In Luke 5 Jesus is in a house teaching, the crowd checking him out was so large inside and out that some friends bringing a paralysed man couldn’t get into the house.

No disabled access! No way in, nobody moving to make a way through.

It says there was NO WAY TO DO IT.

So what did they do?

‘Sorry pal, we’ll have to take you home again?’

No! There was no way so they made a way. They got creative. Dangerous even. They climbed up on the roof and kicked the roof in so they could lower their friend down on a bed in front of Jesus!

This appeals to me from ex police days, where one of my favourite jobs was to be ‘Donger man’ on raids. The Donger was what we called that battering ram which provided a useful key for the majority of locked doors with 14 stone behind it. I’m terrible at DIY, but if you want something smashing, I’m your guy.

What those guys did to the roof and how Mark’s account says when Jesus saw them do it he saw FAITH really grabbed me the other week at the beginning of our ’30 Days of More’ prayer here at Ivy. I said to the Staff Team that day, ‘We need to be those kind of ‘kick the roof in’ people!’

We need to keep asking ourselves all the time, ‘What are the roofs? Is that a roof? Is that a wall? What are the walls, what are the obstacles? What things are blocking people getting to Jesus? Attitudes, the way we’ve always done it, anything – no matter how precious – that’s keeping people thinking there’s no way in for them?’

Let’s identify them, name them and give them the boot!

This week we relaunch our website and Ill be putting more about that on the blog but one of our main messages is we’re meant to be Helping People Find Their Way Back To God. People who don’t think they’re able to access His love and His power. We’re meant to bring them to Jesus, get them close enough so they can meet him and hear him say ‘Your sins are forgiven, I have the healing you need.’

Jesus wants anybody and everybody to get to him. We can get comfortable huddled under our ‘roofs’, inside our walls with Jesus. They make us feel secure and keep the rain out; but it’s no good if they are keeping people out as well! Jesus wants all kinds of people to find their way back to God.

What are the walls and roofs blocking people? Let me know what you think.

Then, get your hob nail boots on!