عن
الذي قد انقطم لم يسألوني..
عن
الذي قد انقطم لن أُجِب..
Can
God move a mountain? Jesus insisted that he can, and many stories attest to
this being literally fulfilled. Unfortunately, many of those stories sound
invented. After I posted one such story [see the bottom] on my "Questionable
Illustrations" I received an email from a pastor in Pennsylvania
His
version originated in a book by Leslie B. Flynn: "19 Gifts of the Spirit"
on page 140. The name of the church is not given in the book, but it is "Grace
[Baptist] - The Church On the Mount." The church was built in 1973 on top
of Kingtown Mountain Netcong , New Jersey Maple Avenue
The
finishing of the area around the church was completely up to the local people. There
began to be some serious thinking about the parking lot. Not that there had not
been some thinking already done, but we had been told by the Roxbury Planning
Board that they would not grant permanent occupancy until there was sufficient
parking in the rear. It did not have to be black-topped, gravel would do. ...
It
became evident that even with all the fill needed in front of the church, we
had a problem of far too much dirt. In fact IT WAS A MOUNTAIN WHERE A SECOND
AND THIRD PARKING LOT SHOULD BE [emphasis is theirs]. The cost of removing this
mountain would be prohibitive for the church. But wait, had not the Lord
promised that a mountain would be moved by faith? The next Sunday morning
Pastor Crawford reminded the congregation of Christ?s promise, "If ye have
faith as a grain of mustard see, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence
to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you"
(Matt. 17:20). Then he added, "If you believe that, come on Wednesday
night to pray with me that God will move this mountain in back of our church."
The
next morning the phone rang. It was the telephone company. They were planning
to erect a new building just east of us and they needed fill for a large swampy
area. Could we sell them some dirt? Well of course! And Pastor Crawford was
sure our dirt would have the right proportions of clay, sand and rock for the
fill they needed. In about a month the phone company had hauled away 40,000
square yards of our dirt, for which they paid the church $25,400, and also leveled
the ground for the required three parking lots and prepared them for paving. The
Lord makes good on His promises and He knows where to find the answer we need.
[italics throughout is theirs]
Two
photos accompany the chapter. One shows a two-story white house with a pile of
dirt on two sides. The dirt seems to go up to the top of the first story. The
second picture shows the house sitting about ten feet above a parking area.
"Mountain" is certainly a stretch but 40,000 square yards is a fair
amount of dirt. Pastor Crawford died several years ago; in the fifteen years I
have been in the area, the Church on the Mount has grown from 200 to more than
a thousand in attendance.
Rev.
David Holwick
