{"id":6293,"date":"2018-05-17T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/devonline.us\/daily-e-votional\/?p=6293"},"modified":"2018-05-16T14:14:19","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T21:14:19","slug":"our-closest-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/our-closest-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"OUR CLOSEST FRIEND!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Proverbs 18:24<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #c40000;\"><em>\u201cA man\u00a0who has\u00a0friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend\u00a0who\u00a0sticks closer than a brother.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Being alone is a sad and dismal position. We really do need each other and a friend is one of the greatest possessions we can have.\u00a0 It is a sad and poor man who has no friends.\u00a0 Friends are different from companions.\u00a0 Companions may be close by, but are not sufficiently close that we can share our deepest feelings.<\/p>\n<p>When I resigned as pastor in Burns, Oregon, a close friend, Chris Vosler, gave me a plaque and a card. The plaque reads:\u00a0\u00a0<strong>A friend is one who knows you as you are, understands where you&#8217;ve been, accepts who you&#8217;ve become, and still gently invites you to grow.\u00a0<\/strong>The card reads:\u00a0<strong>Cecil, Thanks for being that friend.\u00a0 Chris.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As close as our dearest friend or friends may be, we have a friend who is still closer.\u00a0 Of course I am speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who is with us at all times. When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is there beside us. When we receive devastating news, He is there to provide the comfort and solace to ease the pain. When we receive news that calls for rejoicing, He makes it even better for we have One who rejoices with us. At all times and in every circumstance, our dearest Friend makes our life worth living.<\/p>\n<p>May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; Pastor Cecil<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Proverbs 18:24 \u201cA man\u00a0who has\u00a0friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend\u00a0who\u00a0sticks closer than a brother.\u201d Being alone is a sad and dismal position. We really do need each other and a friend is one of the greatest possessions we can have.\u00a0 It is a sad and poor man who has no friends.\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/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":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-proverbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6293","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=6293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyevotional.com\/prior2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}