I met Brenda Ortiz on the campus of Howard Payne University back in 1987. The first time I laid eyes on her I thought she was beautiful but we did not formerly meet one another for weeks. My roommate, Eric Adcock, had a music appreciation class with Brenda. We planned to find out where she sat at lunch one afternoon. When she sat her tray down to go get her drink we moved in.
She was a little surprised to discover her once empty table had been filled with a bunch of guys. I had watched Brenda on campus for weeks. I saw her jogging at night. I even positioned myself to sit where she would jog past me. She never seemed to notice. So we planned to ambush her lunch so I could meet her.
Out of that ambush lunch she agreed to go on a study date to the park a few days later. A date she might regret now. The only thing I wanted to study was her. I knew she was attractive. What I did not know is that she loved Jesus. More than me.
I spent that study date learning about when she got saved. How active she had been serving God. How deeply she walked with God. Her family. I was hooked in that moment. She captured my heart. Within the week I called my mother to tell her I met the girl I planned to marry. Hopelessly mesmerized by her inward beauty as much as her outward beauty I fell in love.
We began dating. We talked late into the nights about Jesus, the calling on my life to preach, and the future. We had quiet times together. We ended our dates praying together. We laughed. We worshipped. We fell madly in love. We got a theme verse and a theme song. Our verse is Psalm 34:3 (ESV)
3 Oh, magnify
the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!
Our theme song was written by Steve Green. Back then it was popular. We often heard that song with tears in our eyes as we pledged our young love to service for Jesus. We had our ups and downs back then but we eventually got married in 1991. For 26 years the song "People Need The Lord," is still our theme song. I have included the words below. I have not heard this song in years. I will be reading the words with you for the first time in a long time.
"People Need The Lord" Lyrics
Everyday they pass me by,
I can see it in their eyes.
Empty people filled with care,
Headed who knows where?
On they go through private pain,
Living fear to fear.
Laughter hides their silent cries,
Only Jesus hears.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize, people need the Lord?
We are called to take His light
To a world where wrong seems right.
What could be too great a cost
For sharing Life with one who's lost?
Through His love our hearts can feel
All the grief they bear.
They must hear the Words of Life
Only we can share.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize that we must give our lives,
For peo-ple need the Lord.
People need the Lord.
Wow. I can hear Steve Green singing our anthem now. After two and a half decades this is still our mission. This is still what Brenda and I are called to do. To take His light to a world where everyday wrong seems increasingly right. We have known a small cost for such a devotion. After all these years, after every success and every failure, after seeing hundreds run to Jesus for salvation and experiencing the heartbreak of hundreds more rejecting Jesus and the gospel, we know our mission. People still need the Lord. We are still called to take Him to the broken, hurting, sinful, forgotten, abandoned, abused, rich, impoverished, and people in between. PEOPLE NEED THE LORD.
I am so blessed to have a wife willingly partnering with me in that great commission. We celebrated 26 years of marriage back in June. I still want to magnify the Lord with her and exalt His name together. I still want to partner with her to reach out to people who need the Lord.
Matthew 9:36-38 (ESV)
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
I can see it in their eyes.
Empty people filled with care,
Headed who knows where?
On they go through private pain,
Living fear to fear.
Laughter hides their silent cries,
Only Jesus hears.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize, people need the Lord?
We are called to take His light
To a world where wrong seems right.
What could be too great a cost
For sharing Life with one who's lost?
Through His love our hearts can feel
All the grief they bear.
They must hear the Words of Life
Only we can share.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door.
People need the Lord, people need the Lord.
When will we realize that we must give our lives,
For peo-ple need the Lord.
People need the Lord.
Wow. I can hear Steve Green singing our anthem now. After two and a half decades this is still our mission. This is still what Brenda and I are called to do. To take His light to a world where everyday wrong seems increasingly right. We have known a small cost for such a devotion. After all these years, after every success and every failure, after seeing hundreds run to Jesus for salvation and experiencing the heartbreak of hundreds more rejecting Jesus and the gospel, we know our mission. People still need the Lord. We are still called to take Him to the broken, hurting, sinful, forgotten, abandoned, abused, rich, impoverished, and people in between. PEOPLE NEED THE LORD.
I am so blessed to have a wife willingly partnering with me in that great commission. We celebrated 26 years of marriage back in June. I still want to magnify the Lord with her and exalt His name together. I still want to partner with her to reach out to people who need the Lord.
Matthew 9:36-38 (ESV)
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
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