Something happened to me when I read the books, Steps to Christ, followed by The Great Controversy during my final year of high school. Firstly, I was surprised to find answers to all my most pressing spiritual questions outlined and thoroughly addressed! Then I found a renewed sense of purpose and calling as a Christian.
In The Great Controversy, in particular, I read about Christians who were willing, not only to live for their Christ, but to die for Him as well. Simple truths I’d always taken for granted, they laid down their lives to preserve. Things like the fact that Jesus, and not man, can forgive my sins, or the very freedom to search the Scriptures for myself…
If they were willing to die for these simple truths, what was I doing with the greater trust of Bible knowledge bestowed me? I mean, I grew up attending prophecy seminars, memorizing the 2,300 day prophecy and practicing health reform – all things that have greatly enriched my life! But I lived in a sea of people who had never even heard of most of these things. What would become of them in the closing moments of earth’s history? Would they be equipped to choose aright…to choose Christ?
That is how God called me to campus ministry. Not that to be Seventh-day Adventist is superior to any other religion – mercy no! Calling yourself Adventist and knowing the prophecies can no more save you than being an Israelite stopped them from murdering Jesus. Rather, I’m compelled to share because I know things that could help swing people’s decision in favor of Christ when push comes to shove. On my flight to Massachusetts to start college, I determined, with God’s help, to share that information with as many as would be willing to hear it!
Seven years ago, I graduated college and it seemed to me, then, to be the end of my Wellesley campus ministry. God had used me to introduce one of my friends to the Advent faith before the end of my college career – what an honor! But there were/are other friends I really wish I could have shared these things with. How would that happen now that college was over?
Yet God did it! How glorious to witness the baptism of one of my college friends yesterday…We kept in touch over the years and she kept me abreast of how God was working in her life. Her baptism yesterday was an answer to a prayer request dating almost a decade back…back to my sophomore year of college!
Seeing how God has worked to bring her to this place is such a source of encouragement concerning other prayers I’ve been waiting on for a few years. At various points over the years I was sure the day would never come…but in line with the counsel given me by a friend, I would just place her in the hands of the Lord, trusting that He cares more about her soul than I ever could.
What a mighty God we serve! Evidences of His work are just the tokens I need to reassure me that He will yet save me in spite of myself. How He brought my friend to publicly commit to her abiding relationship with Jesus and her hope to meet Him with joy when He returns, convinces me that He is still working on certain other prayer requests still pending…He hasn’t forgotten. God doesn’t forget (or colloquially – God don’t forget!).