FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK (August 19, 2019 repost)

What are you thankful for and about?  For many the answer is quite predictable.  We are thankful for life, health, and for the many blessings our heavenly Father has bestowed upon us.  We are thankful to Him for our salvation, for our relationship with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ.  We thank Him for our spouses, our children, grandchildren, etc.  Those answers are obvious.  The more probing question is are we thankful when things are not so pleasant?  The Psalmist gives us the answer:  “I will bless the Lord at all times:  His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”  (Psalm 34:1)

In good times and in times that are not so good, we know that God is working a work in our lives.  In times of adversity our character is being developed and our faith strengthened.  In the down times of life, God demonstrates His awesomeness.  Hear the Apostle James:  “Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for joy.  For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.”  (James 1:2-4 NLT)

Dear Ones, for this I give Him thanks.  Be blessed.

Pastor J. Amos Jones

FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK (September 17, 2023 repost)

For years the Ministry of the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church has set on a table of love, supported by three legs of service, honor, and representation. We are commanded of the Lord to have both horizontal and vertical love. Hear the words of Jesus: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matt. 22:37-39) Love has been the fuel for our journey, and the glue that has kept us together. We are, and have always been, proud to be servants of the most High God. The Apostle Paul states it so well in Col. 3-22, 23: “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservices, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” Again, Paul says: “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” (Romans 12:11) To honor, is to esteem, or regard highly. Our God is worthy of honor, glory and majesty, dominion and power are His. The doxology given by Paul in 1 Timothy 1:17, so speaks of God’s love for Friendship for all these years, therefore we must join him: “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Amen, so let it be.

Since 1940, when Friendship was organized and had worship services in a Brush-Arbor on Boss Gaston Road, God has been faithful! He has brought us “all the way.” Truly, if it had not been for the Lord who was on our side, the enemy would have destroyed us.  We recognize that we represent the Triune God in a sinful world, we are ambassadors for Christ. We praise God for our years of service, and that that service honors God, for we are His workmanship.

Be blessed.                

Pastor J. Amos Jones

September 6, 2015 repost

“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” (Luke 4:1) And so begins the story of the Temptation of Jesus. This is an absolutely rich teaching and there is a remarkable life lesson woven in the powerful words of the text. Note, it begins: “And Jesus, full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness ,… tempted by the devil.” And now dear ones, take note what the Holy Writ tells us thirteen verses later: “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee;…”

Do you see it? Jesus went into the wilderness full of the Spirit. He came out of the wilderness still in the Spirit. Jesus remained in the Spirit, no matter what happened. To stay in the Spirit was the real issue Jesus faced in the wilderness. The wilderness did not offer three different temptations as we might have thought. It offered one. A single temptation: in the shape of different problems, to be sure, but a single testing, nonetheless. The problems were in the area of His physical body (when He was hungry after a prolonged fast); in the area of His soul—His mind, emotions, will (in questions involving His work); and in the area of His Spirit (when He was offered a spiritual shortcut). For Jesus, the problems were all temptations. Each had a common denominator. Each tried, with its particular pressures, to lure Him away from the Spirit.

What does it mean to be “in the Spirit”? We must come to grips with this term. Paul says, we should “Walk in the Spirit”…(Galatians 5:16). John said that he was “in the Spirit” on the Lord’s Day (Revelations 1:10). To be “in the Spirit” is to be in the flow of His vital life and power. To be “in the Spirit” is to become conscious, for a higher percentage of time, of God’s continuing presence in our lives. To be “in the Spirit” involves a quality of living, because the Fruit of the Spirit is growing: (Galatians 5:22, 23). To be “in the Spirit” is to exist in a different realm where blessings are not a surprise.

No wonder Satan wanted to seduce Jesus away from being “in the Spirit.” All of the temptations he threw at Jesus were aimed at that same goal. It is the ultimate goal of Satan to ensure we do not remain “in the Spirit.”

Be blessed as you “walk in the Spirit.”
Pastor J. Amos Jones

FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK (September 14, 2009 repost)

In the very recent past, the Friendship Church family has experienced the reality of death in a very personal way. Death, of whom the Bible declares is “the last enemy that shall be destroyed.” Dear Ones, it is comforting to know that Christ will reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. We then can join the Apostle Paul in declaring: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). God loves us with an everlasting love, as evidenced by how He will take a perishable, dishonorable, weak (and sinful) body – “a natural body” characterized by sin – and in the resurrection make it an imperishable, glorious, powerful body, fit to live eternally with Him. The reality is, in the midst of life, there is death. Therefore, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” (2 Cor. 1:3-4)

God! The source of our comfort, provides comfort for us that we may comfort others who are in trouble. Be blessed as we follow Him.

Pastor J. Amos Jones