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Inspirational Article From
Joanne Lowe

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ALL OF THEM

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.”

1 Corinthians 9: 24 King James Version

We are in a race to keep satan from stealing the precious souls of our families, loved ones and the world from Jesus. The time is very short! We don’t have much time left to win them to Jesus. We need to live our lives in such a loving and kind way that others will see Jesus on our faces, in our actions and hear Him in our words. Then, and only then, will they desire the joy, peace, unconditional love and happiness that comes when we accept Jesus as our personal Saviour.

Nothing would make satan any happier than to see our families and loved ones miss out on spending eternity with Jesus. It is urgent and must be the top priority in our lives to not only pray for our families, loved ones and the world’s salvation but also to serve Him and live for Him every day in everything that we do! If we can’t take Jesus with us where we go or if it would make Him uncomfortable to go there, then we should not go to those places.

If we would ever understand with our hearts that nothing else matters in this life except spreading the love of Jesus to a lost and hurting world, I believe that we would not only see our families and loved ones saved but we would also make Jesus happy. After all He has done for us and the sacrifices He has made for us, He deserves to be happy. He gave His life for us on a cruel cross of horror, agony and torture. There is nothing else that He can do for us because He gave us all that He had; He gave His very life for us.

We get so caught up with making a living so that we can pay for things that we don’t even need that often we don’t even think about what Jesus has commanded us to do, and that is to tell every person that we meet of the saving grace and unconditional love of a risen Saviour. If we would work overtime for Jesus by telling others of the unconditional love of Jesus and put in as many hours as we do when we do work overtime at our places of employment, we would experience a revival that the world has never known before.

I think we need to ask ourselves “What is more important to me, making money or making Jesus happy”? Yes, it is true that we must pay bills and we must feed our families and clothe them, but O dear friends if we neglect to show them and tell them about the love of Jesus, we are starving them spiritually and one day we will stand before a Holy God and give an account for this.

Last week I read an article in the newspaper about a girl who had competed in a race for her school. The reporter said that when he interviewed the girl that she was in tears because she had lost and had to watch as another girl received the prize. When I read that article it broke my heart and I wept for that girl as it reminded me of something that had happened to me when I was young.

We had a contest in Sunday School to see who could memorize the most verses in the Bible in one week. I really tried hard to memorize a lot of verses. However, on the Sunday morning that we had the contest I missed one word in a verse and so I lost. I had memorized the most verses but because I had missed the word, I was disqualified from the contest. That hurt me so much to watch the girl who won the contest get the prize. I had done the best I could but I was disqualified.

O dear friends, everybody who is in any kind of contest or race or any sports event should all receive prizes just because they tried. Of course, the winner should have the biggest and best prize, but I believe with all of my heart that the others should be recognized for trying.

We wonder why there is so much fighting and arguing during sports events. I think it is because it has been drilled into their heads that if they don’t win, then they are failures. May God forgive us for hurting people this way! We may fail at times in our service to Jesus, but all that matters to Him is the condition of our hearts and that we try. We can’t do it on our own. It takes Jesus operating on our hearts to make our hearts tender, compassionate and forgiving. Have you allowed Him to make your heart tender and are you running the race for Jesus to win souls to Him?

Joanne Lowe
August 15, 2007

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