Several years ago, I was asking God what I should sing and I was trying to remember some of the songs at church.  I started to sing, Jesus said it, but could not remember the words, I asked God to help me remember the song, and I began to speak in tongues and this is the song that actually came out of my mouth.  "Jesus Said, "Yes!"

JESUS SAID YES!

© 2005, D.K.Arnett

Chorus/Intro

C                       G

Jesus said “Yes, I will take up my cross.”

G                       C

Jesus said “Yes, No matter the cost.”

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Jesus said “Yes, I’ll give my best.”

C                       G                    C

Jesus said “Yes, I’ll give you my rest”

Verse 1

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So I said, “Yes” and He broke every curse,

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Lifted my burden and all of my hurt.

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He paid the price for my sin and my shame

C                        G                         C

His precious blood removed every stain.

C                            G

When I said “Yes,” I will take up my cross.”

G                       C

Jesus said “Go, tell all that are lost.”

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If I would just follow His lead,

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The angels rejoice when others believe.

Chorus

C                       G

Jesus said “Yes, I will take up my cross.”

G                        C

Jesus said “Yes, No matter the cost.”

C                        F

Jesus said “Yes, I’ll give my best.”

C                       G                    C

Jesus said “Yes, now go tell the rest.”

Verse 2

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He healed the sick, and he healed the lame.

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He said in His Word, that I’d do the same.

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Signs would follow all those that believe

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and in his name demons would flee.

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He will not leave you as others have done.

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So run the race that is already won.

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Just hold fast, to what you believe.

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You’ll be a jewel for Him to receive.

Chorus

Verse 3

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So I ask you to call on His name.

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Make Him the savior of your heart today.

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Jesus is calling, calling your name.

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Jesus said, “Yes” will you do the same?

C                    G

Will you say “Yes,” “I will take up my cross.”

G                    C

Will you say “Yes,” “No matter the cost.”

C                    F

Will you say “Yes,” “I’ll give my best.”

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Will you say “Yes?” Don’t settle for less.

Chorus

Verse 4

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So just remember, call on his name

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reach for His hand, reach others and pray

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Jesus, He loves you. He’ll be your best friend

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He’ll never leave you. He’s there to the end.

Chorus/End

C                 G

Jesus said “Yes, I will take up my cross.”

G                 C

Jesus said “Yes, No matter the cost.”

C                 F

Jesus said “Yes, I’ll give my best.”

C                G                         C

Jesus said, “Yes,” Jesus said, “YES!”

Later, I asked God what kind of song was this? Was it country, gospel or Praise and Worship? He sounded kind of mad and said that it was Evangelism. I guess I should not try to classify what the genre of the song is when it came directly from God. It is a witness to Sinner and Saved alike. What have you done with Christ? Have you accepted Him, followed Him, given all that you have both body and mind as well as earthly possession? Has it cost you friendships? Have you followed through on your commitment to Him? Do signs follow you that you do not even have to tell others that you are a Christian? They just know. We have a tendency to look to others for help and advise and come to depend on others, but do we take it to God and ask for His help, do we believe on the Lord Jesus as the book of Acts tells us. What is the difference between believing on and believing in? You and your household being saved. (Acts 16:31) For even the demons do believe and tremble (James 2:19). Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path (Proverbs 3:5,6)

Cast your burdens onto Jesus, for he cares for you.

Even when we are at our worst, God is faithful and ever mindful of our thoughts and actions.  On this particular day, I was truly at my worst but God was still able to use my bad attitude to bless another.

We were on vacation in Florida back in 2003.  My parents had a house in Englewood and we were staying there for a couple of days.  This particular day we decided that we were going to go for a drive.  We passed by a mall in Port Charlotte and my husband said that he was going to buy me some dresses while we were here in Florida.  So we trekked into this mall.  It was a very nice.  We proceeded to go from store to store.  I really did not see any dresses that I liked.  Everything seemed to be low cut.  Not just low cut but like dresses that had necklines down to the belly button.  I was getting really frustrated, I just wanted to give up and leave.  Here my husband had promised to buy me a dress and these were too embarrassing to wear.  My husband was taunting me, saying that I was not trying hard enough and he just kept saying things that were rubbing me the wrong way and I was not about to buy any of those dresses that I was seeing.  I was getting angry.  We walked to just about every store and finally I saw, Dillards.  I turned to my husband and I said that I was going to go into Dillard's and I was going to find some dresses and he was going to buy all of them for me.  I was just fuming and I was just saying it for spite because he had not let up.

