The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. It's joy time, y'all, and I'm sitting next to, I guess you could call her the doctor of joy. And she's going to tell you all about her story. She is Dr. Joy Green. She's a legitimate doctor and she's a legitimate joy dealer. And we're here right now in one of her many offices on this huge college university campus. And your name is Joy and your ministry is Joy Time.
Help me understand all that. I know it for sure. I'm so happy to be here with you, Stu. Thanks so much for just inviting me to share with your listeners. So, yes, my mom gave me the name Joy, which is kind of a neat story. But then when God called me to encourage women through ministry, the name Joy Time was just a natural fit.
It started with a radio ministry. And so that's right. It's Joy with Joy Time. And my doctorate degree is in pharmacy. But on the radio, people kind of know me as Dr. Joy. So that's right. So we're here on this beautiful campus, High Point University, where you are head of this pharmacy school, school of is it pharmacology?
What's it called? And kind of what do you do here? Because we're going to we're going to we're going to go from the stage where you've got, you know, thousands of women hearing you speak and you're blessing so many people on the radio to kind of who who is Joy? Who is Dr. Joy Green? That's a big question. Well, your first question. So this is the Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy at High Point University.
Beautiful place. Fred Wilson is an awesome guy. He helped us get this pharmacy school started. And my role here is the associate dean. So I don't really I'm not in charge, but I am on the administrative team and was one of the founding faculty of the pharmacy school.
Yeah. So I love being a pharmacist and I love teaching student pharmacists. OK, so connect those all those correlating paths that have led you to where you are right now with with women's ministry all over the country, all over the world, you know, in the in the media space and speaking Bible study tools, you're equipping all kinds of folks.
How did someone how did you get into maybe even into pharmacy? And then how did that end up connecting with women's ministry? Which which came first? Which chicken or egg came first there? Lord, have mercy. Yes.
OK, it's really an odd thing, right? A pharmacy professor who also has a radio ministry and does women's ministry. So really, if you just drill down to the bottom, I got really serious about my faith in my mid to late 20s. I had been a Christian a long time, but I mean, I got serious about knowing Jesus and I started studying his word. And the closer you try to draw yourself in, the more you can hear his voice. And I began feeling this urging in my spirit that he wanted me to encourage women.
The old spiritual gifted test that you can take exhortation, encouragement is my number one. And so I began to feel this urging from him at the time I was working as a practicing pharmacist. And then, lo and behold, a few months down the road, I was offered a position at another pharmacy school at Wingate University down in the Monroe area. And so when I left practice to go teach and help this pharmacy school get off the ground, it was a big pay cut for me.
But I felt the Lord's spirit just whisper into mine. I want you to learn how to teach because there's this other part of your life that I'm going to open up for you. But first, you need to learn how to teach, how to command a classroom, how to put PowerPoint slides together with video and make it engaging, how to know how to do the art of teaching.
And so that's really how it started. The pharmacy prep for me in pharmacy schools gave me some skills that eventually, as he began to open more and more doors for me to teach, the ministry began. So you see your passion. When someone asks you, what is your passion?
What do you say to that question? My passion is to encourage women. And I don't mean like cheerleader, rah, rah, hey, you're doing great. I mean what the biblical word exhortation means, right? To encourage women in the Lord, to fight for their marriages, to fight for their joy.
Now, I know that sounds a little like cheesy, right? Because me, Joy Green, saying you need to fight for your joy. But I see so many women who are struggling with worry, anxiety, fear, depression. They're so afraid to take steps of faith because this world, the enemy is so alive and he's just pressing forward into our hearts.
Fear, you can't do that, don't have any confidence in that. And so I want to come with a sword, which is the holy word of God to say, the Lord will equip you, the Lord will enable you. So my passion is to encourage women in so many different areas of their lives. Well, it's interesting how few people actually are able to live out their passion and actually are able to live a life of joy. And here you're not only living out your passion, but you're living out your name. Now, you mentioned earlier that there was a cool story at how your parents ended up on the name Joy for you. We'd love to hear it.
Oh, I'd love to tell you. Okay, so my mom and dad had my sister and she's five years older than me. And then a couple years later, my mom was pregnant with a little boy and he died at birth. And after he died, the doctors told my mom not to have any more children, that her body really could not handle that. It would not be safe for her own health. But of course, she got pregnant again a couple years later and she went on bed rest with me for seven months. She was on bed rest.
Over those seven months, of course, back then they didn't have ultrasounds. They didn't know if it was if I were of a boy or a girl, but she prayed over me all that time. And she told the Lord, you know, if he would give this baby to her that she would give this baby back to him in service. But interestingly, the names that they had come up with if I were a girl was the name Dee Dee. Now, Dee Dee's a nice name, but that was going to be my name. So when I was born, I did not cry. And so my mom started panicking.
