Thursday, April 30, 2015

We Would See Jesus

When we first gathered here on Wednesday evening, it was mentioned that God was gathering us in as a family and it is nice to think of it like that. We are part of the great family of God. Just before leaving WA, our friends said kindly take our love and greetings to the friends in SA. It was just a friendly greeting from one part of the family to another and I love to think I have the privilege of being amongst you again, to see old friends and also to see new faces. It is a wonderful privilege. 

I was thinking too even as we have been singing, we would see Jesus. I was thinking of Him as we sometimes think of Him as our Father and the Elder Brother, and I am sure that is the expression of our hearts as we would see Jesus. In India amongst the Hindu people, the elder brother has a special place, they look to him for advice, he has a special place in the family and I thought of our Elder Brother Jesus, doesn’t He have a very special place in our hearts and lives? We look to Him, we seek His guidance, we love to have His spirit, we love to see the evidence of His spirit here.  
 
I would like to tell you a story about one of our sisters who used to be in India, Vera an English girl. Her father was a policeman and he rose to the rank of superintendent. Vera at the age of 12 went with her mother to the meetings. Her mother was a sincere Presbyterian. However, as she went to the gospel meetings her heart was turned to Jesus; she could see there was a right spirit amongst the people where she was. She came home and told her husband about the meetings. He was a quiet man but when it came to going to convention, he took Vera and her mother to convention by car and do you know what appealed to him about the gathering? They didn’t need a policeman to keep them in order. He thought that strange, but this is a policeman’s mind. He was used to going to gatherings where there was a measure of police control, but just seeing people coming here, with such a quiet spirit, each one doing what they could do and so on. There is a wonderful spirit in the family of God. It is one thing people take notice of, how the elderly ones are cared for, it is lovely to see young ones helping the older ones, each doing what they can in the family that is truly lovely. You know the family of God is controlled by one spirit. 

When I came from India I spent some time in hospital. I was used to having a companion in the field, one to read together with, but then I had my own private reads. I enjoyed looking into the Psalms, particularly concerning the life of David. I felt I got a deeper understanding of David’s life, and it was well expressed in the Psalms, which God has so kindly left us a record. We don’t often get to know the depths of each other’s heart unless something is spoken. I read other portions also, and I just felt I wouldn’t like to be a little careless about reading of Jesus. I wouldn’t like to take Him for granted and never learn to appreciate His life and His ministry and all that comes from that in my life. I just felt there was that earnest prayer from my heart as I came to this convention that, as a person, I would see Jesus and I have.  
 
We have heard about Him from the platform, we have seen the spirit manifest in the lives of His people. You know the chorus of that hymn says on the faithful of the land keep your eyes that we might stand. I remember an elderly brother worker making a comment on that. That is very good advice, but he said, keep Jesus as the center of our thoughts; other lives we read of in the Scripture and those around us we appreciate, but keep our affections fixed on Jesus.  He is the center, He is the One God sent, He came to earth to show us how to live. Some of the thoughts I had concerning Him have already been mentioned. I hope you don’t mind if I repeat these things that have been laid upon my heart. 

I enjoyed thinking of Isaiah; he was a great prophet in his day and he was a wonderful man. I have heard it said he preached 60 years and I think during the reign of four Kings. He knew many experiences. God in kindness gave him three pictures of Jesus, three visions. I believe those visions would be very, very precious to Isaiah’s heart. We know they became reality 700 years after this. We have one in the ninth, 11 and 13 chapters, scriptures I am sure we are familiar with. I believe those pictures would be deeply written upon Isaiah’s heart where showing the people in the coming pages, 700 years later, when Jesus came in reality and in the flesh. And we in the 20th century look back to the life and teachings of Jesus and one great thought came to me, we can have hope and confidence in the living God who so kindly helped men and women down through the ages and who would help us to appreciate His own dear Son.  I am sure what is very personal is what we have approved in our hearts and lives when we heard the gospel. 
 
