{"id":2183,"date":"2025-03-16T16:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-03-16T16:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/?p=2183"},"modified":"2025-03-16T16:30:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T16:30:13","slug":"just-say-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/2025\/03\/16\/just-say-no\/","title":{"rendered":"“JUST SAY NO.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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March 7, 2025 <\/strong>Pastor Tim Dodson | Menomonie<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the late 80\u2019s and early 90\u2019s President Reagan\u2019s wife Nancy was at the center of an anti-drug advertising campaign that in hindsight was incredulously entitled \u201cJust Say No.\u201d As a part of the U.S.-led war on drugs, the ad campaign aimed to discourage children from engaging in illegal recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying no. No slight against Nancy, but I don\u2019t think there is any great surprise that the program didn\u2019t make a dent. Over 59 million or 21% of people 12 and over have used illegal drugs or misused prescription drugs within the last year. 48.5 million (16.7%) Americans (aged 12 and older) battled a substance use disorder in the past year. Maybe they thought she was saying \u201cJust say now\u2026<\/em>\u201d Certainly the idea that one can be told \u201cno\u201d concerning anything in this generation seems almost laughable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a premise reaches from the one end of our culture to the other. Recently our new President was addressing congress and the behavior that was exercised by the liberal left was not just crazy, it was truthful inexplicable. For years the conservatives have had to endure some extreme mandates that were handed down from above (Washington, not heaven!) and no one really cared what the conservative field thought about them. Then the Republicans handily won the last election, and the liberal democrats cannot seem to fathom that the people of the country told them \u201cno.\u201d For that is not POSSIBLE! Unthinkable! So they kick and scream and tantrum like embarrassing 2 year olds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now for those of you that know me, you would know that my remarks are not meant to be an opening to a political vent. I\u2019m not that guy. My point is that somewhere and somehow we seemed to have lost the word \u201cno\u201d in the human language. Perhaps if it is still buried out there someplace it is in a description of someone\u2019s \u201cmicro-aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently an article in Parents magazine discussed this is issue of saying \u201cno.\u201d (That\u2019s right\u2026I was reading Parents magazine!)  The article wrote about a woman who was participating in a drop-in day at her child\u2019s school, when she had to say \u201cno\u201d to another kid who was rummaging through her purse. Seems straight forward enough, right? Not to the kid\u2019s mom. The woman said \u201cThe mom confronted me and said she \u2018didn\u2019t like my tone<\/em>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another participant spoke of her friend who was a pediatrician. When she was with a toddler patient, the kid was grabbing her tools so she told the child \u2018no\u2019, and the mom responded in a baby voice saying \u2018what do we tell the doctor? That we don\u2019t say no!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly this phenomenon is stretching worldwide and culture deep. It is just getting harder and harder for anyone to tell us \u201cNo.\u201d  Indeed, the wider church is not immune to this development. How can a church function and meet its calling if they can never tell anyone No<\/em>? Certainly in hindsight, the number of \u201cexits\u201d that have occurred from our midst because of this \u201cmortal wound\u201d is staggering. My mind reels back to instance after instance of the man-child tantrums of those where someone dared to say No <\/em>to them. Some over positions, some wanted pay, some wanted support on some level for inexplicable pursuits, some wanted special attention, to be able to attend something that was denied them, etc ..etc \u2026and etc\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such behavior\u2026while indeed recently increasing, <\/em>actually goes back to the garden\u2026back to the original sin. Our Creator said you can eat of any tree in the garden except THAT<\/u> ONE.<\/em> And the residents of the garden couldn\u2019t handle it any more than we can today! It makes things difficult between us and our God when we reject this \u201cNo\u201d concept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mark 10:35-45<\/a>, James and John had to endure this \u201cbrutal chastisement\u201d when they requested positions of honor\u2026IE \u201csitting on Jesus\u2019 right and left in the coming kingdom,\u201d<\/em> and Jesus told them No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2 Samuel 12<\/a>, David had showed \u201cbrazen contempt\u201d to God\u2019s Word by murdering Uriah to marry his wife. Because of this, David and Bathsheba\u2019s firstborn was going to die. Despite begging God for a different outcome, God told David No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10<\/a> God told Paul \u201cNo\u201d when asked to have removed his \u201cthorn in the flesh\u201d. In 1Chronicles 28<\/a> David had plans to build a temple for God. However, God told him \u201cNo.\u201d There are many such accounts in scripture and even more in the present and personal world in which we live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our childlike blindness may prevent us from acknowledging what is a fact despite such: our inability to be told \u201cNo\u201d manifests from the \u201cold man\u201d that scripture says \u2026for the born again individual<\/em>, is to be effectively\u2026well\u2026DEAD.<\/em> But when we kick and scream and tantrum when someone tells us NO<\/em>\u2026that old man is clearly alive and well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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March 7, 2025 Pastor Tim Dodson | Menomonie In the late 80\u2019s and early 90\u2019s President Reagan\u2019s wife Nancy was at the center of an anti-drug advertising campaign that in hindsight was incredulously entitled \u201cJust Say No.\u201d As a part of the U.S.-led war on drugs, the ad campaign aimed to discourage children from engaging…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2185,"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions\/2185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/community_blogs\/sitenewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}