I’M NOT A GOOD PERSON by Joanne Lowe

“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Psalm 53: 2, 3

King James Version

I was talking to a dear friend yesterday morning. My friend is going through a very difficult time right now and he is very discouraged. He has had a lot of sorrow and heartaches in his life. As he was sharing the difficult situation he is facing with me, God laid it on my heart to be sure that my friend knows without a shadow of doubt and understands that Jesus really does love him and that Jesus hurts when he is hurting. I gave my friend one of my new business cards and he read on the card “Jesus loves you.”

As my friend was looking at my business card, he got tears in his eyes and said “I’m not a good person. I don’t know how Jesus could love me. I have done a lot of terrible things in my life; hateful things that I know I should not have done.” I told my friend that the unconditional love of Jesus for us is not based on who we are or on the things that we have done or will do. The unconditional and compassionate love of our precious Saviour for us is based on who He is.

Jesus is not only the definition of unconditional love and compassion; He is unconditional love and compassion! His heart is filled with forgiveness for all of us. None of us are any good and none of us are worthy of His love, no, not one of us. It is only because the heart of our precious Saviour is filled with compassion, forgiveness and unconditional love for us that He willingly walked that long and lonely road to Calvary to die for our sins.

He allowed the people to curse Him, mock Him, ridicule Him, beat Him beyond recognition, spit on Him and nail Him to a cross of horror and agony because He loves us so much. What unconditional love and what compassion flowed from the heart of our precious Saviour on the darkest and most horrible day in all of history for you and for me.

That same unconditional love and compassion still flows from the heart of Jesus for every one of us every day of our lives. He loved us yesterday; He loves us today just as much as He did yesterday and He will love us tomorrow just as much as He does today. There is nothing that we can do that will cause Him to stop loving us. Yes, all of us fail Him and hurt Him at times, but He still loves us unconditionally. There is no one like Jesus! No one loves us like Jesus loves us.

We can do good deeds every day and give money to charity but those things do not make us good people. When my friend said to me “I’m not a good person”, he was telling the truth. My friend is not a good person. You are not a good person and I am not a good person. There was only one perfect person and His name is Jesus. I am so thankful that one day our dear Heavenly Father opened His compassionate heart to us and sent His beloved Son to pay the price for our sins so that we may have the privilege of being saved and live in Heaven with Him for all eternity.

Don’t wait until you think you are a good person to ask Jesus into your heart to be your personal Saviour. You will never be good enough no matter what you do. If you have never opened the door to your heart and invited Jesus into your heart to be your personal Saviour, I urge you, I plead with you to say “yes” to Jesus right now. You may not have a tomorrow or even another hour. Swallow your pride, admit that you are a sinner and invite the Christ of Calvary into your heart right now before it is too late!

Joanne Lowe

October 31, 2008

joannelowe8@cox.net

www.fromtheheartofjesus.blogspot.com

IT IS NOT EASY by Joanne Lowe

“So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

John 8: 7 - 11

King James Version

It is not easy for us to admit that we are wrong about something or that we have sinned. It’s certainly not easy for us to admit that we are addicted to drugs, television, sports, alcohol, pornography or anything else that hurts Jesus. There’s nothing wrong with playing sports or watching television, provided that the programs we watch are programs that we would watch if Jesus were sitting beside us, unless we put these things first in our lives. Anything that comes before Jesus or interferes with our fellowship with Him is sin.

I was in a church service many years ago when the pastor stopped preaching in the middle of a sentence and said “The football game will be on soon so I am ending my sermon early so that we can get home to watch the football game.” How that must have broken the heart of our precious Saviour. Jesus must come before everybody and everything. He paid a very expensive price to earn that right when He was crucified on the old rugged cross of horror and torture for our sins.

While these things hurt Jesus, there are other things that also hurt Him. It hurts Jesus when we abuse our spouses physically or verbally. When we criticize and ridicule our children and our parents and our siblings, it not only hurts our loved ones, it also breaks the heart of our precious Saviour. If we are constantly hurting people on purpose because we are stronger than they are or to get even with them for something they did to us or if we are addicted to something, we need to understand that we must stop doing these things.

