JESUS ALONE!

Luke 12:15 – Devotional

Luke 12:15

“Take heed and beware of covetousness,
for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

I was once asked to visit our county jail and speak with a young man who had been convicted of a fairly serious crime. As I sat down at a table in the visiting room, Ben approached with a wide smile and placed his Bible on the table. It was a very touching meeting as Ben shared from his heart.

Ben told me that a year ago he felt he had it all—a new pickup, a boat and a motorcycle. Ben also had a wife and two kids and his future looked bright. Then he made some foolish decisions, because even with all of his possessions, Ben wanted even more. He committed a crime to get them. As a result he lost his wife and family, house and vehicles.

The smile on his face did not match the story Ben was relating to me. Ben shared how he had given his heart to the Lord Jesus while he was locked up in the county jail. I still can recall as Ben placed his hand on his Bible and said that the only things he could now count as his own were his Bible and a sweater back in his cell. Ben related that with Jesus in his heart he was the richest man in the world.

Ben deeply regretted his sin and offenses and what he had done to his family, but he was rejoicing in the fact that he had passed from death to eternal life and now possessed treasures which are of far more value than anything the world has to offer. It reminds me that when we come to the place that Jesus is all we have, we will find that He is all that we will ever need.

Many passages in Scripture bring us to the vital truth—Jesus is all we will ever need. Like that young man in the county jail, with Jesus in our heart we are richer than the wealthiest man in the world. It is time we start living with that truth.

Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!

– – – Pastor Cecil

P.S. – Thanks for partnering with us to help spread the Good News–Please CLICK HERE or on the Donate Button below if you feel led to help us financially with Pastor Cecil’s ministry. As of June 8, 2026, we have a $1,754 need for June 2026 (was $2,000). To read about how the money is used, please go to https://DailyEvotional.com/donations/

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Enjoy the Song of the Week below created by Russ Hansen
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If you have watched The Sands of Eternity video above and prayed the prayer at the end, please go to https://PastorCecil.com/ and use the form on the webpage to let us know so we can send you follow up resources and/or send an email to pastorcecil@dailyevotional.com and let him know.

A DANGEROUS WORLD!

Luke 10:41 – Devotional

Luke 10:41

“Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.”

Accidents happen! Sometimes they are totally beyond our control, but at other times we take risks that lead to accidents. During major flooding events, drivers are warned about the dangers of driving through high water. Television cameras record drivers ignoring warnings before being completely swamped.

Clearly the drivers thought they were able to make it across the flooded roadway, but they endangered their life as well as others. Many accidents could have been avoided.

There are times in life where we have the best intentions in the world, but for some reason or another, we fail to follow through. The results can be catastrophic or at least lead to difficult situations. Our actions may be unintentional but risky.

God calls us to walk circumspectly and obediently. We need to search the Word of God continually and pattern our life accordingly. Living a life of victory and meaning is the result of staying close to Jesus. Trust and obey — there is no other way!

May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!

– – – Pastor Cecil

P.S. – Thanks for partnering with us to help spread the Good News–Please CLICK HERE or on the Donate Button below if you feel led to help us financially with Pastor Cecil’s ministry. As of June 3, 2026, we have a $2,000 need for June 2026. To read about how the money is used, please go to https://DailyEvotional.com/donations/

Share a blessing by inviting your friends and family to subscribe to Pastor Cecil’s DailyEvotional emails by clicking on the Subscribe button below.

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Enjoy the Song of the Week below created by Russ Hansen
Please send him your feedback at inspiration@thegoodbookcompany.com

If you have watched The Sands of Eternity video above and prayed the prayer at the end, please go to https://PastorCecil.com/ and use the form on the webpage to let us know so we can send you follow up resources and/or send an email to pastorcecil@dailyevotional.com and let him know.

LEARNING TO PRAY!

Luke 11:1 – Devotional

Luke 11:1

“Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’”

True prayer is not presenting God with a long list of requests and hoping that at least one of them is answered! Rather, it is being in harmony with Him and speaking with Him in confident expectation.

In today’s Scripture, it is evident that John the Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray. Since John preached a message of repentance, it seems reasonable that his instructions for prayer focused on repentance. As the disciples of our Lord listened to His prayers, they must have detected a difference and wanted to know how they should pray. From their request we have the words which we have come to know as, “The Lord’s Prayer,” but may be more accurately called, “The Disciple’s Prayer.”

