JOE: Welcome to FJM TV. I'm Joe Jordan, and I'm excited today
because we get to share from God's word with you some things
that will hopefully encourage you and bring you a little bit
of hope in whatever situation you're facing. I'm here with two
amazing ladies here with Gina Thompson, my wife, Kris Jordan.
And again, we're just excited to be with you today to share from
God's word, some insights, some truths. So today we're going to
be talking about my strong tower, and it comes from the
verse in Proverbs 18. The name of the 'Lord is a strong tower,
the righteous run to it and are safe'. That's amazing because
God is our strong tower. And here it says, the Lord is our
strong tower. And how great is that? To know that our Lord, our
Savior Jesus is our strong tower. And here in Proverbs it
uses, the word Lord is strong tower and it's speaking about
God, His entirety, His character and the entirety of who He is.
He's all righteous, all holy, all perfect, all everything
because God is amazing. And throughout the Bible, God is
referred to as the strength, the rock, our rock, our fortress,
God and His name are one in the same. And I just love that
knowing that the Bible says here as I read it and as we study
God's word, that if we know Him, if we have that personal
relationship with Him through Jesus Christ who was the
greatest sacrifice of love that God sent to this earth, to die
on the cross for our sins. If we believe and receive and we have
that relationship, we can go to Him and find refuge and find
strength and find peace. But not only that, but in those times of
storms and trials and the enemy's just out to get you, we
can be behind that fortress and it's God protecting us, not just
the soldier fort or the bunker that you go crawl into or some
great cave, but you have God to be our fortress. And that's so
amazing to me. One of the things that I wrote is that the name of
the Lord, our strong tower, that place of safety that promises
anyone who runs to Him, that knows Him, that has a right
relationship with Him, can be protected, can be covered by
Him. So girls, I just want to ask you today, what does it
mean? What does it mean to you, Gina, that God,
that the Lord is your strong tower?
GINA: Well, I always go back to the very first time God revealed
Himself to me in such a way that he was my stability, He was my
safety, He was my protector. And that's when I was a young
married girl and I was pregnant and I was having difficulties.
And the doctor said, you literally need to be in bed, lay
flat and it's a 50/50 chance every day if you're going to
carry this baby. We've got some serious situation going on here.
And I remember at that moment that baby was relying on me and
my relationship with the Lord as with me as a young girl. I
always relied on my mama's prayers and my daddy's prayers
and my family's prayers and going to church and rely on all
that. All of a sudden here I am, this young new mother. Now I've
got to stand strong for this little life, and I have to be
the one that has that intimate relationship with the Lord. And
in that moment, of course, it was Philippians 4:13 that
just flowed from me and I just opened the word of God for
myself in each scripture that I had read my whole life of being
a little girl. All of a sudden like the light bulb went off and
there was this lifeline that happened from right from, I
thank God's heart to right to my heart, that it came alive, that
it literally was like, then I had this relationship with the
Lord for myself. And then that's where I, oh my goodness, He was
my strong tower, my rock, my fortress, my safety. And so yes,
I've had many situations as we both know, as we get older,
situations that we face. But from that very first moment
where God revealed Himself to me in such a way I never forgot,
JOE: We can't leave our viewers and our partners hanging on the
story of you in bed 50/50 chance the name of the baby.
GINA: That's right. My Austin Rex Thompson. And he is just
been a miracle from day one. And I did have him early when he was
first born, the doctor said, don't get attached. We don't
expect him to live through the nineties, the most critical baby
we have in our intensive care unit. But I had already known
that God, he was fearfully and wonderfully made and God had his
hand on Austin Rex and my situation. And I look back and
just say, God, during that time when we're in a time of crisis
like God, why am I going through this? And we could always look
back and God has a greater plan, God brings us through. And it
was for me to have my personal relationship
with the Lord deepened in strength.
JOE: That's amazing. And I just want to tell you a little
personal story about that behind one of the cameras today and
every time we tape Austin is there. So Austin not only was a
50/50 chance, but in God's view it was a 100 percent he would be
here. He is here today and he is actually part of how FGM TV gets
into your home. And we're just blessed by your son.
We love him. I love him. Amazing.
GINA: Yes, he is.
JOE: So I'm glad that when you need it, you went to God, he was
your strong tower. And now Austin goes to God, it's his
strong tower. His children go to God, their strong tower because
for all of us who believe in Jesus, he is our strong tower.
Love, what does it mean to you for God to be your strong tower
and to have that confidence and know
God is there for you when you need him?