Also, we should never condemn someone for being addicted to something. Just as Jesus said to the woman “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” so He says that to us. None of us are perfect. All of us fail and hurt Jesus. The sweetest Christian we know is just a sinner saved by grace. How dare we criticize and condemn someone when Jesus doesn’t criticize and condemn the person. We are at times a very arrogant people. May God forgive us for our holier than thou attitudes.

Our precious and loving Saviour is waiting for us to come to Him with humble and broken hearts for sinning and hurting Him. We need to ask Him to forgive us and help us get through these difficult times. Our precious Saviour is a loving, understanding and compassionate Saviour. Reach out and take the hand of our Saviour. He will take your hand and walk beside you as you are going through these dark valleys. He will never leave you, not even for one minute and He will set you on the mountain tops of joy, peace and happiness. Thank God for our risen Saviour!

Joanne Lowe

October 25, 2008

joannelowe8@cox.net

fromtheheartofjesus.blogspot.com

COME HOME by Joanne Lowe

“I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee. And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”

Luke 15: 18 - 24

King James Version

What a beautiful picture of our loving Heavenly Father! I have read this passage of Scripture many times but it hit me today like it never has before. There are times when we stray away from God but when we confess our sins to Him not only does He forgive us; He runs to meet us. What a privilege and what an honor is ours to be loved by our compassionate Heavenly Father! Thank You, Heavenly Father, for loving us and for loving us unconditionally.

W. L. Thompson wrote the beautiful and inspiring song “Softly and Tenderly”. The words to the refrain are so appropriate for us when we wander off the path that God has laid out for us. “Come home, come home, come home, Ye who are weary, come home.” If you will look with your heart and listen with your heart, you will hear our Heavenly Father calling you to come home and you will see Him running to meet you.

If you have strayed away from God, He is waiting for you to come home with outstretched arms and a heart full of compassion. If you will take the first step, He will run so fast to meet you that you will instantly be in His loving and tender arms of compassion, understanding and forgiveness. I urge you to get back on the perfect path that God has laid out for you. He will take your hand and walk with you through the dark valleys of sorrow and discouragement as well as on the mountain tops of happiness and joy. Do you hear Him calling to you “Come home”? Please don’t hurt Him by refusing to answer His loving call. Go home to your Heavenly Father today.

Joanne Lowe

October 2, 2008

joannelowe8@cox.net

REJECTION AND RIDICULE by Joanne Lowe

“What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands.”

Matthew 26: 66, 67

King James Version

I think that most of us at one time in our lives have been rejected and ridiculed by somebody. However, nobody has ever been or ever will be rejected and ridiculed like our precious Saviour was when He was here on earth. His accusers said “He is guilty of death” but we know that is not true. Jesus had never sinned, had never done anything wrong, not one time. We are the ones who are guilty of death and if it were not for the compassion and unconditional love of Jesus for us, we would die in our sins and spend all eternity in hell with satan.

It hurts when we are rejected and ridiculed. My heart has been broken many times in my life because I was rejected and ridiculed. The scorn and humiliation that I endured was nothing compared to the scorn and humiliation that Jesus suffered for us. Just think about it, Jesus had never done anything wrong and yet He willingly walked that long and lonely road to Calvary and there allowed them to crucify Him on a cross of horror and agony. He did it all for us. We are the ones who deserved to die but our precious Saviour took our place and died for us.

Heavenly Father, thank You for opening Your tender loving heart of compassion, grace, mercy and forgiveness to us. Thank You for sending Your beloved Son into the world to save us. I would not be alive today if it were not for Your precious Son. I know that You must have missed Him terribly. I can’t even begin to imagine how Your heart must have broken the day Your Son left Heaven to come to earth. I appreciate all that You have done for me. Thank You for loving me. I love You, dear Heavenly Father.

