An eighty-year-old couple was worried because they kept forgetting things all the time. The doctor assured them there was nothing seriously wrong except old age and suggested they carry a notebook and write things down so they wouldn’t forget. Several days later the old man got up to go to the kitchen. His wife said, “Dear, get me a bowl of ice cream while you’re up.” “OK,” he said. “…and put some chocolate syrup on it and a few cherries on it and some whipped cream too.” Then she added, “You’d better write all this down.” “I won’t forget,” he retorted. Thirty minutes later he came back into the room and handed her a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon. She glared at him. “Now, I told you to write it down! I knew you’d forget.” “What did I forget?” he asked. She replied, “My toast!”
Of course this is a funny, but in reality there are things that we need to let go of and forget, especially bad memories, hurts, offences, and not write them down. We need to bury them in the bone-yard of the past so we can move on with our lives. It amazes me to see how many people are being controlled by bad experiences that hold them back from living their full potential. Listen, the enemy knows that if he can keep us dwelling on the past we will be locked down. His objective is to steal our personality, kill our destiny, and destroy all of our dreams. It appears to me that one of his most effective weapons against us is called bitterness. This weapon gives him the ability to manipulate and control us. It is haunting. It is mean and unforgiving. We must be aware of his tactic of waging war against our minds. Also, commonsense tells us that we are the gate-keepers over our minds and that the enemy cannot put anything on us that we will not allow. Nobody can make us think badly about someone without our consent. The choice is ours. The Word of God says, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (I Corinthians 15:33). By hanging out with negative talkers we are influenced to think like them. Negative thinkers gravitate to themselves negative thinkers, but on the other hand, positive thinkers are influenced by positive thinkers. We can’t complain about what we allow to influence us. We must choose to set our minds on high things. So, no matter what we are going through, we have the ability to persist keeping the right attitude and finding something good to say. Our lives always move in the direction of our most dominate thoughts. So, if we care about our future, our family, and friends, we must choose the right influences. It is imperative to surround ourselves with honesty, morality, praise, thanksgiving, and wholesomeness. These help us to not dwell on the hurtful things in life. Yes, the influence of God’s Word directs our forward movement in a most productive way. If we fill up our minds with His Word we will think the way He wants us to. Yummy! For more information you can visit us online at www.JoyChristianMinistries.com. Judge Troy L. Nunley said, “You can’t use your background and economic situation as an excuse. Rather, you should use it as a motivation to do more and to want more.” Who is Judge Nunley? According to Hudson Sangree, a Sacramento Bee Staff Writer, the judge graduated from a prestigious law school, had a successful career as a prosecutor, and was appointed to the Sacramento Superior Court bench at age 38. He was one of four children raised by a single, teenage mother who grew up in San Francisco’s Hunter’s Point projects surrounded by crime and poverty. The judge says his background gives him a different perspective on the offenders in his courtroom, those now facing the consequences of bad choices. The judge credits his mother’s unrelenting influence to steering him and his siblings, all of whom overcame dire childhood circumstances, away from trouble and toward success. Nunley said that while growing up he saw a friend die in a drive-by shooting, and a cousin convicted in a gang killing. Friends became drug dealers. People from the neighborhood were stabbed and sexually assaulted. Neighbors landed in jail or juvenile hall. He and his siblings attended Catholic schools, played sports, pursued higher education, and now work in law, business, health care, and religion. Judge Nunley is the youngest sibling. His sister earned her engineering and business degrees from Stanford University and is an executive with IBM. A middle brother is a nurse. Another is a minister. The reason for the family success, says the judge, is their mother’s belief that education was the path out of poverty. “Her mantra was, education is the black man’s way out of the ghetto,” said Nunley’s sister, Francine Anthony. Their mother, Gennie Nunley-Thompson, grew up in rural Louisiana and Hunter’s Point and had four children by the age of 20. She said she set high expectations for herself and her children and looked beyond their immediate circumstances to a better world. And she made her children believers by the example she set. While caring for them she finished high school, held down two full-time jobs as a telephone operator and group-home counselor, and went to college. She earned her bachelor’s degree, completed a master’s thesis and became a senior award-winning probation officer in San Francisco. “I might be here for the rest of my life, but the projects are no place for you,” Nunley-Thompson told her children. “Every generation has to be better than the previous generation.” Judge Nunley’s mother insisted her children work hard, do well in school, and stay out of trouble. He said at Hunter’s Point he saw a “corner mentality” of people hanging out and not being able to see anything better. “That corner became their whole world,” he said. “Crime and violence only broke the monotony. You have to get beyond that corner mentality. Don’t become a victim.” For more about Joy, you can visit us online at www.JoyChristianMinistries.com. Everyone is welcome. Nobody is perfect. Anything is possible. United States District Judge Troy L. Nunley
A prison warden had an unusual manner for determining afternoon passes. He would call the eligible prisoners in one at a time and ask them two questions. If they correctly answered both, they could gain an afternoon pass. He called in the first prisoner and asked, “What would happen to you if I were to poke out one of your eyes?” “I would be half blind, of course,” answered the prisoner. “What would happen,” continued the warden, “if I poked out the other eye?” “I would be completely blind,” answered the prisoner. The warden wrote him an afternoon pass and as the prisoner left, he whispered the correct answers to the next eligible prisoner. The warden called the next prisoner in and asked him, “What would happen if I cut off one of your ears?” The prisoner answered, “I would be blind in one eye.” Confused, the warden asked a second question. “What would happen if I cut off your other ear?” “I would be completely blind,” answered the prisoner. “Can you explain your answer?” asked the warden. “Sure,” smiled the prisoner. “My hat would fall down over my eyes!” The warden wrote the pass.
The natural man may be witty and cunning, but he cannot receive the wisdom of God’s Spirit unless he studies the Word of God, believes it, & obeys every word. The natural man can have lots of book learning and know many things in the physical realm, but unless he gets online with the Holy Spirit he can never receive the depth of wisdom that is available for all who believe. God’s wisdom can save us from unforeseen heartache and troubles. A leading economic expert, Professor Irving Fisher of Yale, had this to say about the bright future of the stock market and the American economy: “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” His statement was spoken in early October 1929, just a couple weeks before the stock market crash that ushered in the Great Depression. Man’s knowledge is not enough; it is limited. T. S. Eliot put it so beautifully when he said, “All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance. All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, but nearness to death no nearer to God.” Then he asks the question that hangs over this whole generation: “Where is the life we have lost in living?” Many people, today, are in a bad way because they lack the wisdom of God. Things would be so different if they would only submit to His word. God can turn things around. He can do the impossible. He can save. He can heal. He can give peace. He can restore a broken marriage. How? He is God!! It is written, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-36). Equate God to no man! He is the All Wise God over all!! For more, you can visit us online at www.JoyChristianMinistries.com. |
Pastor J.C. Myers, III
Pastor J.C. founded Joy Christian Ministries in 1992. He was Sr. Pastor at Joy Christian Ministries in West Sacramento, California from 1992-2016. He was succeeded by his 2nd son, Pastor Brandon Myers who had been under his father's ministry and teaching for 39 years. Archives
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