What if the Church Began to Rise, Despite Church Buildings Being Closed?

Word has it, their feet stood in the moving river, near the rocks on a sandbar…

Underneath no walls and an open sky.

Voices lingered in the light, as the orchard nearby flooded with fruit. Hearts unfiltered. Praises rising because of the mighty name of Jesus.

I can imagine it was a hot day. Only a few sparce clouds blocking their faces from looking at the Son.

No blaring music, heavy drums, no photo ops or video recordings as they stood before God, in the unstoppable water of the river that runs not far from here.

I have attended a lot of church buildings in my day. One year, when we had an older foster girl and I was desperate for Him to lead me…

We attended something like eleven churches; everything from people-slaying to stout conservative, a pastor from Uganda, as well as frequenting our local church. Because…

Walls can’t keep hungry hearts out.

When something inside you is desperate, no human standard, man’s deflection, walled establishment can keep you from His grace.

It has been the smallest of churches over the years that have impacted me the most.

The tent in Guatemala, I wept with unstoppable emotion under. The “church” of isolated, local people, I worshiped with up a mountain, after hiking ten miles to visit them.

Then, there was a tarp of a chapel I stood under at camp as an elementary student. The missionary looked at me, as if through me…And while others gave up, He refused to stop praying for me…

I encourntered the fullness of the Holy Spirit and was forever changed that day.

There was the gathering outside, chairs in someone’s backyard. One pastor moving through the crowd as we sang accapela, like my ancestors did at the river that day.

No roof. No walls. Just us and Jesus. A beautiful sound.

And while the loud trumpets, booming sound systems, fancy orchestra and live choirs move my heart….It is actually the sweet, still moments of surrender, where I have been met in the silence…

His humble presence has changed me the most.

These times where we can’t hide behind fancy buildings, well-dressed people, leaders touting their credentials, God becomes more real, most present, to me.

See, what I have found, is that God likes us stripped away.

He doesn’t need our well primped hair, fancy heals, eloquent talk, insincere, “bless you’s”, and “I’ll be praying for you”.

Jesus likes the raw. He is drawn to the humble and authentic.

He comes where we have taken down our walls. He races towards us, not because we are good, but despite anything we have or have done.

We can come to Him just as we are, and He loves and embraces us, like the Father and the Prodigal.

Today, most of us have been taken away from our four-walled buildings. We have been separated from the temptation to “play church”.

We can’t go to some service for an hour and fifteen minutes, and then walk away…As if we have gotten some free pass of religious piety, that will sustain us for the rest of the week.

Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. He doesn’t leave or forsake us, run or play some game; pulling you close, then moving you away.

He is our ever-present help in time of need.

And how many during this season can lift our hands and confess, we are lost without a Savior?

“I think the reason we sometimes have a false sense that God is so far away is because that is where we have put him. We have kept him at a distance, and then when we are in need and call on him in prayer, we wonder where he is. He is exactly where we left Him.” ~ Ravi Zacharias (More quotes from him here)

We think people only distance Him with their overt sins. But what about our indifference, religiousity, our piousness? Don’t those things repel the heart of God?

And if not, then why didn’t Jesus radically transform the religious organizations of His day? Why did He seem to leave religious leaders of His day, the same?

The Pharasees and Sadduces thought they were enough because they “looked the part” and in their minds they were good because they were, “doing stuff” for God.

Matthew 9:13 tells us, “I desire compassion [for those in distress], and not [animal] sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call [to repentance] the [self-proclaimed] righteous [who see no need to change], but sinners [those who recognize their sin and actively seek forgiveness].”

Religious establishments never seemed to change. Not in Jesus day. And sadly, even in some circles today.

Walls make people feel comfortable. Rules bring a sense of felt safety. Control lured those dependent on human heirachies, instead of us falling, fully dependent, on God.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. There is power and beauty, safety and healing. Where Jesus is, there are no limits or weighs from yokes any man might burden us with.

His yoke is easy. His burden is light.

And I want to walk in that freedom. Whether now, in the confines of my home, under a tent or the larger church where God reigns supreme and the pastor continually bows low, so others can rise in their God given destiny.

My ancestors fell low, moving water covering their entire bodies, that day as they were baptized in the river.

I image their faces as they rose to the humble voices singing Jesus praises around them, under nothing but open sky.

Fresh water untainted from the mountains, washing over them completely. No walls. No large, visible gatherings….

Just Jesus and their faith. Just hope in Him and a desperate cry to know Him more.

This is my legacy. And the longer I live, the more I don’t want to waiver from it. I don’t want to get lost in corporate gatherings promising money, fame or visiblity.

And although I have seen God move in large, corporate settings, I realize, I personally have seen God most, open Bible before me, tenderly bowing before Him on my knees.

And what if, instead of us all waiting for the churches to open, we gathered together to worship him, in homes, under open skies, and in the place that He has planted us…

What if we first recognized, God does His best work, where we have taken down all the walls…Not just those established by the world…

But those placed to protect us, in our very own hearts.

Afterall, doesn’t God move freest under open skies and where His Spirit is like the river, my ancestors were once baptized in?