One day the apostles and prophets backed their concrete truck up to the building lot, and they poured a marvelous foundation. Jesus Himself came and placed the cornerstone, and when they all had left, the foundation cured, and was soon ready for building.
The evangelists were capable loggers, sawmill operators, and truckers. They soon brought in vast amounts of building material. The pastors and teachers were the contractors and so they began framing the house in. Their tools were good, their willingness to work was exceptional, and, showing a great deal of wisdom, they soon had the first story framed in.
Trouble started at about that time, because a rival contractor saw how fast the house was going up, and so he sent treacherous and incompetent workers over to sign on with their crew. They soon began making suggestions that were no good at all, and sometimes they just undertook to implement their suggestions without checking with anybody.
Some of them were trying to build extra wings for the house out onto the lawn. Some were allergic to wood, and suggested other materials less durable, like tin or Styrofoam. Most of them had two left hands—some on purpose and some by nature—and things got so bad that there were times when some of the two by fours began to think that they were carpenters too.
Some of the original crew got pretty disgusted, and some of them began thinking that building the house was hopeless and maybe “we should just finish out the basement, and live there until the Owner comes.” But others, looking at the blueprints that had been left with them, said, “No. This is a three-story house. And those outlandish out-buildings have to come down. And we have to start thinking about getting the roof on.”
About this time, the treacherous workers thought their numbers were sufficient to mount a direct challenge, and so they gathered together and said they did not believe the original crew were authorized to be on the site at all. And so most of the original crew chased them off with shovels, nail guns, and hammers.
But some did not join in the chase as they ought to have because they had gotten quite cozy in the basement.