Jesus, there are no words to tell You how much I love You. It is because of You that I am alive today. You are the reason I get out of bed in the morning. You have done so much for me and I don’t deserve anything. O how I love You, my precious Saviour. On that glorious day when I see You, I will put my arms around You and give You a big hug and try to tell You how much You mean to me and how much I love You. Again, thank You from the bottom of my heart for loving me unconditionally. Amen.

Joanne Lowe

October 17, 2008

joannelowe8@cox.net

http://fromtheheartofjesus.blogspot.com/

THE ANCHOR OF OUR HEARTS by Joanne Lowe

“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

Hebrews 6: 19, 20

King James Version

Webster’s Dictionary has a lot of different meanings for the word “anchor”. The definition that stood out to me and the one that I like best of all reminds me of our precious Saviour. The definition is “to secure firmly: ”. When Jesus anchors our hearts in His unconditional love, it is anchored even firmer than concrete.

Our precious Saviour secures our hearts firmly by His cleansing atoning blood that He shed for us on the cross of Calvary. Once His blood has been applied to our hearts for the forgiveness of our sins, we are His for all eternity and nobody and nothing can pry us from Him.

We read in the Bible “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one” (John 10: 27 - 30).

Jesus is not only the anchor of our hearts; He is also our firm foundation. One day, our merciful and loving Heavenly Father opened His heart of unconditional love and compassion to us and sent His beloved Son into the world to bear the penalty for our sins. Jesus paid the debt that we could never pay. The debt was not His. Jesus had never sinned; had never done anything wrong, not one time.

Yet Jesus willingly walked that long lonely road to Calvary and there shed His precious blood for our salvation. He could have come down from the cross if He had wanted to but He stayed on that cross of horror because He loves us so much. He suffered an excruciating pain that we will never be able to fully comprehend with our human minds. We only have just a fingernail’s understanding of how much pain and agony that He suffered for us. What a Saviour, this Jesus of Nazareth! Have you allowed Jesus to anchor your heart with His cleansing atoning blood for the forgiveness of your sins?

Joanne Lowe

October 10, 2008

joannelowe8@cox.net

http://www.fromtheheartofjesus.com/

REBELLIOUS CHILDREN by Joanne Lowe

“I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.”

Isaiah 65: 2

King James Version

I remember one time when I was a teenager that I wanted to do something and my Mother told me that I couldn’t. I kept asking her and hounding her to get permission to do what I wanted to do. She finally got exasperated and upset and said “Do what you want. It doesn’t matter what I say. You’re going to do it your way anyway.”

I think that sometimes we treat God the same way that I treated my Mother. If He tells us no or doesn’t give us an answer when we want it, we may not say that we are going to do it our way or even think it but we do it our way anyway. I’m reminded of what I heard Bill Gaither say on one of their Homecoming tapes that I have. I don’t know if he was talking about his parents or if he was quoting someone else. No matter if it was his parents or someone else’s parents the message is the same.

Bill Gaither said “I used to think that my parents were so stupid until I went away to college. When I came home, I was surprised at how much they had learned.” When I first heard Bill say that, I laughed but then it hit me that we do the same thing to God. We sometimes think that our way is better than God’s way. Then when we fail and end up with our lives off of the perfect path that He has set for us, we realize that it is us and not Him who acted in a stupid manner.

There are a lot of good things that we can do to serve Jesus but we need to be certain that they are in His will for our lives. He may have other plans for us; plans that He hasn’t revealed to us yet. We also need to be certain that we don’t get involved doing so many things, even things that are good, that we don’t have the time to spend with Him. I received an email from someone last year who told me that she had joined so many clubs and was teaching so many Bible studies, ten Bible studies every day of the week, that she didn’t have the time to fellowship with God like she used to do. How that must hurt Him and break His heart!

It is time that we stop being rebellious children to our Heavenly Father and become obedient children. We need to remember that He knows what is best for our lives. He can see the end results and He is the only one who can make all things work together for good. Are you being obedient to God or are you one of His rebellious children? Allow God to direct you on the perfect path that He has for you. You will have a lot more peace, a lot more joy and a lot more happiness in your heart and in your life. The most important thing is that you will make the heart of our precious Saviour happy.

