{"id":3404,"date":"2013-10-08T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/dailyevotional\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2013-10-08T10:53:54","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T17:53:54","slug":"the-best-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/the-best-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"THE BEST GIFT!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ephesians 2:8-10<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—\u00a0<\/sup>not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God\u2019s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There are gifts and then there are gifts! I am looking at a gift right now that is very precious to me. It is a counted cross stitch picture showing an eagle in flight and the words of Isaiah 40:31 \u201cThey that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The value of this picture is not in the cost of materials, but in the love that went into producing it. It was a gift from our daughter, Brenda on my birthday in March 1991, before her death in July of that year. She had been working on it for months and wanted to live long enough to complete it. I WILL CHERISH THAT GIFT ALL MY LIFE! I cannot imagine being offered that gift and refusing it. It cost Brenda so much!<\/p>\n

Jesus lived His life with the purpose of offering us the most precious gift of all time—eternal life. It is offered freely to us, but at the cost of His own life. As amazing as it may seem, most people reject this most precious of all gifts. If you have never received it yourself, I urge you to open your heart right now and invite Him in. If you need help . . . see PastorCecil.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Blessings, Dear Hearts, draw near to God today, trust Him completely, and be a blessing!<\/p>\n

—Pastor Cecil<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—\u00a0not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God\u2019s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/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":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ephesians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404","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=3404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}