Churches or Children

"We hear the cries of the needy saying, “Why doesn’t God provide for us? Doesn’t God care? Can God truly exist and not help us?” If we were to sell every church building built in the name of Christ at fair market value the interest on the amount returned would feed all the hungry on this planet now and until the day of Christ’s return." - Oswald J. Smith

"One poor American missionary felt the call of God to go to Mexico and there to attend to the physical and spiritual needs of the Mexican people in Juarez, just across the border from El Paso. In El Paso there could be found many beautiful church buildings that lay just on the other side of the Rio Grande; a literal stones throw away. An aerial view of El Paso with all its high church steeples would make El Paso appear like a spike bed. The missionary failed to understand how so many could go hungry so close to these so called houses of worship. The missionary was so troubled over this, that he found it affected his sleep, causing him to rest uneasily. One night as he slept he dreamed. He dreamed that he was standing in front of a large gray stone church building with a bell tower that rose high above the street below. All the stones of this structure were huge but varied greatly in size. Some stones were smaller than others, some were greater in size and still others even greater. In his dream the missionary saw a ladder extending from the street and reaching to the bell tower. At the top of the ladder, dressed in sandals and robe stood Jesus. He was writing something on each of the various stones which made up the structure. The missionary called to Him and asked what He was writing. Jesus looked down at him with tears in His eyes and explained that each stone in the wall was different in size and therefore different in value. Some stones were worth ten dollars, others twelve, still others twenty, etc. Then he explained that on each stone he was writing the name of a child that died for the want of the cost of the stone which bore the child’s name. In other words, if the stone cost ten dollars the child whose name appeared on it died for the want of ten dollars. If the stone cost twenty then the child whose name was inscribed on it died for the lack of twenty dollars etc. When the missionary awoke he couldn’t forget his dream and it changed him forever."