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The Little Church With No One In It
Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Joshua 24:15c NKJV
…”But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Ever wonder why a project you believed God laid on your heart to do seemingly failed?
My husband, a retired pastor, and I moved to a poor neighborhood where we felt God wanted us to begin a home church from our tiny apartment.
We told neighbors about it and slipped notes in the doors.
Overall, we prepared. Some of Bruce’s sermons were spruced up. I planned to read a short story or two. We chose praise songs we could attempt to sing acapella.
The plan was to squeeze together on our couch, loveseat, and a couple of folding chairs. The young ones could sit on the floor, we thought.
Our plans made, we eagerly waited.
Only 3 showed up.
Over the weeks, attendance FELL.
We began to wonder why we had a little church with no one in it.
For a couple of weeks, however, there was Ellen*(name has been changed.)
Ellen openly stated that she hadn’t been to a church in years but that she loved the Lord.
She bowed her head when we prayed and attempted to sing along with the hymns.
Previously, someone had donated a small Bible to our home church and when we learned that Ellen didn’t have one, we told her it was hers. She was thrilled.
Then, she too stopped coming to church.
For 6 more weeks, we continued to hold church with only God, my husband, and I attending.
Feeling defeated, he and I returned to attending a local church.
A couple of months later, Ellen told us that she hadn’t been feeling well. She went into the hospital. They ran a lot of tests. There was a biopsy. She remained there a long while. Over the next weeks, she was in the hospital more than out.
The diagnosis of lung cancer… and her eventual death… all transpired within a brief three months.
It was suddenly so clear to us that our call to start that church was solely for Ellen to attend those two weeks and let her make her profession of believing in and loving Christ.
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We learned to never doubt God’s direction when He tells us all to do something, whether we learn the reason or not.
God makes no mistakes.
Ellen got to church, got her Bible, and got to profess her faith.
She got to Jesus just in time.
I’m so grateful we obeyed the call
…to start the little church with no one in it.