Youtube video

Marriage Intimacy Hurting Healing

http://youtu.be/NQPizeCpkyE

FRUSTRATIONS - In Perspective

Isn't it amazing how quickly we get frustrated and upset? It seems so many live most every day in this state of frustration where nearly every part of life is raw and hypersensitive. There is the constant din of complaints and the tearing down of people that seems to fill the air around us. It makes us feel that the black cloud of discontent that hovers overhead could transform at any moment into a full-blown tornado, resulting in widespread wholesale destruction in our lives.

For me, getting the Son shine back into my life requires focusing on the true, the honest, the right, the pure, the lovely, the good reports and the things that affect positive change in my thinking and in those around me (Philippians 4:8). Thank you Jesus, and all those around me for patiently enduring as I go through this process day after day!

Who Do You Love?

(Matthew 5:46, 48) “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? Be ye therefore perfect [fully mature], even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

       

It is natural for us to be close to those that bring benefit or at least perceived benefit to our lives.  We even read in 1John 4:19 “We love him (Jesus), because he first loved us.”

However, as believers we are to become more like Jesus. You see, He was able to love us even when we did not love him. If fact we were his enemy long before we loved him. We had no real benefit to offer Jesus, and yet, he loved us; loved us so much that he gave His life that we might have everlasting life. Possibly, the greatest benefit is that because of Jesus’ unconditional love, we can experience real love from its source, God Himself!

Because this gift is a direct connection to Love, we now have the capacity to love others as Jesus loved us. This is our opportunity to love unconditionally! We are the hands, conduit, of the love of God to all those that have not been blessed to know that love. What a privilege! We need to seize this opportunity and love others as Jesus does.

Anniversary 30 years

Today I celebrate a truly blessed life. My wonderful wife Jackie and I have been married for thirty years today. God has competed me with one that fills in all my gaps and weaknesses as a father and pastor. With Jackie's love and support we continue in the labors of life and ministry. Without her consistent encouragement and loving compassion it would be impossible to press on day after day and year after year. This past Father's Day marked fifteen years as Senior Pastor of Joy Baptist Church. We have seen much change and weathered many storms together. Together being the operative word. Because of our love one to another all these years, side by side, step by step, hand in hand we are able and blessed to serve the King of Kings as shepherd without loosing our heart, our love and our zeal for people.
I thank God daily for the blessing of a faithful, loving helpmeet that has never given up on me in spite of difficulties and opposition.
Thank you Jackie
With all my love,
Jay

FATHER?

(Ephesians 6:4) “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

Many of today’s movies, television shows and social commentaries attack and work to undermine the role and respect for fathers. We find that too many people have bought into the lie that godly fathers and respect for them is unimportant to the stability of society. Men have children they neither support nor nurture; women and children are treating even faithful fathers with disrespect. Vast numbers of children are raised without the God ordained leadership of a godly father and a godly mother working together in ways that uniquely provide children the opportunity to experience in some measure the completeness and nurturing nature of the true and living God. A natural security exists in homes where godliness abounds.

Sadly, it is true that many men have lost the respect of their families. God will hold them accountable. If your father encourages you in righteousness, consider yourself blessed and honor him. If you are a father that has fallen prey to the modern philosophies of pleasure and carefree living first, you should beg God and your children for forgiveness. Make an effort today to build or restore a godly relationship with your children. This may take a great deal of time and in some cases never see fulfillment. However, you have a God given obligation to commit to this task. Praise God, He is a loving, nurturing Father.

HEAVEN'S TAPESTRY

"And he (Jesus) said unto them,
Ye are from beneath;
I am from above:
ye are of this world;
I am not of this world." John 8:23

With awe and appreciation,
we look upon a tapestry so finely rendered
We think of the labor and care,
the precision and dedication tendered.

Do we often look upon or seek to display,
the knotted frazzled underside?
It’s the finished front that incites delight
from there its value we decide.

The front is beautiful and cherished,
yet lost except the back abide.
Trust the Master, for as he weaves,
our beauty comes alive.

Perfect his work in us fulfilled,
greatly pleases God on high.
Appreciate the beauty of God’s work,
see the struggle with heaven’s eye.

Jay

MOTHERS

There is nothing like a mother’s nurturing love. I realize that a great many in our society have not experienced this blessing. I am blessed with a loving, nurturing mother for whom I am grateful to the Lord. My sons also have known the unconditional sacrificial God-like mothering that will help them understand, in part at least, the mothering aspects of our amazing God.

I feel a great sorrow for the many around us that have not known that kind of love and therefore find it difficult to believe that God will love and nurture them. That He will not abandon them or discard them when they no longer suit His needs.

I know that mothering is not easy; it requires great sacrifice and a love that is impossible to explain. It must be experienced and thankfully can be shared.

We need to be thankful and focus on passing on the love God has given us through those that have mothered us.