KRIS: So as you were sharing one of the storms of life that you
went through, when I think about God as my strong tower, it means
so many things. But I always envision if you've got a
hurricane category, I think they're called category five,
hurricane. Right? Okay. Blowing through your city and everything
is just, the wind is pounding, trees are bending, things are
flying. And I just envisioned this pillar in the middle of the
storm that is immovable. Dependable, reliable. It's not
going anywhere. And when you are in that storm of life, you can
clinging to that tower, that pillar, and that's who Jesus has
been for me. Because as you know, I mean our lives, we've
had a lot of things happen and sometimes it feels like the
ground is eroding underneath us. And it's like I know that no
matter what, Jesus is my rock, he is my pillar. He's who I can
cling to. He's who I can depend on. He's reliable. He says what
he means and means what he says. I can go to His Word and he
just, his promises are true. And so that's just what I envision
when I think of strong towers, just this immovable, unshakeable
God who loves us and who is always there for us, who never
leave us, never forsake us, never abandon us. All that. So
that just kind of what I was thinking, especially as you were
sharing about Austin, he's amazing.
JOE: And we have gone through a lot of things. I've gone through
a lot of things in my life too, and we go through health scares,
we go through relationship issues and family issues and all
kinds of things, and they're hard. And sometimes they're like
shifting sand. But what is so amazing, and I just want to
encourage you, our viewers and our partners with this is no
matter what, if you call upon the name of the Lord, He's
there. He's always there for you. So no matter what the storm
is doing, the trial's, doing the hurt, the heartache, the fret,
the worry, the financial situations, whatever you're in,
wherever you're in shifting sands and being crushed by waves
and you just don't know what to do, I just encourage you, call
upon the name of the Lord, let Him be your strong tower and
he'll always be there for you. He
is faithful. We'll be right back.
MUSIC: [MUSIC]
FEMALE: I had nowhere to go. I kept turning in circles.
FEMALE: I go through a very, very hard path.
MALE: We came to Fred Jordan because they treated us like
human beings. We weren't treated like homeless people.
We were treated like God's children.
MUSIC: [MUSIC]
JOE: Fred Jordan mission was founded by Fred Jordan, my
father, since 1944, souls have come to know Jesus as Lord and
Savior to declare the good news Jesus saves.
MUSIC: [MUSIC]
WILLIE: Right outside. There was an American Indian whose name
was Charlie. He was so filthy, didn't have a sock or a shoe on
his feet. My husband knelt on the sidewalk by Charlie and he
put the socks on his feet and he put brand new shoes on Charlie's
feet and wouldn't you know, they fit.
MUSIC: [MUSIC]
WILLIE: Then he brought Charlie a plate of food. And then as I
was watching all this, even I who had known the man so
intimately was shocked for my husband leaned down and he
kissed that Indian, put his arms around him with such love and
tears rolled down Charlie's face.
MUSIC: [MUSIC]
JOE: We hand out water, we hand out drinks, we hand out snacks,
we preach the gospel. We have hot meals, we do special events.
But, If you want to know who comes
through our doors, it's all of us.
FEMALE: I can remember crying to God and asking Him why. If I was
a Christian, how could I end up like this? How could
I lose everything and where's my stuff?
JOE: People that end up on these streets can come through our
door and we will serve them as we declare and
demonstrate the love of Jesus to those in need.
MUSIC: [MUSIC]
ANNOUNCER: Join the conversation by connecting with us on social
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and more. Visit us at social.fjm.org.
JOE: Well welcome back to FJM. I'm here with Gina Thompson, my
wife, Kris. And I'm just again, so excited and so blessed to be
able to come to you today and share some truths from God's
word and just offer some hope and let you know that God is our
strong tower. He's our refuge, He's our strength, He is
everything. And as you said, He is unshakeable, unmovable. He is
a rock like the whole planet. He is just a rock and no one will
ever move Him and who He is. I was thinking about it girls, And
when you think about Jesus being our strong tower, God being our
rock and everything else. That doesn't mean for us as believers
that we won't go through storms trials. We won't have those
50/50 chances. What's going to happen And those worries. It
doesn't mean the enemy's not going to try to come after us or
hurt us or try to discourage us or any of that. It doesn't mean
that we will be free from all that. But what it does mean, and
I just love this, from God's word and his promises is if
we're in a right relationship with God through Jesus, the
troubles and trials may come, but when they do, it means that
the trouble will not have the final say. And I just love that
I know this, that the devil is never going to have the last
word. The devil is never going to have the last say in my life,
in our lives or in your life, because God already won the
battle. He already won the war. When He gave us Jesus, He died
on the cross for our sins. He rose from the dead. He's sitting
at the right hand of God the Father. One day he's going to
come back for us and if not, and we go to be with Him, which we
don't want to run off this earth and leave our family and all the
ministry that we do. But when God calls us, we know we're
going to be with Jesus instantly. And what a day that
will be. But let me ask you guys this. Kris, how has God shown up
in your life just to be your strong tower, your rock, when
you needed that? How has He shown
up and you just knew it was God?
