by Pastor Cecil | Jun 13, 2013 | 1 John
1 John 4:10-11
This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one another.
Love is a very precious commodity! I have counseled countless individuals who were desperately searching for someone to love them unconditionally. I might add that, for many of these people, it would have to be unconditional love because they were very unlovable. I have come to the conclusion that these people are the very ones who need love the most.
Notice that 1 John 4:10-11 defines love. It is not determined or measured by our love for God, but by His love for us. Let that sink in for a few minutes. Human love is so far removed from the pure love of God that we cannot comprehend it. It can only be experienced to be appreciated.
In some contorted manner we have convinced ourselves that we will please God by directing all of our love toward Him. While that may make us feel good, it is not what we are directed to do. We are to demonstrate our love toward God by the way we love those around us.
Oops! That may come as a big surprise. It tells me that we are to get out of our comfort zone and love others with all of our heart. It is time to take a look at the way we are living and loving. Let others feel the love of Jesus through you!
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 5, 2013 | 1 John
1 John 4:10-11
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Love is more than a four-letter word. The concept of love has been so distorted and perverted in our modern world that we have difficulty understanding it. It seems that people seek to discover love that will make them tingle with delight and wrap them in a cloak of good feelings.
I must confess that I still feel that way about my wife of almost 61 years. When I first saw her I felt my heart melt and even at age 14, I felt that this was the girl the Lord had designed to be my best friend and sweetheart for as long as we both would live. It took four more years before we were joined in marriage, and we have felt His love through us in all of those years.
A vital part of love is sacrificing yourself for the one you love. As long as a person waits to be loved, there is no true understanding of what love is really all about. In Ephesians 5, Paul tells husbands to love their wives in the way Christ loved the church. That means loving enough to die for her. How many of you husbands die to yourselves in order to express your love for that wife of yours? Man, is it getting quiet in here or is it just my imagination? We all have work to do in order to come to a realization of the love Christ has for us. Then we are to pass it on.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Aug 20, 2012 | 1 John
1 John 3:18-19
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence.
Several years ago I conducted a committal service for a decorated navy veteran. The service was at a national cemetery some distance from our home. I asked my wife, Joyce to ride with me and keep me company. When we drove to the shelter where the ceremony was to take place I was directed where to park. It was just in the right location for Joyce to observe the service from our car.
The military members marched forward carrying the folded flag. The rifle detail fired three salvos, the flag was unfurled and as the military members saluted, a bugler played out the somber notes of the taps. It was inspiring to have four military personnel standing at parade rest while I recited Scripture and made spiritual application about the reality of eternity. The military concluded their portion of the service by presenting the flag to the widow. They then marched behind the wall of the shelter. Everything appeared to be very formal.
On the trip home Joyce told me what she had seen from her vantage point. The military detail had been so polished and regimented during the ceremony, but after they went behind the wall, a change took place. She watched as the stiff formality dissolved into casual laughter and gestures of relief.
Before we say anything about these brave, young service personnel, let us stop and consider our spiritual behavior. How many times have we put on a facade of piousness that was not exactly true? If we face ourselves in God’s mirror of truth—the Bible—what would we see?
If ever there were a time for authentic Christianity, it is now! We need men and women who will quit putting on a spiritual show and begin living as authentic believers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are people looking at the way we live—not just when we are in church, but every single day of the week. There are no time outs when it comes to serving Jesus. We should be the same “behind the wall” as we are when we’re called upon to minister. On stage or off stage—we need to be real soldiers of the cross! As the title of this Daily-E-Votional asks; “WHO ARE YOU?”
Blessings dear hearts! Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 3, 2012 | 1 John
1 John 2:15-16
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
Pride has been the prevalent sin of all mankind since the Garden of Eden. We might even predate it earlier than the creation of Adam and Eve. Satan was consumed with a spirit of pride and desired to be high and lifted up to a position of divinity. He tempted Eve in the Garden by causing her to believe that the reason she and Adam were not allowed to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil was that they would become like God.
Years ago I heard the story of a pastor who announced to his congregation that he would be starting a series on pride and a call to true humility. After the first sermon in the series he was met at the door by a little lady who was so pleased with his new series. She told her pastor that she did not have many gifts or talents, but she was very PROUD of her humility. It made him want to cry.
When we stop to analyze the situation, most of us are very preoccupied with ourselves. Our chief aim is to satisfy ourselves. Even when offering a helping hand to someone else we want to make sure that we get credit for it. In other words, it is all about our own personal pride, the battleground of humanity.
Paul urges us to get our eyes off of the worldly and focus on the spiritual. Our goal should be always to inquire of the Lord what He is leading us to accomplish. We also need to keep our eyes open to see where He is at work around us and then making sure that we join in His program.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 13, 2012 | 1 John
1 John 2:28-29
And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
Back in the dark ages of time, I served as rookie cop in the small community of Caldwell, Idaho, working the graveyard shift from 11 PM to 7 AM. (Maybe it’s called the graveyard shift because after working through the dark hours of the night you feel like you are half dead.)
There was an old sergeant who worked as dispatcher on our shift. He had been with the department for over twenty years and was nearing retirement. I can still remember going into the dispatch office and seeing Bill playing solitaire. He not only played the game, it was his obsession. He would get so angry when he lost a game that he would stomp and swear a blue streak. All of this over a silly game he was playing just to pass the long night hours of the graveyard shift.
I am sure that old Bill is dead by now. He was at retirement age back then in 1957, so unless he is the oldest man in the world he has been long gone. The silly games of solitaire that were played out on his desk at the police station have absolutely no meaning when it comes to eternity. I am grieved that Bill never made a decision for the Lord, so far as we know. How eternally tragic!
Those who have frittered their lives away on the things of this world are foolish in the sight of God. Those who are wise will listen to the call of the Lord and obey His commands. It is time for all of us to look into the mirror of the Word of God to see how we measure up.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | May 23, 2012 | 1 John
1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
I once heard about a couple who made an appointment with a marriage counselor. They had been married for forty years and the counselor wondered why they would want to talk to him.
The wife started out by saying that she didn’t think her husband loved her—at least he never said he loved her. When the counselor asked the husband if this were true, he readily agreed. The husband explained that he told his wife forty years ago that he loved her and that he had not withdrawn that statement. In the husband’s mind that 40-year-old declaration was still in effect! (I think the counselor wanted to bang his head on the desk!)
It is seldom, if ever, that we choose up sides and talk about the meaning of the word love. Many of us think we have a grasp of its meaning, but there is some doubt that we have plumbed love’s true meaning.
Here is my candid observation: Love is an emotion. The Bible says we are to love and, by its very nature, love needs a positive response to that command. We are prone to love only as long as the person loves us in return. Take that response away and we quickly lose the desire to continue loving.
Like it or not, we humans are self-centered and preoccupied with ourselves. If you want an example of this, just stop and listen to someone’s conversation. Note the way they focus on their own interests and welfare.
According to God’s precious Word we are to love in the same way that Jesus loves us. That means we are to love even when the other person is not lovable. When you stop to think about it, that is the way God loves us—when we are the most unlovable. It is while we were unlovable sinners that Christ loved us, and it’s the unlovable people around us who need us to love them—with Christ’s transforming love.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
