Searching

— For the week of March 20, 2011 —

God will never lead you where His strength cannot keep you.
— Anonymous

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.
— 1 John 3:18

Some of you will remember the 1980 country-western hit by Johnny Lee, "Looking for Love," but the words may have escaped you:

Looking for love in all the wrong places.
Looking for love in too many faces.
Searching for hearts, looking for traces of what I'm dreaming of...

Why the song, you say? Because I see a tie-in to the 39 cult members who committed suicide in early 1997 near San Diego, California. They also were looking for love and acceptance. They were looking for a significance that had escaped them, and in so doing they encountered people looking for the same thing.

Now that I've found a friend and a lover,
I bless the day I discovered another heart — looking for love.

There are so many folks who come and go from your ministry who are looking for a place to belong — a connection with people that will be authentic and genuine. I wonder if we are not spending so much time attempting to influence the masses of people that we overlook the nameless, faceless attenders who will give a church "a little while" to love them, and if it doesn't, go looking for love in all the wrong places.

Please do not overlook those who are searching. Introduce them to the only true and lasting love of Jesus by showing them His love yourself.Looking for love in all the wrong places.

Taken from The Minister's Little Devotional Book.
Copyright © 1997 by H.B. London Jr. and Stan Toler.
Used by permission of RiverOak Publishing, Tulsa, Okla.
All rights reserved.