Northern Colorado Gazette

by Rev. Brad

What would it look like if we let Christ build the church? Let me share with you what that might look like.  Then maybe ask yourself who is building your church.

Out on a stretch of highway sits an empty grain field. Some stubble is still in the field, there is a pull off the road there but not much else. No fence and not much of anything else. The land has been given to you by a farmer who planned to let the field rest for a year. You know you are to build a church on it and buy it from the farmer but you have no money aside what it takes to support your family.

So, what do you do? You let God build it. On the first Sunday you go to the empty field with just your bible and you worship the Lord for with song and dance and preach your first sermon. Sunday after Sunday this continues until one day a passerby pulls in a pickup and unloads a pulpit. It is not much but it will hold your bible and your notes. The next Sunday it starts to rain. Now what? How can you have church out here in the muddy field in the rain?

As you sit in your car and ponder driving home. The Lord speaks to you can says if you need it I will provide.  So, you step out of your car and preach and worship the Lord in the pouring rain. That is when you notice that a few people are stopped along the road. As you finish your worship the front car rolls down the window and asks, “would you like a tent?”  Soak to the bone, Bible dripping wet you just smile and thank them for their kindness.

The next Sunday when you arrive at the empty field there is a tent. Not a big one but 20×20 with full sides. The Lord does provide. As you start to worship the people that were in the car arrive and join you in the tent to worship the Lord.

A few weeks later an elderly couple drops in to check things out. And murmurs for needed chairs and a place to sit spread.  The elderly couple realizes that there is no chairs and they leave. Lord, you exclaim if we are to have people they need a place to sit.  Before you can finish that prayer the Lord says again. I will provide what you need.  Weeks and weeks go by with no more chairs just the pulpit and a muddy floor in a tent. But the numbers of your church grow slowly but steady. Until one day the farmer drops by and unloads 10 bales of straw.

As you can imagine this is not the way “we” build a church. The people expect to have chairs and a piano. What kind of church. Is just a tent with muddy floors and straw bales to sit on? Well fast forward this story a few years and you see that not only did the Lord supply everything that was “needed” but on that spot it’s a beautiful church.

Every step of the way put the Lord first and He Jehovah Jireh will provide. If He thinks you need it He will provide it.

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