by Pastor Cecil | Jul 10, 2018 | Proverbs
Proverbs 5:18
“May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.”
This is a very special and poignant day for me. If my precious wife Joyce was still alive (actually she is more alive than I can even imagine), we would be celebrating our 66th wedding anniversary.
We were blessed beyond measure to meet when we were just fourteen and knew that God had intended us to spend our life as husband and wife. Naturally we had to wait until after high school, so just four weeks after graduation we pledged our lives to one another.
My Joyce was not only my wife, she was my dearest friend. I have never enjoyed things when she was not beside me so we could share them together. I know she is with the Lord and the things she is experiencing now she will be sharing with me when we meet once again.
I want to encourage each of you to seek a closer walk with the Lord and with the one who is closest to you. Make each day and each hour leave lasting memories that will linger in the hearts of those you will leave behind.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 9, 2018 | Job
Job 38:1-2
“Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: ‘Who is this that obscures My plans with words without knowledge?’”
Sometimes we, like Job, spend too much time dwelling on our misfortunes instead of asking the Lord to show us the plans He has for us. Paul learned that the Lord allowed his “thorn in the flesh” to remain in order to teach him to be used of God in the midst of his pain.
I have always enjoyed the comic strip Hagar the Horrible by Chris Browne. Years ago Chris depicted Hagar standing on the top of a high mountain peak with his battered old sword raised high over his head. There high aloft the mere mortals below, Hagar declared that he had reached the top after all of these years!
Hagar declares that this is what every man wants, but he is the only one to have achieved! He proclaims: “I am invincible! I am indestructible! No one can challenge me! I am the greatest! I’m number one!” Suddenly a bolt of lightning flashes and thunder rumbles. Hagar ducks, looks toward heaven and meekly asks, “Okay — how about the second greatest?”
Pride goes before a fall. When subjected to proud boasts, the only one who is impressed is the braggart. Humility is our constant awareness of our need of the Lord at all times in our life, not just in the emergencies.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 6, 2018 | Hebrews
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
This week’s hymn was written over 300 years ago by Isaac Watts. It would be impossible to fully know the number of lives it has touched since he wrote it. One of those lives was the blind hymn writer, Fanny J. Crosby. In the autumn of 1850 revival meetings were being held in the Thirtieth Street Methodist Church in New York City.
Fanny and some of her friends attended each night and she craved for spiritual joy, but could not find it. On the evening of November 20, 1850, it seemed to her that the light must indeed come then or never. After a prayer was offered, they began to sing this hymn. When they sang “Here Lord, I give myself away,” her soul was flooded with a celestial light. She realized what her problem had been. She realized that she had been trying to hold the world in one hand and the Lord in the other.
At the Cross
1. Alas! and did my Savior bleed, And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head, For sinners such as I?
Refrain: At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
2. Was it for crimes that I had done, He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! grace unknown! And love beyond degree!
Refrain: At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
3. Well might the sun in darkness hide, And shut his glories in, When Christ, the mighty Maker died, For man the creature’s sin.
Refrain: At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
4. But drops of grief can ne’er repay, The debt of love I owe: Here, Lord, I give myself away, ’Tis all that I can do.
Refrain: At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, And the burden of my heart rolled away, It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
Are you like Fanny Crosby—looking for joy to fill your soul? Her answer is our answer— Here, Lord, I give myself away, ’Tis all that I can do.
To access this week’s free inspirational video from GloryScapes.com. please go to:http://www.gloryscapes.com/atthecross/
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 5, 2018 | Matthew
Matthew 8:34
“Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.”
Sometimes, when we are rejected by others, we take it as a personal failure. We need to remember that Jesus was rejected over and over even when He performed acts of kindness and blessing.
In today’s Scripture, Jesus had just healed two demon-possessed men who had been forced from society to live in the tombs. Instead of rejoicing at the mighty miracle of restoration that Jesus brought them, the people of Gadara asked Him to leave their region. Wow!
The loving heart of our Master must have been crushed by yet another rejection from those who should have begged Him to stay near and show them the way to victory over the power of sin. They could rejoice over the two demoniacs who had been set free, or they could get ticked off about the pigs that were now floating on the water. I guess they valued their pigs more than their souls.
Sad to say, there will always be more who reject our message of salvation than those who accept it. If people rejected our Master, there will be many who will reject us. Our response must always be love and continued service for the Lord.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 4, 2018 | 1 John
1 John 1:8-9
“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.”
It is amazing that when we see other people doing bad things we call them sins. When we do the same type of things we justify them as “errors in judgment” or simply “mistakes.” BEEP!
In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John, John relates an incident when the Pharisees brought forth a woman caught in the act of adultery. They eagerly pointed out that the Law prescribed that the penalty for such an act was stoning. (The accusers conveniently failed to produce her partner in the sinful act. I wonder if it was one of them?)
Jesus did not justify her sinfulness, but simply wrote with his finger in the dust and asked for the one without sin to cast the first stone. It suddenly became very quiet as each of the accusers turned and left Jesus alone with the accused woman.
Jesus did not condone her sinfulness; He simply refused to condemn her and told her to go and sin no more. He does the same thing today. He forgives our sins, but He wants us to live a life of holiness. It begins with confessing our sins!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – Pastor Cecil
