By David Hobbs
(Keep Reading down from the last Post)
The concept of war footing became very
real to me back when we built our first church building, what’s now known as
“The Old Sanctuary” at GT. At that point we were a Jesus People, “hippie church.”
Our founding pastor, Jerry Russell, had turned the work over to Reg Layzell out
of Canada. Reg was a no-nonsense, man’s-man who impressed upon us that if we
were going to continue to grow, we needed a bigger facility than our rented,
old Cal-Trans building in Marysville. He convinced us of two things: we weren’t
going to go to the world (i.e. the bankers) for our financing but were going to
believe God for the money to come in; and we were going to do the work
ourselves instead of paying others to do it. We were all excited by the
prospect, but of course didn’t realize the price we were going to be required
to pay. The only way it would work was the church was going to have to go on
the equivalent of a war footing--
It would take a total
sacrifice and commitment.
For
sake of time, I’ll just mention a few things. Every Sunday, sometime during our
service, Brother Layzell would stop the service and ask Mark Cites, the foreman,
how many workers he would need next Saturday. Mark might say, “I need 4 people
to pull wire, and 10 to stuff insulation.” Brother Layzell would ask for a show
of hands of those who would be there. The service wouldn’t go on until we had
the necessary people for Saturday. People were on the spot. Many already had
plans. The Mrs. had made her husband promise to take her and the kids to the
lake over the weekend. But brother Layzell was ready. He would say in his droll
voice, “I know some of you ladies want your husbands to spend the weekend with
your children. That’s fine; bring the children out to the building too. What
better example can dad be to your children than for them to see him working on
the house of the Lord. They can run around picking up wire and bringing water
to the workers. You wives can come too and help the sisters prepare food for everybody.
Oh and another thing. I hear that some of you are planning to take vacations
this summer. We need to cancel all vacations until the building is finished.
Here’s an idea: put the money you were going to spend on your vacation into the
building fund.”
Of course some people became offended
and left the church, but he never failed to get the people needed week by week.
The people who left were those not willing to get on a war footing to get the
project done. A war footing means that someone else, the commanding officer, is
calling the shots. It’s the difference between civilian and military life. Military
life gets results: it wins battles, defeats enemies, and wins wars. Civilian
life is always more enjoyable. But you can’t get military results with civilian
effort. Civilian life will never win a war or defeat an enemy.
So our ragtag band of ex-hippies
ended up building a sanctuary/office/classroom complex of 19,000 sq ft. without
borrowing from the bank in under 2 years, because we went on a war footing.
The church is called to be the army
of God. The most common name for God in the Bible is “The Lord of Hosts.” which
means, “Lord of armies.” When Jesus returns to earth, He is leading an army
from heaven, an army I expect many of us to be in. it’s not an army of angels,
but an army of the redeemed. (Would angels be riding on horses?)
The church in America is enjoying
civilian life, but needs the discipline and commitment of military life in the
hour we are entering into. We are about to be thrust into battle as in Joel 1
& 2, and military life is the only way we can win. Think of Jesus trying to
lead an army of cats into battle, each one doing its own thing! That’s the
situation we are in now.
The Apostle Paul talked a lot about
the military and the Olympic games. It’s obvious he knew the church needed the
discipline both produce:
1 Cor. 9:234-25--Do
you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?
Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for
the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a
perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
And in 2 Tim. 2:3-4--You therefore must endure hardship as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with
the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a
soldier.
In Eze. 17, in the
vision of the valley of dry bones, God identified them as “the whole house of
Israel.” But when Ezekiel prophesied to them and they stood up and lived, they
stood up as “an exceedingly great army.” The people of God are called to be an
army.
Rev.
19:11-14--Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He
who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He
judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His
head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except
Himself. He was
clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him
on white horses.
That’s what we’re called to folks.
(This is the end of this series of posts)
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