Our People
One of my favourite scriptures says:
“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
And that 'whoever' means whoever - It literally means what it says! Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be rescued. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will have new life. Jesus says in Matthew 9:13:
“...for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Oh, that is why I love Jesus so much! I was a sinner, I was going nowhere very fast and so was Mary Magdalene - seven demons were cast out of her and Mary Magdalene remained faithful to Jesus right to the end.
I have often said: “If you get to Heaven before me, the most beautiful woman you will see in Heaven, sitting right next to Jesus’ feet will be Mary Magdalene - because he took her, she was a woman of ill-repute, and he made her into a saint.
The other one is Simon Peter. He was the blasphemer. You can imagine a big boisterous guy that would just charge into a china shop and break everything, forever changing feet, and the Lord used him to head up the church. So God takes nobodies - he takes the 'whosoevers' and He changes them.
Even the very disciples were shocked that The Master could eat with tax collectors. These were the very people ripping them off, their very own people, and who was one of them? Matthew - That is right! He was a tax collector.
I want to tell you about a man who I respect greatly, his name was William Booth. He was an evangelist in the Methodist Church and he started The Salvation Army, reputedly the largest army in the world, at one time. But of course, they weren’t carrying guns - they were carrying Bibles instead. Going into the eastern part of London and working with prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, widows, orphans - the down and outs.
One night, probably about midnight he took his oldest son, Bramwell Booth - who would later carry on from his dad, into a drinking house. It was a disgusting sight... People were lying all over the floor, they were drunk, the place looked like a pigsty. He said to his son: “Have a look around.” And then, “Look right around this room”. People were swearing and misbehaving, they were in a drunken stupor and then he said to his son: “These are our people, never forget that." And that was something that Bramwell Booth never forgot.
Today as we go out, remember, it is only by the grace of God that we can call ourselves followers of Jesus. Go and take care of the sick, the poor and the needy.
Have a wonderful day, God bless you and goodbye!