by Pastor Cecil | Oct 8, 2018 | John
John 3:30-31
“He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.”
John the Baptist became a mighty man of God that brought a message of repentance to the people in Israel. People flocked out to hear him, responded to his message and were baptized. You might think that John would be jealous of his territory and his reputation. His entire life had been devoted to serving the Lord in unwavering obedience. Now Jesus had appeared to begin His earthly ministry.
How would John react? Would he jealously hold tight to his ministry and reject the ministry of Jesus? The answer was “No!” The words that John spoke in today’s Scripture should be our attitude as well: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Wow! That is so profound and unexpected. Later, the disciples of Jesus would argue about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom. But here is John turning his back on personal gain.
When John’s disciples reported that many of his followers were now following after Jesus, he did not express resentment or bitterness. He knew that it was essential for him to fade into the background and allow His Lord to increase and accomplish His task. Are you willing to surrender your pride and self-centeredness? I pray you are!
Blessings dear hearts. May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Oct 5, 2018 | Psalm
Psalm 36:1-3
“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: http://www.gloryscapes.com/comethoufount/
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Oct 4, 2018 | 2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 5:6
“So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.”
We never know how close we are to eternity! In 1953 I had completed basic training in California. Approximately fifty of us new Airmen were being flown to Amarillo, Texas in an outdated military transport plane left over from World War II.
One of the flight crew notified us that we would be making a stop in New Mexico. Just as we landed, one of the two propellers stopped. We were stranded there for several hours while the necessary repairs were made. One of the mechanics happened to mention that it was fortunate we were near the airbase when the trouble hit. Yikes!
Thinking about it now, I realize that we could very easily have crashed and I would have been ushered into eternity! I have had other close calls that reveal to me that we are just a heartbeat from eternity!
I want to live in such a way that others will see Christ in me. Not only did Paul express his commitment to live only for Christ, he demonstrated it by the way he lived. If ever there was an example of a sold-out Christian life, it was the apostle Paul. Let me close for today with Paul’s statement in Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Blessings dear hearts. May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Oct 3, 2018 | Daily-E-Votionals
Matthew 5:11-12
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
I think it would be safe to say that most of us are whiners rather than winners. We cry like babies when someone steps on our spiritual toes. The words Jesus speaks in the Beatitudes stand as a sharp contrast to that way of thinking.
To be honest, none of us enjoy painful experiences. We do everything we can to negate the pangs of pain, but let’s face it — there are times when pain is unavoidable and we have to deal with it. That is when spiritual living becomes real.
Jesus says that we are to consider times of reviling, persecution, and false accusations for standing strong for His sake as blessings. Wow! What a revolutionary thought! It is a clarion call to true discipleship. Amazingly, Jesus tells us to REJOICE!
The spiritual justification Jesus gives for this revolutionary reaction is that our reward is not necessarily on this earth, but awaits us in heaven. Secondly, it helps us to identify with the prophets of old who endured with courage and determination. It says to me that we are to EMBRACE PERSECUTION when it comes our way!
Blessings dear hearts. May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Oct 2, 2018 | 1 Chronicles
1 Corinthians 5:1
“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
I have enjoyed many nights camping out in a tent, but I must confess that I was always eager to return to my own home and comfy bed. The apostle Paul was a tent-maker by trade. I can almost visualize his calloused fingers and hands. They would almost certainly have been the marks from years of stretching and stitching the fabric to create or repair tents.
In today’s Scripture, Paul uses his profession as a tent-maker to illustrate a spiritual truth: This human body of ours is not going to survive. There are those who try to reverse the aging process in various ways, but nothing is going to keep us from coming to the end of our life and entering eternity.
It is sad that most of us spend far too much time and effort on things that will pass away. By spending so much time on earthly things we neglect the things that really count—those things that have eternal value.
Spending time with God in prayer and reading His Word will prepare us for that heavenly home that will never pass away. What home are you spending your time and effort to build?
Blessings dear hearts. May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
