The Church Without Walls

I find myself in a challenging place today. I have decided to enter the blogging world and allow cyberspace to be my best friend. As most of you know I lead a ministry called Drawing Near to God and I have been searching for a way to communicate what the Lord is doing in the life of the minstry and in my personal life. So here is my first attempt at sharing with my new cyberspace friends about my very best friend, Jesus Christ.

This morning as I read through some passages in the book of Acts, I asked myself the question- or better yet, I was asking God…. “is the church described in the book of Acts the same church today?” Do we expect to see God show up in our daily lives both in simple ways, and in big ways? Do we start each day with a sense of expectancy that each day is not only a gift from God, but that we have been commissioned by God to be a part of what HE is doing?

After Jesus left this earth, He sent His Holy Spirit and then He commissioned believers (the church) to be His hands and feet on earth. Are you kidding me? Me represent Christ? Maybe I could send my priest, or better yet my husband who is the Godliest person I know. No…. God is asking me to be His representative on earth. And He is asking you to do so as well. Fortunately for both of us He has given us His Holy Spirit to lead and empower us but is it possible or just wishful thinking that together we can impact this world with the message of Christ? And that is where the “church without walls comes in”. The 1st century church was not divided into denomininations. The church was a group of people who banned together to pray, break bread, and care for one another. The church was essentially without walls powerfully breaking into a lost world that needed a Savior.

The same world exists today. People are broken, lost, and afraid. People are uncertain of their future and are feeling hopeless. As a body of believers we can be a kingdom united and it is time that we recognized how much we need one another. If we stay in our denominational corners we will lose the impact, power, and effect that together we can have on our broken world.

The church without walls is a church that is willing to acknowledge our differences and yet work together to be the body of Christ. Each part of the body is necessary. I yearn to see the day when the church exibits the fullness of the power that Christ promised. We can hasten the day by working together proclaiming freedom for the captives, sight for the blind, and release for the oppressed. (Luke 4:21). And together we will become the church without walls.