Please Build This House!

One of my joys is serving as a volunteer chaplain at our local hospital. I serve about nine hours a month. Yesterday I was making visits there and met a patient and her husband. I’ll call her Marie. She was diagnosed with cancer a little more than a year ago. She had a nominal connection with a Christian denomination from her youth, but had no real relationship with the Lord. When I walked into the room she was reading her Bible, which I commented on. It turns out that about a year ago she began to read and study her Bible. She has spent a great deal of time reading it since then. Her husband commented that she is “such a student of the Bible!” The glorious thing is that I have rarely met someone with such a strong, sweet faith. She now KNOWS the lord. She has a love for our Lord Jesus that one can sense just by being in the same room. This informed faith did not come through other human agency. She came to know the Lord by reading his word! We had a great conversation.

Her coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ by reading the Bible reminded me of a verse I have been thinking about in Colossians 1. It is verse twenty-six: “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.” God revealed his mystery (Christ in you, the hope of glory) to Marie. She is a saint of God. He chose to reveal himself to her, proving that she was a saint by God’s choice and making her a saint by God’s power. I told her that she was a saint of God because he had revealed himself to her through his word. It is pretty wonderful to be one of God’s saints! Marie is rejoicing in the Lord, despite her serious health situation.

As I was speaking with her I told her one of my favorite Psalms was number 127. Verse one applies to all our human efforts. “Unless the LORD builds the house those who build it labor in vain.” I explained to her that there is no dichotomy between medicine and faith. We believe that God must bless and use our efforts for any good to come of them. Certainly God can work without our help, but we cannot work without his help! Marie found this very reassuring as she was feeling tension between her faith in God and needing so much medical intervention. She had been wondering if it showed a lack of faith for her to follow her physician’s advice. After all, she thought, “Can’t God heal me without their help?” It was good to be able to briefly explain God’s sovereign work in and through our efforts. I also explained that God does not expect us to buy a pile of lumber and sit back to watch him build the house. We need to be laboring as we have opportunity. We need to take the steps we can.

At the end I was privileged to pray with Marie and her husband. I prayed that God would build this house: that he would work though our efforts. I did get a little choked up thinking about this dear sister and her great faith and her great need.

Two observations: 1) Jesus knows his sheep. He will reveal God the Father to them. He reveals his truth to his saints. Jesus will build the church! Pray for this in the lives of people whom you know that do not seem to know the Lord. 2) When we take time to visit with people and listen to their situation, God will guide us into what we should say to them. This too is God building the house through our humble efforts.