DO YOU KNOW MY JESUS?

          Did I know President Ronald Reagan?  Well I read about him.  I saw him on television. I even voted for him.  I  talked to him on the White House Lawn where I also shook his hand and took his picture,  But did I know him?  No way.  Even though I admired him as a president. I never had a personal relationship with him.  
         In the same way, today many people claim to know Jesus.  Some may even attend church, especially on holidays,  and listen to sermons about him.  But they don't know him. Unfortunately today a growing number of people don't even have an intellectual knowledge of him and who he is.  Actually "knowing Jesus" is incomplete unless it results in a change in our lives.  
         Vesphew Benton Ellis (1917-1988), one of the most prolific and beloved songwriters in Southern Gospel, raised this important question in this week's hymn choice.  Actually the chorus, which is the heart of the song, was written first by William F. Lakey.  Ellis then wrote the stanzas, posing questions about the hearer's life. which lead into the chorus in a natural progression of thoughts. In stanza 1, the song asks,  "Have you a heart that's weary, tending a load of care; are you a soul that's seeking rest from the burden you bear?"  Stanza 2  asks, "Where is your heart, O pilgrim, what does your light reveal; who hears your call for comfort when naught but sorrow you feel?"   Stanza 3 asks "Who knows your disappointments, who hears each time you cry; who understands your heartaches, who dries the tears from your eyes?"  How do you answer these questions? 
         Then comes the important, penetrating question, "Do you know my Jesus?"  My friend, how do you answer that one today?  In Matthew 7:23 Jesus warned that some who claim to follow Him, but who do so in disobedience or insincerity, will hear the tragic words, "I never knew you."  Don't let that be your eternal destiny.

1.     Have you a heart that's weary,

Tending a load of care;

Are you a soul that's seeking

Rest from the burden you bear?

Do you know my Jesus?

Do you know my friend,

Have you heard He loves you,

And that He will abide till the end?

2.     Where is your heart, O, pilgrim,

What does your light reveal;

Who hears your call for comfort

When naught but sorrow you feel?

Do you know my Jesus?

Do you know my friend,

Have you heard He loves you,

And that He will abide till the end?

3.     Who knows your disappointments,

Who hears each time you cry;

Who understands your heartaches,

Who dries the tears from your eyes?

Do you know my Jesus?

Do you know my friend,

Have you heard He loves you,

And that He will abide till the end?

Listen to it here.    KNOW