Musings with the Pastor.  Kudos to Sis. Pat Ward and the cast and crew of the play “BONES”.  The play was well written and very entertaining and had a significant message.  The actors performed well and the “back stage” crew worked flawlessly to bring it all together.  Again, Thank you Sister Ward, cast and crew for a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon.

 Black History month has come and gone, but it is this Pastor’s desire that Black History will remain.  Even to the casual observer, there is a parallel to be found in the history of the African American and the history of the children of Israel.  Both histories reflect great suffering at the hands of their oppressor, the most vile expression of man’s inhumanity to man.  Praise be to God, we also find His great love and His great compassion.  Most of all, we find His great deliverance.  Just as God delivered the children of Israel from captivity in Egypt and Babylon with a high hand, so He did with and for people of color in this “the land of the free and home of the brave”.

 “That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, what mean you by these stones?  Then ye shall answer them, that the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off; and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever”.  (Joshua 4:6, 7)

 When we dress in the old-fashioned garb of the time of slavery, this Pastor is reminded of the struggle and God’s continuing deliverance.   To God be the glory for all that we now enjoy.

  Pastor J. Amos Jones

During February as we consider Black History and the contributions made to our society by people of color, I am reminded of a refrain from a song of years ago:  “What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love”. 

Hear what Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37 – 40:  “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 it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets”.  Doctrinally, we understand the concept of vertical and horizontal love, however, add to the mix, love in action, as presented by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.  What if in 2015 all our personal interactions were motivated or directed by love?  Ministry gifts are good, but only if ministered in love.  With our economy in such dire straits, benevolence is good, but not apart from love. 

 Consider the Apostle’s description of love.  Love is patient and kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  Love does not demand its own way.  Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.  It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  Love is greater than faith and hope.  Love of God and love for fellow-man.  The driving force in times past and it is obvious to this Pastor that LOVE is just what the world needs now.

 Be blessed as you walk in love.

 Pastor J. Amos Jones

What a blessing Spirit-filled, Holy Ghost led, women are to the and in the Kingdom of God.  Women have always contributed to the furtherance of the Kingdom in a significant manner. 

 The New Testament is rich in examples of Godly women used mightily by the Lord in the early church.  It has been this Pastor’s good fortune to have known, and to know, Godly women who model the examples of the women of the early church.  What a blessing!

 When this Pastor came to this church in 1973, there were caring, working, warm, and loving women who loved the Lord and His church, and sought the best for their new Pastor.  (Just as there is now).  Women like Addie Lee Dogan, a nurturer personified.  Boy, did she love her Pastor and his family.   Minnie Ola Branch Johnson, who was the musician and quite a soloist; Clara Ellis, who was a culinary artist extraordinaire.  (Sister Ellis could feed a multitude with one watermelon).  Then, there was Melvina “Su Su” Ennis, also a nurturer.  (who would remind the Pastor that she “voted for him”).  Also there was (and still is) Katherine Holloway, a worker and a blessing.  Thank you “Ms. Katherine”.  Praise God for Verdell Cooper, Catherine Miller and Ivy Miller, workers indeed, whom the Lord has received unto Himself.  How faithful our heavenly Father has been.  Through-out these forty-one years, God has always provided women who love the Lord and are seeking the furtherance of His Kingdom.  (And for that I am grateful).

  Be blessed ladies as we celebrate Women’s Annual Day.

“Christianity is the white man’s religion”.   The erroneous statement is often uttered by and the thought advanced by many of our separatist brothers.  “My people destroyed for lack of knowledge:  because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me:  seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hosea 4:6). 

 How sad and how tragic it is for those who will embrace ignorance when the Word of God is available.  There is no people, except the Hebrews and other ancient inhabitants of Palestine     more frequently mentioned in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments than the Ethiopians, and there is no country more frequently referred to than Ethiopia.   The story of Philip and the Eunuch, found in Acts Eight, speaks to the subject with clarion clarity.  Philip, after the murder of Stephen, went away from Jerusalem, and preached with great success in the city of Samaria. 

 The injunction not to enter into any city of the Samaritans had been withdrawn, and the whole world was now opened to the preachers of the gospel.  Please take note how the Holy Spirit, who will guide us into all truth, orchestrates the evangelization of Ethiopia, with its inhospitable climate and difficulty of access.  “The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.  And he arose and went:  and behold a man of Ethiopia, a Eunuch of great authority under Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship”.  Philip leads this Ethiopian Eunuch, this descendant of black Ham, to Christ.  The Eunuch is baptized and “The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the Eunuch saw him no more:  and he went on his way rejoicing”.  Do you see it?  The methods and instruments of Africa’s evangelization?  The method, the simple holding up of Jesus Christ; the instrument, the African himself.  This was the Spirit’s application and expression of the command:  “Go ye into all the world” – giving the gospel to a man of color to take back to a people of color.

 Christianity, the white man’s religion, yes, but the black man’s as well.

 Pastor J. Amos Jones

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ”  (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).

It is this Pastor’s desire and hope that out of Black History Month will come the sense of community and the knowledge that the living God is with us and it is He that has delivered us.  Dr. King’s life and work as a national leader of the Civil Rights Movement was geared to improving the lot of all people—irrespective of race, creed, or heritage.  He envisioned a world where we will all enjoy the blessings of freedom, hope and justice.

Dr. King’s dream has not as yet been fully realized, however, we praise God for the great improvements that have been made.  We are all aware of the significant contributions to our community made by Dr. King, but the question each of us must answer is this:  “What am I doing for others”?

 Dear Ones, we share a common destiny.  God has richly blessed all of us.  We need only to look where the Lord has brought us from.  I must remind you that we are blessed to be a blessing.  God gives to each of us according to our individual abilities.  Having said that, we all have something to contribute to the betterment of our society.  Please know this, you can have what you want, if you help others get what they want.  There is still much to be done to address the helplessness, hopelessness and futility that is the breeding ground for Black on Black crime.  We will not find the answers to this country’s ills in the arena of politics, even with a black president, but the answers lie with the living God who is “among us”.  Can you hear the Apostle Paul, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”?

 Let’s get busy.

 Pastor J. Amos Jones