Do You Love Jesus?

        In 1972 I was living and going to school in Spokane, Washington. The Jesus People were on every Corner in those days, and daily one of them would look me in the eye and ask "Do you love Jesus?"  I remember thinking "How could I love Him when I hardly know Him?"  I was raised in a Christian home and had received the Lord at fourteen years old, but that was the extent of my knowing Him.  I didn't have any huge need like these Jesus People and if the Christian life was just going to church on Sundays and going to heaven when you die, it seemed way too meaningless to me.

       A friend of mine in high school invited my cousin and I to a weekend conference at the church in Spokane and it was there that I heard the question again, "Do you love Jesus?"  During that weekend there was also a wedding meeting.  I was deeply touched during the wedding that the bride was not the focus, but Christ was the focus, and that this couple definitely "Loved Jesus."  It was then that I began to realize that I was not the focus, my condition was not the focus like the bride at the wedding was not the focus, but Christ!

        Gradually, through the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, I came to realize that God has an extraordinary need.  This realization changed everything for me.  For the first time in my Christian life I desired to know what was in the Bible with the view of God's need and His economy.  I began to see that God's purpose in dying for me and forgiving me for my sins was not only to take care of my need, but to also meet His need.  This made my Christian life full of purpose and meaning.

        It has been quite a few years since that first weekend conference and that little wedding meeting.  My appreciation to the Lord Jesus for such a high calling to this day overwhelms me!  He has so richly poured Himself out so that we fallen sinners could be brought into His very heart's desire and purpose; to be His longed for counterpart and bride!  Today I can say with my whole being "I do love Jesus!"  My prayer is that I will fervently love Him until He returns!
 

Written by "G.R."

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