The Church Tour

The Church Tour

'I will lift my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."
Psalm 121:1-2

Our tour of this church held special significance because, years earlier, some of the men of our church had labored knee-deep in mud to lay the foundation. We were led through the entranceway, into the sanctuary, the classrooms and, finally, the pastor's office. Just outside of Tegucigalpa in Honduras, known as "the church in the valley", this at that time uncompleted building was a blessing to behold.

To be honest, I hadn't thought about visiting this church for a good many years until one night recently when I read a quote from Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China in the 1800's, that brought it back to mind:

"The enemy may build a barrier about us, but he
can never roof us in, so that we cannot look up."

The picture of the church tour flashed in my mind because, despite all that had been accomplished in it's building, there was still no roof. Our tour was an open-air tour, led from room to room with the sun beating down on us. In Central America, with buildings constructed almost entirely of cement and block, the roof is often the last area to be completed and such was the case with this church.

Hudson Taylor was attempting to describe something that I'm sure most, if not all of us have experienced-the enemy building walls in our lives to keep us walking in God's blessings and accomplishing God's will and purposes Those walls often take the form of circumstances that are beyond our control and can result from the actions of others that have a significant impact on us. And the reality is that some of these walls can be quite formidable and very discouraging.

But we can always look up!!! Hudson Taylor's words and the picture of that church in Honduras with walls but no roof serve to remind us that nothing can stop us from looking to our God in our times of trials and difficulty. And the minute we look up in prayer, our hearts will begin to hope and be encouraged in the Lord.

The walls will come down. And the Lord will give answers. But in the time between trial and victory, in the days when patience and endurance are necessary, we have to know that the way is always clear for us to look to heaven, to the source of our deliverance, to the One who gives strength for each new day.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church