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Friday, March 18, 2016

 

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.

– Timothy 4:12 NIV

 

Imagine for a moment, Nehemiah’s dilemma. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he was an outsider with a vision to rebuild the city walls. I can imagine, that as he was pitching his idea to the people, some may have been thinking or even saying: “who does this guy think he is? He just got here and he thinks he is going to solve our decades old problem? Hey, Nehemiah, you have no idea what you are talking about!” How could he compel the people to commit to such an enormous task? After all, others had tried unsuccessfully before him. Moreover, the people of Jerusalem had grown accustomed to living with the city in ruins; it was their way of life. There are many lessons to be learned from Nehemiah’s encounter with the people in Jerusalem. However, there is one in particular that has served me well in my endeavor to fulfill God’s purpose for my life; this is to never expect people to go any further than you are willing to go.

 

It was the late 1990’s when God called me to lead the church my father had founded along with a group of dedicated men and women some twenty years earlier. The beauty of taking over an existing church was that we did not have to start from scratch. For example, we already owned a beautiful twenty-five thousand square foot temple. The downside was that the building was very old. Within one year it came to my attention that the building’s electrical system could not meet the demands due to its age and the entire system needed replacing. We would literally start our services and the power would shut off. Several weeks later, I was made aware that the failing old roof needing replacing too. Water would pour into the building each time it rained. The cost of the repairs was astronomical, ranging in the hundreds of thousands of dollars; we did not have that kind of money. For those who know me, you know I do not like to ask for money! However, I needed to go before the congregation and do it otherwise, we would have to cease operations. I had no choice; I would have to ask for money.

 

Then I remembered the lesson from the Book of Nehemiah; never expect people to go any further than you are willing to go. So, I sat with my wife and asked her how much we could afford to contribute to the project. She told me, we were living paycheck to paycheck, but she would do her best. Obviously, it was not going to be much. Then I asked her about not taking our church salary until the project was completed and without hesitation and to my surprise she said yes. I went then before the congregation, I shared with them the need and I explained that I would not take my church salary until the project was completed. At that time, we had no other source of income or savings, but we did not ell anyone. The entire project lasted approximately six months and all I can say, to make a long story short is that in some incredible and miraculous way, God supplied us and we never missed paying a bill neither were we ever late.

 

Back to my point; when I shared with the congregation the risks and sacrifices my wife and I were willing to take, within six months we had all the funds needed to complete the project. Mind you, back then we had few to no wealthy people in our church, it was a collective effort. I thank God for Nehemiah’s story because it reminded me that you can lead people to do things they would otherwise not do, as long as you are willing to lead the way and go a bit farther than they would.