James A. Harrison Jr.
My name is James A. Harrison Jr. but many of my friends and relatives simply call me Jay. I was born in Memphis, Tennessee on December 19th, 1968 having one younger brother and no other siblings. I am happily married and a father of two beautiful children Colby and Karlee Harrison. There are no words but only praise in my life for where I have been and to now where I am personally with God through Jesus Christ. In addition to the blessing of my family the Lord has even blessed me with the honor of teaching the Word of God at Counce Baptist Church at Pickwick Lake Tennessee. Never in my life would I have ever dreamed that I would be where I am today but all I can do is give praise to God who brings all things together for good when we truly learn to follow Him in looking past the physical to understand the spiritual.
As a child, prior to my parents separation in 1978, I attended Christian schools until my parents were no longer able to afford them and then I moved into the public school system in Memphis, Tn. In the early years of my life there was brief period that I recall having a solid home with a mother who took care of her children and a father that was the provider in our family. These early years were the best years of my life because it was then that I felt loved and security by the arms that were around me. My mother was raised in a God fearing home in New Albany, Mississippi and my father was raised in a home in Senatobia, Mississippi with an honorable mother that understood what a relationship truly involved but unfortunately my grandfather never figured it out.
My father’s father, Pat Harrison, lost his parents at the age of 13 to the Asian Flu epidimic of 1917. From this point he lost his stability and structure in a home that is so needed as a child. This is where my grandfathers life and mine were similar but so far apart. My father on the other hand grew up never doing without material things as a child but failed to freely receive the understanding in true love that he so needed in life. Without this understanding he fell over and over to selfish ways in a battle that he never understood in searching everything of this world instead of looking to whom gives and takes away.
With this history in my life it was destined that someone had to fall and I praise God that I am the one that finally got knocked to my knees for my children’s future in now learning who is in control and most of all how to properly believe. With all the study of my family history and the affects of where they went wrong I failed to understand what it was that I was missing in the Word of God in how to see things through. I will never forget the day that I wrote a letter to my father and said, ” Dad, I finally figured it out! Do you know why we have always had great ideas but failed to hold on to them once we reached them? The reason for this is because we left God out of it and put self in the middle without understanding who is in control!”
I was the child that only wanted his father and when I could not get his attention by doing what was right, I simply rebelled to try and get it another way in doing something that was wrong. At this point in my life during the rebellion all I wanted was some discipline from my father to show that he cared. But this did not work because he had fallen to self so I began reaching out to elders, pastors and to anyone that would listen to my cries. But my struggles were misunderstood just as Samuel and Eli because very few could see what I was spiritually going through. This only made matters worse because many of these men that were in positions of serving the will of God and others that claimed to be Christians were either too busy to listen or they only saw the perception of my life instead taking the time to hear the words from within my heart. My entire life even in all my rebellion my heart hurt to have the love and security that I once had as a child and in everything that I ever did I always seeked to have that love again. I now praise God because He heard my cries, never left my side and has given me more than I deserve in family, friends, and now a true church home that understands that we are all equal under God.
Here is the very interesting part of my life in where Gods’ plan began the same day Satan’s plan went into action. On 9/11 /2001 I began a total new direction in my life in wanting to separate myself from something that was wrong in order to build something that was right. But due to my family’s history of not knowing how to properly build something on the foundation of God I built something that was destined to fall. My life paralleled what is taking place here in The United States of America today by trying to patch a problem in thinking money was the answer and that it would fix the problem which I carried. There is only one way to fix a problem and that is to first face it and then dissect it in the mirror of God to one day stand again! The longer we neglect this Truth and patch our problems the harder the fall will be.
Not only on this date of 9/11/2001 did satan move in taking many lives but the Lord began another plan in a place that no one expected not even myself in the glory of God. On this date I began to build something in a different direction that would help many people that had been neglected over the years in a small town that had been suppressed by racism, greed and selfish thinking for many years. The Lord revealed to me a need but I failed to understand the vision along with failing to understand that we can not build something that is right and expect it to stand on something that is wrong! The Lord allowed this to take place for a certain time period in order for a multi fold lesson in the future but this lesson is only revealed at this time to those with spiritual eyes and ears that can look beyond man to see Gods’ plan.
Eventually there was a point in my sin that I could not go any longer and it was time for my sins to be revealed to the people around me which broke my heart because I truly cared. It makes me sick how I fell so weak and gave in to the push of satan in thinking that it would be my last time to not have to return again to my sin because I was so ready to be set free. But as noted above a monetary patch can only last for so long before you have to return to the problem as you are witnessing this same truth here in the news today with General Motors, AIG and the list goes on and on. Don’t neglect this truth because even when our intentions are good if we do not correct the source of the problem then prepare for the issue to come again but even worse than before…
I eventually had to face the legal consequences of my sin and I spent some time in a federal prison camp which turned out to be an answered prayer because I was set free before I ever even turned myself in. There are no words to tell you of the internal hurt that I carried for so long and for the hurt that I caused in letting others down who believed in me. I’ll never forget telling my children what I had done because it is normal for our children to let us down but not normal in Gods cycle of life for us as parents to let our children down in falling to what is wrong when we teach them what is right. It literally broke my heart because I knew what it was like to have someone let you down. It is amazing in what we learn when we go through test in life when we turn to God for the answers with a repentant heart.
For the first time in my life I have never felt better! Yes, I am a sinner and have done many wrongs! But I am a man that has been forgiven by the grace of God through Jesus Christ to now help someone to not fall as I once did. It is easy to have the ingredients but totally different to understand the recipe in life! Once I read the Holy Bible I said, ” Here it is! This is what I have searched for my entire life and now I am finally on my way home!” The book “Special Delivery” has a spiritual message in it that was inspired by God witha calling to those with eyes and ears that are in tune to the Word of God. In addition it has spiritual messages that answer many of today’s questions but you must be in tune with the spirit to receive the connection. This is the way the Lord gave it to me and the way that I have now given it to you. Always remember to never judge by perception but only by the truth. Because the Lord plainly tells us in the last days that He will raise men up from prisons and the last will be first and the first will be last. It is my prayer that the wisdom which God has given me in all my trials can possibly encourage you to not fall weak as I but grow stronger for the winds ahead…Amen
1Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
James Harrison / Guilty But Forgiven!
Diamond In The Rough
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