WITNESSING FOR JESUS

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,”

Luke 4:18

King James Version

When God called me to be a missionary on October 4, 1998, He gave me this verse as my mission calling.  God did not call me to preach.  He called me to heal the brokenhearted by telling everyone how much Jesus loves them.  When I think about God calling me to be a missionary, I’m reminded of this hymn that Margaret Clarkson wrote “SO SEND I YOU”.

The words in this beautiful hymn are a call to us to let others know about Jesus dying on the cross for their sins so they can be saved.  “So send I you to bind the bruised and broken Over wandering souls to work, to weep, to wake To bear the burdens of a world a-weary So send I you to suffer for My sake.”  

It is impossible to “bind the bruised and broken” unless they know that Jesus loves them and that He loves them unconditionally. Many years ago, I was the captain of one of our church buses at my church when I lived in Texas.  Every Saturday I would visit the children who rode the bus to Sunday school and I would also go door to door on visitation on Wednesday nights.

What breaks my heart and puts tears in my eyes is that I never told the children or the people I visited that Jesus loves them.  I just invited them to church.  We can witness, invite and give our money, our time and our talents to Jesus but if we don’t tell people that Jesus loves them, we are not telling them the most important thing and it also hurts Jesus.  

When is the last time you told someone that Jesus loves him or her?  Have you told your children and grandchildren how much Jesus loves them?  It is wonderful to give them gifts, but please don’t forget to tell them that Jesus loves them so much He died for their sins.  

Have you told Jesus today that you love Him?  He has feelings too and He wants us to tell Him that we love Him.  If Jesus didn’t tell me every day that He loves me, it would break my heart.  O how I love Jesus!  He is the Joy of my heart and the reason I’m living and knowing that one day I am going to have the privilege of seeing Him face to face fills my heart to overflowing with happiness.

Carrie E. Breck wrote a beautiful hymn about seeing Him face to face.  “Face to Face with Christ, My Savior”.  I love these words in this hymn.  “What rejoicing in His presence, When are banished grief and pain; When the crooked ways are straightened, And the dark things shall be plain.”

A hymn that I sometimes sing to God when I’m praying and thanking Him for giving His beloved Son to die for our sins is “To God Be the Glory”.  “To God be the glory, great things He has done; So loved He the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life an atonement for sin, And opened the life gate that all may go in.”

If you haven’t opened the door of your heart and invited Jesus in to be your personal Saviour, I urge you to do it now.  Please don’t keep hurting Jesus by refusing to open the door of your heart to Him.  Jesus loves you so much that He died for you.  What a precious and loving Saviour we are privileged to know and have!

Joanne Lowe

July 21, 2019