by Pastor Cecil | Jun 12, 2015 | Psalm
Psalm 33:1-3
“Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.”
What a wonderful woman! She stood less than five feet tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. Because of being maltreated for an eye infection when she was only a few months old, she spent the remained of her 95 years totally blind.
Her name was Fanny J. Crosby. This tiny dynamo wrote over 8,000 poems and hymns during her lifetime. She composed her poems and hymns entirely in her mind and then dictated them to a stenographer. She was said to be able to work on as many as twelve hymns at once before dictating them all out.
Fanny felt that it was a special gift from God that she should be blind all of her life and she thanked Him for that gift. She felt that once she arrived in heaven the first face she desired to gladden her sight was he precious Savior. It was in 1896 that she wrote the hymn selected this week.
Praise Him! Praise Him!
1. Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Sing, O Earth, His wonderful love proclaim!
Hail Him! Hail Him! Highest archangels in glory;
strength and honor give to His holy name!
Like a shepherd Jesus will guard His children,
in His arms He carries them all day long:
Refrain: Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness; praise him! Praise him ever in joyful song!
2. Praise him! Praise him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
For our sins he suffered, and bled and died;
He our Rock, our hope of eternal salvation,
Hail Him! Hail Him! Jesus the Crucified.
Sound His praises! Jesus who bore our sorrows,
love unbounded, wonderful deep and strong:
Refrain: Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness; praise Him! Praise Him ever in joyful song!
3. Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Heavenly portals loud with hosannas ring!
Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever;
crown Him! crown Him! Prophet and Priest and King!
Christ is coming! over the world victorious,
power and glory unto the Lord belong.
Refrain: Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness; praise Him! Praise Him ever in joyful song!
To access Praise Him, Praise Him, this week’s inspirational video from GloryScapes™ Inspirational Music Videos, please go to: http://www.gloryscapes.com/praisehimpraisehim 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
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 11, 2015 | Hebrews
Hebrews 4:14-15
“Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Recently I read something by David Jeremiah about the distinction between sympathy and empathy, which I have been pondering on ever since. The difference is both startling and revealing at the same time.
Sympathy may be described as having pity or sorrow for the misfortunes of someone else. We have often felt sorry for people who are going through difficult times. We may even claim to know what a person is going through, but do we really? Feeling sorry for someone is not being able to identify with that person’s trial.
Empathy differs from sympathy because it can identify with that other person. In order to do so, they must have gone through or must now be going through that very circumstance in their own life. We need to be careful with our words of sympathy. They may sound hollow to the one who is traveling through a deep valley of trial.
Jesus knew that we would be going through times of trials and tribulation. Across the centuries of time, followers of Christ have suffered and died for the sake of the Gospel. Our Lord has empathy because He has been in that same position. He knows what it feels like to be tested and tried, to be tempted and tormented. When we go through the difficult times of life, there is a Rock we can turn to. That Rock is Jesus. He knows and cares.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 10, 2015 | Psalm
Psalm 139:1-3
“O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.”
I have enjoyed flying for as long as I can remember. I think the first time I ever flew in a small plane was when a second cousin who is a pilot took me for a flight when we were visiting in Oklahoma. From that time on every opportunity I had I would volunteer to go along with someone who was flying.
A new experience came along when I had my first helicopter ride. I was in the United States Air Force stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. I was a Minuteman Missile Crew Commander. Some of our launch facilities were miles away from home base and the crew would be flown out by helicopter. What a blast! (Oops! Perhaps that was the wrong adjective to use when speaking of strategic missiles!)
I have mentioned before that while traveling in a helicopter you are close enough to the ground to observe traffic from above. Not only that, you are able to see what was ahead. The driver in that car could not see ahead, but we could see ahead. If somehow we could communicate, we could tell the driver when it was safe to pass, even when approaching a hill. What could be suicide for a driver without direction, would become very safe.
Aren’t you glad we have a God in heaven who knows our tomorrows before we get there. He knows the difficulties, the joys, the challenges, the impossibilities, as a matter of fact he knows each and every situation that we will face. If only we could see what he sees! But he calls us to trust and obey. There’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 9, 2015 | Galatians
Galatians 14:17-18
“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
From time to time to time I have experienced computer problems. I’m sure that I am the only one who experiences this situation. I have to confess that after all these years of working with the computer there is more that I do not know about it than I do know about it.
I have discovered that people who can be trusted know far more than I do about my computer. Not only that there is a program (perhaps more than one), that allows a trusted technician to take remote control of my computer. One of the first questions that the program asks before transit burying control to a remote source is whether it is a trusted technician.
To suddenly see my cursor moving around and things being set to write is awesome. These talented technicians can do things and call upon resources that I will never be able to understand. But suddenly what seemed to be an insurmountable problem has been resolved and the control of the computer is returned to me.
It is difficult to turn our life over to someone else. But when that someone else is the Lord Jesus Christ He someone we can trust. Our part is to watch as he begins to do things in and through and with this that we would never be able to accomplish our self. Have you experienced that yet? If not I implore you to allow the Lord to do for you what He does best.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 8, 2015 | Acts
Acts 14:21-22
“They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’ they said.”
One of the great joys of my boyhood was riding my bicycle. There was a hill south of town that was difficult to ascend. By the time you arrived there your muscles ached and you were panting for breath. But when you looked out over the valley in the Boise Mountains on the other side, it seemed as though it was worth it all. But the best was yet to come! It was the coast down to the bottom!
When my dear wife Joyce was still alive, we traveled to Maui on the Hawaiian Islands. It was the last vacation we ever took and that was about 15 years ago. One of the popular tourist attractions was the bike tours to the mountain of Haleakala.
For your information, Haleakala is just over 10,000 feet in elevation. Only the bravest riders attempt to bike up to the summit, but there is an alternative. Vans transport the bicycles and their riders to the top of the mountain—from there it’s a full coast all the way to the bottom. What a kick!
Sadly, there are many believers who want to be carried to the top of the spiritual mountain just so they can coast to the bottom with little or no effort. Sorry folks, it just does not work that way! God does not call us to coast. He calls us to commit. Read today’s Scripture once again and hear what Paul says to believers. NO COASTING ALLOWED!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