KRIS: Well, you know my life verse, I've quoted all the time,
and it's just something that I cling to as Romans 8:28. And we
know that all things work together for good to those who
love God to those who are called according to His purpose. And as
you were talking earlier about the trials, the storms of life,
God doesn't promise us dandelions and rainbows. Life is
hard. And we face trials and we face tough times. And I just
love how no matter what happens, no matter what we go through,
God can take everything, the good, the bad, the things that
Satan intended for evil, and He's going to work it all
together for good to accomplish his purposes in our lives. And
so for me, there's been so many times where I face difficulties
and challenges and it's like, Lord, what is happening? Why is
this happening? Why are you allowing this? And yet God has
shown His faithfulness time and time again where He takes it all
and He uses it for good in my life and through my life. And so
I can trust Him because he's not going to let me down. He is my
strong tower. He's somebody I can rely on and depend on that
He's got my back and he loves me. And
so I mean, can't ask for more than that.
JOE: Absolutely. And Gina, how's God shown up in other areas of
your life or other times and you just knew it was God and you
didn't even have to go to Him. He was just there for you as
your rock and your strong tower. He was just your strength and
your source of whatever you needed. You knew it
was God that was taking you through it.
GINA: Oh, so many times I know that every time because when I'm
faced with a storm, how can you have peace? Even back to Austin,
when I was in the hospital in the intensive care unit for 56
days there every day, every day people would come and visit and
then they would, I'd be there and I'd have the smile. They're
like, how are you having the peace? How are you having joy?
Because I knew God was with us. I knew though that I looking at
the circumstance, I didn't see a little two pound little baby. I
saw a big football player, strong and healthy. I saw
through the eyes of Jesus that greater is He that is in you
than He that is in the world and that you're going to overcome.
And so I could see with the mind of Christ almost through a
situation, that's when our thoughts and our words line up
with God's Word, then that's when we're going through the
midst of a storm that we can have peace, we can have the joy
of the Lord is our strength. And I remember when the strong tower
in my life passed away. It was my mother, she'd always been my
strong tower and I get a phone call one day she laid down and
took a nap and she was gone. And it was during a time where we
had not really spoken. It was the longest time we'd ever gone
without speaking, which wasn't like me and my mom. And I
thought during that time I was just going to fall apart. But
God showed up during that time and I remember asking God, why
did this situation happen? We weren't prepared for this. And
that's what happens many times in our lives where a situation
happens. We're not prepared for, we didn't ask for the sickness
to come on us. We didn't ask for this person to hurt us. We
didn't ask for a loved one to die. But during that, when we do
go to the Lord, He's our comfort and our strength. And to finish
that story, when you asked me a week after my mother passed
away, I got a letter from her in the mail and it was saying, the
card actually said, when you see this, remember me. Remember when
a bird sings? Remember when the sun rises? It's a little bit of
heaven. And it was just a little thing,
but to me it was just like, thank you God.
JOE: Yeah,
KRIS: A hundred percent.
JOE: God is so faithful. And I don't know what you're facing
today, our viewers and our partners, but there's a lot.
There's a lot that you face, and we face and we're not immune
from it. We're no. Whether we're believers in Jesus for 30 and 40
and 50 years or 1 day. You face a lot and we just want you to
know that God's Word and his promises are true. Jesus loves
you. And if you don't know Jesus, there's a God in heaven
that created you and made you in His image and His likeness, and
He wants that relationship with you. And if you want God as your
strong tower and you don't know Him, it's easy to have Him as
your strength, your source, your rock and your strong tower. All
you have to do, the Bible says is believe and receive. If you
confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God
raised Him from the dead, that Jesus died on the cross and you
repent, which means you turn from your sin and your ways and
what you want and you turn to Jesus and His plan for your
life, receive in Him into your heart, Jesus will save you and
you'll be a Christian. You'll be one of his children reunited
because of that great thing, that amazing thing, that
wonderful thing that God did when He sent Jesus to die on the
cross for our sins. We only have a few more minutes, girls, but
one of the things that I just love is that a strong tower is
all we need. When we face those times of trouble, the name of
the Lord we can call upon and He's there for us. And again,
the righteous, those who know Him that have that right
relationship can run to Him and know that he is all powerful. He
has all authority, He has mercy. He has grace. He has love. He
has compassion. He has empathy for everyone. Even those on skid
row, even those who live on the streets and sidewalks, even
those who live in the penthouses in the most expensive homes in
the world, God loves us all. We know that His grace and His
protection is there for us. But in just a few words, what would
you say to someone today who needs God's strong tower? Like
what would you say to somebody as far as how God offers His
strong tower, his rock and His strength to others? What would
you to say to somebody that needs that today?
