Retired bus driver, Johnny Barnes, courageously changed the island of Bermuda with three words: “I Love You.”

<p>Retired bus driver, Johnny Barnes, courageously changed the island of Bermuda with three words: “I Love You.”</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

It Is Written Canada

Michael Lemon

René Lemon

Do You Have Enough Courage to Love?


So imagine we take a blank white canvas and we dip it into a bathtub filled with red paint. And then we leave it there to soak for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks what do you see? You reach in and pull out a red canvas. Do you think that any of the original plain white canvas will be showing through?

Not a chance. Every fiber and microfiber of the canvas is soaked and saturated in red paint. Now, what if that was you? Excuse me? No, I don't mean that you are soaked and saturated in red paint.

What I mean is, what if you were soaked and saturated in the love of Jesus. What if every fiber and microfiber of your being were immersed in the goodness of Christ? What would you look like? Well, I would look like Jesus. I would be truthful, kind, compassionate, forgiving, merciful, and I would live at peace with all people.

Galatians 3.27 says that those who have been baptized or soaked and saturated in Jesus have put on Jesus so that you are now living a Jesus-like life. None of the plain old you shows through. In Galatians 2.20, Paul says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And in 1 Corinthians he uses this phrase, in Christ Jesus our Lord I die daily. We want to encourage you to take the plunge.

Every day become soaked and saturated in the love of Jesus. And when others look at you, they will see Jesus. In a moment, we are going to introduce you to an amazing person who was so soaked and saturated in the love of Jesus that He He was described as quite simply the most popular and friendliest man in Bermuda. His name was Johnny Barnes, and he was soaked and saturated in the love of Jesus. Johnny Barnes worked on the Bermuda Railroad as an electrician until the railroad closed in 1948.

And then, at the age of 25, Johnny became a bus driver. And he was a very friendly man, fond of waving to the people while driving his bus. He would even sit and wave to people on his breaks or when continuing to work. 1 day a lady by the name of Rosemary Tyrell, she remembers that when she was little, Johnny used to always wave and cheer to all the children and make them feel like they were royalty. In 1986, after 38 years of working as a bus driver, Johnny retired at the age of 63.

But Johnny wasn't the kind of man who could retire. He was in the habit of getting up every morning, really early, 2am, eating his breakfast, reading his Bible, and praying for 2 hours. And 1 morning, around 3 a.m., Johnny remembers that he was praying to the Lord and asking him, what do you want me to do now? I'm retired, and I can't just sit around all day. I wanna help people.

I have to do something for other people. I have to tell them about your love, Lord. I am just this little Johnny Barnes, he said. I am an instrument in your hands, Lord. Lord, what do you want me to do now?" Johnny says the Lord impressed him to go stand on the street corner and tell the people passing the following 3 words, I love you.

So Johnny was obedient and he went to the corner of Crow Lane, where the roundabout was the busiest intersection in Bermuda, and he started waving to the people at 3.45 in the morning. It was still dark out when he started, But that didn't stop Johnny. He stood there and waved at everyone passing into Hamilton on their way to work until 10 a.m. That morning. And the next morning, he woke up at 2 a.m.

Again. He ate his breakfast, he opened up his Bible, He prayed to the Lord for guidance and he felt impressed to do the very same thing. He made it to the corner at Crow Lane by 345 a.m. Again. And he started waving to the people and telling them, God loves you.

I love you. I hope you have a good day. From Monday to Friday, he could be found waving to the people for 6 hours and 15 minutes, saying, God loves you. I love you. I love you.

I love you. So 1 day, the director of transportation for Bermuda, his name was Herman Basden, he received a message from 1 of his supervisors saying Mr. Barnes is waving to the traffic at Crow Lane. So The director of transportation for Bermuda asked if Mr Barnes could be seen to him. And when Johnny Barnes came, he asked him why he was waving at the traffic and saying, I love you.

