by Pastor Cecil | Apr 9, 2008 | Daily-E-Votionals
Philippians 3:12-14
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
When God’s Word says our sins are forgiven, does that mean we are free, or does He still hold them against me? We might say that we are set free, but do we actually walk away from our sinful past and have victory in our life?
I want to use a Bible character as an example of this process. For the past several weeks I have been sharing with our church group the wonderful lessons that we find in the book of Joshua. Let’s consider the lesson we find in a lady of the night in Jericho. If we were to approach our study like a police officer, we might use this method: Name: Rahab. Address: Jericho. Occupation: Prostitute.
We know nothing of the background of this woman of ill repute. She is the first person that the Israelite spies encountered in the land of promise that God had led them to possess. Two spies had been sent out by Joshua to spy out the land, and especially Jericho.
It is interesting that 40 years earlier, right after being freed from the bondage of slavery, Moses had sent out twelve spies. Only two had returned with a positive report and urged them to go in immediately to possess the land God had given them. One of the spies was Joshua, the other was Caleb. Now, after 40 years when Joshua was in charge, he sends out only two spies. By the way, these two turned out to be faithful.
In the second chapter of Joshua, we read that the two spies were saved by the action of this prostitute named Rahab. She not only spared their life, but gave them some inside information. She said that she knew that God had given them the land, for the whole land was in fear of them. She asked that when they took the land, she and her family might be spared.
They told her that in return for her kindness and the risks she took, she and her family would be spared. The only condition was that she and her family had to remain inside the house, and a scarlet ribbon had to be tied in the window she had let them escape through.
She followed their orders and the Israelites kept their promise to her. In the sixth chapter of the book of Joshua, we read that Joshua sent the same two spies and rescued Rahab and her family. The story does not end there my friends. She was saved, but God had not forgotten her faith. In Hebrews 11:31 she is mentioned along with the faithful of the ages. In James 2:25 and 26, she is mentioned as one who was considered righteous for what she did.
Now, that brings us to the practical aspects of the forgiveness of sins in our lives. When we confess our sins, we can begin to live as new creatures. It is certainly not God who brings your sins of the past to your mind and causes you turmoil. If it is not the Lord, it is coming from the other side, and that means Satan.
On a daily basis I receive calls or e-mail messages from people who are encountering trials. One young woman shared that it seemed like everything was going crazy. Surgery, schedule conflicts, not feeling well, and she was tempted to be downhearted. She suddenly began to sing along with an uplifting praise chorus on the radio. As an act of faith she spoke out loud, “Satan you are not going to win over this situation. I choose to praise, and not to pout.” She had victory.
In the same manner, you can have victory over the sins of your past. Any time Satan brings them to your mind and wants you to feel defeated for what you did, or were, or caused, just choose to praise the Lord. Give Him the glory and receive his grace that is sufficient to block out the sins that we have committed.
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today. Trust Him completely and be a blessing.
— Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 8, 2008 | Daily-E-Votionals
1 Samuel 2:30
“Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and your father’s house would minister before me forever.’ But now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.’ “
A few weeks ago, Joyce and I were having lunch following our Sunday morning service. Sitting just two tables away from us was a man who had shaped my character as a young man. It was Bob Manley, who had been my Troup Leader when I was in the Boy Scouts.
Bob lives about five hundred miles away from us, so it was a delightful surprise to run into him like that. I mentioned to him that I still recall the Troup Meetings and especially the hikes in the rugged mountains of Idaho.
I still recall the oath that each scout is required to memorize: “On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law, to help others at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”
Wow! It was sixty years ago that I first memorized that oath. As a Boy Scout, I reached the rank of “Life,” which is one rank below “Eagle,” the highest rank in Scouting. I recall at the start of each Troop meeting, we used to recite this “Boy Scout Oath.” I must confess that I had to go into the Boy Scout website and confirm the wording. After all these years it is hard for me to remember too much of anything.
These words are positive and strong. They are words that Scout Master Bob Manley stressed with great meaning. They were words that were not to be taken lightly. Unfortunately, we all too often experience those in our society who fail to honor their oaths or solemn covenants.
It is disappointing to let people down, but oh, so much worse to fail to honor God. Today’s Scripture is a vivid reminder of two things: If we honor God, we will receive honor; if we fail to honor God, we will experience His disdain. To displease God is the most dangerous actions a person could ever take.
Many years I made a solemn covenant with God. I vowed that I would read the Bible at least 5 minutes, each and every day. There have been a few times in these intervening years that I could not keep the vow, such as being in a hospital ICU recovering from surgery.
In those times, I felt the presence of God so strong, it was almost as if I had the “Living Word” with me as I silently recited memory verses in my mind. Feeling His presence during these moments seemed especially sweet to me as I experienced Him with me.
Caution!!! It was only for those unique times when I felt released from my covenant. As soon as I was able I was back in the Book once again. While my vow was for just 5 minutes a day, I have seldom spent less than one or two hours each day. God will not be angry if we spend more time with Him than we vowed.
