Will You Answer The Call
WILL YOU ANSWER THE CALL
“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”
Isaiah 6: 8
King James Version
God calls us to service in different ways. Sometimes He speaks to our hearts. Other times He speaks to us through a song, a sermon, our pastors or something we read. When God called me to the mission field, He spoke to my heart and told me that He wanted me to surrender to full time service as a missionary.
I was humbled, awed and slightly in shock that He would call me, a lady who at one time had crawled underneath a bed in a mental hospital due to a severe and a crippling devastating depression which I had for over forty years and allow me the privilege and honor of serving Him.
I walked down the aisle the next Sunday morning in church after the pastor gave the invitation for salvation or to rededicate our lives or surrender to the mission field. One of the pastors standing in front took my hand and said a beautiful prayer for me. The pastor told me not to wait until God confirmed to me what He wanted me to do but to start serving Jesus right where I was.
That was ten years ago and I was just beginning to talk to people and look them in the eyes so I didn’t feel comfortable talking to them. I was sad and a little discouraged because I didn’t know what I could do right then to serve Jesus. One night, God spoke to my heart and said “You don’t have to say anything; just hug them.”
So when it was time to greet one another at church during the service, instead of shaking their hands like I normally did, I started hugging them. I will never forget the day that I hugged my pastor. He just looked at me and got tears in his eyes. He didn’t say anything to me about the hug but I noticed that beginning the next Sunday, He smiled more. I am reminded of a pastor who wrote to me two years ago and said “None of the people in my congregation would hug me so I started hugging them. I need to be encouraged and loved just as they need to be encouraged and loved.”
On January 24, 2005, I asked God if He was ready to tell me what He wanted me to do to serve Him. I asked Him if He wanted me to go to a foreign country as a missionary. He made it very clear to me that He wanted me to be a home missionary. He told me to open my Bible and read Mark 5: 19 and I would know what He was calling me to do. I immediately opened my Bible and read the verse and got so excited that I literally shouted while raising both hands to Heaven in praise. “Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”
God then told me to start writing devotions and encouraging pastors. I said “You know that I have no talents and how dare I encourage pastors when they know so much more than I do”. He said “Pastors are my little children just like you are and they need to be encouraged and loved just like you do”. I told Him that I was willing to do anything for Him but that I could not do anything by myself. He assured me that He would be with me every step of the way. He has kept His word. He has been here with me through every victory and every heartache.
Since God entrusted me with these ministries three years ago, I have received countless emails from people who are broken hearted and who tell me how much they appreciate the fact that I share personal things. Several people have asked me if it is difficult to talk about my past when I had so many emotional problems. I told them that it is very difficult and painful but if sharing my past will help someone then it is worth it all.
It is very important and urgent that we send missionaries to other countries, but as a missionary once said when presenting a slide show “Sometimes we overemphasize foreign missions to the detriment of home missions”. We had just had a missions conference at our church and both the foreign missionaries and the home missionaries showed slides of the fields where they were working.
How my heart broke when I saw the slides of the children right here in our own country. They looked just like the slides of the children in other countries. All of the children looked the same. It was very easy to see that they didn’t have enough food to eat, and the horror of it is, they still don’t have clothes to wear or enough food to eat. However, it was the look in these precious children’s eyes that really hurt me. It was if they were saying “Don’t you care if I have food to eat? Don’t you love me?”
It is very difficult to tell anyone that Jesus loves them if they are hungry and don’t have clothes to wear. If we are ever going to effectively reach other countries with the good news of a risen Saviour who loves them, we are going to have to start with our own country. The way that we start with our own country is in our own homes.
Just as the pastor I had when I lived in Oklahoma said many times “We can have revivals here in church but true revival has to start in your hearts”, so we must first start loving and taking care of our children in our own homes. Every time I go out of my door to check my mail, I see little children playing who are wearing clothes that do not fit them and are ragged. I have lost count of the times that children have come to my home and told me they were hungry.
Oh dear people, will you answer the call and take the good news of a risen Saviour to people, starting with your own families? We must be about the Master’s business while there is still time. Even as I write this devotion, the trumpet can sound and Jesus can return with a shout of victory. I want to say “Even so, come Lord Jesus”. However, I have family members and friends who have not accepted Him as their personal Saviour. I don’t want them left behind when Jesus takes us home to be with Him.
If you have family members and loved ones who have not accepted Jesus as their personal Saviour, I urge you to shut off the television set and use that valuable time to lift your family and friends to God and ask Him to penetrate their hearts with the urgency to invite Jesus into their hearts. I believe if you and I would ever really grasp in our hearts that Jesus can and will return at any minute, we would not waste our time doing things that have no eternal value.
Again, will you answer the call of our dear Heavenly Father and start telling everyone you meet about the unconditional love, the grace, the mercy, the compassion and the forgiveness that Jesus has for them? Will you tell them that He is waiting for them with His arms outstretched and a tender heart filled with compassion, understanding and unconditional love? You may be just like I was, shy and unable to talk to people, but if you have two arms you can reach out and hug them for Jesus.
Sometimes a hug is much more effective than mere words. When people tell me that they love me and care about me, being human I sometimes doubt it, but when they do something for me, then I know that they really do care. It is the same with Jesus. We can tell Him that we love Him, but when we do something for Him, we prove to Him that we do indeed love Him. What are you doing for Jesus?
Joanne Lowe
March 17, 2008