When I was 16 I was invited to gospel meetings 2 miles from home. These days it is not far to go when you have a car, we had to get a penny section with the tram and walk, this we did three nights a week. My people were religious, we never had the privilege of having preachers in the home, but there was just something about these meetings and those people that gripped my heart. I thought in my heart God didn’t love me. I was the eldest of seven and bore the responsibility in the family. I used to get into my head sometimes God won’t love you if you tell lies, if you are disobedient, so I had it in my mind God didn’t love me and wouldn’t love me. God in kindness showed me in those meetings He did love me. I’m glad of the assurance and I am glad of the experiences from the hand of God, as we know what they are to us. 

I was thinking of the love of Jesus that was mentioned so kindly last night, when He was 12 years of age He did that journey to Jerusalem, His parents are leaving thinking He was with them. I thought of Jesus as a boy of 12, He was probably helping someone who was traveling with them, He would have that in His life at the age of 12 and bought up in a saved home. This is a very nice mark. His mother and father wouldn’t worry until night came when they would expect Him to rest and He didn’t come. I tried to think a little of the concern of Mary and Joseph as they realized He is not with us. The only thing to do was to go back. They had gone a day’s journey, they went back three days and searched. Imagine how concerned they would be, the precious life that was given to them, they did not know where He was. They found them in the least expected place.  
 
He said “wist ye not that I must be about my father’s business?” God’s spirit was doing something in His life, God was beginning to work. We see that sometimes in a child today. Beginning to be concerned about spiritual things in homes where God’s loved and honored and go to meetings and have the servants of God around them, young hearts are stirred and moved. It says He went home with them. There is another little thought there. Sometimes as the multitude of our thoughts and activities of life, maybe we are so absorbed in other things we get busy and take it for granted He is with us. 

There was a young woman I was speaking to from W.A., I hadn’t seen her for many years; she was troubled in her soul, she was telling me for some years she and her husband lived in another city and had some business. I could get up in the morning and send my child to school and my husband to his business and then after that have a quiet time. They came back to the farm and there seemed to be one thing after another. I said she would just have to get up a little earlier if she wanted to have the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ with her. She realized she was losing out. I felt we need to be careful, we could just get careless and take for granted He is with us. He wants to know that we really love Him as He loved us. I think there would be, from the depths of all our hearts gathered here, the desire that we could indeed get fresh glimpses of Jesus. 

I thought of Jesus at the age of 30. God worked on His heart and He was moved by the spirit of God to take other steps in obedience by going forth to preach the gospel, and there was Satan ready to tempt Him and he tried everything he knew. You know the wall of separation was well fixed. Then it tells us that he left Jesus for a season. Later on we read of Jesus saying, the prince of this world has nothing in Me. He kept up the wall of separation, He kept the influence of Satan out, and He kept the right things in. Don’t we need to do that, because Satan will never give up trying to tempt us; he will always be there to try and tempt and hinder us. 

I was thinking to of some of the lovely marks of Jesus. We know so well the spirit He had, the great humility, the great patience and the compassion and love. I thought of the time we read of Him sitting on the well. It says He was weary of the journey. It is the only time we read of Jesus being tired. I am glad it is there. We know He was tempted in all points as we are, and we get tired and weary.  We can’t help it, our bodies are like that in the cares of life. I thought of Jesus sitting there, quietly thinking, a needy soul came along and as a result of that contact led to a mi Ilma Jenyns  - Oak Lodge conv. 1979  [Ilma labored many years in India, started in the work in Western Australia in 1933]  
 

When we first gathered here on Wednesday evening, it was mentioned that God was gathering us in as a family and it is nice to think of it like that. We are part of the great family of God. Just before leaving WA, our friends said kindly take our love and greetings to the friends in SA. It was just a friendly greeting from one part of the family to another and I love to think I have the privilege of being amongst you again, to see old friends and also to see new faces. It is a wonderful privilege. 