We entered into Dillard's, me and my very bad attitude and at first I found Petites.  That was not going to work.  Next, I found the Plus sizes, that was not going to work, either.  My husband was saying things like, you are not finding anything in here either?  We found the Misses dress department.  I started hounding the racks.  The sales lady was very nice and she helped me find several dresses.

All of a sudden, there was just a mob of women in this dress department.  Everyone was looking at dresses, the fitting rooms were full.  It was like everyone decided at that very moment they wanted dresses.  You just know something must be happening, but no they were not having a sale at Dillard's.  This sales lady was trying to help all the women and she looked like she was just going around in circles.  I told her just to help the others, I was fine.  She was supposed to only allow three outfits in the fitting room at one time and here I must have had at least 12.  She was helping all these people and still running back to the fitting room to help me even though I told her she did not have to.  Some of these customers were very rude and I think maybe she sold 2 items to that entire mob.  I was trying on dress after dress and coming out of the fitting room to show my husband the dresses, and she was helping me make decisions, also, while this mob was demanding her attention.

When I had finished trying on all the dresses and suit dresses that I could find, I separated them into piles.  She came back to the fitting room and she looked just exhausted.  She had been running here and there waiting on people and I believe she was waiting on each of them with as much attention as a person could and she did it all just as pleasantly as you could imagine.  She started gathering up what I had put back onto hangers and I told her what items I had decided against.  By this time, the mob was gone, seemingly just as fast as they appeared.  I discussed the outfits with my husband and we decided that I would be getting two of the dresses, four of the dress suits and two camisoles.  We took them up to the counter and she proceeded to hang them up on the pole behind the register and I stood there waiting to be rung up.  Here she thought I had decided against everything and was going to put them back on the racks..  She thought I was not interested in any of them at all.  I had to go back to the pole and take the items and one by one and tell her that I wanted them as they were all mixed in with other items the mob had decided against.  She rung up the items one at a time.  She covered each one with plastic Dillard's dress bags.  The one suit, she said, she would not sell to me because it was damaged, so she had another one ordered and shipped to my home.  The transaction was completed and she came around the register and gave me a big hug.

I was not sure what to think, I never had a clerk give me a hug for buying something.  She said, that when she saw me looking at dresses, she hoped that I would buy at least one and she saw the crowd of people that were there at the same time and then she thought, maybe it would be possible.  I did not quite follow her and she could see the look of confusion on my face.  She said that she had been sick for two weeks and the management said that unless she could fulfill her monthly quota that day, they would be letting her go.  She literally needed to sell $700 worth of items.  She had been praying that God would send someone to buy that much and she did not think it would be me but she figured that each sale mattered.  She even went against company policy by letting me try on as many dresses as I wanted at one time, and then when she saw the crowd she said she had hope.  If each person had bought an item, there was a chance that she could save her job.  But they had left and only bought about $30 in items.  She thought for sure that she was going to be fired.  She had lost hope.  She was gathering up what I had and was going to put it back on the rack and when I said that I was going to purchase all those items, she said she didn't dare believe but the transaction went through and she realized it was real.  She said that God had sent me to her because she had prayed so hard.

Well, I can tell you, I felt just about 2 inches tall.  Here I was, mad at my husband for harassing me about buying a dress, and here I picked out these dresses and suit dresses, not so much because I liked them but for spite. (Even though I really liked them.)  I really felt embarrassed for my attitude, here was this lady so grateful that I bought the dresses and hugging me and sharing her story and I was so low and wretched.  I was too embarrassed to tell her that my heart had been in the wrong place.  I had a lot to think about.  Had I not been spiteful towards my husband, this lady would have probably lost her job.  However, God knew that I would be in town, God knew that if provoked I would retaliate by buying more than one dress, and God knew that I would not buy the other mall dresses because they did not appeal to me, and made sure that the nice lady would be selling the only modest dresses in the mall.  God was not caught off guard, he had every circumstance covered.  He knew that I would be humbled by the experience, also.  I am not one to keep dresses for more than 3 years but in this instance I still have all these items that were bought that day.  They remind me of a very special lady who had her prayers answered by my selfishness.

