by Pastor Cecil | Jul 18, 2008 | Psalm
Psalm 127:1-2
“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for He grants sleep to those He loves.”
Yesterday I received a call from a very dear friend. He asked me if I ever had a hard time sleeping. More specifically, if I ever woke up at say—3:30 a.m., and not be able to go back to sleep? I had to answer that I had no such problem.
I searched my brain for awhile (a very short task) and it dawned on me a very valuable lesson. I shared it with him and I would like to share it with you. We can call it, “God’s Prescription For Sleep!”
To begin, it is important to understand that the devil does everything he can do to make us dull and lethargic. If we lose sleep, we most likely will mope around the next day. That is certainly not conducive for serving the Lord.
If God wakes us up in the middle of the night—it is for a spiritual purpose: To spend time in effective prayer, Bible study or some other spiritual activity. If the devil wakes us up—it is to wear us down and cause us to be slumber bums the next day.
So here is a practice that I have developed for many years. Before I go to sleep at night I ask God for sleep in the Spirit. If I do wake up, I count it a blessing sent by God and thank Him for it. I begin to pray for any people that are on my prayer list. I usually get out of bed and go to my computer for my Bible programs and to work on my Daily-E-Votionals. Let me share a little secret with you. Satan will often become so angry that he will stop waking me up at night.
I had another call from my friend this morning. He told me he had prayed that prayer last night after we talked. He had his Bible open and had been reading it in bed. The next thing he knew it was morning. For the first time in a long time he had been able to spend the entire night in uninterrupted sleep. I would like to call it—sleep in the Spirit.
As we read today’s Scripture we see that our human efforts to improve ourselves will come to naught. “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain.” Self-help is not God’s answer to man’s problems! God is the answer to man’s problems!
Why not take a daring step? Trust God enough to do what His Word says. Be bold enough to ask Him for sleep in the Spirit and to wake you when He wants to meet with you. Nite—Nite!
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today. Trust Him completely and become a real blessing.
— Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 4, 2008 | Psalm
Psalm 119:41-48
“May Your unfailing love come to me, O LORD, Your salvation according to Your promise; then will I answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in Your Word. Do not snatch the Word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in Your laws. I will always obey Your law, for ever and ever. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. I will speak of Your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame, for I delight in Your commands because I love them. I will lift up my hands to Your commands, which I love, and I meditate on Your decrees.”
This is a long passage of Scripture which includes the phrase, “I will walk about in freedom.” Freedom is a precept which many times we think about, or speak about, but basically know very little about.
The Fourth of July is celebrated in the United States as Independence Day—a day that emphasizes the idea of freedom. In the minds of some people, Freedom is the “right” to do whatever I want, whenever I want to do it. Beeeep! Wrong answer!
As in all things, we must look at our freedom in light of the cross of Christ. Freedom comes as we die to ourselves, and come alive in Him. It is not doing what we want—that is bondage to the flesh—rather it is in doing what He leads us to do. That is freedom in the Spirit.
Perhaps a word picture is in order. Imagine being enslaved to a horrible master (Satan), who mistreats us so badly, we have no hope. We need not wait for hell…our life here on earth is a living hell. Even earthly pleasures that we seek to satisfy our lusts end up destroying us.
Jesus is a faithful and kind Master, in contrast to Satan. He has paid an extremely high price for us. We cannot even visualize the price. He purchased our freedom with His own life.
We are still subject to the wiles of our old, evil master, who hates that Jesus has paid the price to free any slave who desires to go free. Satan lies, and promises, and tempts, and threatens, or uses any means possible to keep us in bondage to him. He even tells us that if we become a follower of Christ, we will be slaves and not able to enjoy the pleasures of this world. He urges us to stay with him so we can be free. (This is freedom?!)
Jesus offers to free us of the bondage of sin and death. It is true that we serve Him, but it is a service of love. We are FREE to serve Him in love. We are not under the bondage of tradition or the rules of man. We have the Word of God to instruct us and the Holy Spirit of God to constantly be with us.
Wait! There’s more. We have an eternity with God forever and forever. That is worth lighting a firecracker for! But not only freedom from an eternal death, we have freedom right now! The peace that we experience in serving Jesus is a freedom that the world and Satan cannot equal.
The two masters are waiting for our decision. We can do nothing and we will stay with the old master. We can even give ourselves as willing servants of Satan, and we remain his slaves.
In order to shake off the shackles of sin and death, we must personally receive Jesus Christ as our new Master. We confess all of our sins and transgressions. We admit that we are helpless without Him. We ask Him to come into our heart and to be the Master of our life. Guess what?! We are set free to serve Him. Our hearts beat free and light! Free at last! Free at last! Thank Jesus Christ our Savior, we are free at last! That is what freedom is all about.
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today. Trust Him completely and become a real blessing.
— Pastor Cecil
by Pastor Cecil | Jul 3, 2008 | Psalm
Psalm 89:5-7
“The heavens praise Your wonders, O LORD, Your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD? Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings? In the Council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; He is more awesome than all who surround Him.”
From moment to moment, new experiences and opportunities arise which are ordered by the Lord. I can only stand amazed in His presence. More and more I am aware of the need of prayer in every action I take. I remember an old hymn of the church, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”, that expresses just how much God loves us and provides for us.
In all of our busy activities and the heavy demands of life, we need to realize it is His faithfulness to us that counts. We tend to become preoccupied with our own actions and activities to such a degree that we focus on our faithfulness. The writer of this beloved hymn lets us know that it is God’s faithfulness that counts. What a comfort that is to us.
“Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father!
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not:
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
“Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness to
Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow-
blessings all mine with ten thousand beside!
CHORUS:
Great is thy faithfulness, Great is Thy faithfulness,
morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy grace has provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”
Think about how the Lord has directed your steps. He is always present in a mighty way to protect and comfort us. Sometimes the reason we are not more aware of His faithfulness is that we are too busy whining about our discomfort.
Instead of weeping and moaning, we need to be people of praise in the midst of the tests and trials of life. God’s Word is full of those who suffered loneliness, pain and even death with a shout of victory. What do you think they would say to us if they saw the way we behave? It is time to grow up and live differently than those who are unsaved.
We have had so many answers to our prayers that we can never stop praising Him. It makes us aware of His faithfulness to us when we turn all of our concerns and cares over to Him, and then leave them in His care.
My personal testimony is one of victory. The Lord just continues to shower His blessings upon my life and ministry. It is all to the praise of His glory! For those of you receiving these Daily-E-Votionals, I pray fervently for you and ask God to take my words and use them to touch areas in your life that He knows all about.
Blessings dear hearts. Walk with God today. Trust Him completely and become a real blessing.
— Pastor Cecil
