by Pastor Cecil | Nov 10, 2014 | James
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
In over fourteen years of sending out this Daily-E-Votional, I have not requested personal prayer. It is not that I do not believe in the power of prayer because I certainly do! There are many prayer warriors who have been called to that ministry and I applaud their faithful service.
That being said, I would like to request prayer for my wife, Joyce, and myself. Joyce has been diagnosed with Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). It is a type of progressive dementia that leads to a decline in thinking, reasoning, and independent function because of abnormal microscopic deposits that damage brain cells over time. She has experienced all of the symptoms.
Please pray for Joyce to be healed and for me to have strength to care for my beloved wife of 62 years.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Aug 7, 2014 | James
James 4:7-8
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Last Sunday afternoon we had a visit from our granddaughter and her family who have just moved here from Texas. We were excited to see the family, but my heart was yearning to see the newest member of the family, great granddaughter Skye Elena, who is just two months old.
As I took her in my arms and cuddled her close to my chest, my mind was flooded with memories of days gone by. Our photo albums contain pictures of each of our three kids as babies, cuddled up on my chest. Now come the great grandbabies.
My grandfather on my mother’s side of the family was also a cuddler. He loved babies and babies felt it. They would cuddle up in a ball on his chest and feel the warmth of his love and security.
In the same manner as babies cuddle up in the arms of those who love them, God desires us to cuddle up to Him. At first it may sound sacrilegious, but as we read the Word of God we discover that He is ready and willing for us to draw near to His heart and rest in the shelter and comfort of His arms.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 15, 2014 | James
James 1:5-8
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
I recall receiving an e-mail requesting prayer for a “prayer worrier.” I am sure the writer meant “prayer warrior,” but this person did what I have done so many times—misspelled a word and thus changed the meaning.
I have been thinking about the difference between the two. I went to the dictionary and found this definition for warrior: “One who is engaged in or experienced in battle. One who is engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity, cause, or conflict.” That sounds like someone you would like on your side, right?
On the other hand, here is the definition for worrier: “One who thinks about unfortunate things that might happen.” Whoops! That is certainly not the person I would feel confident to have in my corner as a prayer partner.
The Amplified Bible gives a clear picture of what we may call a prayer worrier instead of a prayer warrior “[For being as he is] a man of two minds (hesitating, dubious, irresolute), [he is] unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything [he thinks, feels, decides].” May that never be a description of our prayer life.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jun 10, 2014 | James
James 1:2-4
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
It seems like a lifetime ago that I was working for the Idaho Law Enforcement Planning Commission. There were a number of things happening in my life that caused me to become very impatient. If a car was going too slow in front of me I became frustrated. It was not that I really had to be somewhere at a particular time, I just did not want to be stuck behind a slow-poke driver.
On one occasion while traveling out of state, I again had the frustrating experience of following a driver that consistently drove below the posted speed limit. I tried to control my anxiety, but just could not find the peace I needed.
When I arrived at my room for the night, I prayed and asked the Lord to please help me deal with this problem area. I opened my Bible and it naturally landed on the Book of James. That is because I had been memorizing that book. When I read the first few verses I knew the Lord was speaking to me. I prayerfully asked Him to grant me patience. (When you pray that prayer, God is faithful to answer!)
The next morning I wanted to arrive at my meeting early so when I went to the restaurant, I sat at the counter. (You know that is the fastest way to get in and out.) Nope! I sat there and sat there watching customer after customer enter, be seated at a booth, order, eat, pay, and leave — while I still sat, at the counter, waiting for my order to arrive. God was answering my prayer.
The waitress was embarrassed and would not even come my way. Almost an hour later she brought my order and apologized. I told her that it was not her fault, God was answering my prayer! She looked at me as if I were crazy. When you pray for patience, get ready for God’s sense of humor!
God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Mar 26, 2014 | James
James 4:13-14
Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
For the past two weeks and more, it seems that the whole world’s attention has been focused on the disappearance of Malaysian flight 370 with 277 passengers and 12 crew members.
Last Saturday there was a massive mudslide here in the State of Washington. So far, there are 14 confirmed dead and over 100 more unaccounted for. These are only two incidents that resulted in loss of life in a moment of time.
Each of us lives only a heartbeat away from eternity. When you are as old as I am, you know that the days of life are greatly reduced. Many people much younger than I am have suddenly had their lives ended in a moment of time.
Regardless of how long we live, we can have the confident assurance that at the moment of our death we can know that we will be with the Lord Jesus. Our Scripture for today tells us just how fleeting this earthly life is. The question that we need to ask ourselves is whether we have received Jesus to be the Lord of our life and insure that our name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jan 13, 2014 | James
James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Do you ever wonder where certain expressions get started? Not too long ago, the expression “my bad” began to be used when someone desired to acknowledge responsibility for a mistake. I guess that replaced the old standby, “Ooops!”
It does not matter which of these expressions are used, the understanding is that we have made a mistake. Not only that, we expect others to laugh it off and excuse it as one of the many frailties of human nature.
The story does not end there, however. What is our reaction when others do something unplanned or unexpected that adversely affects us? All too often we hit the ceiling, so to speak, and make a spectacle out of an accidental incident.
I am sure that we have all heard of the “Golden Rule.” In Luke 6:31 we read: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Think how different our life (and the lives of others) would be if we made this a vital part of our behavior pattern. I want to commit myself to have such a servant spirit. Lord, help me to laugh more and be able to look past the “my bads” of those around me.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
—Pastor Cecil
