by Pastor Cecil | Sep 4, 2015 | Psalm
Psalm 107:29-30
“He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and He guided them to their desired haven.”
It seems that each of us is called upon to face storms in our life. It may be physical infirmity, financial reversals or the loss of a loved one. It is not the storm that matters, but how we react to the storm.
Back in 1873, Horatio Spafford and his family were scheduled to sail on the French steamer ‘Ville de Havre’ from New York to England where he was to assist the great evangelist, D.L. Moody. Because of a last minute business crisis Mr. Spafford sent his family on ahead and he would follow on a later ship.
Unfortunately the ship his family was on collided with another ship and sank. There was a terrible loss of life. Spafford and his wife lost their four daughters. Nine days later Horatio Spafford received a cable from his wife that simply said, “Saved alone.” What poignant words.
Later, as he was sailing to meet his wife, he asked the captain to let him know when they were near where the accident had occurred. It was there that he penned the words of this week’s hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul.”
It Is Well With My Soul
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
Refrain:
It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.
And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.
To access Liebestraum & It Is Well With My Soul, this week’s inspirational video from GloryScapes.com, please go to: http://www.gloryscapes.com/liebestraum/ in your browser or click on the image below.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Aug 19, 2015 | Psalm
Psalm 139:1-4
“O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.”
There are many emotions that arise when we go through a stressful situation. I tenderly want to suggest that one of the most difficult encounters is when a well- meaning person suggests that they know how you feel.
I have encountered this several times in my life and have heard from others who also have had to respond to these comments. Yes, I may have had similar tragedies in my life, but that does not equate to knowing what another person is feeling.
What may cause intense pain and anguish in one person does not make them expert in relating it to the pain another is experiencing. There comes a time when silence and presence speak far louder than trying to impose my previous feelings.
There is one exception; the Lord knows what we are experiencing and He alone knows how we feel! He has borne our sinful burden to the cross and has experienced every heartache that we can ever endure. REST IN HIM AND FIND COMFORT!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Aug 18, 2015 | Psalm
Psalm 34:1-2
“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.”
I want to ask you a personal question. Do you enjoy listening to someone who is constantly complaining? Do you enjoy being around people who are so negative that they seem to make a conscious effort of seeing the worst in every situation?
If you are like me it’s difficult being around people like this. Unfortunately many Christians seem to fall into this type of behavior. There is very little praise, joy, or expectation from these people. They drag you down spiritually. Personally I think these negative oriented people are not living the life desires.
The psalmist David gives us a beautiful pattern of victorious Christian living. It seems as if he is making this a personal commitment to himself. He first of all starts out by asserting that he will bless the Lord at all times. If you have read anything about David in the Old Testament you will see that there are many times and many situations that were threatening and hard to give the Lord blessing. He goes on to say that he will praise the Lord continually! And finally he says that his boast will be in the Lord! And he just knows that those who are humble before God will hear of his praise and blessing and boasting and be glad.
So the question right now is, are you blessing the Lord enough? Do you praise him for each and every situation regardless of how devastating it may seem? Are you boasting about what you have accomplished or what God has accomplished through you? I encourage you to look deep into your own life and then praise the Lord!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Aug 6, 2015 | Psalm
Psalm 108:5-6
“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Your glory above all the earth; That Your beloved may be delivered, save with Your right hand, and hear me.”
Have you ever heard people make a comment about what they are going to say to the Lord when they get to heaven? I don’t think so! That is such prideful boasting I can hardly contain myself whenever I hear such comments.
The first time we see the Lord in glory we are going to be so overwhelmed that we will fall on our faces, enraptured by His Presence and giving Him ultimate praise. To me that is what exaltation is all about.
The beautiful thing is that we do not have to wait until we get to heaven. We can begin to give Him exaltation right now. Instead of being preoccupied about what we have done or what we accomplish, we need to focus our hearts on who He is and what He has done for us.
For those of us who have received Jesus Christ by personal invitation, our eternity has begun. These old bodies of ours may cease to function here on earth but they are just a shell. The real eternal part of us lives on forever. The question is where we will spend eternity. For the believer it will be in heaven. For those who failed to receive Jesus Christ there is no other destination but an eternity in hell. How sad! Now is the time to enter into that wonderful relationship with Christ that will last beyond the ability to calculate time — forever! Give him exaltation!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 31, 2015 | Psalm
Psalm 126:5-6
“Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
This week we will not have the regular hymn of the week. I have been requested to repeat this Daily-E-Votional that I originally sent out January 1, 2002. I am not sure where the original message came from, but I hope it will be a blessing to you.
THE DAFFODIL PRINCIPLE . . .
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come see the daffodils before they are over.” I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead. “I will come next Tuesday,” I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!” My daughter smiled calmly and said, “We drive in this all the time, Mother.”
“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her. “I was hoping you’d take me over to the garage to pick up my car.”
“How far will we have to drive?” “Just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.” After several minutes, I had to ask, “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the garage!” “We’re going to my garage the long way,” Carolyn smiled, “by way of the daffodils.”
“Carolyn,” I said sternly, “please turn around.” “It’s all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.” After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that read, “Daffodil Garden.”
We got out of the car and each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns-great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.
“But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn. It’s just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.” Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.
On the patio, we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You are Asking” was the headline. The first answer was a simple one. “50,000 bulbs,” it read. The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and a very little brain.” The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”
There it was, The Daffodil Principle. For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun-one bulb at a time-to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top.
Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.
The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time-often just one baby-step at a time-and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation
of time.
When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.
“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn. “What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it ‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years?Just think what I might have been able to achieve!”
My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. “Start tomorrow,” she said. It’s so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, “How can I put this to use today?”
– Author Unknown
It really does not take great intellect or strength, it is just planting the bulbs that God gives us, and keep on planting them. I just switched over to my Daily-E-Votional file and was amazed that since September 15, 2000, I have sent out 431 E-Votionals. Let’s see – – – – 50,000 minus 431, that leaves me a lot of planting left to do.
NOTE: I WROTE THE ABOVE SUMMARY PARAGRAPH IN 2002. SINCE THEN I HAVE SENT OUT 3,380 MORE. I STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE I REACH THE 50,000 MARK!!!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 29, 2015 | Psalm
Psalm 37:7
“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.”
Sometimes you may have heard the words of today’s E–Votional title barked out in frustration. Someone may be rehashing an incident, repeating the same words over and over again. It is then that we might hear the annoyed listener issue the demand: “GIVE IT A REST!”
Rest is a vital necessity. Getting too little rest may lead to burnout. Getting too much rest may lead to laziness and indifference. There is a balance, or at least there should be.
As we read today’s Scripture we find that rest is associated with patience. How often we have prayed for a particular answer and then become frustrated because God does not answer as quickly as we would like. Not only are we to rest in the Lord, but we are to do so patiently. That is what faith in God is all about.
As we go about our activities this day and in the days that stretch out before us, it is essential that we keep our eyes focused upon the Lord rather than upon other people. Remember this: God’s timing is always best! We may think we know when things need to be accomplished but God has the entire picture and He knows all of our tomorrows. That is why we can confidently rest in Him.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