I was thinking too even as we have been singing, we would see Jesus. I was thinking of Him as we sometimes think of Him as our Father and the Elder Brother, and I am sure that is the expression of our hearts as we would see Jesus. In India amongst the Hindu people, the elder brother has a special place, they look to him for advice, he has a special place in the family and I thought of our Elder Brother Jesus, doesn’t He have a very special place in our hearts and lives? We look to Him, we seek His guidance, we love to have His spirit, we love to see the evidence of His spirit here. 

I would like to tell you a story about one of our sisters who used to be in India, Vera an English girl. Her father was a policeman and he rose to the rank of superintendent. Vera at the age of 12 went with her mother to the meetings. Her mother was a sincere Presbyterian. However, as she went to the gospel meetings her heart was turned to Jesus; she could see there was a right spirit amongst the people where she was. She came home and told her husband about the meetings. He was a quiet man but when it came to going to convention, he took Vera and her mother to convention by car and do you know what appealed to him about the gathering? They didn’t need a policeman to keep them in order. He thought that strange, but this is a policeman’s mind. He was used to going to gatherings where there was a measure of police control, but just seeing people coming here, with such a quiet spirit, each one doing what they could do and so on. There is a wonderful spirit in the family of God. It is one thing people take notice of, how the elderly ones are cared for, it is lovely to see young ones helping the older ones, each doing what they can in the family that is truly lovely. You know the family of God is controlled by one spirit.  
 
When I came from India I spent some time in hospital. I was used to having a companion in the field, one to read together with, but then I had my own private reads. I enjoyed looking into the Psalms, particularly concerning the life of David. I felt I got a deeper understanding of David’s life, and it was well expressed in the Psalms, which God has so kindly left us a record. We don’t often get to know the depths of each other’s heart unless something is spoken. I read other portions also, and I just felt I wouldn’t like to be a little careless about reading of Jesus. I wouldn’t like to take Him for granted and never learn to appreciate His life and His ministry and all that comes from that in my life. I just felt there was that earnest prayer from my heart as I came to this convention that, as a person, I would see Jesus and I have. 

We have heard about Him from the platform, we have seen the spirit manifest in the lives of His people. You know the chorus of that hymn says on the faithful of the land keep your eyes that we might stand. I remember an elderly brother worker making a comment on that. That is very good advice, but he said, keep Jesus as the center of our thoughts; other lives we read of in the Scripture and those around us we appreciate, but keep our affections fixed on Jesus.  He is the center, He is the One God sent, He came to earth to show us how to live. Some of the thoughts I had concerning Him have already been mentioned. I hope you don’t mind if I repeat these things that have been laid upon my heart. 

I enjoyed thinking of Isaiah; he was a great prophet in his day and he was a wonderful man. I have heard it said he preached 60 years and I think during the reign of four Kings. He knew many experiences. God in kindness gave him three pictures of Jesus, three visions. I believe those visions would be very, very precious to Isaiah’s heart. We know they became reality 700 years after this. We have one in the ninth, 11 and 13 chapters, scriptures I am sure we are familiar with. I believe those pictures would be deeply written upon Isaiah’s heart where showing the people in the coming pages, 700 years later, when Jesus came in reality and in the flesh. And we in the 20th century look back to the life and teachings of Jesus and one great thought came to me, we can have hope and confidence in the living God who so kindly helped men and women down through the ages and who would help us to appreciate His own dear Son.  I am sure what is very personal is what we have approved in our hearts and lives when we heard the gospel.  
 
When I was 16 I was invited to gospel meetings 2 miles from home. These days it is not far to go when you have a car, we had to get a penny section with the tram and walk, this we did three nights a week. My people were religious, we never had the privilege of having preachers in the home, but there was just something about these meetings and those people that gripped my heart. I thought in my heart God didn’t love me. I was the eldest of seven and bore the responsibility in the family. I used to get into my head sometimes God won’t love you if you tell lies, if you are disobedient, so I had it in my mind God didn’t love me and wouldn’t love me. God in kindness showed me in those meetings He did love me. I’m glad of the assurance and I am glad of the experiences from the hand of God, as we know what they are to us. 

