For the past few years of the OCC trip, our group has traveled about an hour and a half away to Jackson, Alabama to visit Keith Warren's family and attend his home church. Jeff and I had tossed around the idea last year of attending First Baptist Atlanta where Charles Stanley pastors. After checking online, we found that he was not going to be preaching that weekend. Before leaving this year, we checked again and found that he would in fact be preaching this past weekend, and we saw a good opportunity.
After seeing Shannon, Katrina, Cynthia and Jeanette off Sunday morning, we left for First Baptist, which was about a 15 minute drive from our hotel. As we sat in the sanctuary waiting for the service to begin, we were greeted by a deacon who had lived in Louisville, KY for a number of years. He talked to us until the service began promptly at 10:45 am. Even though we were disappointed to find out that Dr. Stanley would not be preaching due to a sudden ankle injury we were both very blessed by the service we attended.
One of the associate pastors at First Baptist spoke in Dr. Stanley's place. While he went a little long (which Jeff will tell you irritates me) he gave a very good sermon - one that I felt like I needed to hear. The baisc point was this: all of us live in constant limbo between fear and trust in God. In Ephesians 1, Paul tells us that God has adopted us, redeemed us, offered salvation and lavishly poured out many spiritual blessings on us. Why then, would it not seem like the easy thing for us to put all of our trust in Him?
God has blessed me in many ways over the past year. I have a wonderful family, good friends and most of all He has given me a wonderful husband and two beautiful stepkids. Jeff loves me more than anyone could ever love me, and I know that love grows everyday. However, with the many blessings I have received over the past year have also come times of trial. As we listened to the message, I couldn't help but think about all of the times I have feared a situation instead of trusting God - and all of the times in the future that I will have the same dilemma.
Over the past year, Jeff and I have faced many trials. Although we have so many things to be thankful for and so many blessings, we still have a lot to face ahead. There are some tough things in life that are never going to go away. But we also have to remember that God has given us many, many things to be thankful for. We are always going to face tough things in life - sometimes God places hard things and hard people in our life to teach us, or to help us grow. He has a plan for us, and He never leaves us.
I don't know what God has ahead for us, or what any of the outcomes will be. All I know is that life is not perfect and never will be - all I can do is trust God to get me through those times.
Meet Samantha Fiona Alster
