Sovereignty in Robbery???

Do you believe in the sovereignty of God? Grace Community does. And our belief in sovereignty extends to ALL areas of life.

For those who do not know, because of Spring Break and what not, the building was broken into early Saturday Morning. All guitars on the stage were taken, all the mics were taken, all of the guitar amps were taken, every bass was taken, the piano was taken, every power strip was taken. A thief came in and stole our property. He stole what we use to glorify God through music.

Here is a timeline of the events yesterday. We had Straight Talk for Men at 7:00. Me and dad made it to the church by 6:15. We had our group up in the Crossroads room and after that we went to the auditorium to listen to a song Dad wants us to do. As we were listening to the song someone looked at the stage and said where is the Piano. Then someone asked where is Matt's bass equipment, the someone asked where is the guitars and the mics and the floor monitor. It was gone. The police were called and were there by 9:00. They looked at things and to be honest they did not give us any hope that we would see any of the stuff that was stolen ever again.

We were upset. I am not going to lie. The things we had worked so hard for and spent all the money on were gone. Not to mention the sentimental value that was attached to them as well.

In the midst of this though God is still in control. This was not out of the scope of God's sovereignty. This happened for a reason. It was not a random act. God could have allowed this to not happen, but He did allow it. I believe it was to test us as a church. We are still young. We are still starting to get off the ground. I believe God was asking us as a church, Are You willing to keep going and be faithful in the midst of our stuff being stolen. The answer was up to us. Will this distract us? Or will it be business as usual and seek to glorify God?

The day keeps going on though. At around 5:00 Rhea and Kim came to the church and wanted to help. They wanted to do something. So they went to all of the people who lived around the church and asked if they saw anything the night before or if they just knew anything. Keep this in mind, God worked through this.

At 7:00 the church had a corporate prayer meeting. The tone was very positive over all. The thought was NOTHING can separate us from the love of Christ. The thief may have stolen our musical equipment but what they cannot rob us of is our desire to Glorify God as a church. At the prayer meeting we just prayed that God would accomplish His will throughout this situation.

The meeting was over. We left. I went to the house because me and Matt and Todd were going to stay at the church just in case someone tried to break in again Saturday night. We were eating Pizza and watching the basketball game and Ashley all of the sudden yelled "THE POLICE ARE HERE." The officer came to the door and asked if we had stolen musical equipment. They needed someone to ID the equipment. Me and Matt went to one of the neighbors house and low and behold in one of the bedrooms was ALL of our musical equipment. It was there. It was stolen and it was back.

Why did this happen? To test us as a church. At the prayer meeting we had we were not praying to God to bring our equipment back to us. We prayed that we would glorify God even through this and God would work even in this situation. And that He did. It started with Rhea and Kim going to the neighbors house and the neighbor getting nervous about the equipment being there. They called a friend and asked the friend to come and get the stuff out of their house. The friend instead of getting the stuff called the Police. God worked through this for His glory. He was saying to us as a church, what is more important to you? Musical equipment or my Glory? As a church we answered your glory is more important to us.

God brings all things into the lives of believers for their good (Rom. 8:28). Even the church being robbed and our stuff being stolen.

Do you believe in the sovereignty of God? Grace Community does even in the midst of robbery.

What do we do now? We pray for the one who stole this. We should not be angry at them or wish they would burn in hell. WE should pray that God would save them. God would prick their conscience and bring them to Himself and maybe one day they will become members of Grace Community church. Only God knows what will happen and HIS WILL. IT WILL BE DONE nothing can turn away God's purpose (Job 42). God will be gloirifed in ALL THINGS, even in the midst of a thief stealing from a church.