March 2023

JUST SAY YES

“My father would kill me if he knew I was converting to Christianity,” a brave Muslim recently shared his growing convictions.

Wide eyed I marveled at his beaming young face.

“I loved yours and René’s sermon this Sabbath. I have decided to convert to Christianity and become a Seventh-day Adventist!”

He decided to say yes to Jesus, even though saying yes would separate him from his father and the faith he practiced as a child.

“I was so anxious and depressed until we started studying the Bible together,” another young man recently confessed to me.

“What is it about us studying the Bible that has led to this change in your life?” I inquired.

“Throughout my education, I believed the theory of evolution. Honestly, the more I thought about how I evolved from pond scum, the more hopeless I felt. If my life is nothing but the product of random chance, then it’s all meaningless.”

This intelligent young man had lost all hope and wandered into a virtual existence of Hedonistic pleasure and terrifying darkness.

“At my lowest, I saw demons clawing at my arms, literally drawing blood, and dragging me into insanity. That was when my parents, who were also Atheists at the time, started searching for someone to help them, help me.”

“Who helped you?”

“Christians. My parents soon became Christians, and they started praying for me. They prayed and cried for me.” Choking back his emotions, he confessed, “And now I, the Atheist, I am studying the Bible with you, and have decided to become a Christian. My anxiety, my depression, and my fears are subsiding.”

After I started reading the Bible as a teenager, I was much like my two newfound friends. From the darkness of my own depression, after my mother’s death by suicide, and numerous other traumatic attacks on my family by the evil one, I wanted an unambiguous answer to knowing God, and to knowing His will for my life.

My youthful solution: “Since the church is the body of Christ, if I was ever asked by someone in the church to do anything, I would simply say yes, knowing that I would be saying yes to Jesus.”

I certainly acquired a lot of knowledge and new skills.

For example, I learned the doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from saying yes to teaching in every Sabbath School division from Cradle Roll to Adult classes.

I also learned how to preach from saying yes whenever I was asked, even though I was terrified of public speaking.

I became a water-skiing instructor when I managed to pop onto the surface of the lake after my first attempt. The summer camp director immediately asked me to teach the campers how to waterski, and I said yes to the best summer job ever!

The following year, I gave a young blind camper a leg up onto an assertive Shetland pony who decided to take off before her rider was ready; I acted quickly when I witnessed the teenage girl’s foot caught in the stirrup while she, panic-stricken, dragged helplessly along the ground beside the beast. Reaching the reins, I stopped the temperamental creature.

I really didn’t know what I was doing, but I thought it was a good idea to help her settle down and get her courage back. “What bravery!” I assured her. “You know, you are so courageous. Did you SEE what you did?”

Her wonderful sense of humour won the day, and with a twinkle in her sightless eyes, she responded, “No, I didn’t see anything.” And then she turned her face towards mine and asked, “Are you blind too?”

As we laughed, I encouraged her: “You know, I heard somewhere that if you fall off a horse, you have to get back on; otherwise, you’re never gonna ride again.”

Without hesitation, she hopped back onto that ornery little pony, demonstrating, beyond the shadow of a doubt, who was the boss.

What I didn’t know was that the camp director didn’t have anyone to teach campers how to ride horses that summer, so, you guessed it, he asked me, and I said, “Sure, I would love to do that.”

I didn’t know the first thing about horses, so before he walked away, I asked, “You don’t have any books about horses, do you?… Um, I mean, I think it would be a good idea if I had some pictures of horses to teach the campers the parts of the horse and the different equipment that is needed for riding, like a saddle and stuff like that…”

He gave me a few books, and even though I’m dyslexic, I pored over those books. I must have done an okay job because he asked me to be the wrangler the following summer. Come rain or shine, those horses were saddled up, but in case someone from Adventist Risk Management is reading this, I want to praise the LORD because not a single camper suffered any injuries while I was in charge of those massive beasts. However, we sure did have a lot of fun!

Can you see 5,000 men, plus a multitude of mothers with their children, all sitting speechless on the slopes, listening intently to every word uttered by Jesus?

Then His disciples come to Him at the end of the day with worry etched across their brows: “Master, this is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

Jesus calmly replies, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

That little lad surrendered his lunch, and in the hands of Jesus, that small snack multiplied into a feast for the thousands who thronged our Saviour.

Every time I see someone say yes to Jesus, I am filled with joy, the joy of knowing that Jesus can take our mess and turn it into a message.

I thank you for saying yes to supporting the work of It Is Written Canada because without your ongoing support, we would not be able to travel throughout Canada to meet people like our two newfound friends and share the love of Jesus in these last days when so many souls are desperately longing for the hope that only comes from knowing Him.

~ Mike Lemon