Publisher's Synopsis
Over the past forty-plus years, I have served as an Adult Sunday School Teacher at four different Baptist churches during four different periods of time. In addition to that, I also attended Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary from 1995 until 2001 where I completed work on my Master of Arts degree in Religion and Pastoral Counseling. During my time at Liberty University, I studied ten Religion courses and five Pastoral Counseling courses as part of my Graduate Studies Program. After Graduation, I completed six more Religion classes and one more Counseling class.
So because of my past educational training and teaching experience, the devotions in this book have been written to be both inspirational and instructional. Each devotion has been based on either a specific lecture that I attended at Liberty University or on a specific Sunday School class that I taught at one of the above four churches. Therefore, if a person will patiently and diligently read each devotion, one day at a time, then he or she will probably learn many important spiritual principles from the Bible that pertain to right, practical living. But he or she will also probably learn many of the technical truths about the Bible and the Christian Faith that one would only rarely hear from a church pulpit. Either way, though, the hope is that this general topic devotion book will be a big blessing to everyone who uses it. Now before concluding this Introduction, there is still one more important thing to share. It is that from a spiritual perspective, one might say that all people can be divided into the three groupings of J-O-Y, Y-O-J, or just Y. That being the case, it is the belief of this author that the most content and most satisfied people in all the world are the J-O-Y's. The least content and least satisfied are the Y-O-J's. The unhappiest and most miserable individuals are the Y's. So who are the J-O-Y's, the Y-O-J's, and the Y's? They are the individuals whom Jesus identified in Matthew 22:37-39. Those verses say, "...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 neighbour as thyself." So based upon those verses, the letter "J" stands for Jesus. The letter "O" stands for others. The letter "Y" stands for yourself. So putting it all together, the most content, most satisfied people in this world are those who consistently put Jesus first, others second, and themselves last (J-O-Y). For example, the medical report is not so good. J-O-Y. The car breaks down. J-O-Y. This is not a really great day. J-O-Y. I did not want that to happen. J-O-Y. But the unhappiest and most miserable individuals in this world are the Y-O-J's and the Y's because they consistently put themselves before everyone else and everything else. So this devotion book has been written to try to daily encourage everyone to be a J-O-Y. That means that a good response to every situation in life is J-O-Y no matter how unpleasant the circumstance. However, the letter "J" means more than just to put the Lord first in one's heart and life. It is also a reminder that the Lord is in total control of everything. Nothing in this life happens either by accident or outside of His providential Will. When one remembers that, then even the most negative things in this life are less negative. That is not brainwashing or positive thinking. It is simply Bible truth.