She's like, no, no, no, not again, not again. I can't lose another baby. The doctor took me and he was up and down the hall with me trying all these things and then finally I let out a really big cry. But I think the doctor was so panicked too because he had been the same doctor for my brother who had died at birth. So when he brings me to my mom, he'd been a doctor for 30 years. He said, Miss Bowers, I've delivered a lot of babies in my practice but this is the most joyful baby I've ever delivered. And she changed my name to Joy right then and there.
That is so cool. And speaking of babies, you think about Christmas time and all the joy at Christmas. You know, Joy, the wise men rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
You have the message of the angels to the shepherds. You know, he will bring great joy to all people. So, but yet our world is so devoid of joy and people often equate happiness with happenings and what's going on. Can you talk about true joy per your name, even from that maternity ward back when you were just a little baby newly born?
Oh, I'd love to. So when you look biblically at this word joy, which you see the joy, the words joyful, rejoice or joy over 400 times in the Bible. God is serious about joy.
It is a command for us. But joy doesn't mean that your life's perfect, that you have no problems and that you're just smiling and laughing all the time. Biblical joy means that you have an emotional pattern of confidence and assurance that God will fulfill his promises to you.
And you know what I love about that, especially this time of year. That is exactly what Elizabeth said to Mary when Mary came to stay with her after the angel had visited and the angel said, hey, look, even your cousin Elizabeth is with child. So Mary went to her.
Can you imagine them? We know that John the Baptist was inside of Elizabeth and he was leaping for joy. Remember when Mary and Elizabeth were talking and Elizabeth said to Mary in the Book of Luke. Blessed is she who believes that God will fulfill his promises to her and that is what biblical joy is. We have an emotional pattern of confidence that God is who he says he is. So when we go through a hard times stew, we can say I belong to Jesus and I know that somehow, some way, God is going to use this bad thing and he's going to work it for something good. And so we walk in the dark times of life with that assurance.
On the other end, the light is there and God is going to use it for something good. Well, that's the voice of speaking of joy. That's the voice of Dr. Joy Green, who is the founder of this wonderful ministry called Joy Time. And you speak, what all do you do?
Because every time I talk to someone else, I hear about other things you're involved with. Oh my goodness. Well, it started with radio. I was invited to be on the radio when I lived in Jackson, Tennessee, helping another pharmacy school get off the ground, Union University. I was there. And so I just went on as a guest. And as I was leaving after that one hour show, the general manager came out of his office and said, Hey, we don't have any women on this station. And we like your voice.
It's kind of raspy. We like your enthusiasm. Would you like to do a little daily segment?
You can come in and pre-record it. And so within a couple weeks, Joy Time was born. So Joy Time airs on about 1,500 radio stations, I guess now, which is great. I still write and record those.
So I have the radio side. I'm a speaker. So I just had the most wonderful privilege to go and speak to groups of women, even across the country, invited to do that, which is, you just don't know what an honor that is for me. I lead an online Bible study on Sunday nights with about almost 10,000 women are in that Bible study online, on Facebook Live, on Instagram, over on YouTube and my website. We read five chapters a week in books of the Bible. And then I come on live and review those chapters and use a little workbook to do with that. And then here at the pharmacy school, I lead the Christian Pharmacy organization here.
And then I don't want to discount this. I teach Sunday school at my church. That is one of the best ways that we can serve the Lord, is to be in the body of the church and support our local churches. How many of our lives have been changed by that humble, nameless Sunday school teacher who just poured into us? And you're doing that too, which I love that makes your list of cool things you're passionate about that you're doing. Dr. Joy Green, Joy Time, can we hang out a little bit longer? Okay, we're going to take a quick break. I'm Stu Everson. This is Truth Talk, Truth Talk Live. I'll take a picture of us and maybe my daughter Joy will be in it too, because she's a law student here.
And so there's double Joy right there. And then I'll post this for everyone to listen to it as a podcast. But give your website real quick before we go on to the break for those that may not catch that when we come back. Sure, it's easy. It's JoyTime.org.
The following is a pre-recorded program. The good book says, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Are you rejoicing in the Lord? Do you have the joy of the Lord? What is the joy of the Lord? Well, who better to ask that question than a young lady who's the head of an international ministry called Joy Time. She's Dr. Joy Green. And if you didn't hear the first segment we did, you got to go back and listen to that.
We're making a podcast, this whole thing. And everyone talks about joy at Christmas. But Dr. Joy Green, joy is not just one day of the year when you're opening presents and you're eating a bunch of food.
