Now Is the Time

Editorial by Mike Hewitt

Before becoming a pastor, I was a police officer. I spent the last few years of police work serving as a traffic officer—I drove an unmarked police car and wrote traffic tickets eight hours a day. I also served as a fatality investigator when someone died from a car accident. Some facets of accident reconstruction were engaging, but the most difficult part was seeing deceased people in their mangled vehicles. Each accident I worked made a lasting impression on me because it forced me to realize that life is uncertain and each day is a precious gift from God. It also forced me to ask myself the question, Were the casualties ready to meet Jesus? It made me cringe to think that some of them—maybe many of them—were not ready. I began to realize instead of asking myself that question, a much better idea would be to help them get ready for heaven while they were still alive and could make a change.

People all around us don’t know Jesus and are searching for what is missing in their lives. Many are looking for that missing link in all the wrong places: alcohol, drugs, careers, money, etc. These searching people need someone like you and me to befriend them and introduce them to Jesus. He, and He alone, is Who they are really searching for. This is where we come in.

If we don’t share Jesus with our friends and neighbors now, when will we? God can really use us to lead people to Himself. Ellen White writes, “Many have gone down to ruin who might have been saved if their neighbors, common men and women, had put forth personal effort for them. Many are waiting to be personally addressed. In the very family, the neighborhood, the town, where we live, there is work for us to do as missionaries for Christ. If we are Christians, this work will be our delight. No sooner is one converted than there is born within him a desire to make known to others what a precious friend he has found in Jesus. The saving and sanctifying truth cannot be shut up in his heart” (The Desire of Ages, p. 141).

Now is the time to let the truth of Jesus be known to people around us, so we don’t end up wondering—after it is too late—if we could’ve been the difference in someone’s life. Now is the time, today is the day, when we can lead someone to Jesus, to eternal life. Jesus is coming soon; let’s get busy!

Mike Hewitt is the president of the Mountain View Conference