All too often people pray with selfish motives. They want to increase health, wealth or wisdom for their own benefit. On the other hand, God desires to meet our needs but also provide extra resources. These resources, however, are not intended for us to provide ourselves with lavish lifestyles. When God opens heaven’s floodgates, He will also open a door of opportunity for us to wisely invest in eternal matters.

“LORD, PLEASE TEACH ME TO PRAY IN FAITH, BELIEVING!”

May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!

– – – Pastor Cecil

P.S. – Thanks for partnering with us to help spread the Good News–Please CLICK HERE or on the Donate Button below if you feel led to help us financially with Pastor Cecil’s ministry. As of Wednesday, May 6, 2026, we have a $1,922 need for May 2026 (was $2,000). To read about how the money is used, please go to https://DailyEvotional.com/donations/

Share a blessing by inviting your friends and family to subscribe to Pastor Cecil’s DailyEvotional emails by clicking on the Subscribe button below.

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Enjoy the Song of the Week below created by Russ Hansen
Please send him your feedback at inspiration@thegoodbookcompany.com

If you have watched The Sands of Eternity video above and prayed the prayer at the end, please go to https://PastorCecil.com/ and use the form on the webpage to let us know so we can send you follow up resources and/or send an email to pastorcecil@dailyevotional.com and let him know.

CLEAN UP YOUR ACT!

Luke 19:45 – Devotional

Luke 19:45

“Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it.”

There have been a few times in my life when I was so dirty I looked like a dust ball. This was after spending hours on a mower or plow. It was a sheer delight to step into a shower and wash away the accumulated dirt and grime.

In the week of His crucifixion, Jesus exposed the sins of the leaders. The religious hierarchy had departed far from God’s demand for holiness. Jesus saw that they had violated the sanctity of the temple by allowing commercial enterprises to exist in a place they should have kept holy. They compromised in order to profit financially. They may have justified their actions by claiming that allowing peddlers in the temple was just to make it easy for the pilgrims to be able to sacrifice. Jesus was not deceived!

As I read today’s Scripture I am struck with the reality that anytime Jesus comes into our life, He wants to cleanse us. He will not tolerate our feeble excuses for allowing sin to contaminate us. He is the only One who can clean us completely.

How does Jesus go about cleansing the sin in our life? 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Is there sin in your life that needs to be cleansed? Read this verse and then obey it!

Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!

– – – Pastor Cecil

P.S. – Thanks for partnering with us to help spread the Good News–Please CLICK HERE or on the Donate Button below if you feel led to help us financially with Pastor Cecil’s ministry. As of Thursday, April 23, 2026, we have a $1,525 need for April 2026 (was $2,000). To read about how the money is used, please go to https://DailyEvotional.com/donations/

Share a blessing by inviting your friends and family to subscribe to Pastor Cecil’s DailyEvotional emails by clicking on the Subscribe button below.

You can share the Lord with someone by directing them to https://PastorCecil.com.

Enjoy the Song of the Week below created by Russ Hansen
Please send him your feedback at inspiration@thegoodbookcompany.com

If you have watched The Sands of Eternity video above and prayed the prayer at the end, please go to https://PastorCecil.com/ and use the form on the webpage to let us know so we can send you follow up resources and/or send an email to pastorcecil@dailyevotional.com and let him know.

JOY IS A CHOICE!

Luke 6:20-23 – Devotional

Luke 6:20-23

“Looking at His disciples, He said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when men exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.’ “

From time to time I meet and greet a friend. After the initial hello, I often ask, “How are you doing?” The response from some is, “Pretty good under the circumstances!” To which I am prone to reply, “What are you doing under there?”

I am sure that you have heard that old cliché many times. I have used it enough that it almost feels like my own, but it was used by someone long ago, by someone more clever than I.

The sad reality is that we are all too often controlled by our circumstances. When that is the case, we leave little room for the Lord to bring joy and delight into our life. You heard me right: I said that the Lord wants to bring joy and delight into our life.

We often behave as if we were judges at an Olympic contest. We hold a stack of cards from 0 to 10 on our lap. When something happens in our life, we watch, wonder, waiver, wait and finally hold up a score to judge if something is good or bad, and to what degree. If it is good we have joy; if it is bad we are sad.