Talk to us about how it's something that should be a dominating factor in every believer's life. Well, when you think about the fruit of the Spirit, joy is a part of the fruit of the Spirit, right? And so we said this earlier, but God is serious about joy. He created us. We are his children. I mean, you hear this, but it's so true.
I mean, we are daughters and sons of the one true God who breathed life into our lungs and has a purpose for us. And if we could just change our perspectives too. You know, the enemy is so good at just pushing onto us fear.
What ifs? You can't do this. And so I see especially this younger generation of college students and high school students, which you and I both have kids who are in this college student age, right? We hear them talk a lot about anxiety, fear.
I can't do that. My anxiety and anxiety is very real. I'm a pharmacist. I know that it is but the opposite and the enemy of anxiety is joy. And here let me tell you what the bridge is. Okay, if you're let's just say you have a mountain and on one side of the mountain is fear and misery and worry and the other side of the mountain is joy. Okay, and the bridge to get there is what we're looking for.
Do you know what the bridge to get there is? Gratefulness. If you if you want to have a joyful life and you want to live in that fruit of the Spirit of joy, you have got to change your perspective to one of gratitude. That is the key.
Okay. Now I'm hearing that a lot. Even the secular philosophers in the in the big TED Talk guys are saying have a thankful diary have a gratitude list be more grateful all the successful people the people that go somewhere they have good mental health are grateful. We talk about what gratitude is a little bit in because it's connected to joy. Now you were going a lot of good places here.
Yes. So I just created a gratitude journal on my joy time website that like a thousand women have purchased because they're looking to find joy. And so if you think about all day long, what's wrong with your life if all you do is start your day with oh, I'm overweight. Oh, I don't get paid enough. Oh, my husband is so on my nerves. Why can't he be like so-and-so you see social media hasn't helped us because social media all we see are the highlight reels of everybody else's life and we start to think why is it my life that good?
Why doesn't my husband do this for me or if you're a guy, what doesn't my wife do that for me? Why can't I go to Paris for my anniversary and all of those seeds get planted of discontentment in our hearts discontentment, but you know what in God's Word, we see all these letters from Paul and many of them. He was in prison when he wrote them yet.
Those letters are full of joy. Why because he counted his blessings. He knew how to have a grateful spirit and it's not hard to do but you just have to start changing your perspective and your habits. You have to work at it.
You have to change your thought life. And when you catch yourself being so down and negative and ungrateful, you've got to recognize it and change that perspective. Can we start at the baseline at you know, I think of the holiday season.
I think of some of the most depressing times of the year or that New Year's the turn of the calendar even Christmas because you're thinking about the the your your folks lost your older brother. I mean we went to heaven before you were born and the struggle they're thinking. Oh, wow, you know, they see all these babies at Christmas and so many folks that struggle. Can you talk to someone who just has no joy? Maybe they're even a believer. They have no gratitude. They're bummed out.
Can you talk to him about where to start to get that joy back? Because I know you I know you speak all over the country in the world about this to people bring it bring the truth talk audience some some joy. Yeah, here's how I like to look at it. I like to look at it like a flower garden. Okay, and I want you to think about God depositing seeds of joy into the soil of your heart in this flower garden that you want to produce if the flowers represent joy. Okay, then God has already deposited the seeds straight into your spirit because his word says that this is a fruit of the spirit.
So it starts with the seed. So you already have it what you got to figure out is how do I nurture my joy? How do I nurture it? How do I help it grow because God's already given it to you? It's a gift.
It's a gift for the taking but often. We're not doing our part. So here's some things you can do first. You've got to manage your thought life. You can't let your thoughts just run away with discontentment putting yourself down thinking negative thoughts about all the people in your life. Number two, you need to keep a gratitude journal. There is medical science like proof in the medical literature that when you journal about gratitude and when you focus on gratitude, it decreases pain in your body. If you have like arthritis, it can make your blood pressure lower.
It gives you much more satisfaction in your relationships. The medical literature is abundantly clear that having gratitude will lead you to a more joyful life, but you've got to do your part to work up that soil and water that those seeds that God has given you in this joy garden that you're trying to flourish. So the gratitude journal thinking about your thought life recognizing when you find yourself getting down, maybe you should take a break from social media.
Maybe you need to look at your diet a little bit. Maybe you are having too much sugar or too much caffeine that's making you feel nervous, but you need to start taking some steps forward to really work out that joy garden in your heart. I love that. The seeds of the word of God, of course, it's fascinating that like even the story of the wise men that when they saw the son, they this joy, they had all the wealth of power. They had all the money the knowledge but something about Jesus the person of Jesus Christ talk about Jesus Christ your hero has brought you joy and has filled your whole ministry. Oh because we are nothing without him. He is our life. He is the joy giver.
