by Pastor Cecil | Oct 2, 2019 | 2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 5:7-8
“For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
I am a creationist. I believe God’s Word when it says that it was He who created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. How did He do it? By the power of His mighty Word! My faith is based on the infallible Word of God.
I made a choice long ago to make Jesus the Christ the Lord of my life. I accept His Word and if He opens new vistas of understanding, I am eager to receive them. Many things I do not understand, but I know that He is the blessed controller of all things!
Evolutionists have had a hard time of it. Through the years of my life I have heard them try over and over again to prove their unprovable theory. Belief in evolutionism requires more faith than I could ever muster.
Evolutionists are repeatedly forced to conceive or contrive new theories to substantiate their position. They try to convince us that man is nothing more than an accident of millions of years evolving from a rock to a human. I just do not have enough faith to believe that kind of religion. Hebrews 11:1 says it all for me: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” That is where I take my stand!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Oct 1, 2019 | 1 Samuel
1 Samuel 8:5
“They said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.’”
It is frustrating trying to lead someone who is not committed to following. They may say they will follow, but it seems they are easily distracted and before long they are nowhere to be seen. This is true in the physical world as well as the spiritual world.
Many of us have had the frustration of asking someone to follow us only to soon discover they have gone missing. I vaguely recall a humorous story of a man who comes into a business and asks if the owner has seen his group. He frantically begs the owner; “Please help me. I must find them. I am their leader!”
Wow! That rings close to home for many of us. We may be just as guilty, or even more so, of taking our eyes off of our followers. Good leaders should know where their followers are at all times. Do we?
Our primary responsibility as a follower of Jesus Christ is to keep our eyes on Him at all times. We accomplish this by spending quality time in His Word and talking with Him in prayer. “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:6
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Sep 30, 2019 | Matthew
Matthew 6:30
“Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”
Sometimes we take things for granted. By that I mean that we fail to appreciate what blessings we possess. A trivial object may suddenly cease being trivial the moment we lose it. Far greater is the loss of our precious loved ones who slip into eternity.
I was born and raised in the verdant green of the Pacific Northwest, but I have lived in areas of the country where there is more desert than green growth. I always recall arriving in Idaho and experiencing irrigation that transformed the desert landscape into lush green vistas.
We may often feel that we are insignificant in the broad scheme of things. If you feel that way right now I want to encourage you in the Lord. It is not what you consider yourself to be, but what God clothes you to become that matters.
You may simply be just grass in your own eyes, but remember that it is God who clothes the grass of the field. Allow the Lord to adorn you with His beauty and glorious presence – – FROM JUST GRASS TO JUST GLORY!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Sep 27, 2019 | Jeremiah
Jeremiah 29:11-13
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
I would dare to say that almost all of us experienced some sort of trial in our life. It could be the loss of health, a financial meltdown, death of a mate or child or any number of catastrophic events. It is not whether or not we will encounter these trials, but rather what we will do when they arise.
The phrase, “Praise to the Lord” occurs in at least 155 verses in the Bible. That indicates to me that we need to spend far more time praising the Lord than we do. It would be well to replace our complaints with words of praise to the Lord.
Over 300 years ago, Joachim Neander was a hymn writer for the German Reform church. He was going through a time of trial and testing in his life. He would take long walks and pour his heart out to the Lord. It was on one of these walks that he came to the realization that it was not his strength that would give him victory and peace, but rather the powerful God he served. It was in that state of mind that he composed this week’s featured hymn.
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, Now to His temple draw near;
Join me in glad adoration!
Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires e’er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
Praise to the Lord, who with marvelous wisdom hath made thee!
Decked thee with health, and with loving hand guided and stayed thee;
How oft in grief hath not He bought thee relief,
Spreading His wings for to shade thee!
Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him!
Let the Amen sound from His people again;
Gladly for aye we adore Him.
Enjoy this week’s free inspirational video from Gloryscapes.com. You may also access it by going to: http://www.gloryscapes.com/praisetothelordthealmighty/
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Sep 24, 2019 | 1 John
1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Increasingly we live in a world that calls righteousness evil and evil righteous. If we as believers speak out against the perverse actions around us we are accused of being judgmental and narrow minded. In fact, much of the time we are called even much more derogatory terms.
Much of the human behavior that the Bible terms perverse has become acceptable in our modern world. If any believer has the audacity to speak out against so-called “alternative lifestyles” they become the targets of those engaged in such abhorrent behavior. But many times other people also attack a righteous view of such behavior.
I sometimes feel we attack such sins as homosexuality while accepting sex outside of marriage as normal. That is not the way God views it. We need to spend more time in the Bible and see that sins may go far beyond sexual sins.
Paul gives us a wide view of what God calls sin in Galatians 5:19-21: “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.” It is time for us to confess!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
