by Pastor Cecil | May 6, 2020 | Psalm
Psalm 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”
Do you need a quiet place, a place far away from the stress and turmoil of life? This quiet place is more of a spiritual state of mind than a physical location. We can experience quietness and peace even in the battles of life. We know what our battlegrounds are — what we need is peace!
But what about our life right now? The Lord is anxious for us to enter into a blessed quietness with Him. It may require a commitment on our part to find the time and place where we can experience Him in serenity. We can hear the Lord call to us from today’s passage of Scripture: “Be still, and know that I am God.” If we fail to take the time to be alone with God, we will never experience the knowledge of His Lordship in our life. It will lead to our own efforts to work out our solutions.
The quiet, healing, intimate presence of God is to be found only as we consciously make an effort to be alone with Him. Ask the Lord to show you a time that you may be able to devote to be alone with Him. As you come to that quiet place, spend more time listening than speaking.
Blessings dear hearts. May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | May 4, 2020 | Psalm
Psalm 65:5
“By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us, O God of our salvation, You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the far-off seas.”
Once Jesus was surrounded by such a huge crowd of people so large that He got into a boat and sat in it and taught the people who were on the shore. That evening He told His disciples to take the boats to the other side of the lake.
In the boat Jesus went to sleep on a cushion and later a furious squall came up and threatened to capsize the vessel. Remember that many of these disciples were seasoned fishermen who had spent their lives out on this lake in all kinds of weather, but this particular storm threatened to overwhelm them. To the frightened disciples it seemed impossible that Jesus could sleep through such a storm, but He did.
The terrified men shook Jesus awake and announced they were about to drown. It is then that we read the quiet words of power in Mark 4:39: When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm.
When we find ourselves in the midst of the storms of life we need to call on the One who is the Storm Calmer. We need to call on Jesus. He is the answer!
Blessings dear hearts. May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 20, 2020 | Psalm
Psalm 37:23
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.”
What does it mean to have our steps ordered by the Lord? Before you answer that question, what defines a man (or woman) as being good? In the original text it means one who has the ability to fight or to be productive. Are you?
If we can truly trust in the Lord, that means we place our confidence in Him rather than relying on others or on our own abilities. Who are you trusting? The words of an old hymn come to my mind. I think it goes something like this: Trust and obey, for there’s just no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
When someone approached Jesus to become one of His disciples, He challenged them to prove their intention by doing good. In one instance He challenged a young man to sell everything and give it to the poor. Sadly, the step to become a disciple quickly came to a stop.
Sometimes our stops are just as much the will of God as are our steps. If we are to be in the center of His will we must stay close enough to Him so we will sense when He calls us to step or to stop. It requires keeping our eyes on the Savior!
Blessings dear hearts. May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 17, 2020 | Psalm
Psalm 36:9
“For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.”
Robert Robinson who lived from 1735 to 1790, was saved while attending a service conducted by the famous evangelist George Whitefield. Following his conversion he entered the Christian ministry, but like so many, he would lose his fervor for God.
The words of the hymn “Come Thou Fount” were written to express his own need for a closer walk with the Lord. His prayer is that his heart may be re-tuned to be in perfect harmony with the will of God.
In stanza two he speaks of his conversion. The word “Ebenezer” refers to a time and place when he actually received the Lord into his life as personal Savior and Lord. He goes on to remind himself and others that it is necessary to daily remind ourselves what a debt we owe to the Lord for our salvation at His expense.
Come Thou Fount
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount-I’m fixed upon it-mount of Thy redeeming love.
Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wand’ring from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wand’ring heart to Thee;
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above.
Enjoy this week’s free inspirational video, “Come Thou Fount” from GloryScapes.com by going to: https://gloryscapes.com/comethoufount/
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 14, 2020 | Psalm
Psalm 100:2
“Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
Years ago I read the words of a shepherd concerning his sheep. He commented that a shepherd always carries both a rod and a staff. The staff is the object that is long and has a curved end. It is used by the shepherd to reach down into a ravine and rescue a sheep that was not able to get up by itself.
The rod is an object more like a club. It can be used to defend the flock from a dangerous predator. It also was used to teach a wayward lamb from wandering into danger. If a lamb tended to stray from the flock, the shepherd knew that it risked being killed. As a last resort he would use the rod to break one of the front legs of the lamb. He would immediately fashion a splint and then would carry the animal on his shoulders until the leg was healed. By the time the broken leg had healed, the lamb would have fallen in love with the shepherd and from then on would never stray.
It is sad to say that we are many times like a wayward lamb. We want to go our own way even when we know that danger is all around us. Our loving Shepherd cares enough about us that He uses painful methods to force us to rely upon Him while we are healing. If you are experiencing painful discipline right now, know that it is because of our Lord’s love and concern for us.
Blessings dear hearts. May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 6, 2020 | Psalm
Psalm 56:11
“In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
People are often given labels that mark them for years or even for their entire lives. I was given such a label as a young boy. That label was that I was a slow learner or one who lacked mental capacity. I suffered the taunts of others who seemed to be sharper than I was.
Sadly, I accepted their label and LIVED DOWN to their estimation of my ability. This was not from just my childhood friends, but my school teachers and some church members as well.
The result was that I believed what people labeled me and failed to apply myself to trust the Lord to use me as He saw fit. Believing what people said about me placed more trust in what others said than in what God said. God had a plan for my life and I needed to listen to Him rather than others.
Listening to God allowed me to graduate from college and then earn a Master’s Degree from graduate school. I only reference these things to show that God can use us to do what He desires for us to do. I urge you to seek His true labels rather than man’s FALSE LABELS!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
