Moving House
By Carol Wollaston
We are moving house and they tell us it is one of the most stressful events in a person’s life.
The moment you make the decision, you become aware of all the little repair jobs you did not do over the years and all the collecting of junk you did do over the years! How to rationalize becomes the challenge and once you have pared right down, moving all that is left becomes a gigantic headache!
Then there is looking for the new place to call home. This can be exciting at first, but excitement can wane as frustrations arise over the inability to find the one place with all the attributes you fancy. Then there are all the exorbitant costs. Someone said that Stamp Duty was to be cancelled out by G.S.T. Well, believe me, government fees are alive and well.
As a congregation we are thrilled to have purchased our Hendon building which we have called ‘Chapel on the Boulevard’. The same frustrations and costs have applied to us, of course. But this is a wonderful venue for special events and we hope to host quite a few. The church of course, is people, not just bricks and mortar. It is the same as a family which can still be a loving and supportive unit regardless of its dwelling place. People are the church’s greatest treasure and we can gather anywhere knowing that God’s presence is with us. Since we have been at Hendon, we have had three baptisms at Tennyson Beach (because our baptismal tank is not yet installed). The Lord was just as present there on the sand as anywhere else, including our Chapel on the Boulevard. Paul reminded the Corinthians that they are God’s building and each is being built on the firm foundation that is Christ Jesus. ‘You are the temple of God and (His) Spirit dwells in you’, he says.
Abraham gave up his permanent home to be a tent dweller. By faith, he believed that nomadic existence with God was better by far than an ungodly permanent home. He believed for a city of God’s people ‘whose builder and maker is God’. He saw down through the ages to Christ Himself, the chief cornerstone of this eternal city made out of living stones.
A new house for me personally, means sacrifice as well as joy. The same applies for those who build in the Lord’s house. Each person is being built, stone upon living stone for the encouragement of us all. God is building something of eternal character in each one who is prepared to lay down his or her own agendas to allow others to build. This is as much a challenge as taking out a mortgage and buying a house. Yet in the household of God, Jesus has already gone to prepare a place for those who believe in Him and we who are of His family can boast now and in the future that ‘God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’
