JESUS IS ALL WE NEED

JESUS IS ALL WE NEED

On this lovely fall day, I am reminded of all the blessings that I have, and how the Lord has provided all my needs.  I think of the world outside my window, the cars passing by.  I wonder about the people in those cars.  How many of the people in those cars know the Lord Jesus as their Savior, and are walking with Him daily?  All the pleasures and things of this world will not satisfy empty hearts. 

In my own life I ponder how much Jesus means to me.  Am I willing to give up everything for Jesus?  Can you and I honestly say, “Jesus is all we need?”  Can I honestly come to that place in my life where I am totally sold out to Jesus?  Are you able to come to a place in your walk with the Lord that Jesus absolutely means everything to you?  Are we willing to count the cost of totally letting Him be the Lord of our lives?

In the following testimony we learn of a man, Will Thompson, who loved His Lord so much that He gave up a prosperous, successful songwriting career, to preach the gospel to the lost.  This is the place that I long to be.  To be able to know in my heart that Jesus Is All the World to Me.”

“Newspapers called Will Thompson the “millionaire songwriter.”  In his home state he was called the “Bard of Ohio.”  He had gone to New York and had made it big; his secular songs were selling like hotcakes.

But Will really didn’t care about his secular success.  He cared about Jesus Christ, so he began writing gospel songs.  He realized that a major evangelist such as Dwight L. Moody would never get to smaller towns, so he loaded an upright piano onto a two-horse wagon and took the gospel into the Ohio countryside.

He was in his fifties when he wrote “Jesus Is All the World to Me,” his lifetime testimony.  He would rather introduce Jesus Christ to a small hamlet in Ohio than to be known as a major songwriter in New York City.” (“HYMNS” by Petersen)

JESUS IS ALL THE WORLD TO ME

“Jesus is all the world to me, my life, my joy, my all; He is my strength from day to day, without Him I would fall; when I am sad, to Him I go, no other one can cheer me so; when I am sad He makes me glad, He’s my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me, my friend in trials sore; I go to Him for blessings, and He gives them o’er and o’er; He sends the sunshine and the rain, He sends the harvest’s golden grain’ sunshine and rain, harvest of grain, He’s my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me, and true to Him I’ll be; oh, how could I this friend deny, when He’s go true to me?  Following Him I know I’m right, He watches o’er me day and night; following Him by day and night, He’s my friend.

Jesus is all the world to me, I want no better friend, I trust Him now, I’ll trust Him with life’s fleeting days shall end; beautiful life with such a friend, beautiful life that has no end; eternal life, eternal joy, He’s my friend.” (Will L. Thompson, 1847-1909)

When I think of my walk with the Lord and look back over the years, I see how much He has been my very life.  I accepted Jesus as a child, raised in a Christian home and married into a Christian family.  So Jesus was been my joy almost all my life.  In trials, such as walking through cancer twice, how much He has been my very strength for each day.  And as I grow older, I depend on Him more and more.   And I have many dear brothers and sisters in the Lord and loving family, but no one can cheer me when I am sad but Jesus.

How about you, my friends?  Are you walking through a great trial right now?  Are you grieving the loss of a dear loved one?  Is your body failing because of sickness, and the road seems so long ahead.  Jesus wants to be your very dearest friend, with His strength and His joy and peace.  Sometimes, it seems, that we become so weary as we travel along. 

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might He increases strength.  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint” Isaiah 40:28-31.

Here is a wonderful promise:  Our Precious Lord never faints or gets weary.  If you are weak today, He will give you the power to move on, and He will increase or renew your strength.  And He calls us to wait for Him, and we can soar over our problems like an eagle soars in the sky.  Oh, what a beautiful picture of our walk with the Lord!

And oh, how He has blessed us!  In this time of the year we remember the harvest, and the abundance of sunshine and rain that He sends upon us.  I think of our own garden and the abundance that He provides.  And even in our grocery stores we see the abundance that He provides for us.  It is a time of Thanksgiving for all that He provides.

What a beautiful life with Jesus.  And someday this “fleeting” life shall end, and we can trust Him to guide us into our eternal dwelling with Him.  We shall enter “the joy of our Lord.”  There will be no more tears or sorrow, joy everlasting with the Friend who has walked with us down through the years through all kinds of trials, but has never left our side.  He is our Friend who has saved us, kept us and answered many prayers down through the years.

 And what a joy it will be to finally see this “Friend” face to face at last!  Yes, Jesus is truly all the world to me, and I pray that He is the same in your life.  In joy or sorrow, He is my Friend and I pray that He is yours also.  He is waiting just for you if you do not know this Wonderful Friend as your own personal Savior.  Ask Him into your heart today, and know that you are His for eternity.

In Jesus’ Name,

Pastor Sharon