President’s Page

John Bradshaw

PRESIDENT

I Have no Hands But Yours

When vandals broke the hands off a statue of Jesus outside a church in San Diego, the pastor placed a sign at the base of the statue which said, “I have no hands but yours.” The hands were never replaced, so to this day the statue presents Jesus as having no hands. The message of the original, handwritten sign has been incorporated into the statue itself. Jesus is seen to proclaim, “I have no hands but yours.” Every believer is called to be the hands of Jesus. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:9, “For we are labourers together with God.” It Is Written exists for this very reason—to share Jesus with others, to lift Him up and tell the world of a risen Savior “Christ has no hands who is soon to return to this world. Poet Annie Johnson Flint wrote, “Christ has no but our hands, to do hands but our hands, to do His work today; He has His work today.” no feet but our feet, to lead men in his way; He has no tongue but our tongues, to tell men how He died; He has no help but our help, to bring them to His side.” Thank you for joining with It Is Written. We live in urgent, vital times. Jesus still says, “I have no hands but yours.”

ERIC FLICKINGER (pictured below) is the associate speaker for It Is Written. Eric’s passion for teaching the Bible has been experienced by thousands across North America and around the globe. W hen you think of Minnesota, what comes to your mind?

Norwegians? Well, nearly 17 percent of Minnesotans claim Norwegian ancestry. So…go Vikings!

How about Honeycrisp apples? They were, after all, invented at the University of Minnesota.

Or perhaps lakes? The state boasts more than 10,000 of them (11,842, if you want to be exact).

Or maybe shopping? The Mall of America is the largest shopping mall in the United States, covering 5.6 million square feet.

While attractions like these may abound on websites that seek to draw travelers and businesses to the North Star State, there’s something bigger happening in Minnesota.

In short, God is at work.

For over two years, It Is Written worked side-by-side with churches across the state of Minnesota to share Jesus and His message of salvation with the people in their communities. More than 60 churches were actively involved in praying, offering Bible studies, conducting seminars, offering healthy lifestyle cooking schools, giving ESL classes, distributing Christian literature, operating food banks, and ultimately, holding public evangelistic meetings.

Jack Philips, It Is Written’s outreach coordinator, moved to Minnesota in 2020 to begin working with churches to train their members how to share their faith in Jesus. He trained around 200 church members to follow up requests for Bible studies, which was fortunate because more than 90 requests for Bible studies came in during the training. Luis Luciano, the associate evangelism coordinator, also helped with the training.

Were lives changed as a result of their efforts?

Matt, a doctoral candidate who works at the Mayo Clinic, came to the Which Way, America? Bible prophecy seminar that was held in Rochester, Minnesota, last October. Each night, he would sit in the second row and take copious amounts of notes on everything he was hearing. He would then go home and compare what he heard at the seminar to what he found in his Bible. As the seminar

Minnesota

Faith expresses her love for Jesus through baptism.

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“It’s powerful to see people being trained in how to find and give Bible studies, and to see the culture of an evangelism cycle instilled in their churches.”

Left: Matt takes a public stand for his faith in Jesus. Above: Seminar attendees graduate from the It Is Written Bible school after completing all 25 Bible study guides.

drew to a close, Matt made a decision to take a stand for Jesus and be baptized.

Sisters Hannah and Faith had been studying the Bible since they were very young, but they hadn’t felt quite ready to move forward with the step of baptism until they came to the evangelistic meetings. But once they saw how Jesus shone through the pages of the Bible, they chose to let their baptism be a powerful statement to others of how He was working in their lives.

Their stories are not singular. Justin Lyons, the president of the Minnesota conference, shared that there were around 400 baptisms during 2021, which was up significantly from the 232 that took place the year before. When asked about one of the most significant things to come out of their partnership with It Is Written, he stated, “It’s powerful to see people being trained in how to find and give Bible studies, and to see the culture of an evangelism cycle instilled in their churches. If we can keep repeating that message until it becomes real in every church, that is by far the best long-term outcome.”

If the stories that came out of Minnesota in 2021 are any indication of what the future holds, we can expect to hear many more stories of God working in the lives of people across the state.

Is the gospel changing lives in Minnesota and beyond?

Yah, sure, you betcha!