Cecil Taylor Ministries teaches Christians to live a seven-day practical faith. One way is through the Practical Faith Academy podcast. Please see individual episode descriptions. For more information on Cecil Taylor Ministries, please visit CecilTaylorMinistries.com.
Episodes
Friday Aug 05, 2022
Friday Aug 05, 2022
Arguably the greatest chapter written by the Apostle Paul, Romans 8 contains some of the highest thoughts of the New Testament.
IMAGE: Mt. Everest.
Labeling Romans 8 as the Mt. Everest of the New Testament, Cecil takes a novel, cross-denominational approach to this controversial chapter: He "zooms out" to look at the chapter in light of Paul's lament in Romans 7 that he is unable to obey the law of Moses and is therefore subject to sin and death. According to Cecil, the Romans 8 response describes the Holy Trinity striving to bring us closer to God, providing us love, instruction and saving power that overcomes sin and death.
Along the way, Cecil builds the following table showing the action of each person of the Trinity:
V1-4:
Father - Sent Son as a sin offering.
Son - Sacrificed himself for us so we can follow the law's true intentions.
Spirit - Sets us free from sin and death.
V5-8:
Spirit - Directs and empowers us to live according to God's ways. Grants life and peace through a Spirit-controlled mind.
V9-11:
Father - Gives life to your mortal bodies (through his Spirit). A new life now, a resurrected life later.
Son - Grants a living spirit because of righteousness.
Spirit - Lives in you, so that you belong to Christ.
V12-17:
Father - Adopts us as children. Makes us co-heirs with Christ.
Spirit - Leads us so we can be sons of God. Grants a spirit of Sonship. Testifies to us that we are God's children.
V18-21:
Father - Will liberate creation from destruction and lead it to renewal
V22-25:
Father - Will redeem our bodies so we can live with him.
Spirit - Gives us a first installment of living with God.
V26-27:
Father - Listens to the Spirit praying for us.
Spirit - Helps us in our human weakness. Helps us in prayer by translating our innermost feelings for God.
V28-30:
Father - Works for good in all things and all circumstances. Planned for our salvation and glorification from the beginning.
V31-39:
Father - Offered Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. Justifies us with his grace.
Son - Refuses to judge or condemn, but intercedes for us instead. Loves us with an inescapable, ever-present love.
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
In this podcast series, Cecil examines the highest thoughts (the Himalayas) of the New Testament. John 1 contains what Cecil calls the Executive Summary, which lays out many of the concepts and terms you read throughout the Gospel of John. These include the following terms:
Word, Life, Light, Darkness, Witness, Testify, Believe, True, Truth, Grace, Glory, Flesh, Fullness
Cecil analyzes the reasons the Apostle John wrote the Gospel of John, as he not only shared an intimate disciple's view of Jesus, but also addressed heresies going on in the church at the time of his writing.
IMAGE: Annapurna, 10th tallest mountain in the world. Its south face, pictured here, is considered the most difficult and dangerous mountain to climb, as nearly 40% of climbers perish in the attempt. For this podcast, it symbolizes how difficult it is to read the Gospel of John without insight, such as is gained from the Executive Summary of John.
Image by Akhil Stha. Shared under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 International license.
Tuesday May 10, 2022
Tuesday May 10, 2022
Goodness is goodness, right? Well, no. There is negative goodness and positive goodness. Negative goodness is when we are content in staying away from trouble and considering it good (for example, not murdering, stealing, committing adultery). Positive goodness is what Jesus calls us to be and do: Bringing light into the world, going beyond negative goodness to do good deeds for others, proactively serving His kingdom. In this podcast, Cecil Taylor shows how, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus amplifies the "Don't" commandments to take us to new levels of obedience and goodness.
Thursday Apr 07, 2022
Thursday Apr 07, 2022
During the last few weeks, we have seen the world flood Ukranians with kindness. What we're seeing actually follows a three-step model for kindness that I call the Three A's of Kindness. Listen to this podcast to understand a method to more frequently and intentionally be kind to others.
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Monday Mar 07, 2022
Gentleness doesn't seem to be valued in the world. Aggression is valued. Yet the Bible calls us to gentleness. Getting instant results is valued. Yet gentle Jesus enters Jerusalem, riding on a donkey.
In this episode, Cecil discusses the disparity between the world's values and Christian values, highlights the Biblical call to gentleness, and shares three practical faith ideas on how to employ gentleness with persistence, encouragement and balance.
Tuesday Feb 08, 2022
Tuesday Feb 08, 2022
Joy is a paradox, because it is different from happiness. You can feel joyful even when things are going wrong. In this Joy podcast, Cecil concludes that Joy stems from the presence of God in our lives and holds up Jesus’ mother Mary as an example of Joy. He also suggests two models for feeling more joyful, based on the 8 Pillars from The Book of Joy, as well as the model Paul suggests in Philippians 4.
Wednesday Jan 05, 2022
Wednesday Jan 05, 2022
Inner peace is our goal, but our peace is disrupted by three factors: worry, guilt and anger. Cecil discusses these factors and their common denominator of fear, and how we can replace fear with peace. Cecil shares Bible verses that teach us about the unexplainable peace that God offers us in every circumstance of life.
Wednesday Dec 08, 2021
Wednesday Dec 08, 2021
If it was easy to love, Jesus probably wouldn't have emphasized it so much! Love can be difficult and messy. People can be unlovable. Cecil explores how we can love others better, starting with the biblical basis for love, and expanding on these three principles for loving others:
- Love is a choice, not a feeling.
- Honor others.
- Love God, and let God love others through you.
Teaching Christians to Live a 7-Day Practical Faith
As the son of a preacher, Cecil Taylor understands the complexity of the word "call".
A lifetime's worth of "calls" has led Cecil to successful careers in software development, broadcast radio, and product management at the forefront of the telecom industry. And yet, despite the unique journey God has led him on, the struggle he has faced his entire life is one that is shared by most Christians:
How do you reconcile your call to ministry and call to Christ with the other directions God is leading you? How do you continue to grow closer to God in love and service when you're dedicated to so many other pursuits, whether it's a career or family or just the constant grind necessary in life?
Forty years of teaching adults and youth in church has allowed God to give some answers to Cecil and move his call to sharing it further. That's what Cecil Taylor Ministries is all about: humbly passing on wisdom that God has used already to change one life, in the hopes that it changes the lives of many.
The foundation of Cecil's experience is that every day of the week can be Sunday.
The feeling of intimacy, connection, growth, and love that we find in church and in communion with Christ isn't limited to one day a week. In fact, the start of understanding your call to ministry as a Christian is learning that God is present in every direction he has called you. Your career, your family, the constant highs and lows of life, all of them hold meaning to God.
Cecil's call and the main point of Cecil Taylor Ministries is to help you and others learn about a 7-day practical faith by applying scripture to life situations. Cecil Taylor Ministries offers video lessons, books, study materials, podcasts, devotionals and more to help churches, small groups and individual learners understand how to live a 7-day practical faith.