Did you know that God can use you even when you are at your worst?  It is when we are at our worst that God is at his best.  He can take your darkest hour and bless others.  If you are at your most dire hour, God can send you someone with a bad motive or heart, will you have the heart of a servant as this sales lady?  Even though in our mind, we think it would take an angel of mercy to get us through, God may send you a Christian who is having an off day such as me.  He can use an attitude of yours that is not befitting a Christian to help you and to correct that attitude you may not have known to exist.  Dear Lord God, more of you and less of me.  When I am lowly and wretched in my thinking, use my weaknesses to bless others, and when I find my circumstances dire, please remind me of this story so that I will have the heart of a servant and patiently wait upon you.  You are an ever present help in our time of need, Amen.

Thou preparest a table before me.

The first story that I would like to share with you, happened when I was about 14 years old.  I was a rather shy, awkward girl.  I would go to church every Sunday with my parents and I had the most wonderful Sunday School teacher but on this particular day I was very tired and just managed to make it to class and just sat there with my eyes closed.  I must have drifted off because I heard my name being said and I opened my eye and said "what?".  This was still before class, mind you, my Sunday School teacher started yelling at me.  I remember him telling me I was not considerate of others and that I only thought of myself he went on a rant and accused me of everything possible.  As he was yelling at me, I remember thinking in my mind, why is he saying all these things, I did not do anything to merit this, I never said anything mean or rude, I thought very highly of this man, I just started praying, still in my mind, that God would help him with whatever issues he was dealing with.  I figured it was not about me, I shrugged it off and just sat there through class.  After Sunday School, several kids came up to me and asked why I just sat there when he was yelling at me, why didn't I yell back. I said I don't know why but I knew what he said was not true.  They all agreed with me, what he said was far from the truth.

Several Sundays later, I arrived at Sunday School class late.  I had noticed that the teacher was handing out papers, and when he looked up and saw me, he told everyone to put their papers away, it was time for class. I wanted to question what he was handing out but saw the look on his face and quickly decided I did not want another confrontation..  My uncle, who is two years older than me, was present this day.  He missed the Sunday that I had been yelled at, otherwise I believe that he would have not allowed me to be treated that way.  He was present at this class and therefore had one of the papers and I did not questioned him about it at the time.  I don't think my Sunday School teacher made the connection that my uncle and I were even related.  This is God, because he probably would not have invited my uncle, either had he known.

Several more weeks had past and it was getting to be Christmastime.  My uncle who had just got his driver's license that year, asked if he could drive me to the Sunday School Christmas party, since we were both going there.  I said that I did not know what he was talking about.  I did not know about a Christmas party.  He explained that we all received papers in class and that all were invited to go to the Christmas party at the Sunday School teacher's house.  I had a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I told my uncle that I did not believe I was welcome to go to the Christmas party.  He quickly changed his tone of voice.  He said what are you talking about, it is the Sunday School Christmas party and you are in the Sunday School class.  I explained what had happened and I said that I believe that he did not invite me on purpose.  My uncle said that the invitation said bring a friend and he was going to bring me as a friend and if there was a problem, he would have to deal with, my uncle. I agreed to go, under my uncle's protection.

The Christmas party was two days away, I had just enough time to get a present and wrap it for the gift exchange but I was feeling really lousy because, why did my teacher, hate me?  I did not hate him.  I thought that he was awesome, as a teacher and as a person.  I am glad I did not share my thoughts on that subject.  In all the following Sunday School classes, I just sat there silently, half expecting to be yelled at again.

My uncle and I arrived at our Sunday School teacher's house.  We were greeted by our Sunday School teacher's wife.  She was very pleasant.  She started to invite us in, and there was a shout from somewhere in the back of the house.  "Who invited her!!!!".  his wife, with a very upset look on her face, said just to ignore him, of course I was welcome.

She had us fill out our names for door prizes and she explained that there were 12 door prizes.  She said that since it is no fun when you win the first door prize and know that you cannot win another door prize she came up with an idea that we should all put our names in this big glass fish bowl 12 times.  Little did we know, God's plan was at hand.

The party, to me, went very slow because I knew I was not welcome by the owner of the house.  I spent my time trying to stay away from him, however that must have been one of the smallest houses ever built.  We had games, refreshments and the gift exchange.  We finally got to the door prizes.  I remember thinking to myself, I have never won a door prize and if she would have had us all put our names in once we would all be guaranteed a door prize.  But by this time, I had decided not to be disappointed if I didn't get anything, which in my mind was most likely.  I just wanted the party to be over so we could leave.

