Trapped

God is so amazing. This week He used a child's moment in time to sum up my feelings over the heartache of closing our church doors.

I was about to change into my morning clothes Monday. I was in my bathroom and my four year old was with me just talking away. When it came time to change my clothes, I hugged Jeremy and placed him in my bedroom. Now, keep in mind that I am the one locked in the bathroom and Jeremy is in my bedroom with full reign of the home. I stepped back into my bathroom and locked the door. My four year old ran up to the door and started banging on it yelling."Mommy help me! I'm trapped!" I'm in our tiny bathroom, but he was the one trapped in our 2000 square foot home! He went on to protest, "It's scary out here! There are monsters!" Of course being the super hero I am, like Clark Kent I emerged seconds later dressed and I swooped him up in my arms and told Jeremy it would be okay. I said, "Sweetheart, there are no monsters out here. Mommy would never leave you in a place that wasn't safe."

Nine years ago my little family of five came to this town and started a church. The church grew. Randy and I had our son Jeremy in this town. We have seen our four children flourish, and we have been so blessed by the many who have found Christ, and have grown in their faith. We have seen lives changed in our town and even across continents. We have done life with these folks. There have been weddings and funerals, babies, visits in jail, prayer with families on the edge, laughs at each others' homes, and tears in harder moments. Who were we that God blessed us in such a mighty way?

About a year and a half ago God blessed our church. We were asked to become a satellite of a larger church. That was a true blessing because our church grew in more ways than one. There was new a component to our family. It was amazing and like some uncle with exotic tales of Africa, the excitement and the love for reaching more for Christ was only strengthened. I hope you get to have the joy we have felt in this ministry. In just this year and a half of being a satellite we have seen 100's of salvations. We have broken an attendance ceiling, and have seen over 30 baptisms. More folks have come and we have loved being a part of such a great ministry. Becoming a satellite was not a mistake, because of who has come and lives changed.

I have said it before. But welcome to this ain't heaven. And even in the the most heavenly of circumstances, while on earth hard times can happen. The only reason we are having to close is due to our lack of zeros. In short, our tithe did not match our growth. Are you sad? You should be.

The main campus would love to help but they too are suffering from the recession. By the way, since this is my blog please let me lovingly remind you that there is no out clause for not tithing due to the recession. Randy and I have tithed in good times and bad and God has made all those times good. You can never out give God. I was reminded of that when we met with our church last night to tell them we were closing due to lack of funds. A beautiful young college girl shared that she knows about tithing first hand. She doesn't have a job but was given scholarship money. She tithed ten percent of that scholarship knowing she needed every dime. Guess what? God replaced it. In fact He exceeded it. Others shared similar stories.

I don't think it is God's will for this church to close. I don't think it is anymore His will than when the Lord led the Israelite people to the Promised Land and they chose not to go in. Their choices caused a wandering for forty years. It is a hard thing to know you have been blessed to love such wonderful people but that some struggled with their tithes and now the church will close.

Jeremy, my four year old summed up my feelings on this matter at the bathroom door. Like him, I want back inside my church door. I know it there, I love it there, and I do life (good, bad, goofy, amazing) with those people... my church family. I am banging like crazy for God to let us back in. It is scary out here! And where do we go from here? That is what we will seek to answer this Sunday.

There are a few pearls of wisdom in this. You can do everything wrong and you can still see 1000's saved over the course of nine years. God can take a wretch like me and connect me with other wretches that God now calls His princes and princesses and make a family that loves Him. You can make great choices and at the end of the day it turns out that though money wasn't all the preacher talked about; your tithe really did matter. Please pray for my church. I love them and wouldn't trade one moment with those who have passed by and those that have stayed. Pray for them. They are wonderful and they need a place to worship our mighty God.

Malachi 3:10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse,that there may be food in my house. "Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it..."