Friday, April 29, 2016

Five Minute Friday: Pass

  Teaming up with Kate Motaung and the bunch at http://katemotaung.com/2016/04/28/five-minute-friday-pass/.   It's been far too long and I just couldn't pass up today's word: Pass.

Go:  

 Recently my family has encountered many different media with emphasis on witnessing, Scripture memory, and the persecuted church.  As a result, I've had many thoughts and prayers swirling inside my heart.  

 One of the biggest players in the emphasis on the persecuted church has been a set of DVDs my Mother purchased for our family to watch together called Dispatches from the Front by Dr. Tim Keesee.  

 Dr. Keesee is a Christian journalist who travels to the world's difficult places meeting with missionaries in those areas and getting to see what the Lord is doing in those nations.  It has been truly encouraging to see just a small part of what the Lord has been doing behind the scenes.  (I say behind the scenes, because most of these people are ones I have never heard about and it is absolutely exciting to see the way the Lord's Kingdom is quietly, steadily being built!) 

 It has sparked so much emotion and longing in me and I find myself praying often during a viewing: "LORD, use me.  Send me.  Don't pass me by."

 The words to that dear old hymn have come to mind frequently as a result: "Pass me not, O Gentle Savior, hear my humble cry.  While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by!"  

 One of the dearest stories in the Bible to me is that of Samuel being taught as just a child to respond to the Lord's calling with, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth" and similarly Isaiah's response to the glory and plea of God, "Here am I, send me."  

 So with these ancient saints and these modern-day ones, I plead, "Lord, pass me not.  Use me, too, to further Thy Kingdom."