I was thinking of the love of Jesus that was mentioned so kindly last night, when He was 12 years of age He did that journey to Jerusalem, His parents are leaving, thinking He was with them. I thought of Jesus as a boy of 12, He was probably helping someone who was traveling with them, He would have that in His life at the age of 12 and bought up in a saved home. This is a very nice mark. His mother and father wouldn’t worry until night came when they would expect Him to rest and He didn’t come. I tried to think a little of the concern of Mary and Joseph as they realized He is not with us. The only thing to do was to go back. They had gone a day’s journey, they went back three days and searched. Imagine how concerned they would be, the precious life that was given to them, they did not know where He was. They found them in the least expected place. 

He said “wist ye not that I must be about my father’s business?” God’s spirit was doing something in His life, God was beginning to work. We see that sometimes in a child today. Beginning to be concerned about spiritual things in homes where God’s loved and honored and go to meetings and have the servants of God around them, young hearts are stirred and moved. It says He went home with them. There is another little thought there. Sometimes as the multitude of our thoughts and activities of life, maybe we are so absorbed in other things we get busy and take it for granted He is with us. 

There was a young woman I was speaking to from W.A., I hadn’t seen her for many years; she was troubled in her soul, she was telling me for some years she and her husband lived in another city and had some business. I could get up in the morning and send my child to school and my husband to his business and then after that have a quiet time. They came back to the farm and there seemed to be one thing after another. I said she would just have to get up a little earlier if she wanted to have the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ with her. She realized she was losing out. I felt we need to be careful, we could just get careless and take for granted He is with us. He wants to know that we really love Him as He loved us. I think there would be, from the depths of all our hearts gathered here, the desire that we could indeed get fresh glimpses of Jesus.
 
I thought of Jesus at the age of 30. God worked on His heart and He was moved by the spirit of God to take other steps in obedience by going forth to preach the gospel, and there was Satan ready to tempt Him and he tried everything he knew. You know the wall of separation was well fixed. Then it tells us that he left Jesus for a season. Later on we read of Jesus saying, the prince of this world has nothing in Me. He kept up the wall of separation, He kept the influence of Satan out, and He kept the right things in. Don’t we need to do that, because Satan will never give up trying to tempt us; he will always be there to try and tempt and hinder us. 

I was thinking to of some of the lovely marks of Jesus. We know so well the spirit He had, the great humility, the great patience and the compassion and love. I thought of the time we read of Him sitting on the well. It says He was weary of the journey. It is the only time we read of Jesus being tired. I am glad it is there. We know He was tempted in all points as we are, and we get tired and weary.  We can’t help it, our bodies are like that in the cares of life. I thought of Jesus sitting there, quietly thinking, a needy soul came along and as a result of that contact led to a mission in the village, and how Jesus was tired, but He was always ready to help needy souls. I think that is lovely to think of our Saviour was always ready in spirit to help us. Today we heard of Him serving, He is still serving as our intercessor, He is still very interested in our spiritual welfare. What a wonderful Saviour appears to us; think of Him in so many ways as recorded in the Scripture. 

My thoughts have turned to the first day of the week after He had been crucified, that little band of women who stood by Him and seen Him suffer, that was all they could do for Him, the One they loved, they couldn’t do anything to help Him, only by their presence and their souls willing to be identified with Him in His shame you could say, it would mean a lot to our Saviour. Then we read of Joseph coming on the first day of the week with spices and to anoint His body. I do appreciate that, even they felt there was nothing they could do, they did the little they could do. Desire accomplished is sweet to the soul. Sometimes we suffer frustration, how do we take these things? God knows what is in our hearts and we might not accomplish what we set out to do because of circumstances, it is good to have the desire and God knows.  
 
