This past Friday and Saturday, I had a minor role in helping with Kinship Christian Radio’s “A Day for Women” conference in Mankato.
If you were there or you heard about it, you know that it was an extremely positive event.
Over 650 women enjoyed excellent food, a great speaker, wonderful music, interesting and valuable mini-sessions, fine fellowship, and the presence of the Holy Spirit.
When I say, “a minor role” what that means is that I mostly moved around tables and chairs. I cleaned some tables, too. Oh, and I went to New Ulm and picked up a throne and brought it to the church to sit on the stage as a prop. I also put stickers on the backs of chairs that said, “You have been prayed for.”
But what you don’t know (“The Rest of the Story” as Paul Harvey would say.) is that the enemy of our souls sought to destroy it.
One of the things atheists commonly cite as a reason there can be no God is the presence of evil in this world. They point to wars, famine, starvation, child abuse, and a host of terribly evil things to make the point that if there was indeed a loving God, He would not allow such things to exist.
I suppose it’s understandable that if they deny the existence of God, they would also deny the existence of the devil– even to the point of citing evil as “proof” that there is no God.
So, even though my role in the event on that day was very minor, I have “inside information” as to what goes into making it possible.
God makes it possible through prayer.
The planning for this event started over a year before it actually took place and the enemy tried in many and various ways to ruin it.
There was doubt and worry and frustration and the enemy tried to drive wedges in relationships. There were logistical problems, mechanical problems, technical problems, financial concerns, and thousands and thousands of teeny details I don’t even know about.
Come to think of it, there was one teeny detail I was witness to:
Moments before 650 women were going to go through eight buffet lines to enjoy some delicious pulled pork sandwiches, (and other goodies) someone noticed the barbecue sauce didn’t come out of the squirt bottles properly. This was because the caterer had made an incredibly thick, delicious sauce and the bottle was apparently designed for thin, ordinary ketchup.
Somebody said, “kitchen shears” and somebody else began snipping the spouts shorter (and therefore wider) on 32 sauce dispensers. At least a half-dozen pairs of hands were shuttling the bottles back and forth between the buffet line and the kitchen and back.
And then it was discovered they needed to be cut again, so the whole process took place a second time.
And all during the process, there was no weeping, no wailing, and no gnashing of teeth. There were no accusations, no blame, no finger-pointing.
It just got done.
And I’m sure someone, somewhere was standing off to the side and saying a silent prayer. In fact, I’m sure prayers had been said before anyone even arrived at the church that all would go well with the serving of the food.
I absolutely and positively knew that those stickers I was putting on the backs of those chairs were telling the truth. The ladies coming to that conference had been prayed for many times over. And the prayers had asked that all who attended would be blessed to the glory of the LORD.
The food, the beverages, the rooms, the church, the songs, the words of the messages, the decorations on the tables, the people helping– all had been the subject of prayers over the course of the planning and implementation of that event.
And yes, even the tables and chairs I hauled around like a stevedore had been prayed for.
The element of prayer is something that has bathed Kinship Christian Radio since its very beginning.
So, when hands were folded and heads were bowed, over and over again many times over the course of the last year, those prayers always had one unifying theme:
“Lord, let this be to your glory.”
And that’s why it worked.
And that’s why He is to be thanked and glorified and His name is to be lifted above all names.
HALLELUJAH JESUS!
AMEN!
Today’s Praise
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:13 ESV