Useful for the Master - Part 1 — Jackie Pullinger

The Dream of Going Home

If only for a night. And you were meant to have that dream and it is meant to come because they don't put it there. You see, the men who sang that song needed going home.

The Songs of Ascents and Returning to Zion

It's a song of a sense. And there are lots of them. And the songs of a sense were.

Sung as people were returning home to Zion. And they would walk around the city and as they got nearer and nearer to Zion they would sing the song faster and faster and more and more happy that they were going to be home so soon.

Reaping Songs of Joy Through Tears

And that's why our mouths filled with laughter and our tongues with promise of joy. Because our dream, mine anyway, came true. Except it was better than the dream. I want to go on now to say that the song finishes like this the song of tears will reap the songs of joy.

He who goes out weeping carrying his feet to Saul will return with songs of joy. Carrying sheaves with him where Jesus wept for us. Jesus' heart was broken for us. And this will be the way for those who want to minister in his name.

Weeping With the Heart of Jesus

This is not a hard thing because, you see, we will not be weeping for ourselves at all. We will not be crying because we're having a hard time. We will not be seeking ministry because we're going through difficulties.

We will be weeping with the heart of Jesus. The letters that most love to receive are the letters from people who have just begun to minister to difficult people. And they will be the ones who carry sheaves with songs of joy as Jesus did.

The First to Rise From the Dead

The first one to rise from the dead. Those sheaves of joy never forget as we sing these songs of joy. If you cry a little, it's what it costs to love Jesus. Before we came here, one of our helpers saw those of us who were living.

And he's standing with his eyes shut because he doesn't understand my English by one of the mics now. He's got glasses on. And when she looked at him going out to catch the bus to the airport to come here, she began to cry.

But there were tears of joy because she said, I remember him. His name is on the chart. She said, I remember him.

A Changed Life in the Streets and Prisons

Two years ago he had nothing. He'd been sleeping in the streets for 20 odd years.

He'd been in prison over 30 times. When he came to us he had no clothes and no teeth. He was dressed in rags with shouts of joy and tears of joy. I don't know which. I don't know what it would be like to see him.

I don't know whether I'm going to reach up and hug him while he lives. I don't know. I thank the Lord for his heart for being and reaching in. And in his mercy that he allows us to share that same heart to reach the light.

Beginning a Testimony of Redemption

Rest of you will be unfinished, but at least enough for a moment. He asked me to share his story. And I'm just going to translate it. And I have been really one of the first I shall go in 1979. I was considered by the Commonwealth Government not to be a person.