I couldn’t help but think of Mary in the 12th of John in the home of Martha, she grasped the opportunity while He was there. Martha at their home as a housekeeper, would like to prepare something very special for this servant of God. Mary felt this is the opportunity to learn a little more. Jesus probably said don’t go to any trouble, as servants often say that; Mary valued the opportunity she had that day to learn, to sacrifice, which had a great effect. She was the one who broke the alabaster box, the fragrances savored that home, it also savored the life of Jesus at that time. Jesus said let her alone she has done this for my burying. She didn’t know what it meant to the Saviour, but she grasped the opportunity and she never had another one. 

There is just one little thought, little opportunities come our way of doing something laid upon our hearts, if we make the best of our opportunities we will have no regrets. I feel I have regrets by putting things off, and opportunity may never come again. I hope as we have gathered here we would indeed see Jesus, we will see again the lovely qualities in His life and what He means to us, we will go forth from convention feeling God has been good in giving us a vision of His Son. As we think of how His love and how He died for our sakes, it would move us to even be faithful in our generation and show to others how our faith is fixed on Jesus. He is a center of our affections and He is our hope. I am sure as God looks down today, He will help us even in our weakness and need, that we would see Jesus, see Him dying, and see Him pleading, pleading with us that we would give of our best, so He can give to us all the very best, for Jesus' sake. ~ ~ ~ssion in the village, and how Jesus was tired, but He was always ready to help needy souls. I think that is lovely to think of our Saviour was always ready in spirit to help us. Today we heard of Him serving, He is still serving as our intercessor, He is still very interested in our spiritual welfare. What a wonderful Saviour appears to us; think of Him in so many ways as recorded in the Scripture. 

My thoughts have turned to the first day of the week after He had been crucified, that little band of women who stood by Him and seen Him suffer, that was all they could do for Him, the One they loved, they couldn’t do anything to help Him, only by their presence and their souls willing to be identified with Him in His shame you could say, it would mean a lot to our Saviour. Then we read of Joseph coming on the first day of the week with spices and to anoint His body. I do appreciate that, even they felt there was nothing they could do, they did the little they could do. Desire accomplished is sweet to the soul. Sometimes we suffer frustration, how do we take these things? God knows what is in our hearts and we might not accomplish what we set out to do because of circumstances, it is good to have the desire and God knows.  
 
I couldn’t help but think of Mary in the 12th of John in the home of Martha, she grasped the opportunity while He was there. Martha at their home as a housekeeper, would like to prepare something very special for this servant of God. Mary felt this is the opportunity to learn a little more. Jesus probably said don’t go to any trouble, as servants often say that; Mary valued the opportunity she had that day to learn, to sacrifice, which had a great effect. She was the one who broke the alabaster box, the fragrances savored that home, it also savored the life of Jesus at that time. Jesus said let her alone she has done this for my burying. She didn’t know what it meant to the Saviour, but she grasped the opportunity and she never had another one. 

There is just one little thought, little opportunities come our way of doing something laid upon our hearts, if we make the best of our opportunities we will have no regrets. I feel I have regrets by putting things off, and opportunity may never come again. I hope as we have gathered here we would indeed see Jesus, we will see again the lovely qualities in His life and what He means to us, we will go forth from convention feeling God has been good in giving us a vision of His Son. As we think of how His love and how He died for our sakes, it would move us to even be faithful in our generation and show to others how our faith is fixed on Jesus. He is a center of our affections and He is our hope. I am sure as God looks down today, He will help us even in our weakness and need, that we would see Jesus, see Him dying, and see Him pleading, pleading with us that we would give of our best, so He can give to us all the very best, for Jesus' sake. ~ ~ ~
 
Ilma Jenyns  - Oak Lodge conv. 1979  [Ilma labored many years in India, started in the work in Western Australia in 1933]   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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