We are "MEN ON THE ROOF"

Happy New Year!  We are fresh off the celebration of birth of Jesus and a new calendar year has started.  I want us as men to on build on the excitement of these past few weeks and carry that momentum all year long.  We are “Men on the roof”.  This movement is inspired by the five men found in the beginning of Mark 2.  Here is that passage as well as what has been laid on my heart to share with you about it.

Mark 2:2-5:  ² They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. ³ Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Sometimes I am paralyzed.  I am paralyzed by expectations, images, finances, laziness, greed, thoughts, comfort, desires.  Sometimes I do not recognize when I am frozen in who I am.  At those times I need friends and family to pick me and carry me into the arms of Jesus.  It is there that, through His unfailing grace and His unending love, He will say "Get up and walk.  You are freed from what holds you down.  You can walk by my side and I will carry these burdens for you.  Focus on me and I will provide you a life everlasting flowing with water that is so pure, you'll never thirst.  You'll be filled with my all-consuming love in a way that you'll never hunger.  Walk with me in faith and you'll never again be paralyzed by the ways of this world."

As a team we can walk together.  Learning and growing in our faith together.  Sometimes I will be the one that is paralyzed in my fears or my ways of life.  At those times I need to be carried back to His love.  Other times it might be you that needs to be carried.  It is our responsibility as brothers in Christ to do what it takes to bring each other back to the center, back to the ways we are called to walk.  If we must carry someone up onto the roof, dig a hole, and lower them down into the arms of Jesus, then we will.  We will do it together.  In those actions we will together carry the paralyzed, the lost, the frozen to arms of Jesus.  And, when we are in His arms, He will show us how to walk again.  The bible even tells us that those who are the carriers will also be blessed because we came in faith to the Father.  When we believe and act in the love of Jesus, we too will experience that love.  So please join with me.  Walk with me alongside Jesus.  I will stumble and fall along the way.  You will too.  But when that happens, we will carry each other back to the path, back into the arms of the Almighty Father who will teach us how to walk without stumbling.  Back into the arms of the Father who will carry us when we feel like we can't walk.  We need to be men on a roof, working together.

I want to spend some time over the next few weeks to help establish what it looks like to be MEN ON THE ROOF and what that means for you.  This week please spend some time in Mark 2 reading about Jesus healing the paralytic man.  Then, leave a comment below about what you think it means to be MEN ON THE ROOF.

Have a wonderful day!