{"id":1775,"date":"2011-03-18T06:00:16","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/?p=1775"},"modified":"2020-02-05T12:10:40","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T20:10:40","slug":"use-me-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/use-me-lord\/","title":{"rendered":"USE ME LORD!"},"content":{"rendered":"

1\u00a0Peter 3:15<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday I shared the good news that our beloved brother, Nathan Bouren is back home from his deployment in Qatar. I wanted to share more of his testimony today in place of the hymn that I usually share on Friday\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast Friday was a bittersweet departure as I said goodbye to Mom.\u00a0 We had a precious time together my last night in the Middle East as we spent time laughing and crying with her co-worker, Neal, and the TCNs she supervises.\u00a0 Two situations stand out in my mind from this last evening in Qatar.\u00a0 First, I struck up a conversation with one of the TCNs from Nepal.\u00a0 He is a 45-year-old married man with five children.\u00a0 His youngest is a six-year-old daughter and this man has only seen her four times in her life.\u00a0 It was heart-wrenching to learn that almost all of these TCNs work for 2-year contracts and only get one 30-day vacation to be with their family.\u00a0 That\u2019s right, 30 days off in TWO YEARS!\u00a0 It sure puts my deployment and separation into perspective.\u00a0 Many of them will do this for 20 or more years, so they don\u2019t ever really get to know their children.\u00a0 This situation is necessary because there are nearly 2 billion people (you read that correctly, it is billion with a \u201cB\u201d) in India and there are simply not enough jobs in the country.\u00a0 This mandates that these people work in other countries, often for very low wages ($400\/week in this case), just to support their families.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t help that they have five or more children either.\u00a0 I ask that you join me in praying for these men and that God would use Mom and Neal to share the love of Christ with them while they are enduring these difficult separations from their families.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe second situation happened just before I departed.\u00a0 I was sitting with Mom in the media center where the troops can use phones and computers to communicate with their families.\u00a0 The place was packed and Neal walked in to say goodbye.\u00a0 He asked if I would pray with him.\u00a0 Mom and I are never shy about praying in public, and I was so blessed that Neal would ask for me to pray with him in public one last time.\u00a0 I stood up right there in the middle of the media center and prayed with my brother, Neal.\u00a0 What a perfect farewell to my brother as we further solidified the bond we have developed these past several weeks.\u00a0 I look forward to continuing a long distance friendship with Neal as we embark on a growing relationship with the Lord.\u00a0 \u201cAs iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.\u201d (Proverbs 27:17)\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

As I read Kevin\u2019s message I became more and more aware that there are those around us who need to hear the Word of God. There are also believers who need to be encouraged as we pray that they may be used. USE ME LORD!<\/p>\n

Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!<\/p>\n

– \u2013 \u2013 Pastor Cecil<\/p>\n

360-570-0074<\/p>\n

PastorCecil@Daily-E-Votional.com<\/a><\/p>\n

P.S. \u2013 You can find previous E-Votionals covering a variety of Scriptures and topics to help you in your walk with the Lord at www.Daily-E-Votional.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"100<\/a>P.P.S. \u2013 I have completed my first book, 100 of Pastor Cecil\u2019s Select Illustrations<\/a>.<\/em> The cost is $12.95 plus shipping. You can now order it online by going to https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/book-by-pastor-cecil<\/a> . . . You may want to consider this book as a thoughtful gift idea for those who do not have Internet access or as helpful sermon illustrations for your Pastor.<\/p>\n

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1\u00a0Peter 3:15 \u201cBut sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.\u201d Yesterday I shared the good news that our beloved brother, Nathan Bouren is back home from his deployment in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-peter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}