by Pastor Cecil | May 24, 2010 | 2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 5:8-9
“We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please Him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.”
Today is another special day for Joyce and I. It is the day we celebrate the birth of our oldest daughter, Brenda Joy. That makes the third of four birthdays in May and each is exactly one week apart ― my wife Joyce on the 10th, our son Dan on the 17th, our daughter Brenda (who went to be with the Lord in 1991) on the 24th, and our grandson, Jeremiah, on the 31st.
Back in 1991, Brenda was in the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle. I was alone with her one afternoon when she suddenly said, “Dad, I feel as if I have been cheated. Grandpa lived to be 74 and here I am near death at just 35. I feel like I am cheated out of half of my life!”
When I arrived home that evening, I took a piece of typing paper and from the garage floor swept up a little sand. Sitting at the kitchen table I carefully counted out 74 grains of sand. These I placed in a tiny sample perfume bottle. The sand hardly covered the bottom.
The next day at the hospital I placed the tiny bottle on Brenda’s bed. When she asked what it was, I told her it was Grandpa Thompson. I explained that we have the wrong idea about the length of this life. If one grain of sand is equal to one year in eternity, think of the earth, the stars all being sand. Seventy-four grains of sand is nothing and half of that is nothing. Eternity is what is important.
Have you made provision for where you will spend eternity?
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
360-570-0074
PastorCecil@Daily-E-Votional.com
by Pastor Cecil | Feb 10, 2010 | 2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 6:17
“‘Therefore come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.’”
Why do believers compromise God’s commands? What justification do we have in living more like the world than like those who have been born anew? What are we going to say to the Lord when He asks us why we neglected His holiness? The sad thing about compromise is that those who do the compromising usually try to justify their actions.
We have an example of this in Exodus 32. Moses was on the Mountain receiving the Law. He had been gone over a month when the people began to question whether he had perished and if he would ever return. In spite of all of the miracles they had experienced, they still lacked the faith to trust God.
With very little persuasion, Aaron took gold from the people and fashioned a golden calf for them to worship. Aaron compromised the absolute truth of God’s plan for His people and tried to justify his actions by saying that it was done to lead the people in worshiping the Lord.
Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday. There was a lot of hype leading up to the day, which should have had little impact for dedicated Christians. It came as an electric shock to me when I heard that one congregation had cancelled their evening service in order to install a large screen TV and show the game in the church.
My prayer is that God will make me more sensitive to my spiritual need. I want Him to make me aware when I am in danger of compromise. It is my desire to hold firm to the standards established in His Word and refuse to drift into compromise. I invite you to join me in that prayer.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Dec 10, 2009 | 2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 12:8-9
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
A story is told of a very poor man who lived in ancient times. It was a time when powerful kings dominated all who lived in their kingdoms and who had the power of life and death. It was a time when many sons and many horses were a sign of wealth and prosperity.
This poor man had only one horse and one son. As he grew older, his son used the horse to plow the fields, to haul the produce to market and ride from place to place on various errands. People pitied the poor man and often made disparaging remarks about his poverty.
Things went from bad to worse when his son was returning from the village on the horse and was thrown to the ground and his leg broken. The people clucked their tongues and wondered what evil thing this poor man had done to have such bad fortune to befall him. He would just smile and reply, “The Lord knows what I need. I will trust Him to give me what He wants me to have.”
Not long after the son’s accident, the king sent messengers to each village and demanded that every able-bodied young man report for battle immediately. The only one in this age group who was not conscripted was the poor man’s son. In a short time the sad news was relayed to the village that the battle had gone very wrong and all of the men had died in the fray. Now the man who had once been pitied was considered to be the one who was blessed.
When we trust in God, it makes no difference what people think or say—Romans 8:28 is true in any and every circumstance: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
As a child of God we should be under His control. He may delay the answer to our prayer, or He may deny it as He did with Paul. Whatever the Lord determines for our lives—to delay or deny—we can know that His grace is sufficient.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Dec 3, 2009 | 2 Corinthians, Daily-E-Votionals
2 Corinthians 2:15-16
“We are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?”
Back in the 1940’s our family had just moved from the State of Washington to the State of Idaho. It was a dramatic change from the lush green vegetation along the Columbia River to the dry, and often sagebrush covered, Boise Valley.
One thing that stands out in my mind is gathering onions in the late summer. The farmers in our county grew onions for seeds. They would then dig up the onion bulbs and truck them out and dump them in the desert. You located the free bounty by smell. Onions may have an odor to some people, but to our family they have always had beautiful aroma.
As I started writing this, I had no idea where it would lead me, but now I know. Just as onions may be either an odor or an aroma—depending on one’s point of view—so does our Christian witness.
The important thing for us to carefully consider is how the Lord considers us. Are we a sweet smelling aroma of vibrant life to Him, or an odor of dead flesh?
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 29, 2009 | 2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.”
There are a lot of hurting people out there! By “out there” I mean around the world. I never dreamed I would be in a position to have a worldwide ministry that circles the globe. I am the same guy who delights in a small group of four or five studying God’s precious Word.
So why such an increase? It was certainly not my intention. Back in September of 2000 I started with a handful of subscribers. Friends told friends (they still do) and gradually the subscriber base includes readers around the world. I just checked on Friday afternoon and was shocked to discover that I have sent out 2,556 Daily-E-Votionals.
I share these details with you to let you know that this is God’s work, not mine. Day by day I pray and meditate about what to write. Without the Lord’s help I would have run dry long ago. (There is nothing worse than a dry preacher!)
Back to today’s subject—“HURTING!” I receive many e-mail messages that reveal that God’s people are hurting. It may be the loss of work, financial havoc, an upsetting medical diagnosis, death of a loved one, divorce, false accusations or persecution for being a Christian.
It is very important that we take time to listen to people as they pour out their heart. It is not necessary to answer immediately—that is often the worst thing we can do. James 1:19 says that we are to be “quick to listen and slow to speak.” It is during this quietness of listening that we can pray and seek God’s guidance.
As today’s Scripture says, it is the Lord who brings us the comfort we need. When He does comfort us and lift us up, we should take note of what He has done for us and be ready to comfort others who are in the pressure cooker of life.
If you are hurting right now, I want you to know that God loves you and He will not allow you to endure more than you are able to bear. Spend time in His Word and search out the many precious promises He gives for our times of turmoil.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 23, 2009 | 2 Corinthians
2 Corinthians 5:7-9
“We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.”
I want to make it plain at the outset that I am a creationist. I believe God’s Word when it says that it was God 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 the Lord Jesus 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. Over the years of my life they have tried over and over again to prove their theory. To believe in evolutionism requires more faith than I could ever muster. Yes, faith is required regardless of our response to the accuracy of God’s Word.
Scientists have been repeatedly forced to conceive or contrive new theories to substantiate their position. They try to say 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 religion.
Hebrews 11:1 says it all for me and that is where I take my stand: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
