Building Faith - Entry for Falling for Jesus

Psalm 105: 1,2 (NKJV)

Oh, give thanks to the LORD!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!

God is just so amazingly good! This morning I felt His presence and blessing so strongly upon our congregation. Our church has been building-less for about five years. (Sometime I will go into the details of how we found grace by leaving Grace and how we came to be called Faith.) We have the land and some money. Most of us want to build a church. After much God-searching over the past few weeks our church elders have come to the conclusion that it truly is impossible, irresponsible, and inappropriate for us to start building a church. Therefore, we will start building a church! This is wonderful news, but perhaps a tiny bit confusing. Allow me to explain.

Years ago our Pastor prayed, wisely, "Lord, please make it impossible for us to build a church." We want God, not us, to build His church, not our church. We set up a building committee and started a building fund. Then because things got a little scary (the inordinate cost of building, negative input at a fragile time, fear from our collective past of losing church buildings), we stopped moving forward with building. We have just been moving from borrowed place to borrowed place, building-less, for a long time.

Partway through the "impossible, inappropriate, irresponsible" sermon, I was getting a little frustrated. It has been so painfully obvious to my family that we should start building and let God ... well LET God period. So when the three I's were introduced with scripture to back them, I found myself almost giving up with the thought, "If our elders are not seeking God (or at least not listening) and now they are using scripture to justify this lack of faith, maybe we do not want to be part of this church after all." I hate even writing that down. I LOVE my church! We have been through so much together. I love our pastor. I love each of our elders and their families. But God is my All In All. I can't be in a church that goes purposefully out of His will.
This morning when it first occurred to me that we were going ahead with building, I remember glancing up from my notes and meeting eyes with one of my best friends whose husband is an elder and dear friend. She was smiling with tears in her eyes. It was so exciting to realize that our church was going to build! I found out later that my dear mother-in-law was having a similar reaction across the room from me; Taking notes, being irritated, thinking, "I guess this is it." To clarify, I would never leave a church family because they didn't do something I wanted them to do, i.e. build a building. It just was so clearly God's will that we build.
I think that is why today was so sweet. It has never really been about building a new church. It has been about building Faith. God has been speaking. We've been praying and listening. God spoke some more... and we heard Him! I just love that! You could feel Him in that room with us. I think we are on the right track!

Psalm 105:3,4

Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD!
Seek the LORD and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!