by Pastor Cecil | Oct 3, 2007 | Daily-E-Votionals
Romans 11:21-22
“For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in His kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.”
There are two words I would like to consider for today; “KINDNESS and “STERNNESS.” It is hard to understand how anyone would choose God’s sternness rather than His kindness. There is a huge “THEREFORE” in this passage that must be considered..
As I have mentioned in the past, anytime you read a passage of Scripture and see a “therefore”, you should ask yourself; “What is the “therefore” there for?” It means that something has to be considered in order to fully understand the significance of what is being said since it has an effect on what you are reading. I hope that makes sense.
In this instance, the “therefore” relates to the unbelief of the Jews who were [so] entrenched in traditions and manmade structures of spirituality, that they would not accept the reality of God in their lives. As a result and as a consequence, they were cut off. That is an example of God’s sternness.
I am going to try to use an illustration which I hope applies. Back in 1963, I was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the United States Air Force. I had every intention of making the Air Force a career and remaining in until retirement. There was one problem—I was a Reserve Officer and did not have flying status. There was a price to be paid later on. There would be a “therefore” later in my career!
Promotions came along as scheduled; from 2nd Lt., to 1st Lt, to Captain. The promotion from Captain to Major, basically required being designated a Regular Officer. Ninety-eight percent of all reserve Captains failed to receive a promotion to Major and were thus forced to leave the service. That was a “therefore” that took years to occur, but the result was the end of a career.
Consequences in life generally do not just happen. They are the result of actions we take which do not seem critical at the time, but—Oh!—the price that comes later on! Failure to have the Lord Jesus in our heart and walk closely to Him will result in our experiencing God’s sternness. We will be “cut off!”
The other word for today is “kindness.” We live in such a dog-eat-dog world, that the very concept of kindness is foreign to us. The dictionary describes kindness as a kind of good deed or favor, a state or quality of being kind. Even as believers we will experience the agony of God’s sternness if we do not obey Him.
God has been so kind to us. By His grace and mercy, He has overlooked the faults and failures of our life, and has demonstrated a gentleness. Do we deserve it? No way! Do we need it? Yes way! (I don’t think that will pass the grammatical test, but I hope you understand).
But here again, kindness is conditional. We receive God’s kindness as we continue in His kindness. That is, if we stay close to Him in thought, word and deed. May that be so in our lives!
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing.
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Oct 2, 2007 | Daily-E-Votionals
Ephesians 4:11-13
“It was He (Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
I recall watching some of the old time western movies, especially with John Wayne as the star. The trail boss was rousting his sleepy cowhands out of their lethargy to begin a hard day on the range. “We had better get started, we are burning daylight!” This comment was intended to imply that there are only so many hours during the day to accomplish all of the tasks.
Spiritually, we can loiter around the spiritual bunkhouse so long that we get nothing done. That is not pleasing to the Lord, who desires to get us busy with the tasks at hand.
As we note in this passage from Ephesians, not everyone has the same spiritual gifts. These five gifts Paul lists in Ephesians 4, “some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,” have often been referred to as the ministry gifts. That implies that we are called to minister to others. Certain of us have been given a more visible ministry gift, such as pastor or teacher, but others may minister without being so visible.
In God’s work there are many areas of spiritual service. So many in fact that the list never seems to end. We are surrounded by a world that is lost without Christ. Our enemy, the devil, has cleverly convinced people that they will go to heaven—all they need to do is just try to be “pretty good”. As some comedian once said: “You fail on both counts. You are neither pretty nor good!”
Serving the Lord does not necessarily require formal education. As a matter of fact, education may possibly be used as an excuse not to do God’s work. The religious hierarchy of Jesus’ day added to the Law of Moses, many of their own requirements that burdened the people and made it virtually impossible to draw near to God. Jesus made it simple so that anyone could draw near to God.
In Luke 18:13-14, Jesus made it clear that coming to God is a matter of faith and trust, not going through ritual. The Pharisee had prayed in a boastful manner about all the great things he had done for God. Look at the tax collector’s prayer and what Jesus said about it: “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’ ”
The reality is that if a person has never received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, they are doomed to spend eternity in hell! What are we doing to rescue them from this enormous disaster? The need is there, the strays are scattered, and we are burning daylight! Ride on pardner!
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing.
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Oct 1, 2007 | Daily-E-Votionals
Genesis 49:22-24
“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.”
Several times in our married life, Joyce and I have gone about our normal activities just a few feet from people to whom we never spoke a word to them nor they to us. In fact we acted as if the others did not exist. Does that sound like we are being stand-offish? Not really!
We could often hear the sounds they made, and they in turn must have heard us. You see, Joyce and I lived in an apartment or townhouse. This was true in the case of military housing, but also the times we lived in apartments or townhouses. For those of you who are not familiar with apartment or townhouse living, there is only a wall separating one family from another. In fact in some apartments there are people living beside you, below you and above you. Regardless, there are walls from one family to another. Ahhh! There it is! The wall of separation.
How many times we experience walls that separate us from those around us. Not just in the places we live, but in our relationships with others. These walls may separate us from wives, husbands, children, neighbors, or any number of other individuals. The most devastating wall is the one we erect which separates us from God.
In today’s Scripture, Jacob is near the end of his life. He is surrounded by his twelve sons who will become the twelve tribes of Israel. He is pronouncing a blessing upon each son although some of the blessings are filled with judgment and condemnation.
As he pronounces this blessing upon Joseph, he describes him as a vine. It is interesting to recall the words of Jesus in John 15:5; “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” Not only does Jacob describe Joseph as a vine, but Joseph is described as a vine near a spring. A vine is able to go over or through the strongest wall. Wow! I hope you are able to see the visual picture that is presented here!
During His earthly ministry, Jesus had asked a woman of Samaria for a drink of water. It was not customary or proper for a Jewish man to speak to a woman, much less a Samaritan woman. In their exchange of words, listen to what Jesus says to her as well as to us in John 4:10; “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”
Our vine will never grow strong nor we be able to climb the walls of our life if we do not remain near to the spring of living water. There may be bitter adversaries that may attempt to cause us harm, but as with Joseph, we need to know that the spring of living water which gives us life and strength is our Rock, the Mighty God, who is our defender!
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing.
– – – Pastor Cecil
