Our Guest: Carolyn I. Jones
Carolyn has been a Christ follower since the age of 14 when the Lord made it clear He could, and wanted to be, her best friend. Over the years, she has sought to hear and obey His voice by spending daily time in His Word, in prayer, and by drawing inspiration from the lives of great heroes of the faith. Her number one spiritual goal is to apply the principles of God’s Word to every aspect of her life.
A significant season in Carolyn’s learning to walk with God “in shoe leather” is recorded in her mother’s memoirs: They Call Me Blessed! An Empty Nester’s Inspirational, True Story of Love, Prayer, Faith and Endurance. In the book, her mom is introduced to readers as wife, empty-nester, single mom and in-home caregiver. Together, Carolyn and her mother overcame otherwise insurmountable odds through total dependence on Christ, His Word and the power of prayer.
Walking with God has led Carolyn to have her own drive time radio program, study in Paris France, work as a post graduate Fellow with Africare in Niger (West Africa), serve as Associate Director of Program Growth and Development with OIC International in Philadelphia, start and manage her own French tutoring business, and serve as a substitute teacher in nine Central Ohio school districts.
Since 2002 she has provided administrative oversight as the Executive Director of Lighthouse Counseling Services in Columbus, OH. She is currently also an Employee Owner of Roush Honda as a Business Development Center representative where she assists customers in both English and French. When not at work, Carolyn thoroughly enjoys singing, reading God’s Word, and talking with Him daily while biking, walking, or hiking.
Key Thoughts and Scriptures:
- Don’t just hear the Word; live it out everyday.
Matthew 7:24-25 NIV Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
- When the storms come, and they will, what we’ve built our lives on is revealed.
James 1:22 NIV Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
- Faith becomes real, not just in what we believe, but in how we respond.
- When we build our lives on His Word, not just hearing it, but actually living it, we begin to see His faithfulness show up in real and tangible ways.
James 1:27 NIV Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
- Living out our faith isn’t just personal, it shows up in how we care for others.
- “God has a better idea.”
- Carolyn learned to obey God even at the risk of becoming even more of a misfit.
- Discipline is a good thing, especially in the spirit.
- A Book of Remembrance is different from a diary or a journal. It’s what Carolyn calls “God sightings”.
Starting the new year or during difficult times, Carolyn and her mother would go back to their Books of Remembrance and remind themselves of all God had done.
- When we don’t remember and recognize God’s hand, we can be presumptuous and ungrateful for all the things He’s done.
- God doesn’t force us out of our comfort zone.
- He invites us to take steps of faith, but He doesn’t want us to be who He’s not created us to be.
- Every one of us has a unique walk with the Lord and a unique way to be obedient.
- “Jesus has become my best friend and He can be your best friend.”
- There are times we know what to do, but then we allow fear to come in.
- It’s important not just to talk the walk.
- We’re links in a chain.
- And so it’s not about us. It’s about who He needs for us to be, not only for ourselves and our growth, but for the advancement of the kingdom and these other people whose lives that we’re linking up with.
- God gives us the grace to go through hard times.
- People watching us don’t get the grace.
- When God says to honor your father and mother, that’s what you need to do.
Carolyn had to learn to forgive her father.
- When we don’t deal with issues in our lives, it doesn’t just shape us, but it can take root in our hearts and affect our identity and our relationships.
Matthew 5:44 NKJV But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you
Romans 12:19 NKJV Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
Proverbs 25:21-22 NKJV If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for so you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you.
Romans 12:20 NKJV Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
- Coals of fire is actually saying that you would be blessing someone in a way that is helpful to them.
Luke 6:31 NKJV And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.
- The example set by Carolyn’s mother helped her to get in on God’s best rather than Satan’s agenda.
- For many of us, forgiveness is really one of the hardest steps of obedience we have to take.
- But when we choose to live out God’s word, even in those difficult areas, it begins to change the way we live.
God used her circumstances to train Carolyn to be faithful where He’s placed her.
- When God calls us somewhere, we don’t always know why He has us there or what He can, if will allow Him, to do through us.
- Living with integrity every day in our Christian faith can be very difficult until we learn the beauty and joy of it.
- While God has wired us in a certain way, He is not necessarily concerned about our comfort as much as He is about using what He knows is inside to accomplish His purposes.
- God doesn’t promise that we get to see the end result of our obedience.
Luke 16:10 NKJV He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.
Psalm 42:1 NKJV As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.
- The Lord helps Carolyn know how to take His word and apply it to see things that she couldn’t even believe that God could do.
Carolyn’s Key Scriptures
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
- “When I say acknowledge me, I’m not just saying grunt in My direction.”
Proverbs 4:23 CSB Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.
Song of Solomon 2:15 NIV Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.
- It’s not always about the big foxes.
Ephesians 4:32 ESV Be kind to one another, tenderhearted…
- Being tender towards God won’t happen if we are not in His Word.
1 John 1:6-7 NIV If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
- God is faithful and really does know best.
- He knows us better than we know ourselves.
Jael’s story
- Jael’s husband had made peace with the enemy.
- This woman feared God more than she feared man.
- Our faith shouldn’t just be something we believe, but something that we really live.
Colossians 3:17 NIV And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
- When we intentionally represent Christ in all of our actions, it really impacts not just the big moments, but our everyday choices.
Galatians 5:6 NIV …The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
- When you take that step of faith, even a small one, God will meet you there.
- Over time, those steps of obedience begin to take shape into a life that is steady and fruitful and full of His presence.
Links:
Books:
- They Call Me Blessed! An Empty Nester’s Inspirational, True Story of Love, Prayer, Faith and Endurance by Inez Heller Jones
- Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitehall Smith
- Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional
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