Dr. Jay's Blog

To those of you who follow my blog, please accept my apology for not writing yesterday. It was late in the day when we discovered that Carol's mom had had a serious setback with her physical health and it appeared that perhaps God was beginning to call her to her eternal home.

It's quite an amazing moment when we think about losing a parent. Even though Carol's mom has lived a wonderfully fruitful 99 years(!) it's still difficult to imagine life without her.

Even though our family is prepared to see her move on to her heavenly reward, we still wonder about how to best walk with her through those final moments as she is still very lucid and aware of her surroundings and the people that are with her despite many physical ailments.

For whatever reason, things have stabilized for the time being so no emergency measures were necessary, however, it's still clear that her time with us is likely to be very short.

The profound peace we have is that we know she'll be with Jesus and that the Lord has much in store for her because of the decades of faithfulness she has demonstrated through her commitment to Jesus, involvement in church, outreach to others and sensitivity to God's Spirit.

I would appreciate your prayers for Carol, especially, as she comes to grips with the fact that she'll be losing the only parent she ever knew (her dad died when she was 6). Thank you for your support as we walk through this inevitable transition together as a family.

Blessings,
Dr. Jay

For those of you who follow the ministry of "Stacy and Hutch" on their program "Let's Talk" every Saturday morning on WORD FM you'll hear news of a difficult decision we had to make concerning the program.

Eight months ago this program was only a dream and there was no money in the budget to make it happen. We jumped out in faith believing that it was an opportunity to share the incredible skills of these two trained counselors with the city and people have responded in significant numbers by calling the program. Some of them have even ended up coming to our counseling center and attending our support ministries.

Unfortunately, we have not received enough financial support to sustain the program and have to "push pause" for the foreseeable future.

I pray that we'll be able to come back to this someday with a solid plan in place to support the ministry of Stacy and Hutch. I wonder how aware we are of how many people really need help and lifelines such as this which are anonymous and available to everyone. They may rarely get recognized but are deeply missed.

Thanks to all of you who prayed for the program and believed with us. Let's not stop believing and ask the Lord to make this simply a pause and not an ending point.

I suppose that's where I want to be with everything I believe that's God's will for my life....

Blessings,
Dr. Jay

Not a few sincere believers get hung up on the difference between a "trial" and a "temptation." This blog does not give me enough space to do justice to the difference between these events in our lives but in essence, it's important that you do know that there is a difference.

God does not tempt us in any way, Hebrews says, and the purpose of temptation is to pull us away from God. Temptation tugs at our inclination to sin and often rationalizes its consequences.

Trials, on the other hand, are often allowed by the Lord for the purpose of building faith. (See James 1) That's why in this section in the book of James he tells us to be thankful for the trials that come our way because they build our faith and enable us to be more pleasing to God.

I have to confess that my first response to a trial is not to rejoice, but the more I see my faith grow, the more I realize that these are necessary and keep me from becoming neutralized in my journey with Jesus.

Take a look at your life and see if you sense any trials or temptations. Stand against the one and rejoice in the other!

Blessings,
Dr. Jay

Sometimes change comes dramatically, but often it comes very subtly.

For the past several weeks it's been very hot and humid here in Pittsburgh and all of us have been coping with trying to keep cool while trying to perform our necessary tasks and sometimes even being comfortable in our homes.

But just over the past day or so the winds have shifted, the humidity has left and there's actually a very slight chill in the air.

I heard more than one weather commentator mention "this feels like the first hint of fall" and thus, another season will soon pass and another change will come.

I want to say that it's true of our lives as well. Sometimes change is very dramatic, but most of the time it's much more subtle. It's what you do over the long haul and what comes upon you in moments that God sovereignly determines that brings about dramatic change, often when you're not even expecting it.

Like the weather, I'm sure things won't settle for quite a while, but change is necessary if we're to keep growing in faith! Jesus referenced the inability of the people of His time to understand how weather revealed the nature of God and I want to learn from their mistake!

Blessings,
Dr. Jay

Recently I made contact with an old friend who I had not talked to in many many years. (That seems to be happening more and more these days as reunions become more frequent and personal events more public.)

What has really struck me about this conversation was this individual's hunger for more knowledge about personal faith. Though extremely intelligent, a PhD with very high credentials in biomedical research, they had literally fallen into the common trap of not pressing through their intellectual arguments that shut down faith and they were simply coping with life.

My simple reference to my walk with Christ and what God has allowed me to be part of in seeing this great church come up from the ground evoked a response of something more than just interest, but emotion about their desire to know more about who Jesus really is.

As we come to these next few weeks and particularly the Lee Strobel event (check this out on our website at http://www.northway.org) I plead with you to not think that anybody, regardless of their achievements or education or economic success, is beyond wanting to hear the voice of God!

Blessings in Jesus,

Dr. Jay

In the life of a pastor there are many times that you simply struggle through the day meeting needs and fulfilling obligations.

On occasion you are blessed with some high moments you really see God at work! Yesterday was one of those days for me.

The combination of the student worship band, multi-generational dedications and the inspiring message by Pastor Kent reassured me that the Lord has great plans for North Way's future.

You can hear or watch the message at www.northway.org and also take a step to be part of this community which is the focus of these weeks messages in August.

It was a great day and I'm believing for many more!

Blessings,
Dr. Jay

Over the last day or so there's been quite a bit of controversy about the nature of the spiritual commitment of our President. No one would argue that that is a personal matter, but demonstrating one's faith is something that Jesus was very clearly expecting from His disciples! (See John 15 as a definition of our love of God.)

In the coming days we'll be engaging with people who are hungry at the heart level for someone to connect with and perhaps a group to connect to. Let's get off the sidelines and demonstrate our faith, taking risks if necessary, so that there's no doubt where we are in our walk with Jesus. I know that when I recently spoke rather boldly of my faith, instead of being pushed away, it opened a door of inquiry and interest that I believe will lead to a significant breakthrough in someone's life that I honestly didn't expect. Let's take a stand! Eph. 6:12-13

Blessings,
Dr. Jay