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Pastor's Page

Posted on February 2, 2005 ...

Until recently, I was one of those rare internet people who had only ONE email address: drjay@ncbctn.com. It makes sense…why should anyone need more than one email address? A problem emerged as I gradually received more and more Self Promotional Advertising Messages (aka SPAM) to this address. I was routinely getting offers for pharmaceuticals, stocks, real estate, coffee, travel, and several other products that I best leave unidentified! Overnight as many as fifty new emails would come my way. For every email from a friend I would receive a dozen SPAMS. I became quite adept at deleting them, unread, from my inbox.

A typical solution to this problem is to change your email address. But I am rather fond of drjay@ncbctn.com and I stubbornly did not like feeling forced into a change. Plus, I would be required to report a new email address to everyone who sent me legitimate email.

It was then that our webmaster, Lacy Goins Tite, found what seemed to be the perfect solution: Boxtrapper. Simply put Boxtrapper was an email filter that would allow me to blacklist SPAM address. Emails from those on this blacklist would be blocked and returned. The email addresses of my friends and family members would go on a whitelist. Their emails would go immediately into my email inbox. All was well…right? WRONG. For reasons beyond my ability to grasp, Boxtrapper began blocking ALL my email. I went from scores of emails a day to zero! NOTHING was getting through. To say the situation was aggravating would be an understatement!

After about a week, Lacy and I agreed that Boxtrapper could not deliver what it promised and we turned it off! The good news is that Boxtrapper must have discouraged some SPAMers. Since then I am receiving far fewer unsolicited emails. Also, I created a SECOND email address to give to businesses and others who I suspect may pass my name along to a SPAM mailing lists.

So, to you my friends I say, Keep sending those emails to drjay@ncbctn.com. I love hearing from you.

I am so glad that our communication to God is far less complex. What a blessing it is to know that our prayers get through to Him just fine! In fact, Jesus Himself takes care of delivery: Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. (Romans 8:34.) My concern now is that I do not filter out His messages to me! See you Sunday.