Are you Jesus?

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. He was glad he did.

The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly." As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"

He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?" Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace. If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.

You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit.

FROM: Vandana Chhatpar

I just came again to tell you, Lord ...

A minister passing through his church in the middle of the day, decided to pause by the altar and see who had come to pray. Just then the back door opened, a man came down the aisle. The minister frowned as he saw the man hadn’t shaved in a while. His shirt was kind a shabby and his coat was worn and frayed. The man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away. In the days that followed, each noon time came this chap, each time he knelt, just for a moment, with lunch pail in his lap.

Well, the minister’s suspicions grew, with robbery a main fear, he decided to stop the man and asked him, “What are you doing here?” The old man said, he worked down the road. Lunch was half an hour. Lunchtime was his prayer time – for finding strength and power. “I stay only moments as I kneel here talking to the Lord, because the factory is so far away.”

“This is kind a what I say :

I just came again to tell you, Lord, how happy I’ve been, since we found each others friendship and you took away my sin. Don’t know much of how to pray, but I think about you everyday. So Jesus, this is Jim checking in today”

The minister feeling foolish, told Jim, that was fine. He told the man that he was welcome to come and pray just anytime. Time to go, Jim smiled, said “Thanks” as he hurried to the door. The minister knelt at the altar, as he’d never done before. His cold heart melted, warmed with love, and met with Jesus there. As the tears flowed, in his heart, he repeated Old Jim’s prayer”

“I just came again to tell you, Lord, how happy I’ve been, since we found each others friendship and you took away my sin. I don’t know much of how to pray, but I think about you everyday. So Jesus, this is me checking in today.”

Past noon one day, the minister noticed that old Jim hadn’t come. As more days passed without Jim, he began to worry. At the factory, he asked about him and learnt that he was ill.

The hospital staff was worried. But he’d given them a thrill. The week that Jim was with them, had brought changes in the ward. His smiles, a joy contagious, changed people, were his reward. The head nurse couldn’t understand why Jim was so glad, when no flowers, calls or cards came. Not a visitor he had.

The minister stayed by his bed. He voiced the nurse’s concern : No friends came to show they cared. He had nowhere to turn. Looking surprised, old Jim spoke up and with a winsome smile: “the nurse is wrong, she couldn’t know, that he’s in here all the while everyday at noon. He’s here, a dear friend of mine, you see, He sits right down, takes my hand, leans over and says to me :

“I just came again to tell you Jim, how happy I have been, since we found this friendship, and I took away your sin. Always Love to hear you pray, I think about you each day, and so Jim, This is JESUS checking in today.”