Shelter for all weather

I am sure that at some point in your life you have heard people say that they like to go to church because there you breathe peace, harmony, tranquility. That's true, but it can often be disappointing. The church we are the redeemed by the blood of Christ, but we are still far from perfection.

Truly the church must go to seek God and meet his son Jesus Christ. He is peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you ”(John 14.27a). Whoever lives in the Spirit enjoys supernatural peace (the one that "passes all understanding" (Phil 4.7)). It is not the church that produces peace, but the presence of the Spirit in the lives of each of its members. When the redeemed attest to the presence of God in their lives and testimonies, then the church becomes a spiritual home - with or without walls - a place of refuge for sinners who seek God's grace, for those who They come loaded down (the product of sin) and weary (from all their toils) and accept God's grace in their lives through faith in Jesus Christ.

God overlooks absolutely nothing that interferes with his redemptive plans for mankind. Three thousand years ago God commanded Joshua to establish cities of refuge in the territories conquered and distributed among the tribes of Israel. Refuge for sinners, specifically for murderers who “accidentally and without premeditation” (Joshua 20.3) had caused the death of another person. There they had to wait for a verdict that would condemn or absolve them. A strategy of God so that violence and death would not proliferate with the presence of uncontrolled murderers among the people. A decree of mercy and grace for the sinner that brings to mind “when we were still dead in our trespasses and sins” and the Lord came to offer us the best refuge.

The Lord has given an extraordinary provision to the church so that the repentant sinner may find his only refuge in Jesus Christ. The church becomes a city of refuge when Jesus is the center of all that he does and envisions, when he protects the helpless and provides spiritually so that its members long to grow to the stature of Christ.

There are those who, hidden under a cloud of confusion and uncertainty, come to the church looking for another type of refuge and not for Christ and they try to acquire a new identity and image through contact and coexistence with Christians that allows them to stay "afloat" in the troubled waters of the world. They are the "refugees" for convenience, those who come and go, but never remain; the immigrants of the world who do not make a homeland in the house of God or anywhere.

There is a fundamental difference between those cities of refuge established by Josué and the Church of the Savior of the World: in the former, the murderer who was convicted was handed over to the vigilante for revenge; in the church of the living God and in Christ, the murderer, even found guilty according to the laws of the world, is forgiven and finds salvation. Every Christian, without exception, fell short of the glory of God when he was a slave to sin. The liberating grace of Jesus makes us accepted and righteous before the Father when we embrace the Son through faith and entrust our lives to him alone.

Good soldiers of Christ can also fall. Spiritual warfare is life-threatening and the church, both the individual and the congregation of believers, must become a city of refuge full of love and grace for the wounded who come seeking comfort and help. If God did it for us one day, much more today we owe to our neighbors and to our brothers fallen in the battles of life, a high share of mercy. The church -you- is also a refuge for sinners who repent, in such a way that it is not an exclusive patrimony for the redeemed, but also for the unredeemed who seek the face of God and the protection of the only one who brings peace, comfort and love. .

God bless your Word!

Suggested Reading: Joshua 20