And Johnny said, Mr Basden, this is something that God has asked me to do. He has blessed me to do it. I need to do it. I want to do it." Mr. Baston answered, Well, who am I to question that?

And Johnny was free to keep waving at the people. And Johnny Barnes continued day after day, week after week, and year after year, waving and blowing kisses to the people and saying, I love you, I love you, I love you. 1 day, after more than 15 years of waving on the street corner, Johnny failed to show up at his regular spot at Crow Lane. And all over the island of Bermuda, phones were calling in to the police station and the local radio station to find out what had happened to Johnny Barnes. Well, it turned out that Johnny was in the hospital.

Nothing serious. And soon after that, he reappeared in his usual spot. But this time off that Johnny had got the people to worrying. What would happen if Johnny wasn't there for the drive to work in the morning? The answer was to hire a local sculptor to create a large-sized bronze statue of Johnny Barnes, which they did, spending over $70, 000 to honor a man who was still alive.

This got me to thinking, and here's a personal question. What if you didn't turn up at work? What if I didn't turn up at work 1 morning? Would people call into the radio stations or the police station to find out what had happened to me? Would they raise $70, 000 to create a life-size statue of you?

I really don't think that anyone would ever do that for me. But it really wasn't about Johnny. Johnny wasn't doing it to attract attention to himself. He did it because God told him to do it. It was about the message of love, the message of God's love.

Johnny said, the good Lord and I, We are just trying to make people happy. So let's take a look at the man himself, Johnny Barnes, and what the people of Bermuda thought about him. Take a look at this. Umm... He's the person that loves people and he cares about everybody and he's nice.

And he's nice. And all day he likes to do this, blow kisses and say hi to people. God gives us all something to do. Tonghe is a talent. Speech.

We can use it to God's name unenglor or we can use it to just the opposite way. He's not paid, he's not asked to do it, he does it for free. He stands out there in the wind and the rain and the sun and everything. I think it's 6 until 10. It's about 4 hours but that's quite a long time just standing on a roundabout and in the heat it can get quite hot even in the morning.

Just to think he gets up there every day early in the morning apart from Christmas Day and then goes all the way over to this roundabout and starts making everyone happy, which is just mind-blowing really, that someone would do that. I say I love you to my parents, but not to other people I don't know. That's weird. Because I don't really know them, so... Yeah.

I've met him in a grocery market, And he said the same thing there at the grocery store. He said, I love you, I love you at the grocery store too. But he was just shopping there and whenever he'd come by someone he would say that. When I saw the statue, I thought it was pretty cool because he's sort of like more like important or maybe than the premier because I don't think that premier has a statue but I can understand that because the Premier hasn't been the Premier for over 25 years, except Johnny Barnes has. He's been doing I love you, I love you for 25 years.

I want to go to heaven. No way. I don't want to live here forever. No way. I want to go upstairs.

I want to go to heaven. That's why I'm trying to do my little bit. Trying to leave this world a little better place than I found it. Happiness. Happiness is a choice.

You can choose to be happy, choose not to be happy. I choose to be happy. When the good Lord wakes me up in the morning and puts a song in my soul, a joy in my soul, a smile on my face, I just give it away to others. That's why the good Lord and I are down there every morning, just trying to give it away, make people happy. There's a chorus that I used to sing.

It says, in His time, In his time, he'll make all things beautiful. In his time, in his time, in his time. Everyone will always remember and keep the memory of Johnny Barnes. And they will tell their children, and their children might even tell their children, their memory will pass down for quite a while. So people will remember him for the great deed he's done for the whole of Bermuda.

There was 1 man who saw Johnny Barnes for the first time and he said, when I saw this man standing there on the street corner, I expected him to come up to me and ask me for money but when he didn't ask me for money, I didn't understand. What's this guy doing there? Another lady asked, why would a person go out there in the middle of the night in the rain, in the thunder, the lightning? He's there with a rain suit and an umbrella when it's raining with 1 message, I love you. I don't even say that to the people I love.

