Thoughts from the Publisher: The Journey, Winter 2022

Written by Ben Cox

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness of Him and cried out saying, ‘This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.

And of His fullness we have all received, grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:1-5; 14-17 NKJV)

I’m beginning this introduction with that Scripture for three reasons:

• 1) We are entering the Christmas season and those Scripture passages bring into clear, sharp focus the beauty of God coming to Earth to make a way for humans from every tribe, tongue, and nation to spend eternity with Him.

• 2) The power of God’s written word, the Bible and the “Word who became flesh and dwelt among us” can literally change people’s lives from the inside out.

• 3) The stories you’re about to read have everything to do with reasons one and two.

I heard it said once that “God came down to our level because we could never get up to His.” That encapsulates the beauty of the Christian faith, while also highlighting what differentiates Christianity from every other world religion.  Christianity is not about the good things we have done or can do to qualify for entrance to heaven. No! It’s about the great, unfathomable thing God did for us by sending His only Son “that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

That last quote was from John 3:16 and it was actually Jesus who said that when He came to Earth. And He also said this in John 10:10:  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” I’ve included that Scripture along with mentioning John 3:16 to accentuate that Jesus didn’t just come to Earth to open up a way for humans to spend eternity with God, He also came that we might experience abundant life eternally!

Besides this, Jesus didn’t just come preaching and teaching truth—He came to demonstrate truth. When “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” He came to show us how much He and His Father had compassion for human suffering. He did this by healing the sick, casting out demons, causing the lame to walk, the blind to see and the dead to come back to life again.  But He didn’t just come to show us what the Father is like, He also showed us how we as adopted sons and daughters can interact with and relate to the Father. As we learn to do that God can then shine His light into the darkness that exists in our world through ordinary people like you and me. 

One great truth He made known to us in His life on earth was how He overcame temptations by the very Word of God that He and the Father through the Holy Spirit inspired humans to write.  We see in Luke’s gospel how Jesus fended off Satan’s attempts to derail His ministry before it even started by the Word of God. It has always intrigued me that Satan tried to deceive our Savior by misquoting and misapplying Scripture and how Jesus put him in his place. It was in that very context of Jesus’ confrontation with Satan that He reminded Satan, and us as well, that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”

Shawn Clark, Jerry Moore, Paula Perry, Mal Tanigawa and Michelle Hardy, whose testimonies are written in this edition of The Journey aren’t perfect people and neither am I.  But we are people whose lives have been changed and are continuing to be changed until that day when what’s not fixed yet will be!  As you read these stories, I pray that you will be inspired, challenged, encouraged, and convicted to grow deeper in your love for God and for people.  

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

15 Year anniversary of the journey!

Ben’s Reflections on 15 Years of Business Ownership

Twenty-one years ago in May 2001, after 19 years in the same job, I found myself unexpectedly unemployed and praying about what to do next. Needing to buy some time until I figured that out, I wanted a job to tie me over. So, I called a friend who had attended church with me and asked him if he could give me a temporary job. His first response was no, but then he said, “I do have a product you could sell, but it’s not something I could envision you doing.” That product was the BOGO dining pass that was first published and distributed in 1997.   

Though he was skeptical about my ability to sell dining passes, he gave me a sales script to memorize and told me that I would need to come to his house to practice selling a dining pass to him and his wife.  I passed the test and began selling the Watauga Dining Pass over the telephone and door to door. 

This job was straight commission sales only, so if I didn’t do well selling, then I made no money.  But I didn’t just do well, I did very well, surprising myself and the business owner.  So he hired me full-time and trained me to sell ads for his marketing company called Main Street Marketing.

If you had told me at that time that I would purchase the business six and a half years later, I would not have believed it.  In other words, it wasn’t part of my plan to own a business like I own today.  In fact, when the offer was made for me to buy the company, it was a hard no for me because I didn’t see how owning this company could actually be a part of God’s plan for my life. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord had called me to be a pastor in the Body of Christ, which I had already been for 22 years, with 19 of those being in a full-time salaried position. Thus, I felt that owning a business would restrict that call in a way that would not be pleasing to God.   

So I decided in my heart that day to quit the business and pursue another job until I could figure out my next move.  But as I was praying about God’s will for my next move, He intervened and revealed to me that buying this business was His provision for me to make a living, while not abandoning the call He made clear to me in 1977 to move to Boone.  

I insert that here because there were full-time ministry possibilities available to me in other cities, but Boone was the specific place of ministry He called me to.  He made it clear to me then that Boone was where He called me and that I was to stay here until and unless He made it clear that I was to move.   

Now, 15 years after buying the business, I’m happy to say I still believe it was God’s will for me to buy this company. That doesn’t mean there weren’t times along the way that I seriously wondered if it really was God’s will for me. Could it be true that I had really missed or misunderstood the Lord on this one? I say that because I went through some challenging times that seriously restricted my ability to do what I wantedin ministry, including the COVID pandemic of 2020 and the great recession of 2008.  In spite of those things, I can say with deep assurance that God’s grace has been more than sufficient for me and He has led me through “many dangers toils and snares” to where we are today. 

Of course, I have made many changes since buying the company including officially changing the name to High Country 365 after the previous owner died.  I also made The Journey Magazine and journeync.com somewhat of a standalone product because it is uniquely different from everything else I do.  

One thing that I’m very grateful to have accomplished, with the help of people who know much more about the digital world than I do, is building a new website that is dedicated totally to promoting The Journey.  That means that every magazine I have ever published since taking ownership in 2007 is online, and anyone who wants to could read any story I’ve ever done.  It also means that through weekly blogs of new and old content and video blogs of interviews I’ve done, we are generating lots of traffic to our website—which is also great for our wonderful business sponsors

The point in writing about all this is to communicate how I am so incredibly grateful to God for helping me do way more than I could ever have done on my own. With God’s help, we have made great progress in helping hundreds of High Country business owners promote themselves with our diversified suite of print and digital marketing.  With our five regional visitors maps, our Journey magazines, our App State coupon books, our High School Sports Schedules and posters, restaurant display ads, creative design services, and our very popular buy one get one free dining passes and more, we provide an array of services that we feel can be a blessing to local businesses who need more options than newspaper, radio, or TV alone. 

All that to say I’m stoked about our 15th-year anniversary in general and this 15-year anniversary edition of The Journey in particular!!!!