Still Here

If we are still here on this earth, we can be confident that God has a unique purpose for each of us, and 
He is expressing His goodness toward us. 2nd Thessalonians 1 states:
11 Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power,
12 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We know that God is good and He is faithful.  When we face life's difficulties, we can choose to reject His ways, which is certainly not advisable, or we can press in to Him, to seek His face and learn to trust Him wholeheartedly.  We can know that He is with us, even now, and we can draw strength by reflecting on His "exceedingly great and precious promises," to which the Word refers, and on how we have seen Him work in our lives in the past - we can rejoice that He has sustained us and that He is faithful.

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In the early verses of the book of Philippians, Paul writes about the work of God in the lives of his 
readers, saying:
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,
5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,
6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.

I am back in the Faith Radio studios for today's edition of The Meeting House, and during the days to come, I will be offering conversations from the Fall 2020 Christian Product Expo, which took place this year in Wilmington, Delaware.

To say the least, it was an unusual year for a semi-annual event that brings together Christian retailers, publishers, authors, and others involved in communicating Christian truth.  It has been a difficult season for those who sell Christian products in the midst of COVID-19, following an upheaval in the publishing industry.  In many areas, local Christian bookstores and even national chains have gone away.  But, as it was said to me multiple times, the personal touch is important, the relationship between Christian retailers and their customers is an element that cannot be duplicated online.

And, to tell you the truth, my coverage of this show is something that cannot be duplicated online. I think it is important on occasion to bring face-to-face conversations from a variety of locations.  I have been planning to attend the CPE Fall Show for months, and as we continued to ride through the coronavirus crisis, I communicated with scheduled and potential guests about an online option.  In the end, I decided, less than a week ago to go ahead and follow through with attending.  I have no regrets that I did.

The look was different, with social distancing and mask requirements and an emphasis on sanitization. It came together, though, and I really believe many who attended felt a sense of God's leadership in placing them right where they needed to be - and they were dedicated to self-preservation by keeping their distance, when possible, and loving their neighbor by wearing a mask.  In the body of Christ, we were designed for human fellowship, and this group of hundreds of people were determined to put it into practice.

And, I heard stories, and you may already have and certainly will hear stories of people who have stared down death or the possibility of being sidelined by the enemy, but they have persevered and trusted Christ.  

Yesterday, maybe you heard the conversation with Sioni Rodriguez and her daughter, Scheila Singley; Sioni was sold into human trafficking three times - by her mother.  Scheila was staring a long prison sentence in the face.  The family certainly had spiritual strongholds at play, but recognized the work of the enemy and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit to break the hold of the enemy, who could have taken them both out, spiritually speaking - but God had other plans!  They are now being used of the Lord to tell His story.

Coming up, you'll meet Sharon Harris - she was actually born in Wilmington, but her family moved to South Central Los Angeles.  Sharon fell into drug use; she was given her first drink by her grandmother at age 8, she had her first child at age 12, as a ward of the state.  Her circumstances looked hopeless, but God stepped in and turned her life around; as she said to me, she shouldn't be here.  But, He has been faithful.

Ginny Dent Brant could say that too - she faced a different type of menace in her life, contracting cancer.  But that occurrence motivated her to dig deeper, to study the disease and the contributing factors, to seek the Lord and to discover His design.  Through her embracing of God's principles and His hope and exercising treatment options, she experienced His healing in her life from a deadly disease.

Robin Luftig was told to take 10 days to get her affairs in order as she faced a brain tumor - the surgery could have several different outcomes, including death.  In the midst of that short time period, she discovered more about the faithfulness of God and saw how God used that time as a time of training and recalibration for her life.  He walked with her, and she came through.

In all of these cases, these ladies have discovered the grace of God - and the purpose of God!  They are still here on this earth, and as it's been said, that means that God is not finished.  Their faithfulness to tell their stories is being used by the Lord to bring honor to Him and encouragement to readers. Plain and simple, we are here on this earth, at this moment, to serve.  You have a place in the Kingdom and you can depend on the Lord to walk with you.  One day, He will take you home - but not yet!

So, we can accept the fact that He has preserved you; now you can attempt to discover the "why?" And, you can tell the story of what He has done for you.  I remember the CPE conversation with Linda Howard, who stopped by Faith Radio/Meeting House Media Central to discuss a new Bible product that is in the form of a graphic novel; she spoke of the "story" of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  I would contend that woven in God's overall story that we find in Scripture is your own story, a story of redemption through Christ and how Jesus has worked in your life.  We can be challenged to be faithful to talk about what God has done for us.