Joanne Lowe

October 1, 2008

joannelowe8@cox.net

http://joannelowe.synthasite.com

GOD’S HAPPY LIFE by Joanne Lowe

“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

Psalm 16: 11

King James Version

The world offers us a happy hour in bars which costs money and which is definitely not a happy hour. It may bring a temporary high which makes us forget our problems but when the high wears off the problems are still there and we have a hang over. God offers us a happy life through His beloved Son, Jesus, which brings a genuine and a lasting happiness. This happy life is free to us but it cost Jesus His life’s blood. “And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins”(Matthew 26: 27, 28).

However, we need to remember that satan will do all that he can possibly do to defeat us and discourage us from serving Jesus. It upsets satan and makes him very angry to see us happy and he will attack us with vicious lies, with doubts and confusion, and with criticism and sarcasm and judgmental words. Sad as it is, there are times that satan even attacks us through our families. Most of the time, our families don’t even realize that satan is using them to discourage us from serving Jesus.

I received an email from a lady two years ago who said that her daughter had disowned her and would have nothing do with her anymore because she was serving Jesus. It is so important that we stay in the presence of Jesus so satan will not be able to poison our minds and discourage us. One of the ways that satan tries to discourage us from serving Jesus is by confusing us and filling our minds with doubts about what we should do to serve Jesus.

When I surrendered to the mission field in 1999, my pastor prayed a beautiful prayer for me. Then he gave me some very wise counsel. Pastor David told me not to wait until God told me what my mission work was to be; he told me to start serving Jesus right where I was. I began telling people how much Jesus loves them and that He loves them unconditionally. When we don’t know what else to do at the time, we do know that all of us have been given a mandate by Jesus Himself to tell everyone that He loves them and that He loves them unconditionally.

However, I became impatient to know what God wanted me to do as a missionary. I must have prayed and asked God at least twenty times what He wanted me to do to serve Jesus. One day God spoke to my heart and said “My time is not your time. When the time is right, you will have peace in your heart.” I never asked Him again what He wanted me to do. It wasn’t until January 24, 2005 that God entrusted me with the ministries of encouraging pastors and writing devotions.

Over the last three and a half years, I have received several emails from missionaries, evangelists and pastors who told me that they had prayed and asked our Heavenly Father what He wanted them to do to serve Him but hadn’t received an answer. When we are confused and have doubts as to what God wants us to do, it is important for us to remember this verse “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55: 8, 9).

If we will stay in the presence of Jesus and keep praising Him, not only will we have fulness of joy we will also have peace and happiness in our hearts. Don’t allow satan to rob you of your joy and happiness by planting doubts and confusion in your mind and heart about what you are supposed to do to serve Jesus. Wait for God to speak to your heart.

“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40: 29 - 31). Are you willing to wait for God to speak to your heart and give you direction and the ministries that He wants you to do? Remember, His thoughts are not your thoughts and His ways are not your ways. His thoughts and His ways are higher than yours and His thoughts and His ways are perfect.

Joanne Lowe

September 30, 2008

joannelowe8@cox.net

http://joannelowe.synthasite.com

WE SHALL SEE HIM by Joanne Lowe

“Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”

Revelation 1: 7
King James Version

I can barely see to type this as tears are flooding my eyes. I just listened to Sandi Patty singing “We Shall Behold Him”. At the end of the song, it showed everybody standing to their feet in honor of Jesus. Without even realizing that I was doing it, I stood up from my office chair and raised both hands as high as possible. One day, I will see my beloved friend, Jesus, face to face! What a glorious expectation of joy floods my heart!

We rise for the singing of the National Anthem; we rise in honor of the president, how much more should we rise in respect, awe, and honour of our glorious risen Saviour, Jesus! We raise our hands in church in praise of Him, but if we aren’t raising our hands when there is nobody watching us, we need to question if we are just raising them for show at church.