So the primary oath or covenant of honor is with the Lord. The next is with people around us. It may be parents, a husband, a wife, children, a neighbor, pastor, teacher or anyone that we have given our word to, and must be honored with our fulfilling the covenant. Anytime we promise to do something for a person we must keep that promise just as if it were a vow made to the Lord.
I recall the words of Jesus when He was challenged by a group of doubting, faultfinding priests and pharisees, to give the greatest commandment. Without pause He told them that it was to love of the Lord our God. He added the second without even being asked. He said it was to love your neighbor as yourself. I had the chance to do that yesterday.
Remember that phrase in the Boy Scout Oath? “To help other people at all times.” That is part of honoring our oath and our covenant. We might describe our honor in this order: GOD, FAMILY, COUNTRY, and OTHERS. Be a Covenant keeper, an Oath bearer, and be honorable before God and your fellow sojourners on the path of life.
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today. Trust Him completely and be a blessing.
— Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 7, 2008 | Daily-E-Votionals
1 John 1:8-10
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
Why is it so hard to confess our sins? Where does sin originate? What do we do when we are aware of sin in our life? What determines which of our actions are sinful?
Without fully intending to do so, we often are influenced by traditions of men, even godly men, rather than the infallible Word of God. I want to share two illustrations that demonstrate how easy it is to be carried away by the traditions of men.
We were having a Bible study with several couples in our home. A young man in the group had just personally accepted Christ into his heart. His wife was the daughter of a pastor. She shared with the group her problem of being burdened by the judgments of men rather than God. She said it was so much easier for her husband Rick, because he just did what the Bible said, and that was it. She told of being a teen and her father had moved from one town to a new community where he was to pastor a new church.
The first Sunday evening in the assignment, he made an announcement that he and his family were going to a local cafe for pie and ice cream, and that they would like for others to join them. His announcement hit with a thud. An emergency meeting of the church board was called and he was severely chastised. They could not condone such a thing as going to a cafe on Sunday! Where did they come up with such silliness? It had been some former practice that became church law. Traditions of men.
I heard another fascinating story about the Church of the Holy Radiator. A young priest had assumed his first parish, filling the shoes of an older priest who had served for 30 years. He knocked himself out trying to meet the needs of his congregation, but there was obvious discontent. He spoke to the church custodian and asked what he was doing wrong? The man told the young priest it was the way he served communion. He was flabbergasted. He was doing it just as he had been taught in every detail! He pressed for more information and the custodian said that the problem was that he was not touching the radiator.
The young priest made a frantic call to the older priest he had replaced. The older man asked how things were going and the young priest said that it was not going well and he was almost in the midst of a mutiny. He asked the old priest if he touched the radiator before he passed the cup. “Why yes,” he said. “I always did that so I could discharge the static electricity in my hands and not produce a snap when the cup was passed.” There it was. Not a part of the ritual, but a part of the tradition that had become “sacred” in the minds of the people being served. We are like that so often.
The problem that many of us face, is sorting out the traditional from what is taught in the Word of God. The Latin term is “Solis Scripturus”—the Word Only. Now this does not mean that we are to neglect patterns of behavior that are wholesome and good, and beneficial, but care must be taken that tradition does not become of equal importance with Scripture.
Now, having that fixed in our minds, what do we do when the conviction of the Holy Spirit shows us that we have violated the Word of God? The answer in our Scripture for today is to confess it. Some may wish to argue and say that God knows all about it anyway, so why confess it. Others may say that their parents had them baptized as a baby, therefore that takes care of everything. BEEEEP!! Wrong!
God’s Word says that we all have sinned. Our passage says that if any say they are not sinners they make God a liar. That is strong stuff. It is not just that they are lying to themselves, but they are putting themselves above the written Word of God. They say in effect, that God’s Word is wrong. Dangerous business!
It is so much easier to just confess – say we are so very sorry – ask Him to come near and forgive us for the sins we have committed, the sins of not doing what God says we should do, the sins of ATTITUDES, the sins of prejudices, and on and on it goes. It does not matter how large or small the sin, we deal with them in the same manner – confess! You will notice in our Scripture that all we have to do or can do is to confess.
The rest is all God’s action. He forgives us all our sins and He purifies us from all our unrighteousness. It is not by doing good in order to deserve it. We can’t be that good. Our part begins and ends with digging deep and insuring that the confession is from the inner part of our being, and that all of our sins are confessed. Then we begin walking in newness of life!
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today. Trust Him completely and be a blessing.
— Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 4, 2008 | Daily-E-Votionals
Psalm 37:7
“Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”
Several years ago Joyce and I were watching a Gaither Homecoming program. One of the members of the Gaither Trio at the time was Mark Lowry. He was the clown of the group. On this particular program, he was scheduled to play a piano duet with a fantastic pianist, Anthony Burger.
Anthony Burger, a gospel music pianist, had an album that was nominated for a 2006 Gospel Music Association Award. That gives you some idea of the God-given talent that he possessed. Mark, on the other hand, could hardly spell piano, much less play one.
They started their duet with Anthony burning up the key board on his piano while Mark smiled expectantly. Every time there was a pause in Anthony’s masterpiece, Mark would ask: “Now?” Anthony would shake his head. Finally Anthony nodded and said, “Now!” With that, Mark struck a single note with his index finger, then stood and bowed beside Anthony as the crowd cheered.
I feel that is only a teeny, tiny fraction of the ridiculous way we try to take pride in what we do for Jesus. Listen! It is not what we do for Jesus that makes the difference, but what He has done for us.
BE STILL: These words still echo in my mind. As a boy I was always on the go and usually talking a mile a minute. After taking it for just so long, my mother, in utter frustration, would look me directly in the eye and say these same words: “Be still!” The only difference is that she usually added the punishment that I would receive if I did not do as she said.
It is only when we are still that we are able to hear the voice of the Lord. The prophet Elijah was hiding in a cave when the Lord called to him. It was not from the violent wind, crashing storm, quaking earth or fire that God spoke to Elijah. Consider I Kings 19:12: “And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” God speaks in a still small voice and we must be still to hear Him.
WAIT PATIENTLY: I want you to know that I am not an impatient person—I just want things done right now! I am sure that none of you have that problem. Why does God delay so long in bringing deliverance? Most of the time, it is because it is for our own spiritual development.
God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation. Abraham could not wait for God to act so he had a child by Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar. That son, Ishmael, became the father of the Ishmaelites. God wanted Abraham to wait patiently for the child of promise, Isaac. A father at 100 with a 90 year old wife? This was so that there would be no doubt that a miracle-working God always keeps His promises. We just have to wait patiently before Him in absolute faith.
DO NOT FRET: Perhaps the hardest thing we will ever be called upon to do is to not fret. Can I rephrase this in a very earthy manner? Don’t sweat it! That does not mean that we are to have an indifferent attitude toward the things of God. In fact it is just the opposite. We are to place everything in His hands and leave them there.
Let me conclude this look at Psalm 37 with the words of the apostle Peter. In I Peter 5:6-7 we read: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today. Trust Him completely and be a blessing.
— Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 3, 2008 | Daily-E-Votionals
Psalm 37:4-6
“Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.”
We are looking at nine admonitions given in Psalm 37:1-7. Yesterday we considered, FRET NOT; TRUST; and DWELL. That brings us to the middle three admonitions, DELIGHT; COMMIT; and REST. I think it is important to consider each of the admonitions separately rather than simply lumping them all together as we read this wonderful Psalm of hope and confidence.
DELIGHT! Have you heard the expression (I won’t ask if you have ever used it) “She’s such a nag?” It has a very negative connotation. When I check the Hebrew dictionary for the meaning of the word, “delight”, I find that it is the word “anag.”
Are you ready for the definition of the word? I am going to give it to you anyway! Here is what I found: [To be soft, be delicate, be dainty. a) (Pual) to be delicate. b) (Hithpael) 1) to be of dainty habit, be pampered. 2) to be happy about, take exquisite delight. 3) to make merry over, make sport of]. It is very interesting to read what is said about the word, delight, in Gesenius’s Lexicon. (To allure, to entice, used of the amorous gestures of women in their looks, walks, etc.)
Listen gals, that does not give you license to behave in a suggestive manner. Men need very little encouragement and in our permissive society there is little left to the imagination. Let me explain to you ladies what men are like. A man with a sensuality problem went to see a therapist. The therapist showed him an ink blot and asked him to say the first word that came to mind. Immediately the man said, “Sex.” The therapist showed him seven ink blots of random shape and each time the man responded the same way. At the end of the session the therapist announced: “Sir, your problem is that you are a sex addict!” The man was offended and replied: “How can you say that? You’re the one who showed me the dirty pictures!”
To delight in the Lord is to develop an allure for Him and His Word that is so enticing to us that it draws us to a closer walk with Him.
COMMIT! Do we really know the meaning of the word? Once again it is important to know the meaning of the word. In the Hebrew it means: to roll. I have this word picture. In my mind’s eye I see a man with a heavy load on his shoulder. The load is heavy and burdensome. To commit means to roll the load off our shoulder and onto the Lord.
In Psalm 55:22, we have a perfect description of what it means to commit: “Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall.” The words, “Cast your cares” has the same meaning as committing. Are you carrying a load that only the Lord is capable of bearing? Commit it to Him!
REST! Now this in no way means lying down on the job. Going back to the original, we find that it has a much more significant meaning. In the Hebrew it means: 1) to be silent 2) to be still, die 3) to be struck dumb. The Psalmist says it best in Psalm 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” That is what it means to come into complete rest. Rest in Him!
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today. Trust Him completely and be a blessing.
— Pastor Cecil
