God,

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                       Joe

Difficulties Turned to Strengths

Jesus was not a trained rabbi. He had not studied under a certified rabbi of any kind. The Jewish religious leaders did not acknowledge Jesus as a rabbi and certainly not as the Messiah.

Jesus experienced rejection from many sources. Jesus didn’t view Himself or define Himself by what others said or thought about Him. He defined Himself by what the Father said to Him.

Matthew 3:17

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.”

Matthew 17: 5

While he was speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

The Father says:

Jesus is His Son

Jesus is loved by the Father

Jesus is pleasing to the Father

Jesus is to be listened to

Jesus knew all this and was reminded by the Father at a very critical times in His life.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting God define you, not the world.

When most people give their qualifications for ministry, they mention education, training, and experience.

In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul lists the things that don’t qualify him and those that do qualify him to be a minister of Jesus.

In verse 22 Paul says that he is a Hebrew, an Israelite, and a descendant of Abraham. These are not what Paul see as qualifying him to serve Jesus.

In verses 23 through 27 Paul list his qualifications:

Prison Time

Floggings

Exposed to Death Many Times

Five Times Receiving 39 Lashes

Three Times Beaten with Rods

Stoned (with stones)

Three Shipwrecks

A Time in the Open Sea

Constantly Moving from Place to Place

In Danger from Rivers

In Danger from Bandits

In Danger from His Own Countrymen

In Danger from Gentiles

In Danger in the City

In Danger in the Country

In Danger at Sea

In Danger from False Brothers

Labors and Toils

Without Sleep

Hungry and Thirsty

Cold and Naked

Paul list his scars as his qualifications.

We, as a rule, try to avoid danger and punishment and discomfort. Paul saw them as a part of what it meant to follow Jesus.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is letting our difficult times equip us to minister the Gospel.

Paul does not allow all these difficult times to lead him to see himself as a victim.

In 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Paul says, “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul saw his difficulties as something to boast in.

Paul saw his difficulties as something that made him stronger.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is allowing God to turn your difficulties into strengths.

I experienced some of those difficulties this past week. I found myself in the local ER Thursday night with chest pains and high blood pressure. It turned out that is was not my heart, but it did involve stress. The stress was not put on me from others, but stress I put on myself.

God had been speaking to me about my worry and stress for some time. It took me laying in an ER hooked up to machines to hear God to tell me that ministry is not dependent on me and that I am not invincible. These last three days have felt more peaceful and joyful.

It has also shown me that I was being too critical of others. God’s grace is real for me and is to be dispensed to others.

It is truly amazing what God reveals when you slow down and listen to Him. It is also amazing how God uses difficult times to grow and strengthens us when we slow down and listen.

In God’s Power and God’s Perspective,

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                                           Joe