The first name was drawn, it was mine, the sheer look of disappointment was on my Sunday School teacher's face.  I said, wow, I never had won anything before and I took the little wrapped package and sat back down.  I figured I would open it when I saw someone else get a prize.  The second name was drawn, you guessed it, my name again.  I accepted the prize and sat back down.  I thought wow, that was really unusual.  The third name was drawn, yes it was me, again.  The Sunday School teacher was complaining that the names were not mixed up enough.  She started drawing from all over the glass bowl and we all saw the names were not drawn from the same area of the bowl  It got to the eleventh time and I had won all eleven prizes.  I was rather embarrassed as I sat with a pile of unopened prizes on my lap.  The Sunday School teacher's wife explained that the twelfth prize was the grand prize, a box of assorted candy bars.  One girl, started to shout, " if she wins one more time I am going to scream."  And from the tone of her voice I knew she would.  I said a quick prayer, dear God, let Brenda have her name drawn for this last prize so we don't have to hear her scream.  And while I was praying in my mind, the Sunday School teacher said, no, she (referring to me) is not going to win all of the prizes!!  I am going to add a second grand prize a package of assorted candy bars that I bought for myself.  (I thought, wow, this guy really hates me alot.)  So, here is what happened,  the 12th name drawn was Brenda we were all breathing a sigh of relief that she got the first intended grand prize.  It was crazy, she was so happy to get the grand prize and started bragging, so much so, that I thought to myself, wow, that is what he accused me of.   And yes, my name was drawn for my Sunday School teachers very own package of candy bars.  He reluctantly handed them to me.  And there I sat, with a pile of eleven unopened door prizes and a box of candy bars.  I opened the candy bars first and started to pass the box around.  I told the kids to take what they liked.  Brenda, holding her grand prize tightly, asked, Does that mean I have to share with everyone?  I said no Brenda, I have enough for everyone, you can keep all of your candy bars.  One boy asked, what is your favorite?  I said I like Reese cups.  He said, hey everyone, take what you want but leave one Reese's cup for her. The kids asked me to please open my door prizes and as I opened each one, I paid attention to the reactions of each kid and depending on who gave the biggest response, I handed the prize to that person.  Each person who received the door prize from me, tried to return it before we left and I told them to keep them because I knew that they like them.  All of them hesitated but I said it was OK.

Before we left my Sunday School teacher's house, my uncle turned to me, he said, I don't get it.  He treated you rudely, you were not invited, and you won all of the prizes.  You could have taken all the prizes and he could have done nothing about it.  I said, that is not what Christmas is about.  And I got up to leave, knowing that my Sunday School teacher was within earshot of us, in the other room, and pretty sure he heard us.  I left that day with a gift exchange gift and a Reese's cup.  And I believe that the door prizes were distributed the way that God had intended.

I was not sure that day why God had done what He had done, but I don't think that He would have allowed me to win all those times if I was not going to give them freely.  I was never sure why my Sunday School teacher said those things about me.  I think most people would say is that my Sunday School teacher was not a Christian.  Yes, I believe that he was a Christian man.  A Christian man is saved by grace and we don't always know what someone is going through but God is able to forgive and does forgive.  It is not my place to judge, I just simply asked God to help him and I believe that God proved all the things wrong that I was accused of, when I gave all my door prizes away.  I was not stingy, selfish, self absorbed, I was not thinking only of myself.  I stood silent before my accuser and my God showed up to defend me.  My Sunday School teacher's mouth was shut and he could not repeat one accusation once God had finished.

Are you going through something that you were wrongfully accused of?  Did you take it to God?  I don't always respond to my situations with prayer immediately and while I am still being yelled at as in this instance but this is a good example for me to follow.  When you are accused wrongly, give it to God, He is not caught off guard and He has already prepared the defense.

It is curious how this situation was resolved though, I did not have to speak any words for God to work, just offered silent prayers.  I took it to God immediately and did not wait.  God knows your thoughts and he hears your silent prayers, you do not have to wait for an appointed time for Him to hear and you do not have to clang a gong for Him to wake up..  Guard your heart wisely.  May God bless you and speak to you through this story, Amen.