YES OR NO

Hello all of you positive/negative speakers. Yes...No...Maybe...I Don't Know?!?

President Ronald Reagan's wife (who in reality was his second wife)...but the First Lady...Ms Nancy Reagan...initiated the JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS campaign. It was met with less than enthusiastic reaction from those who thought that it was a simplistic approach to a complex problem. Someone who is addicted...psychologically, physically, psychologically and socially to drugs...needed something more that a catch phrase. Of course...it was really designed to those up and coming druggies...who had not tried drugs YET. Maybe if you could stop it before it started...you could dry up the sources for the pushers of said drugs.

The word NO is such a negative sounding word. The 1960's frat band from Youngstown Ohio...THE HUMAN BEINZ...had a hit song called NObody But Me. According to Dave Marsh...writer for Rolling Stone Magazine...the word NO appears 100 times in the song. The group was making sure that NObody But Me...could do the Shingaling, The Skate, The Boogaloo, and the Philly like ME. Amy Winehouse...the lovely tattooed, singer of the song REHAB...declared...
"They tried to make me go to rehab...I said NO NO NO. The song skyrocketed to the top of the charts...as she was admitted to rehab. Ringo...who surprised everyone after the Beatles broke up...by having hit song after hit song while the other lads languished in the charts...had a hit song called The NO NO Song. He declared that he "NO NO NO..I don't (fill in the blank with various addictions)... I'm tired of waking up on the floor." In the song...HELLO-GOODBYE...the Beatles started off by saying..."you say YES...I say NO...".

What makes us yield what we know to be wrong...and say YES...when what we should be saying is NO? Is the concept of JUST SAY NO to whatever we are facing with too simplistic in our complicated world? Yes...No...Mayber...I Don't Know?!?

It all started back in the GARDEN. Crosby Stills Nash and Young...sang a Joni Mitchell song called WOODSTOCK...and ode to the WOODSTOCK NATION. This was where half a million people gathered for 3 days of Peace, Love, and Rock and Roll on Max Yasgur's farm. They songs lamented that we got to GET BACK TO THE GARDEN...and I think they are CORRECT in their thought process.

It was back in the GARDEN...where JUST SAY NO...would have changed the course of history. Adam and Eve (to some an allegorical reference to choices...and to some reality)...had it all. They had provision, authority, companionship...and most of all an intimate relationship with the creator of the universe. God laid down some boundaries...of what they COULD EAT...and what they COULD NOT EAT. The point of temptation (not designed to pull them into something...but designed to pull them away from who they really were)... was a simple YES or NO. The answer NO to the tempter...would be saying..."I believe that what God said was true...and I CHOOSE to believe Him. The answer YES...would be saying..."I know what God said...but I choose to believe a liar and twister of the truth...and do what I WANT...versus what God wants." That choice set into motion...cause and effect...DEATH passed down to all mankind." "Wherefore as one man sin (Adam and Eve) entered into the world...and death by sin (cause and effect of saying yes to the serpent and NO to God)...and so death passed to ALL MEN (the cause and effect ripple effect)...for ALL sinned." (Romans 5:12) Hey...THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!
No...it's not fair...but it is JUST. If you want to GET BACK TO THE GARDEN...you got to get back to your YES AND NO answers.

When the pressure is on...by either your peer groups...the devil...circumstances and situations...what do you say? You've heard me... talk about how we try to teach our son Phillip...the concept of CAUSE AND EFFECT. One thing I have read to him...is found in the book of PROVERBS (also know as PRO-VERBS...POSITIVE-ACTION). "My son...if sinners ENTICE you...DO NOT CONSENT". (Pro-Verbs 1:10)
"My son...DO NOT walk in the way with them...KEEP your feet from their path." (Proverbs 1:15) Distill it down to it's simplest form...
JUST SAY NO to the enticers...and YES to God.


When we go through THE PROMISES OF GOD we see..."For as many as may be THE PROMISES OF GOD...in Him...they are YES; wherefore also by Him is our AMEN to the glory of God." (II Corinthians 1:20)

We are called to let our conversation or statements yes or no..."But let your statement be...YES, YES...or NO, NO...and anything beyond these is of evil." (Matthew 5:37)

The most important YES is found in the answer of two blind men...who were begging for MERCY...which was to be healed of their blindness. "And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, and saying, Have mercy on us, Son of David! And after He had come into, and Jesus said to them, DO YOU BELIEVE THAT I AM ABLE TO DO THIS?...They said to HIm...YES LORD. Then He TOUCHED their eyes, saying BE IT DONE TO YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR FAITH." (Matthew 9:27-29)

If the blind guys responded NO...we don't believe that you are able to do this...Jesus would respond...be it done to you according to your UNBELIEF. Their yes or no would determine their fate...just as much as Adam and Eve's determined our fate.

Keith Green recorded an album called NO COMPROMISE. (see the last two pictures in the collage). The cover art is wonderful as it depicts someone saying NO to the kings command to bow before the golden image at the sound of the trumpet. If you look at the picture you can see the look of anger from the king...and the look of fear on those surrounding the disobedient.

Shadrach...Meshach...and Abed-nego...risked death by their CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE which was really GODLY OBEDIENCE. NOTE: I heard a black preacher...declare this was the story of Shadrach...Meshach...and ONE-BAD-NEGRO. If you get a chance...get the CD Walk on the Wild Side by Scott Blackwell...and you can hear Dr. Lockridge...preach the message MY KING (I Wonder Do You Know Him).

The cause and effect of saying YES to God...and NO to the king...was a death sentence in a fiery furnace. NOTE: Sometimes we have to face death...to come face to face with deliverance. They were thrown into the fiery furnace...but did not die...did not get singed by the fires...but were joined by a FOURTH MAN. Some say an angel...some say pre-incarnation of Christ...but whoever it was that joined them...it was the CAUSE AND EFFECT of obedience.

As I have been RUMINATING on this thing called YES OR NO...I have written down...JUST SAY NO TO...(fill in the blank with what you are faced). Looking back...if I JUST SAID NO...to sniffing gasoline, paint thinners, various chemicals...I would have bypassed lots of self inflicted suffering. If I had JUST SAID NO...to drinking, drugs...I would have thrown up less in the toilet as people moved my head out of the toilet to urinate...splattering on my face. If I had JUST SAID NO...to anger and held my tongue...there would be much less strive in my household.

Simplistic? Yes...No...Maybe..wait...I DO KNOW. We can CHOOSE...we can ACT...we can RISE ABOVE the flesh with help of the HOLY SPIRIT...The WORD OF GOD...The FATHER...the SON...our BROTHERS AND SISTERS...PRAYER.

Love and YES OR NO Kisses
Rodney "Glad I Said Yes To The D.B.R." Boyd