I don't understand where that is coming from. I'll tell you where it's coming from. It's coming from this book, the Bible, and from Johnny's relationship with the God of the Bible, the God who is love. In Psalm 81, verse 10, God says, open wide your mouth and I will fill it. That's precisely what Johnny did every single day.

He opened wide his mouth in prayer. These are some of Johnny's own words and his prayers. Listen to this. Johnny said, God wakes me up in the morning because he wants me to draw nearer to him than I did yesterday. I am thankful for his love.

And this is how he prays. Loving Father, we invite you to come by your divine Holy Spirit to bless us and to guide us. We do invite your ministering angels to keep us on every side and to fill us with your great love and peace. Bless everyone who comes to the roundabout today. Help us to be kind and loving.

Thank you for all your love. Fill us with your love and grace, For we ask this in Jesus' lovely name. Amen. Can you hear and see how Johnny Barnes was so soaked and saturated in the love of God that he couldn't help spilling over into the lives of everyone he met? You know, Jesus identified the credentials of his followers in this way when he stated, By this, all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you love 1 another.

Johnny Barnes lived that message because he wasn't afraid to say to everyone he met, I love you. Did you know he even said it to the Queen of England? It's true. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited Bermuda in 2009 and when she met Johnny Barnes to give him a certificate of honor, he said to her, I love you and I am praying for you. And the Queen responded, and I love you too.

Wow. Can you imagine Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, saying those words to you, and I love you too? God's word says, if I speak in all the languages of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. So there are approximately 6, 500 languages spoken in the world today. So how many of those do you speak?

I'd say maybe half, 3, 250. That would be impressive if you did. If I met someone who could speak 10 languages fluently, I would be very impressed. Me too. The Bible says that as impressive as that would be, if I could speak all the languages of men and of angels but do not have love, then I would be an annoying distraction, like a resounding gong that's always booming or a clanging cymbal.

Verse 2 of 1 Corinthians chapter 13 says, if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have the faith that can move mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing. So no matter how high your education, how deep your understanding of prophetic mysteries, or if you should possess such great faith and have power even to work miracles, yet without love, those gifts would be worthless. In the heart and mind of God, love is clearly the most essential of all character traits. Yes, it is. And look at this simple man, Johnny Barnes, a retired bus driver.

But the love that he demonstrated caught the attention of everyone that he met, even the Queen of England. Those 3 of 1 Corinthians 13 says, If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all. So if you didn't have any genuine love in your heart, even if you gave all your money to feed the poor, that act would not win the favor of God. Correct. And even if I was so enthusiastic about my faith that I were to be burnt at the stake and receive a martyr's death, yet if my fervent faith were not activated by love, I would be regarded by God as some kind of deluded enthusiast or an ambitious hypocrite of some kind.

That's painfully true also. As humans, we are desperately complex creatures. We can perform what appear to be impressive acts of kindness and love, but they may be entirely motivated by a heart that is soaked and saturated in selfishness, a heart that says, look at me, look at me, look at how good I am. This is a trap that can catch every person because God's word warns us that the human heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. And then the question comes, who can understand it?

The Lord quickly answers, I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind. We look at outward appearances but only God sees the heart and knows its true condition and motives. That is why a man like Johnny Barnes felt motivated every day to wake up at 2 in the morning to open his Bible, to open his heart before the Lord of love, to seek God in prayer, to honestly examine his own heart, and to ask the Almighty Creator to fill him with his Holy Spirit, to fill him with the love of God. The scriptures tell us that God is love and that he wants us to love 1 another. When you are soaked and saturated in God's love, when you are filled with his Holy Spirit of love, that love fills you.

It overflows and it spills over into the lives of other people. That is genuine love. And only the almighty, powerful working of the Holy Spirit can transform our hearts and fill us with a love that is completely free from complaining, criticizing, competing, and comparing ourselves with 1 another. We want to share a song with you right now called Fill Me Now presented by Fountainview Academy Orchestra and Singers. The words of this song are really a prayer for God to fill us with his Holy Spirit to bathe our hearts in his love so that we will be soaked and saturated in the love of God, the way Johnny Barnes was.

