January 27

Missionary to my neighbors

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:40).
“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? . . . Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him: and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” (Isa. 58:6-7).

Sophie was a New York scrubwoman who used to say that she had been called to preach, but being poor she learned instead to scrub. She longed to be a foreign missionary, but when she told of this desire to her heavenly Father, she received His answer in this dialogue:
The Lord asked her, “Where were you born?”
“In Germany, Father.”
“Where are you now?”
“In America.”
“Well, aren’t you a foreign missionary already?” When she understood that, the Father said to her, “Who lives on the floor above you?”
“A family of Swedes.”
“And on the floor above them?”
“Why, some Swiss.”

“And in the rear house are Italians, and a block away are some Chinese. Now you have never said a word to these people about My Son. Do you think that I will send you thousands of miles away to foreigners and heathen when you have them all around, and you never care enough about them to speak with them about their souls?”
So to her neighbors and others Sophie became a witness for Jesus. And by denying herself in every possible way she saved enough money from scrubbing to educate a missionary in Japan and send a teacher to work down South. God has His opportunities for service waiting for every willing Christian.

When we stand before the Master
Will it matter very much,
Which of us owned the office,
And which the scrubbing brush?

A MISSIONARY IS: God’s man, in God’s place, doing God’s work, in God’s way, for God’s glory.

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