March 15, 2026

If we huddle in our churches, doing the “We four and No More” thing, if we stay away from the unwashed, the tax collectors and their friends, we will see the tax collectors and prostitutes sitting where we thought we would sit. They will be the sick who hear the message and repent. We will be the Pharisees who missed the point entirely. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. So simple. And yet easily missed in our daily lives. Better to get your hands dirty in the highways and byways. If we want to follow Jesus we will indeed step outside the church.

The church feels safe. Our friends are there. It’s familiar. We are around like-minded people and there is little division. We know the routines. The problem is, if we stay inside the walls of the church, we cannot move God’s Great Commission forward. In spite of our church humor, “Be warm, be fed, be gone,” we know we have to go out into the world if our goal is telling people about a God centered life. God knows it isn’t easy. But it is what we’re called to do.

God, help me step outside my comfort zone today. Remind me of the battles going on in people’s homes, the addictions, the abuse, the broken marriages and the lost children. I know the quiet peace you can bring, the soft wonder as I rest in Your love, the way You surprise me with a sunrise. Help me reach out with the story of Jesus and how He touches lives with kindness and turns us away from worldly clamor.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 19-20