by Pastor Cecil | May 9, 2014 | Psalm
Psalm 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
As you read the book of Psalms, David mentions repeatedly the storms of life. He was attacked on all sides by his enemies who desired to take his life. Do you feel that way sometimes?
His predecessor, King Saul, was a demented king who imagined that David was attempting to take the kingdom from him. (Actually it was the Lord who had rejected Saul because of his wickedness and failing to keep the Lord in control of his life.)
In many of his Psalms, David cried out to the Lord for help and immediately praised Him for giving him a safe place of refuge. That is the same with us today. We may be tossed and torn by the storms of life, but the Lord always gives us a haven of rest. That is the hymn for this week.
The Haven of Rest
My soul in sad exile was out on life(s) sea,
So burdened with sin and distressed,
Till I heard a sweet voice, saying, (Make Me your choice)
And I entered the Haven of Rest!
Refrain: I have anchored my soul in the Haven of Rest; I will sail the wide seas no more; The tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep, In Jesus I am safe evermore.
I yielded myself to His tender embrace,
In faith taking hold of the Word,
My fetters fell off, and I anchored my soul;
The Haven of Rest is my Lord.
Refrain: I have anchored my soul in the Haven of Rest; I will sail the wide seas no more; The tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep, In Jesus I am safe evermore.
The song of my soul, since the Lord made me whole,
Has been the old story so blest,
Of Jesus, who will save whosoever will have
A home in the Haven of Rest.
Refrain: I have anchored my soul in the Haven of Rest; I will sail the wide seas no more; The tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep, In Jesus I am safe evermore.
How precious the thought that we all may recline,
Like John, the beloved so blest,
On Jesus strong arm, where no tempest can harm,
Secure in the Haven of Rest.
Refrain: I have anchored my soul in the Haven of Rest; I will sail the wide seas no more; The tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep, In Jesus I am safe evermore.
O come to the Savior, He patiently waits
To save by His power divine;
Come, anchor your soul in the Haven of Rest,
And say, ‘My Beloved is mine.’
Refrain: I have anchored my soul in the Haven of Rest; I will sail the wide seas no more; The tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep, In Jesus I am safe evermore.
To access The Haven of Rest, this week’s inspirational video fromGloryScapes.com, please go to:http://www.gloryscapes.com/thehavenofrest/ in your browser or click on the image below.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
—Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 22, 2014 | Psalm
Psalm 116:15-16
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants. Truly I am your servant, Lord; I serve you just as my mother did; you have freed me from my chains.
There are many people who achieve to be faithful supervisors, faithful CEO’s, faithful entrepreneurs–just about anything besides being a faithful servant. It is interesting to note that those other pursuits appeal to pride in achievement, while being a servant places the focus on the one or ones being served.
In the Acts 6 and 7 we read of a servant by the name of Stephen. Heard of him before? He was the guy who was stoned to death, but not before he delivered a powerful gospel message and saw the heavens part just enough for him to see his Lord Jesus in the throne room of heaven seated beside His Father.
Stephen was one of the men chosen to distribute food to the widows of the Hellenistic Jews. He was full of God’s grace and power, and in addition to serving the widows, he performed great wonders and signs among the people. His first obligation was to be a servant of the Lord Jesus, whether it was on the food line or on the gospel firing line.
I have a primary goal in my spiritual life. That goal is to be a faithful servant for the Lord. I aim to do this by reading His Word and obeying what it says. I do not need men to tell me what is right or wrong; the Lord will lead me into truth so long as I remain His FAITHFUL SERVANT. I hope that this in some way encourages you to become a FAITHFUL SERVANT!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Apr 3, 2014 | Psalm
Psalm 105:5-7
Remember the wonders He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He pronounced, you His servants, the descendants of Abraham, His chosen ones, the children of Jacob. He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth.
The older I get (which is pretty old), the more I realize how much better I am at forgetting than remembering. It is not that I do not write things down . . . I just forget where I wrote them. I am surrounded by mounds of paper that contain valuable information. The problem is trying to recall why I thought it was valuable in the first place.
In the human realm, remembering is important. Birthdays, anniversaries, and dates of all sorts crowd in for our attention. It is not long before we feel that our memory banks are on overload. What are we to do? As in all cases, we turn to the manual for life — God’s Holy Word.
When I was on a combat missile crew we had operational manuals. They were large notebooks with many plastic-coated pages. We could not perform any function without finding the correct page and following the precise steps. Each time we did, we marked it with a black marker. Failure to remember each step could lead to disaster.
We need to remember to remember. The way we do that is to study the Bible. If we are uncertain where to look, we will discover that there is a concordance in the back of most good Bibles that can direct us to where a particular word is used in the Scriptures. It is a memory aid to help us to remember!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Mar 18, 2014 | Psalm
Psalm 32:5
Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.’ And You forgave the guilt of my sin.
How many times have you heard someone condemn other people for the very thing they are guilty of themselves? I recall meeting with a recently-deceased woman’s sons to prepare for her funeral service. They laughed remembering how their mother would sometimes use profanity to tell them not to use profanity.
Have you ever ridden with a driver who was irate at other drivers who were driving in the very same way that they were driving? Speeders rage at other speeders. Some drivers blow a fuse when another driver cuts into their lane of traffic when they had only a short time earlier done the same thing.
Pastors become frustrated with members who fail to read their Bible to prepare for a sermon series he is preaching. I once heard of a pastor who asked the members in his church to read Hezekiah 3:10 before the next service. At the beginning of the next service he asked how many had read the passage. Several hands went up. They were very embarrassed when he revealed to them that there was no book of Hezekiah in the Bible.
We need to set a symbolic mirror in front of ourselves. Before we become critical of others, we need to ask the Lord to show us those areas of our life that are not in accordance with His will. It is me, O Lord, that I bring before you!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Mar 14, 2014 | 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 It Is Well With My Soul, this week’s inspirational video from GloryScapes.com, please go to: http://www.gloryscapes.com/itiswellwithmysoul/ in your browser or click on the image below.
Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!
– – – Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Mar 6, 2014 | Psalm
Psalm 23:4
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
The thing I have observed about shadows is that they appear larger than the actual object they are a shadow of. Any time you are out after dark and there is a full moon, the looming shadows you see will scare the daylights out of you.
Having worked as a police officer, I can testify that law enforcement officers are just as prone to fear as anyone else. You may be walking a beat in a dark alley when you see this huge animal ahead. Your mouth becomes dry as cotton as you try to determine which course of action to take. Just then you hear a cat’s meow and realize that the huge animal was only the shadow of a small kitten.
Spiritually speaking, we are just as susceptible to the fear of shadows. Instead of trusting in the Lord as we walk through our “valley of the shadow of death,” we try to trust in our own strengths. That is always the wrong thing to do. Without the Lord at our side, we become fearful and defeated.
What are the shadows in your life? Are there individuals that cast a huge shadow across your path? Do you have personality shadows that you are trying to deal with in your own strength? Does the shadow of a health problem cripple you? Let me leave you with the secret to defeating your shadows. Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil
