by Pastor Cecil | Jun 9, 2011 | Acts
Acts 4:11-12
“This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
A dear friend shared a conversation with a homeless man at our local Union Gospel Mission. It was soon after Osama Bin Laden had been killed. My friend asked the man, “Where do you think Osama Bin Laden is right now?” He immediately answered, “In hell!”
He went on to describe how evil he thought Osama had been and how many deaths he had caused in his life. Sensing an opportunity to witness, my friend asked why he felt that he was in hell. He supposed it was because of his evil life.
This was the moment of opportunity. “Do you know for sure where you will spend eternity?” The man answered that he was not sure. “Then if you are not sure, you may end up being roommates with Osama Bin Laden!”
The man has made a new commitment to make the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of his life. Please pray that he will continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. At the same time pray for those precious souls that God has lifted up to reach out to those who have lost their way.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
360-570-0074
PastorCecil@Daily-E-Votional.com
P.S. – You can help! Please consider trying to get one other person to subscribe to the Daily-E-Votional. This worldwide ministry asks for no funds and is sent to glorify our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Have them go to https://dailyevotional.com/prior2020/subscribe and enter their email address.
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 8, 2011 | 1 Thessalonians
1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
“Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil.”
As a little boy I remember (it’s really a stretch to recall that far back) mom getting after me for getting dirty just before we were ready to go to church. I could not understand why she made such a big deal about it until we had kids of our own and knew firsthand the frustration of thinking you are all ready to go, only to discover one of your offspring looking like they had rolled in the dirt.
As years progressed I also became keenly aware of those people who claimed to be committed Christians who allowed their testimony to be sullied by giving all the signs of a sinful lifestyle. In some cases I discovered they had not done anything wrong, but by their association with questionable practices they “seemed” dirty.
Today’s Scripture is one of those passages that I like to consider in reverse order. The first thought I see is the admonition to, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” When we ask ourselves how we can do that, the answer is given immediately preceding this word, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”
Our failure to prove all things and hold fast to those things that are righteous and good, will result in living a life that is questionable. As faithful believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, our life should be above reproach. Let’s live above question about our conduct and behavior.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
360-570-0074
PastorCecil@Daily-E-Votional.com
P.S. – You can help! Please consider trying to get one other person to subscribe to the Daily-E-Votional. This worldwide ministry asks for no funds and is sent to glorify our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Have them go to https://dailyevotional.com/prior2020/subscribe and enter their email address.
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 7, 2011 | Proverbs
Proverbs 16:18-19
“Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.”
I have never seen a more vivid example of bruised pride than at a wedding ceremony I performed several years ago. It was an outdoor wedding located on a small farm with livestock almost outnumbering the invited guests.
Folding chairs had been lined up and the wedding party was all in place except the groom. He had planned to gallop his horse around the house and pull to a stop near his awaiting fiancé and the wedding party.
At the appropriate time he rounded the house like some wild west cowboy, complete with dressy western outfit and Stetson hat. About twenty feet from his intended stop, his horse suddenly screeched to a stop, but he didn’t. He landed in a heap. Evidently a fence had been removed, but the horse was still used to it being there. The visitors enjoyed his fall far more than he did. It was hard for me to officiate with the straight face, but I did.
Pride is a terrible thing to allow in our life. It causes us to separate ourselves from those around us as well from the Lord. Rather than humbly bowing before the Lord to ask Him for strength and guidance, the proud person tried to do it in his own power and like my cowboy groom, a fall is inevitable.
Proverbs 3:5-7 is a passage that gives us direction to overcome pride of life: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil.”
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
360-570-0074
PastorCecil@Daily-E-Votional.com
P.S. – You can help! Please consider trying to get one other person to subscribe to the Daily-E-Votional. This worldwide ministry asks for no funds and is sent to glorify our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Have them go to https://dailyevotional.com/prior2020/subscribe and enter their email address.
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 6, 2011 | John
John 14:1-6
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ ”
I was asked to do a devotional for my dear friend, Sam Tubb, who went to be with the Lord on Wednesday, June 1st. I wanted to share it with all of our readers in the hope that it may touch others who have been or will be experiencing the loss.
What wonderful words of comfort we find in these six verses. Jesus knew that He was going to leave His disciples in the very near future. I think He knew that there would be very heavy hearts because of His departure. He wanted to leave them (and us) with words that would lift grief stricken hearts to see the hope of eternity.
For the true born again believer, there is reason for assurance and joy as we say farewell to our days on earth and hello to an eternity that will never end. Actually for the true believer, we have already died to Christ and passed from death to life. So the last breath we take on this side of eternity will prepare us for the first breath of celestial air. Sam is breathing that crystal clear celestial air right now. He fought long and hard to beat the ravages of cancer, and prayed for healing. God has heard his prayer and he has received his “perfect healing.”
Back in 1990 our daughter was very near death. I was visiting her in her hospital room one afternoon. It was just the two of us in her room. She looked over at me and said, “You know dad, I feel that I have been cheated. Grandpa lived to be 74 (Sam’s age) and I am just 35. I feel as if I have been cheated out of half of my life.”
Wow! For once in my life I did not respond immediately. On the way home that night I prayed for wisdom. I needed to have some graphic way to speak hope and encouragement when I returned the next day. It was then that the Holy Spirit directed me to use sand as an example.
When I got home I took a piece of typing paper and went into the garage. I brushed some sand onto the paper and went directly to the kitchen. With a bright light and sharp knife I counted out 74 tiny grains of sand. It was such a tiny amount of sand that I wondered what to put it in. Then I thought of those tiny sample perfume bottles. Luckily my wife had one, so I poured the grains into it. It hardly covered the bottom.
The next day when I entered our daughter’s room, I placed the bottle on her bed. She looked puzzled and asked what it was. I told her it was grandpa. Then she really looked puzzled. I said, “You remember yesterday when you said you felt like you had been cheated out of half of your life?” She nodded.
I went on. “Try to imagine that the entire earth was one big ball of fine sand and each tiny grain represents one year of eternity. It would be more than that, but just start there. Now imagine that you remove these 74 grains of sand from the huge ball of sand. What are these 74 grains compared to all the billions and billions of others?” She replied, “Nothing.”
It was time for my words of reality. I pointed out that if 74 years was nothing, then her 35 years were also nothing. It really does not matter how long or how short our life span might be. It is the decision we make to receive Jesus Christ by personal invitation that really matters.
I have known Sam Tubb for well over 40 years. First in Officer’s Training School, and later as Minuteman Missile Combat Crew Commanders. Over the years I have been blessed to see Jesus become more and more real in Sam’s life. That is the greatest accomplishment he could ever achieve.
As we come to confirm the reality of Sam Tubb’s final departure from this earth, his spirit we leave with God. For we know the merciful Judge of all the earth will do right. It is up to us who remain to receive Jesus Christ by personal invitation. It is only in this manner that we will obtain eternal life and spend all of eternity with our precious Lord and those believers, such as Sam, who have gone on before us. What a reunion we will have when we are all gathered together to never part!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
360-570-0074
PastorCecil@Daily-E-Votional.com
P.S. – You can help! Please consider trying to get one other person to subscribe to the Daily-E-Votional. This worldwide ministry asks for no funds and is sent to glorify our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Have them go to https://dailyevotional.com/prior2020/subscribe and enter their email address.
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 3, 2011 | James
James 4:8
“Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
Joyce and I passed through a very difficult time in our life as our oldest daughter came closer and closer to passing into the arms of Jesus. We knew that her heart was right with the Lord and that the moment she took her last breath here on earth, her next would be in glory, but it still was a time we needed the Lord nearby.
Fanny J. Crosby lived from 1820 to 1915. This remarkable lady never let problems keep her away from the Lord. Her blindness as an infant meant that she spent her entire life without physical sight, but was blessed with a keen spiritual sight.
When she was only eight she wrote the following poem: “Oh, what a happy child I am, although I cannot see! I am resolved that in this world contented I will be! How many blessings I enjoy that other people don’t! So weep or sigh because I am blind, I cannot—nor I won’t.” The hymn, “Draw Me Nearer” seems to express her desire toward her blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
“Draw Me Nearer“
I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee.
Refrain:
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.
Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the pow’r of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.
Refrain:
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.
Oh, the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God
I commune as friend with friend!
Refrain:
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.
There are depths of love that I cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea;
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till I rest in peace with Thee.
Refrain:
Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious, bleeding side.
To access Draw Me Nearer, this week’s inspirational video from GloryScapes™ Christian Music Hymns & Songs, please go to: http://www.gloryscapes.com/drawmenearer in your browser or click on the image below.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
360-570-0074
PastorCecil@Daily-E-Votional.com
P.S. – You can help! Please consider trying to get one other person to subscribe to the Daily-E-Votional. This worldwide ministry asks for no funds and is sent to glorify our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Have them go to https://dailyevotional.com/prior2020/subscribe and enter their email address.
