Sunday, December 21, 2003

First Sunday in the new building. I wasn't wildly excited. I wasn't giddy. I wasn't freaked out. If anything I was tired. Like William Wallace standing on a victorious battlefield surrounded by fellow combatants waving and shouting only to calm down, look around, and assess their injuries, the dust has settled, and here we are. Not that I have any injuries, mind you. With the exception of some new calluses (which will come in handy for guitar playing) and a nagging ache in the back, I'm pretty well off. As for the rest of the crew? I feel honored to have worked along side of (and at the mercy of) some mighty fine people. I think there's a whole barrel of spiritual gifts that we have overlooked here. In Exodus, God identifies a guy by the name of Bezaleel who, He says, is filled with His Spirit and the evidence of it is that Bez is gifted in all manner of workmanship and understanding. God delegates to him, the task of building the temple. As if by some logical wisdom, God doesn't tell the prophets, priests, or tribal leaders to do the job. He sovereignly gives a strange guy on the fringe the gift and call to build His house.
I wonder if in this day, in which God dwells in houses made of flesh, that He is once again calling those sovereignly chosen, regular folks, to bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to mankind in a real, relevant way. Strange people on the fringe, just like us.