Such actions on our parts have the effect of allowing the “things of life” to control our joy. It is very much like the old comedy line about being under the circumstances. We have the mistaken notion that joy is the result of good things coming into our lives. That is not what we find in this and many other scriptures. Yes, we do rejoice when the blessings of the Lord are poured out upon our life, but we can also have joy and rejoice even when things go wrong.

That is exactly what Jesus is teaching here in the Sermon on the Mount. We are to be joyful even when we are called upon to suffer for the sake of Christ. That is true even when it seems as if the whole world is against us. If we succumb to the urge to have a pity party, we will violate the commands of our Lord, and also will miss His blessing. The result will be bitterness and despair with no joy.

Unbelievers know when we are under fire for our spiritual convictions. They will not be impressed or drawn to faith in Christ by our laments about how much we are enduring. No! The thing that will impress them will be the shouts of victory and joy, that we have been counted worthy to go through times of suffering and abuse with victory!

To find this joy, I think it is important for each of us to set a regular time to study the biblical aspect of joy. Please go into the concordance in the back of your study Bible, and make a list of all of the references to the word “joy.” Knowing more about joy will not make us joyful. It is our obedience to the Lord that makes the joy a reality. Since Jesus says we are to find joy when we are being persecuted for righteousness, that becomes our reason for joy.

I want to leave you today with a challenge. Pray and ask the Lord to give you the strength to proclaim joy in the face of opposition, and see what happens. I can tell you right now, that you will feel peace and contentment, even in the midst of your storm. You will find your joy!

Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today, trust Him completely, and be a blessing.

– – – Pastor Cecil

P.S. – Thanks for partnering with us to help spread the Good News–Please CLICK HERE or on the Donate Button below if you feel led to help us financially with Pastor Cecil’s ministry. As of Tuesday, April 14, 2026, we have a $1,639 need for April 2026 (was $2,000). To read about how the money is used, please go to https://DailyEvotional.com/donations/

Share a blessing by inviting your friends and family to subscribe to Pastor Cecil’s DailyEvotional emails by clicking on the Subscribe button below.

You can share the Lord with someone by directing them to https://PastorCecil.com.

Enjoy the Song of the Week below created by Russ Hansen
Please send him your feedback at inspiration@thegoodbookcompany.com

If you have watched The Sands of Eternity video above and prayed the prayer at the end, please go to https://PastorCecil.com/ and use the form on the webpage to let us know so we can send you follow up resources and/or send an email to pastorcecil@dailyevotional.com and let him know.

DOUBTERS!

Luke 24:9-11 – Devotional

Luke 24:9-11

“When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.”

According to modern day dramas or musicals, the disciples were ecstatic over the news the women brought back from the empty tomb. They reported that they had seen angels and one had even seen Jesus Himself.

However, the reaction to these reports from these women was doubt. How utterly sorrowful that after all Jesus had told them about what He was going to endure and conquer, they still doubted.

Oh yes, Peter and John left to go to the tomb, but the fact that the others failed to go proves their doubt.

The apostle Thomas was not the only one who expressed doubts. There were other doubters in the crowd.

It reminds me that it is easier to doubt than to rest in the arms of faith.

Jesus repeatedly appeared to the disciples and as many as 500 at one time following His resurrection.

Why did the disciples doubt the initial reports?

I think the basic reason was they did not listen to their Lord as He spoke in person.

Why are we prone to doubt today?

I think it is the same reason. We fail to listen to what He says in His Word, the Bible!

Blessings dear hearts! Walk with God today and be a blessing!

– – – Pastor Cecil

P.S. – Thanks for partnering with us to help spread the Good News–Please CLICK HERE or on the Donate Button below if you feel led to help us financially with Pastor Cecil’s ministry. As of Monday, April 6, 2026, we have a $1,896 need for April 2026 (was $2,000). To read about how the money is used, please go to https://DailyEvotional.com/donations/

Share a blessing by inviting your friends and family to subscribe to Pastor Cecil’s DailyEvotional emails by clicking on the Subscribe button below.

You can share the Lord with someone by directing them to https://PastorCecil.com.

Enjoy the Song of the Week below created by Russ Hansen
Please send him your feedback at inspiration@thegoodbookcompany.com

If you have watched The Sands of Eternity video above and prayed the prayer at the end, please go to https://PastorCecil.com/ and use the form on the webpage to let us know so we can send you follow up resources and/or send an email to pastorcecil@dailyevotional.com and let him know.