Let's listen to this song right now. ♪ Hover o'er me, Holy Spirit Bathe my trembling heart and brow Fill me with Thy hallowed presence. Come, O come, and fill me now. Fill me now, fill me now, Jesus come and fill me now. Fill me with Thy hallowed presence, Come, O come and fill me now.

I am weakness, full of weakness, At Thy sacred feet I bow Blest Divine, Eternal Spirit Come, O come and fill me now. So you may be wondering, how do I become filled with the Holy Spirit of God? Jesus gave the answer when he said, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.

When she was a little girl, our youngest daughter, Maclean, once asked me for a pony. And I made a deal with her. I told her, if you get a job and you earn enough money to pay for half, then I'll pay for the other half, the price of the pony. It didn't take too long, and McLean was riding her very own pony. And I was very happy to help her to get that pony.

But you know, it's not the same with the Holy Spirit. God gives us His Holy Spirit without us paying a single cent. In Luke 11 verse 13, Jesus shows us how to become filled with the Holy Spirit when He said these words, If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, How much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? So ask, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. That is exactly what Johnny Barnes did when he woke up at 2 in the morning.

He asked for God to fill him with the Holy Spirit. And God faithfully filled his heart and his mouth with the wonderful words of life and love to speak to the people passing by in Bermuda. From the time he retired at the age of 63 until he died at the age of 93, Johnny Barnes stood on the corner of Crow Lane shouting to the people, I love you, because that's what God told him to do. So for the last 30 years of his life from 345 until 10 in the morning rain or shine 5 days a week from Monday to Friday Johnny Barnes showed up and freely shared a simple message of love. We want to share with you this last tribute to Johnny's life, which was filmed the year before he died, when he was 92 years of age.

I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. Johnny, why do you do this?

Well, you know, God gives us all something to do. God, earnest. God doesn't just put it out in the field and say, now you go do what you want to do. He gives us a schedule, right? Some people bake it, some people cook, some are doctors, some are nurses.

Everyone has something to do. And they have to learn to know what it is, what God wants them to do. You know what I mean? You know this world is starving for the 1 of L-O-V-E. And we are told to love 1 another.

Ah, I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you, darling. I love you.

Go on, do it. Be faithful. Love the Lord God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. And whatever you do, keep looking up. Looking up is divine.

Looking down is human. And what I would do, keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, because He's the only 1. He's the only 1 can save you. He's the only 1 can keep you. And He's the only 1 can take you from this world to the next world.

What a beautiful testimony to a life well lived. Jesus truly is the only 1 who can save you, the only 1 who can keep you, and he's the only 1 who can take you from this world to the next world. So let's take a moment to pray to him right now. Oh Lord Jesus, we ask you to cleanse our hearts from all selfishness. We long to be soaked and saturated in your love.

Please bathe our hearts and our minds and fill us with your Holy Spirit, we pray. In the lovely name of Jesus, Amen. The lyrics of a once popular song went like this, what the world needs now is love, sweet love. Johnny Barnes would have agreed 100% with those lyrics. We would like to offer you a free little booklet entitled, what the world needs now.

So get out your pen and a piece of paper and maybe take a note on your cell phone because here is the information that you will need to receive today's free offer, What the World Needs Now. To request today's offer, just log on to www.itiswrittencanada.ca That's www.itiswrittencanada.ca If you prefer, you may call toll-free at 1-888-CALL-IIW That's 1-888-CALL-IIW Call anytime! Or if you wish, you may write to us at It Is Written, Box 2010, Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 7V4. Friends we'd also like to invite you to follow us on Instagram and Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel and also listen to our podcasts. And if you go to our webpage, you can see our latest programs, including our exercise workouts called experiencing love and our short spiritual messages entitled daily living They are all there for you free to watch whenever you choose because we want you

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Do You Have Enough Courage to Love?

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