First Pick!

     I want to start out this post with a video from Dave Busby. He was an evangelist who would come and speak to a previous church we attended during the 1990's. I spoke of him in my previous post titled "To Live Is Christ". To refresh your memories, he suffered with Cystic Fibrosis, Polio, liver disease, heart disease and Diabetes, yet he turned his suffering into a catalyst to glorify the Lord. He died in December of 1997 in his mid forties.
     His speaking style is as passionate as he was. You will find it poignant yet with a splash of humor thrown in and I believe he is able to communicate to you better than I ever could hope to on the subject of being wanted...

     Wanted, that's us! Chosen by God to be His sons and daughters, first pick! WOW.  How about you? Has it sunk in just how much YOU are loved and wanted? Romans 8:28-39 NKJ.  When we experience this kind of love it is hard to keep to ourselves. It affects every relationship we have. It affects the church body as a whole. 

     Just think how churches are affected when they are filled with believers who have a passion such as Dave's to express the Lord's love for His people. I am naive enough to think that even though this may not be reflected in a majority of our churches today...it could be! 

     Dave Busby was just one man, yet even after his death his passion lives on. We don't have to "settle"! We are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. We were called out and chosen. It was God's initiative, not ours that we came to know Him as our personal Savior! John 6:44 NKJ. Amazing! "We" are the Body of Christ. 

      Do you attend a local body of believers? If so, are you satisfied with the atmosphere at your church? That do you think it would take to change either (or both) of those if they are negative answers? We can't give up! If we love God, and if we have been "affected" by His love for us then it is only logical that we will love His church. 

     My prayer for us today is that we never let the fact that we are wanted and chosen by God stop affecting us. We need each other Hebrews 10:19-25 NKJ. That person sitting next to you in church may need to experience "Jesus with skin on" as one of our former pastors used to say. You may be the one person God can use to talk them back from the ledge of life. I know. I've experienced both sides.

      God is still in the business of saving and healing souls and He chooses to use His children many times to accomplish His will...are we willing to obey? His church is hurting because it is full of hurting people, people He died for who may be "running a hundred miles an hour...in the wrong direction"...or "may be going down today" as referenced in the song by Casting Crowns song titled Does Anybody Hear Her?; It is my song for us all...

     You may be the one "running in the wrong direction". My word to you is...please don't give up either! Truth is that we are all in the same boat. There are seasons when we are the one "running" and then seasons when we can be the one extending the "hope that's tucked away in you and me" to someone else.

"He is running"...

Songbird