KRIS: Come to Jesus just as you are. You don't have to clean up
your act. You don't have to get your life right. He's the one
that does that. You come to Him in that humble surrender and you
just say, Jesus, I need you. Help me save me. And He does.
And that's an amazing thing because we don't have to do it.
We just have to surrender to Him and he does
the work. He changes. Absolutely. He does it.
JOE: And Gina, what's your final few thoughts
GINA: Exactly? Just He meets us right where we're at. It doesn't
matter where. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't
matter what you're going through. There's no situation
too great for Him. Just call out to Him,
and He'll meet you right where you are.
JOE: Absolutely. I can't believe time's going so fast, but today,
if you don't know Jesus, just say, Jesus, I'm a sinner. I need
a savior. I believe you love me. You died for me. Come into my
heart and He will. The other thing is, if you're a believer
today and you just strayed a little bit as I did many times
in my life, and you live in that guilt and shame and like, oh,
God's got to be irritated and mad with me. He's got to be
frustrated with me. I'm His child, but I'm not acting like
it. I'm in disobedience. Let that nonsense go. It's a lie
from the devil and just say. God, I am your child. You saved
me. Just confess your sins. He's faithful and just to forgive you
like He already forgave him all, but go to Him and repent and
just ask Him to get you back on track.
And He will. We'll be right back.
ANNOUNCER: Jesus once said, what you do for the least of these
you do for me, with your generous support, Fred Jordan
Mission has been fulfilling this calling for over 80 years, by
feeding hungry people here on Skid Row. Together we made a
difference. Together. We have given hope to those less
fortunate, and together we have demonstrated the love of Jesus
to those in need. We deeply appreciate your support and we
ask that you please continue to give to this life-changing
mission. Go online to give at FJM.org. Whatever the amount,
great or small, your donation is greatly appreciated.
JOE: Well, welcome back. It's been a great time. I just love
being able to talk about Jesus and all that He's done in our
life and continues to, and it's just a journey. We're all on it.
You're on a journey. Also, our viewers, those who are our
partners. Whatever you're doing today, maybe you just turned it
on for the first time and you've never seen Fred Jordan Missions
before. FJM TV. FJM has been around for 80 years, serving the
poor, the needy, the hungry, the homeless, and the hopeless, with
the hope of Jesus. Yes, we feed and clothe and put blankets
around people who are cold, socks and shoes on their feet so
that they have warm feet and they're walking on the streets
of Skid Row and around Los Angeles. And we just want to
care for those who really feel like they've been abandoned by
society, but it's only because of partners like you. If you
already partner with us, God bless you. If you don't, will
you go to FJM.org today and just look at all the things that God
has been using us to do for 80 years. '44 to '24. That's what
it is. And so 80 year anniversary today, if you can
give a gift, we need you because the needs just continue to grow
and grow and grow some more. And we want to keep up with those
needs. We want to feed and care for and clothe those who are
naked, hungry, and homeless. But we also want to do what we do
best too, and that is declare God's love. Let 'em know that
there's a God in heaven that loves them, that they can be
delivered by anything and God can be their strong tower. If
you'd like, I send a text out every day. It's Bible (626)
314-7703. Just a little verse that said God loves you, and
then explains what the verse says. But if you'd text that to
us, get on our social media. But no matter what you do, either
come and visit and volunteer, pray for us, or give today to be
a part of something eternal. God bless you.
MUSIC: We will overcome the sorrow. We will see the dawn,
tomorrow. We will soilder on, down this road.
As we reach for Home. Reach for home.
ANNOUNCER: Please will you join us in feeding hungry children
and their families by phoning today, (844)FJM-Food or donating
online FJM.org. That's FJM.org or mail your check to Fred
Jordan Mission, PO Box 12345, Covina,
California 91722. Please will you help.
MUSIC: Reach for Home.
ANNOUNCER: The proceeding program was sponsored by
generous Friends and partners of Fred Jordan Missions.