by Pastor Cecil | Dec 14, 2012 | Psalm
Psalm 98:4, 9-10
“Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing Let the rivers clap their hands; Let the hills be joyful together before the LORD.”
It has been told that Isaac Watts, who wrote the words of this beautiful Christmas hymn, had not intended it to be used only at Christmas. He wrote the words to paraphrase the words of today’s Scripture from Psalm 98.
To me it is a reminder that God will take our most feeble efforts and allow them to be used to accomplish His divine purpose. Once again Proverbs 3:5-6 is proven true: “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.”
Joy to the World
Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart Prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing;
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and heaven and angels sing
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns;
Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods; rocks, hills and plains,
Repeat the sounding joy;
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, Repeat, the sounding joy
No more will sins and sorrows grow;
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow;
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found.
He rules the world with truth and grace;
And makes the nations prove,
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love;
And wonders of His love;
And wonders, wonders of His love.
To access Joy to the World, this week’s inspirational video from GloryScapes™ Inspirational Music Videos, please go to: http://www.gloryscapes.com/joytotheworld/ 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 | Dec 13, 2012 | Matthew
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.
One Sunday, following our evening service, a man in the congregation asked if he might come to the parsonage and talk with me. I was delighted, and when he came we had a small lunch before going into my office.
Out of the clear blue came these words: “I hate your guts!” Wow! You could have knocked me over with a feather. Prior to this there did not seem to be anything of a conflict between us, so his statement was a blow.
With my mind reeling, I prayed silently for God’s wisdom and strength. With as much sincerity as possible I answered, “I am so glad that you feel free to share your feelings with me.” From that incident I would like to suggest a few ways to respond to and love the unlovable.
- Rely on God’s wisdom in dealing with the person.
- Realize that these unlovable people need love—perhaps more than others.
- Remember how unlovable our sins are in God’s sight.
- Rejoice that we are counted worthy to encounter persecution.
- Respond with love rather than retaliate with resentment.
What happened on that Sunday evening so long ago? We spent time together as he poured out his heart. As he was leaving he looked me directly in the eye and said, “Pastor, I love you so much!” Wow! That was a dramatic change from the comments he made earlier. God is so good!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Dec 12, 2012 | Matthew
Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
When I was a boy there was a man in our church who attracted all of us kids to him. As I recall, his name was Vanoy Croswell. He was a happy and radiant Christian who loved people and especially kids. But that was not what appealed to us. HE WAS THE SEN-SEN MAN!
Sen-Sen was (and still is) a breath freshener. It is tiny squares made of hard licorice. I went online and discovered that it can still be purchased today, usually in small packets. Previously it was available in more convenient small cardboard boxes. Similar to a matchbox of the time, an inner box slid out from a cardboard sleeve revealing a small hole from which the tiny Sen-Sen squares would fall when the box was shaken. That is what I remember about mister Croswell. I can still hear the rattle of the small box as he would shake out a tiny square.
It really did not take very much to attract the kids to him, and it gave him an opportunity to tell us about Jesus. We discovered that his generous spirit went far beyond the tiny pieces of sweets that he doled out to us. That was just his way of giving himself an opportunity to share.
In today’s Scripture Jesus says that we are to let our light shine in such a way that as they see the good that we do they will be drawn to glorify our Father in heaven. In what way are you drawing people to you in order to tell them about Jesus?
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Dec 11, 2012 | 1 Chronicles
1 Chronicles 29:11
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and You are exalted as head over all.
Back in my U.S. Air Force days I served as a Minuteman Missile Combat Crew Commander. The last year of my active duty I was assigned as Nuclear Safety Officer for our Strategic Missile Wing. Our wing had 150 missiles—each missile was tipped with a nuclear warhead, so there were many nuclear devices to maintain.
One day I was scheduled to monitor a weapons crew that was removing and inspecting the nuclear component of a warhead. I had observed such an operation before, but this time was different. The sergeant who was in charge asked me if I had ever held a nuclear device. I had seen them and studied about them, but I had never actually held such a device.
The nuclear component itself was just larger than a softball and was encased in a titanium shell. As I took it from his hands it felt so warm that it gave me a start. He laughed at my surprise and said it was the same reaction that everyone had. I was aware that the destructive power in that small ball was greater than the two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
As great as the horrible power of all of the world’s weapons of mass destruction is, the power of God is far greater. His power is a creative power. He only spoke and His words created everything in our universe and beyond. I will always think of my personal nuke encounter and remind myself that the power of God is more than sufficient for my every need. What a mighty God we serve!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Dec 10, 2012 | Matthew
Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
It is always a thrill for me to build a fire. I guess it started when I was in my teens and a boy scout. One summer we had a week-long camp and our scoutmaster taught us the fundamentals of building and maintaining a good fire. It was a thrill for us to use our shoe laces, a bow and drill, and in a few minutes have a flame erupt from our dry shavings. He taught us to always have dry wood near at hand so we would be able to keep the fire burning.
Recently I have thought about these lessons as I have built fires in our small wood stove. When I first ignite the fire there is plenty of paper and kindling to allow the flames to quickly flame into light. It is not enough to produce a flame. I have to keep the fire growing by placing larger and larger wood in the flames.
One day last week as I was watching the growing fire, I placed a larger piece of wood. It was too much and too soon for the fire to continue burning. I found it necessary to pay close attention to place smaller kindling back in the flames until they would get the larger pieces engulfed.
In the spiritual realm we sometimes fail to learn the lessons from the fire box. We must insure that we light the fire in new believers. Then we need to provide just the right amount of kindling to get their flame burning bright. As we prayerfully add more and more solid wood we need to watch for the moment when they are burning on their own and producing fire in those around them. GET BURNING!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
