Declare His Love

It’s been over 20 years ago that I was driving home from dropping my sister off at her teaching job in Hammond Indiana.  I was a new mother and Katie was just a few months old.  We had an old beat up station wagon that had holes in the floor, but nice comfortable velvet seats and warm heat.  That particular day the rain was pouring down and I was looking forward to getting back to our one bedroom apartment and curling up with Katie and a cup of hot chocolate.  As I drove over the railroad tracks my eyes caught sight of a woman standing in the rain.  I knew better than to pick up a stranger, but I just couldn’t hold back my feeling sorry for her, so I pulled up to her and offered her a ride.  Once she got in the car, I smelled her.  She stank!  It was a mixture of body odor, dime store perfume and cigarettes.  Her face was weathered and wrinkled with lines of a hard life of sin.  It didn’t take me long to realize she was a prostitute.  I asked her where she was needing to go and she directed me past the big First Baptist Church of Hammond and to a parking lot that held a lot of her “associates”.  I was a poor college wife and she robbed my wallet of the few cents I had as I tried to tell her about Jesus.  She wasn’t interested at all in what I had to say.  I dropped her off and watched as she laughed with her friends at me.  I drove on home with my baby and cried over this lady.  I have no idea where she is today.  Maybe in hell.

We won’t reach every single sinner in this world in our life time.  We will go when others sleep and knock on doors when no one answers.  Some of you will get on that bus Sunday and pick up little children whose parents couldn’t care less about where you are taking them as long as you feed them.  But every now and then we will be busy declaring the name of God to someone and they will listen and receive the free gift of salvation….and we will rejoice! 

Jesus said there is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth.  That is the reason all of us keep on keeping on in the ministry isn’t it?  For that ONE! 

My mom has shared her testimony and been very transparent with you in this blog about what her childhood was like.  Mom was a ONE.  Look at the lives this lady, the daughter of a prostitute, has reached in her 69 years.  Mama was at one time just a kid in someone’s church, but someone cared enough to spend time declaring God to her and training her to live for Him.  I’d say it was worth it, wouldn’t you?

My grandma may have been a prostitute, but she eventually came to know Jesus as her Saviour before she died.  I only met her once, but at least I know I will meet her again one day in Heaven.  So, as I go on the streets and talk to these women of the night, I see them as someone’s mom and grandma.  My grandma’s name was Betty.  I don’t know if someone tried to reach her, like I did that woman in Indiana that day and Betty wasn’t interested, but the Word of God doesn’t return void does it?  I see each and every woman on the street as my own personal “Betty”.  Matter of fact, that is how I refer to them.  It is personal to me on a level not many people understand I suppose.  But those Bettys have a Sharon at home who has a Sheri and I have to remember that Heaven will be filled with joy if I can reach ONE.

God’s heart is for the one closest to hell.  Jesus tells us in John 6 that the will of the Father is that He should lose NOTHING.  So, regardless if it is an old hardened prostitute on the street corner or a person on death row pressing his head against a bare cell wall, God wants to save them if they will repent.  And how are they going to hear about Him if we don’t declare Him to them?

Jesus prayed in John 17 to God and His closing words were, “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it:  that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”  Should you and I do any less that Jesus himself?  Let’s go declare His love to someone!  Just ONE!

Until next time, Lord willing,

Sheri