Church Outside The Walls

Last night in Peru we experienced church outside the walls. Santa Rosa was the community near Chincha.

As Christians we seek for a ‘place of worship’ but these folks worship where they are! We literally had service in the middle of the street. There were women, children, youth, and men.

I preached! ‘Dig through the Rubble of the War to Build Cities’. The scenery couldn’t have been more fitting. It was a quaint neighborhood and the sense of community was thick. Kids everywhere & neighbors neighborly all under the night sky!

I shared my story. The innocence, the war, the rubble, and the love of Jesus intertwined in every detail. God wastes nothing! He wastes none of our pain. He uses it all for His glory to bring life to His creation. He is absolutely crazy about us!

The war happens to us when we least expect it. The rubble is the debris that is left when the war is over. And the love of Jesus is how we are able to dig through it. Not every part of the rubble is bad. But we must dig through it like an archeologist to find the treasures underneath! God created us and we create our story! Some of it good, other parts not so good. But only when Christ is in us will we be able to sort through it. Without him it is painful. Too painful for the sober. Perhaps that is why we see so many addicted to substances. Substances are substitutes for Christ. They are dead ends. They are quick fixes that end up creating more war and more rubble to sort through.

Jesus is the answer!

Finding Jesus also means you find a family of believers. Many times our comfort comes from being inside the walls of the physical church building. We get comfortable. We get cozy. We become ok with coming and going and forget that Jesus has saved us FOR the world, not FROM it.

As we find Jesus we must become aware of others outside the family of God. We must get outside the church walls and be with the people. Whether we realize it or not these people outside the family of God could possibly be our future family in Christ. Christ didn’t die for me before I became a believer. But while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me.

Let Christ be your Savior.

Dig through your rubble.

Get out of the church walls.

Be with the people.

Build cities – people are the cities!

Amen