Get outa the pews!

“Dear Children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
-1John 3: 18

My heart has been moved and burdened by this instruction for the past four years. I spent most of my first couple years as a Christian, seeking community, learning about the word and pouring into other Christians like me. This was extremely valuable time that helped me develop and have the foundation to step out of my comfort zone. Rarely do the people of a church actually step out and leave this place of ease. I hit a wall of frustration my senior year of College when I sat with a non-Christian friend who was expressing his disappointment and confusion to me about Christianity. He felt that all the Sunday services and lunch dates that follow were a waste of time and resources. He shared his vision with me of a church that met in the streets and served the community around them by not only talking about the Lord but doing what he has commanded us to do. Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself and to feed and clothe those in need. He said that whatever we do for the least of these (the needy) we do for him. I am continually challenged with this and I want to bring the challenge to whoever reads this as well. Do something worthwhile, outside of yourself. Take donuts to the office on a Monday morning, learn something new about your co-workers, have a conversation with the homeless man who asks your for $5, come to Honduras, haha. Please just don’t settle for a faith that is only lived out in a church. Take the love of Christ to the streets, to your home and EVERYWHERE you go. Show people what that love looks like, if you don’t know seek it out, its our job as the body of Christ to show you. If you don’t know the love of Christ, test us, challenge us to step up and show you but have grace. We are still human and learning too. There is a balance involved here as well, along with doing, we must proclaim his goodness and the driving force behind our actions. If we build a house here in Roatan for a family in need and leave it at that, we are nothing more than some generous Gringos. But if we share Christ as its being done and tell them of the true reason we are sweating side by side, they can have a transformation of heart along with a new home. They can receive more than a gift from our hands but a gift that has been given and made possible through the Lord. I strive to give God all the glory for anything that is done here. When that is done, it is amazing how the dots line up and his divine touch is undeniable. Proclaim his goodness as you show people who Jesus is by your actions.

“When people look at the Church, they should see the one who declared – in word and deed to the leper, the lame and the poor – that His kingdom is bringing healing to every speck of the universe.”