O gentle Jesus, how much we owe Him, and how desperately we need Him! Though He be the Sovereign of the world, He's the kindest, lowliest, loveliest, and most gracious of them all, waiting for people to come out of the kingdom of darkness and enter by that cross-shaped door into the spiritual kingdom.
When I was seventeen, I entered into the fold by the good grace of God. And I wouldn't trade it for all the wide world. George Beverly Shea used to sing:
I'd rather be His than have riches untold;
I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands,
I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
Than to be the king of a vast domain,
And be held in sin's dread sway...
When King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) visited the United States, an American Indian Christian—a gifted former opera singer—was invited to sing before the King and Queen. In his regalia, he sang, "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold, or to be the king of a vast domain." And he turned to the Queen Mother and asked, "Madam, are you a Christian?" Her face lit up: "Yes, I am a Christian." He asked the King: "Yes, I am a Christian."
Brothers and sisters, I would rather be a Christian than to rule the universe! Are you in? If you're not, the door is a cross-shaped door, and He invites you.