He is the one that we find life abundantly through, you know in John 10 10. He says the enemy comes to steal kill and destroy. He comes to steal your joy. He comes to kill your spirit.
He comes to destroy your life. But Jesus says I have come to give you life to the full and so you have to stick to understanding where truth comes from right your feelings are not truth. I would tell the person who's feeling down and out that those feelings will lie to you. Your feelings will tell you that you're alone and no one cares, but Jesus said in his word. I'm with you always even until the end. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. So what if when you're feeling that depression and sadness and loneliness this time of year what if instead of letting those feelings like drive you off the cliff emotionally. What if you said out loud? I know I'm feeling this way but this feeling is a lie because God's word is truth and Jesus told me he is with me even though I don't feel him right now.
I know he's with me and that's what I'm going to stand on. I love that. I did a commentary recently about how the calendar might be backwards. Like we have Thanksgiving right and then we have Christmas and sometimes Thanksgiving is like an excuse to get to Christmas, but maybe we should have Christmas first because he gave us the gift we give him. Thanks and so, you know, so it's like but then but maybe it's not necessarily resetting the calendar but it's resetting our hearts right to recognize where everything comes from and the the joy we have all of it to get from God, right?
That's right. And I love Philippians that says be anxious for nothing but instead with Thanksgiving and prayer and petition. We should present our request to God but that Thanksgiving is in there, right?
So Thanksgiving is one of the keys to overcoming anxiety. That's so cool. And who locked in the room while we're wrapping up this discussion with Dr. Joy green amazing woman of God who speaks conferences. She writes she has Bible study curriculum. She has a ministry called joy time a Richard Childress racing that place was packed out with all these women from all over the country coming to hear you and you're the worship that our buddy Parker Webb did amazing stuff my daughter Joy what's it like to meet another person named Joy? You guys are meeting on the radio live radio national radio here your meeting will pre-recorded but Joy what's it like to be Joy? Dr. Joy, it is phenomenal.
It is just phenomenal. So cool to meet another Joy, especially one that is so intelligent and awesome and a great woman of God and y'all here is the same because you're lost student here and she's in the school of the pharmacy school. And what do you love most about your name? Joy? What about that name? Do you love the most about it connected to God and all that good stuff? Well, I just think it's like the Christian version of happiness and it's happiness that is not actually happiness its joy because it lasts forever and it is something that my name reminds me how I should feel all the time and how I do feel because I have the joy of the Lord. How'd she do?
Dr. Green. She did fantastic a plus 100% I love it. There's a lot of joy going around in this room. I just love Christmas. I love you know, I love the fact in this this friend of my wrote a Christmas book and in the last chapter he says to the consumer Christmas Day is the end. But to the believer, it's just the beginning and so we have this joy the joy that carried the wise men back that filled them that nothing would nothing else could will you challenge everyone?
Dr. Joy Green Joytime Ministries. We challenge everyone right now about connecting with Jesus the the source the hope of all of our joy as we get out of here. Just what's your final word to everyone out there? Yeah, my final word especially this Christmas season is to be still and quiet with the Lord, you know, even Jesus said to his disciples that we need to get away to a quiet place and rest don't let the busyness and the hustle bustle of all the shopping and the wrapping and all that help you miss the meaning of Christmas that this baby came quietly to the world. God didn't send his son through the pomp and circumstance of an already earthly King. It was quiet Mary was quiet Joseph was quiet.
It was like he just kind of snuck into the world quietly and we need to be quiet before him and listen and be still and truly open our hearts to him this Christmas season and recommit our lives to him just lay our lives down for the calls of Christ. Okay. Well folks that want to get a gratitude journal. We're going to we're going to give you a shameless plug and we're going to I hope millions of people order this today.
What's the website? How can folks connect with your ministry women that want to come to your events or jump on to your live interactive Bible study on Sunday nights? That sounds really cool. My daughter Joy when you might this Sunday night, you might have an appointment with another joy.
What do you think about that? Sounds good. What's the website? Okay, the website is joytime.org. The Bible study starts back January the 5th.
We're taking a couple weeks off for Christmas and New Year's. You can also jump on Facebook if you're on there look for joytime ministries the website the Facebook website is there and everything is on my website joytime.org awesome and just a little disclaimer if you hear this program on Christmas on Christmas Day Merry Christmas, but if we play this in July, we can still say Merry Christmas because Christ has come and he rules the world. Amen. Amen to that. I love it and happy July 4th if you're listening then. The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network.
