by Pastor Cecil | Sep 6, 2017 | Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 9:17
“Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard rather than the shout of a ruler of fools.”
It is 5:15 a.m. and there is a loud rumbling sound in the street outside my home. We have a new paper delivery man. His car is several years old and needs a new muffler that I am sure he is not able to afford. The noise distracts for a few minutes and then the early morning quiet returns.
It takes me back in memory to a bitterly cold winter night in 1954. My wife Joyce had been visiting her sister in Louisiana and was returning to Rapid City, South Dakota, where I was stationed with the Air Force. The starter in our old Chevy was broken and the muffler was shot, but it was all we had, so I was thankful.
A friend helped shove the car to get it started and I was letting it idle until time to leave for the bus station to pick up Joyce. Suddenly there was quiet! I ran out of the house to discover the neighbor lady had been disturbed by the noise and had taken it upon herself to open the car door and turn off the engine.
She had no sympathy for my situation and refused to help. Fortunately, I was able to find someone who came to my rescue and drove me to meet my precious wife when she arrived. Quietness may be a relative term. The quietness that we really need is the quietness of spirit before God.
Blessings dear hearts!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Nov 4, 2016 | Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 3:11
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Years ago I heard a minister tell of an incident in a hospital elevator where he had just come from visiting a very ill patient. A young man overheard him speak about eternity and, perhaps wanting to mock his view, asked the minister where eternity was. The minister told the boy to place his hand on his chest to feel the beat of his heart. “Young man, eternity is one heartbeat away!” That may answer where eternity is or at least how close we are to it, but just how long is eternity?
Our daughter was in the hospital near death. One afternoon as the two of us spoke quietly, she said she felt she was cheated out of half of her life. She went on to say that Grandpa was 74 when he died and here she was just 35.
That evening as I drove into the garage I noticed that the car had been bringing in sand. I took out a sheet of typing paper and swept up some of the sand. I then sat at the kitchen table and counted out 74 grains. Some were larger than others, but all of them were quite small. I placed the 74 grains of sand in a tiny sample perfume bottle.
The next day as I entered her room I placed the bottle on her bed. When she asked what it was I told her it was Grandpa. I asked her to imagine the earth being nothing but fine sand. Each grain represented one year of eternity. The 74 grains in the bottle represented Grandpa’s life. Compared to the entire globe of sand it was nothing. Whether a person’s life lasted long or short, compared to eternity it was nothing.
It is what we do with the years we are given that matters. We can choose to confess our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior or we can continue our own willful way and suffer the dreadful consequences prepared for the lost.
I pray that the video that accompanies today’s Daily-E-Votional will assist you in making the right choice. Please feel free to share it with others while there is still time.
To view the video The Sands of Eternity, go to www.PastorCecil.com.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Oct 18, 2016 | Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 5:2
“Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven and you on earth; therefore let your words be few.”
As a Christian Counselor I was frequently confronted with adults that still carried the trauma of their early years. My precious wife carried some of those scars. She mentioned one boy who treated her very cruelly. Ironically, when I became a pastor in Burns, Oregon, that same boy, now an adult, was a member of our church.
Joyce had a difficult time overcoming the memories of the things he had said and the way he had mistreated her. One of the things that perplexed her was that he did not recall his harmful actions and acted nonchalant about it.
I am also aware of the ones who do not actually say the hurtful words, but laugh when another person belittles someone. Their laugh has the effect of bringing that person into the area of guilt. We might say guilt by association.
God calls each of us to speak words of blessing and praise. Look for things to lift up the downhearted or brow beaten. Look for God-given opportunities to show forth the love of Jesus to hurting hearts we meet.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Aug 10, 2016 | Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 3:1
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”
Schedules are extremely important. In fact, the whole world of public transportation relies on accurate schedules. You may remember my mentioning the computer application that alerts me to the schedule of the passes of the International Space Station (ISS) as it silently glides across the heavens over 200 miles above.
Over the years I have viewed the ISS hundreds of times as it passed overhead. Some of the passes occur during the dark hours, so it is possible to see the Space Station as a very bright star. In other instances, the Station passes into the earth’s shadow and seems to disappear.
Day after day I know that the ISS is making its way around the earth. It may be cloudy or the sun may prevent our viewing it as it passes over head, but I always know that it is right on time.
To us it often seems that the Lord is late in answering our prayers. We focus on our own desires rather than waiting on the Lord to bring about His will. At all times we need to remind ourselves that the Lord is always RIGHT ON TIME!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jan 13, 2016 | Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 12:1
“Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’”
Anniversaries are times to recall days gone by. The older we get, the more anniversaries we have to remember. Some anniversaries bring back wonderful, sweet, and precious memories, but others bring a pang to the heart. January 13th is one of the latter for me. It was one year ago on January 13th that my precious wife Joyce slipped away from this pain-racked world into the paradise of God.
We had celebrated 62 anniversaries of marriage and many other precious times that we always recalled with joy. But there were other anniversaries that brought tears to our eyes. The anniversary of the passing of our daughter Brenda was one of these. Joyce would always light a candle on the anniversary of Brenda’s passing.
Joyce and I were so blessed to have found each other at the tender age of fourteen. We knew from the start that we would walk life’s pathway together. We shared joys and tears along the way, but it was always together. The hardest part in the passing of your soul mate is that there is now an emptiness where once there was that one you knew was beside you. I can hardly wait to be with her and my other loved ones again! Until then I will double my efforts to serve Jesus with my whole heart!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Sep 25, 2015 | Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 3:11
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Years ago I heard a minister tell of an incident in a hospital elevator where he had just come from visiting a very ill patient. A young man overheard him speak about eternity and, perhaps wanting to mock his view, asked the minister where eternity was. The minister told the boy to place his hand on his chest to feel the beat of his heart. “Young man, eternity is one heartbeat away!” That may answer where eternity is or at least how close we are to it, but just how long is eternity?
Our daughter was in the hospital near death. One afternoon as the two of us spoke quietly, she said she felt she was cheated out of half of her life. She went on to say that Grandpa was 74 when he died and here she was just 35.
That evening as I drove into the garage I noticed that the car had been bringing in sand. I took out a sheet of typing paper and swept up some of the sand. I then sat at the kitchen table and counted out 74 grains. Some were larger than others, but all of them were quite small. I placed the 74 grains of sand in a tiny sample perfume bottle.
The next day as I entered her room I placed the bottle on her bed. When she asked what it was I told her it was Grandpa. I asked her to imagine the earth being nothing but fine sand. Each grain represented one year of eternity. The 74 grains in the bottle represented Grandpa’s life. Compared to the entire globe of sand it was nothing. Whether a person’s life lasted long or short, compared to eternity it was nothing.
It is what we do with the years we are given that matters. We can choose to confess our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior or we can continue our own willful way and suffer the dreadful consequences prepared for the lost.
I pray that the video that accompanies today’s Daily-E-Votional will assist you in making the right choice. Please feel free to share it with others while there is still time.
To view the video The Sands of Eternity, go to www.PastorCecil.com.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