One day, all the cruel words and cruel things that have been said and done to us will fade away. We will have no more tears or heartaches. We will be with our blessed Saviour forever and forever! There will be no more abuse from our spouses. There will be no more murders. There will no more abuse of children from their parents. There will be no more abuse of parents from their children.

Forever we shall be with Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! He is the Great I Am, the Bright and Morning Star, the Beautiful Rose of Sharon, and my very best Friend! Hallelujah to His majestic Name!

Joanne Lowe
April 21, 2006

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE by Joanne Lowe

"For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry."

Luke 15: 24
King James Version

I watched a family program on television yesterday. It was about a family with two children. One of the children had gotten into trouble at school and the principal called the mother on the telephone at her job and demanded that she come to the school immediately. She explained to the principal that she would come to see him tomorrow, that she couldn't leave her job. The principal asked her if her job was more important to her than her son. At the same time, her boss was telling her to get off the telephone and yelling orders at her. It was too much for her to handle.

She was supposed to have gone on vacation that night but her boss had just given her another assignment and told her that she could not go on vacation. He told her that he would try to give her an extra day of vacation to make up for it. She walked out of the office and got on a bus and couldn't get off because she was in such a depressed mood that it was like she was sleep walking and in a daze. She didn't realize what she was doing and couldn't have controlled it at that point even if she did know what she was doing.

She finally called her husband a few days later who was frantic with worry and said "I'm okay. I don't know where I am. Please don't say one word or I will have to hang up on you". Her husband couldn't be quiet. He had to say it. He was so relieved to hear from her that he said to her "I love you". She said "I told you not to say anything." and she hung up the telephone.

Was she being hateful and mean to her husband? No, she wasn't been mean or hateful to him. Her mind had completely shut down like a defense mechanism. She had been pressured by so many people at the same time for so long that she was about to have a nervous breakdown. Her family, her friends and her boss all wanted her to do something for them all the time and at the same time. They had demanded it of her for so many years that it was overwhelming to her.

It was impossible for her to stay at her job that day. She knew that if she didn't get away from it all, and get away right that minute, that she really would have a nervous breakdown. So she didn't say anything to anyone and simply left. Was that selfish on her part? No, it was a desperate attempt to save her sanity.

About a week later, she finally had peace in her heart once again and she went home to her family. As she walked in the door, her husband met her at the door. Without saying a word to her, he held her tightly as he cried. She said "Do you want to talk about it"? He replied with just three words but those three words touched my heart and I cried like a baby. He said to his wife who he loved so much "Up to you". What a picture of unconditional love by a husband! O that we would have more marriages like this one.

I think if we will listen with our hearts we will hear Jesus saying to us "Up to you". He doesn't force us to do anything. We are not puppets and He doesn't pull our strings. He allows us to make the choice. Many times He calls us to do things for Him and we either aren't listening for His call, or we ignore His orders. Sad to say, sometimes we just don't care enough to stop what we are doing and answer His call.

The greatest call that He gives us is when He calls us to repent of our sins, ask Him to forgive us and come into our hearts to be our personal Saviour. His heart is filled with unconditional love for us and He is standing at our heart's door and knocking. Have you opened the door for Him? Have you accepted the sacrifice that He made for you on the cross of Calvary? If not, please don't put it off another minute.

Sometimes we as Christians allow satan and the world with all their poisonous barbs to defeat and discourage us and we stop serving Jesus. We feel that we just can't go on. He knows how we feel because I'm sure that He also felt like that many times when He was here on earth. He probably said to Himself "I can't go on because the rejection, criticism, sarcasm and scorn hurt so much". Yet because of His amazing and unconditional love for His Father and for us, He went on day after day as He endured horrors that you and I will never experience or ever fully comprehend.

Yes, it is up to us to either accept His unconditional love or to reject it. What is your choice? If you have wandered away from Jesus, He is waiting for you to come home to Him with His arms open wide. He will hold you tightly in His arms of compassion and understanding. You won't even have to talk to Him about it because He already knows. It is enough for Him that you have come home. He will give you the choice of talking about it as He says "Up to you".

Joanne Lowe
September 11, 2007