Every Sabbath afternoon, after the morning service at their church, the Church Leader and his 11-year-old son would go out into their town and hand out religious pamphlets. This particular Sabbath afternoon, as it came time for them to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said “Okay Dad, I’m ready.”
His father asked, “Ready for what?”
“Dad, it’s time we gather our tracts together and go out.”
His father responded, “Son, it’s very cold outside, and it’s pouring down rain.”
The boy gave his father a surprised look, asking, “But Dad, aren’t people still going to be lost, even though it’s raining?”
Father answered, “Son, I am not going out in this weather.”
Despondently the boy asks, “Dad, can I go on my own then? Please?”
His father hesitated for a moment but said, “You can go. Here are the tracts; be careful, son.”
“Thanks Dad!”
And with that, he was off and out into the rain. This 11-year-old boy walked the streets of the town, going door-to-door and handing everybody he met in the street a pamphlet. After hours of walking in the rain, he was soaking bone-chilled wet and down to his very last tract. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to, but the streets were totally deserted.
Then, he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the doorbell. He rang the bell, but nobody answered. He rang it again and again, but still no one answered. He waited, but still no answer. Finally, this 11-year-old trooper turned to leave, but something stopped him. Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch. He rang again, and this time the door slowly opened. Standing in the doorway was a very sad looking elderly lady.
She softly asked, “What can I do for you, son?”
With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world, this little boy said, “Ma’am, I’m sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU! I came to give you my very last Gospel tract which will tell you all about Jesus and His great love.” With that, he handed her his last tract and turned to leave.
She called to him as he departed, “Thank you, son! And God bless you!”
The following Sabbath morning in church, the church leader was in the pulpit and as the service began he asked, “Does anybody have a testimony or want to say anything?”
Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet. As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face. “None of you in this church know me. I’ve never been here before. Before last Sabbath, I was not a Christian. My husband passed on some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sabbath, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart as I came to the end of the line where I no longer had any hope or will to live.
“So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted, I was about to leap off. When suddenly, the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me. I thought, ‘I’ll wait a minute, and whoever it is will go away.’ I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get more insistent and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I thought to myself again, ‘Who on earth could this be?! Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me!’ I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door. All the while, the bell rang louder and louder. When I opened the door and looked, I could hardly believe my eyes! There on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life! His smile! Oh, I could never describe it to you! And the words that came from his mouth caused my heart that had long been dead, to leap to life as he exclaimed with a cherub-like voice, ‘Ma’am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.’ Then he gave me this Gospel tract that I now hold in my hand. As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this Gospel tract. Then, I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn’t be needing them anymore.
“You see, I am now a happy child of the King, and since the address of your church was on the back of this Gospel tract, I have come here to personally say, ‘Thank you to God’s little angel who came just in the nick of time and by so doing, spared my soul from an eternity in Hell.”
There were now no dry eyes in the church. As shouts of praise and honour to the King resounded off the very rafters of the building, the church leader descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little angel was seated. He took him in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.
Probably no church has had a more glorious moment and probably this Universe has never seen a father that was more filled with love and honour for his son, except for one: This Father, in heaven also allowed His Son, Jesus, to go out into a cold and dark world. He received His Son back with joy unspeakable, and as all of Heaven shouted praises and honour to the King, the Father sat His beloved Son on a throne far above all principality and power and every name that is named.
There may be someone, reading this, who is also going through a dark, cold and lonely time in your soul. You may be a Christian, for we are not without problems. Whatever the case, and whatever the problem or situation you find yourself in, and no matter how dark it may seem, know that, “JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.”
You do not need to have a great knowledge of the Bible to work for Jesus. You only need a love for Jesus and a willingness to work for Him. It is not difficult to give out gospel pamphlets, whether you give them in person, or put them in people’s doors.
Everyone can carry gospel pamphlets with them at all times and be giving them out regularly as the opportunity presents itself. If you have a little time to spare, rather than just sit and look at your phone on social media—go give out a few pamphlets. Every moment is precious and we will have to answer for each moment wasted.
People will be lost, whether it is raining or the sun is shining. “Heavenly angels have long been waiting for human agents—the members of the church—to co-operate with them in the great work to be done.” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, p. 46–47. Will you be one of those human agents that will cooperate with heavenly angels? “Every day there is something to do for our Lord and Master. Every day we are to point souls to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.” –Ibid., p. 48
“Go to work, whether you feel like it or not. Engage in personal effort to bring souls to Jesus and the knowledge of the truth. In such labor you will find both a stimulus and a tonic; it will both arouse and strengthen. By exercise your spiritual powers will become more vigorous, so that you can with better success work out your own salvation.” –Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 387