“My Sheep Listen to My Voice”
MANY religions today claim to be Christian. This would seemingly make it difficult to identify the religion that truly represents the teachings of Jesus Christ. But can it be done? Yes, for Jesus Christ said: “My sheep listen to my voice.” (John 10:27) His voice can be identified despite modern religious confusion. This is well illustrated by the experiences of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses.
● In Germany, a young man and his family studied the Bible entirely on their own. What they learned from this private study moved them to maintain a neutral position in political matters and to refrain from violating God’s law about the sanctity of blood. Later, the young man saw one of Jehovah’s witnesses as she was offering The Watchtower and Awake! to people on the street. Approaching her, he requested that a call be made at his home. She promised to do so but did not arrange for a definite time to call. By the following Saturday no one had visited him. So the young man approached another Witness on the street and told him about his request. The following Monday, the two Witnesses called at the young man’s home. But he was away at work. So they left an invitation with his wife for the public Bible discourse at the Kingdom Hall.
The young man came to the discourse and remained for the meeting that followed, a study of the Bible with the aid of The Watchtower. During the course of the study he even volunteered comments. On Monday, when the Witnesses called, they found him equipped with two pages filled with questions that he wanted answered. For the meeting the following Sunday, this man thoroughly studied the Watchtower article to be considered then, looking up every Bible passage referred to and making notes in the margins of the magazine.
About two months later he attended a circuit assembly of Jehovah’s witnesses with his entire family and, happy about having found the truth, shared in the preaching activity for the first time.
● A schoolteacher in an Iron Curtain country, though taking no personal interest in the Bible permitted her twelve-year-old daughter to study the Scriptures with one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Later, the mother broke her arm and was given sick leave. With extra time on her hands, she got bored and therefore began reading the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life, one of the publications that had been left by the Witness. She was so fascinated by its contents that she finished the entire book. The next time the Witness came to study with the daughter the schoolteacher told her that the book had convincingly cleared up many things for her. She responded to the invitation of the Witness to attend a meeting. The next Sunday she also attended meetings and afterward remarked: “I am thankful that I broke my arm, because that gave me time to read the book and find the way to life.”
● A married couple in Tchad were assigned to make known the Bible’s message in an area where none of Jehovah’s witnesses had ever preached from door to door. Though warned by the local clergy not to listen to this couple, the people had their interest aroused and manifested a longing for the truth. The Witness husband reports: “When we rise in the morning, we find people already waiting for us at the door, hoping to hear something from the Bible. When we do go out and return, we always find people waiting for us. We are often talking to them at eleven o’clock at night. Rarely do we have our noon meal. Often the evening meal is also forgotten because we just do not have the time to eat. People come from fifteen and twenty kilometers away and we just cannot disappoint them.”
● In the same country a man obtained the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life from one of Jehovah’s witnesses. Later he was sent on official business to a village about eighteen kilometers away. He told the people that he had talked to Jehovah’s witnesses in the city. Immediately he was surrounded by a group of interested persons who wanted to hear what Jehovah’s witnesses preached from the Bible. Knowing practically nothing himself, the man read the entire book, chapter by chapter, to the people. Though he was to remain only one day, he was detained a whole week and the villagers insisted on keeping the book. They then sent word through him that Jehovah’s witnesses should come to teach them, as they also had the right to learn about God’s new order.
Truly, Jesus’ “sheep” are recognizing his voice and are responding by sharing with others the good things they are learning.