80: Embracing God's Power During A Crisis: A Chat with Cecil Taylor

Navigating life's crises can feel overwhelming, but what if there was a way to face these challenges with renewed faith and mental resilience? In our recent episode of Hanging Out with Jesus Podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Cecil Taylor, author of The Next Thing and Live Like Your Loved, who shared his personal insights on maintaining mental health and relying on faith during tough times.

Cecil and I dove into the different types of crises we may face, such as health, financial, and relationship issues, and explored how God's power can work through these situations to bring about positive outcomes. We also discussed the importance of renewing our minds in Christ, and Cecil shared his principles of trust, simplification, rest, and grieving as essential tools for navigating life's storms. His wisdom and guidance offer a beacon of hope for those who may be struggling.

Don't miss this powerful conversation as we uncover the role of faith in overcoming life's challenges and maintaining mental health in a collapsing culture. Be sure to subscribe to Hanging Out with Jesus Podcast for more inspiring discussions and valuable resources to support your spiritual journey.

Resources Mentioned on the Episode and suggested reading & social media handles:

·        Cecil Taylor Ministries – www.ceciltaylorministries.com

·        The Next Thing book by Cecil Taylor

·        Live Like You Are Loved book by Cecil Taylor

·        CIPA

·        Christianpublishers.net

Calls to Action:

·        Sign up for The Me Project Academy Newsletter for resources on developing disciplines to help you grow in Christ, prayer and new releases of the podcast. 

·        Website: www.hangingoutwithjesuspodcast.com

·        @hangingoutwithjesuspodcast (Instagram)

·        @themeprojectacademy (Pinterest)

·        support@themeprojectacademy.com (for comments)

·        www.goodreads.com/lyvitabrooks

Thanks for listening. I pray this episode was a blessing to you. Leave a comment or rate this episode . Then pass it on. Share this link: https://lyvitabrooks.com/

Transcript

Lyvita: 0:01

Saints, welcome to Hanging Out with Jesus podcast for believers who want to strategically go and do what God's called you to for such a time as this. And we do this by securing our foundation in Christ through practicing spiritual discipline and being reminded of who we are and whose we are In order to live a purposeful life in a collapsing culture. Now for more resources, including the free Christian blueprint, which helps you gauge where you are foundationally in Christ, and disciplines to practice for spiritual growth, visit www. HangingOutWithJesusPodcastcom. You can also subscribe to the newsletter for twice a month reminders, podcast updates, challenges, spiritual disciplines, practice and more. I am Lyvita Brooks, Christian author, bible teacher, founder of The Me Project Academy and your host.

Lyvita: 1:13

Now on to the intro. This is episode 80. I'm with the author of The Next Thing and Live Like Your Loved by Cecil Taylor. Yes, this is a two-parter, but this month we are focused not only on mental health, but how to care for yourself and others as you live in a continually collapsing culture. Episode 80, will focus on Cecil Taylor's book The Next Thing, and episode 81 will focus on his book called Live Like Your Loved, saying if you are in a crisis. The titles of Cecil's books are just a hint of how they can support you, so the discussion is coming up in the interview section.

Lyvita: 2:21

Thank you to everyone for supporting this ministry, which contains the podcast, academy blog, books, journals, Bible studies. And saints, i f you are new, welcome! I pray you are blessed by this episode and take some time to view past episodes as well, and don't forget to subscribe so you will receive updated episodes and more every second and fourth Thursday of each month. I enjoy receiving DMs with comments and pictures on Instagram, the blog, the podcast transcript, YouTube and through email, and you can find everything in the podcast transcript, which is sent to your email if you subscribe, and also you can find it at hangingoutwithjesuspodcastcom. I love to hear from you, because then it makes this feel more like a conversation. Now come walk with me where we intentionally and daily hang out with Jesus. That's it. So let's begin with prayer.

Cecil: 3:44

Okay.

Lyvita: 3:46

Our Father and our God, we just thank you and praise you for this opportunity to come together and to share what you have placed on our hearts, to share with your saints. We pray that the words that we say will glorify you. We pray that the words that we speak will touch the hearts and minds of those that are listening and it will cause or change within their lives, that it will highlight something that will allow them to grab hold of, so that they, dear Lord God, can use it and their lives can be changed, and that they can share it so that others' lives can be changed. Father, we are about multiplying. Father, speak to us today because we're talking about crises, dear Lord God. We're talking about things that have been on our minds, things that have been bothering us, dear Lord. So, father, we ask that you help us to speak to the hearts of your children. We pray that you also teach us about mindset and how to transform our minds. Help us, Lord God, to just speak according to Your will and Your way, and we just give You all praise and honor and glory In Jesus' name. We pray Amen, amen, amen. Well, welcome Saints.

Lyvita: 5:17

I am so happy that we are with Cecil Taylor, saints, he's somebody that I think we all need to listen to, because we're all in some type of crisis, and you know, that's the name of our title. What crisis are you in and can you get out? Well, saints, there's a lot going on about mental illness and I just felt that we needed to have a talk about it, especially about how to use our faith to deal with crises that's going on within our lives, but also how to consistently renew our mind about who we are in Christ. Well, you know and I was talking to the Lord about this, and the next thing I knew, I met Cecil Taylor. It was like, hey, Lord, this is right on time And he's a part of remember, I was telling you two weeks ago about Susan Neal. Well, guess what? I met him through her. So y'all you get to meet one of my colleagues in Susan Neal's CIPA, that's a Christian Indie Publishing Association, right, right, Cecil.

Cecil: 6:43

That's right.

Lyvita: 6:47

So that's where we met and it was like the Lord, you know he's just blessing. You never know, saints, what God has in store for you and you never know just how blessed you are until you, you know. You ask things from the Lord and he just stopped popping it out. You know, and it's not like you're trying to say, Lord, I need this, I, Lord, I don't know. It's about Lord the Saints need. How can I better help the Saints? And He just does it. So, saints, I want to introduce you to Cecil Taylor.

Cecil: 7:25

Hey, Lyvita is so great, such a blessing to be on with you and to have my new friendship with you, and I'm so glad to talk to everybody in your sphere today.

Lyvita: 7:36

This is going to be a blessing, saints, I want you to know that Cecil wrote two books. Now we're going to talk about both of these books in this one episode, but I'm going to split it up because it's so much that we have to share. We're going to share about how to use our faith to deal with crises, and then we're going to share about renewing our mind, because we need to handle the crisis, but we also need to know how to renew our mind. Well, the second one that I'm talking about, which is the renewing of the mind. That should probably end two weeks, but for right now, let's talk about crises. Before we begin, Cecil, the first thing we got to deal with is how do we define crises?

Cecil: 8:27

Yeah, I went to the dictionary. Okay, that's how I define crisis. I did that in my book on it And there's three definitions that you know, a dictionary never has one definition, So they have its intense difficulty, trouble or danger, or a time when a critical decision must be made, or a turning point. I think those are all really good definitions, But, you know, I find that most people with their personal crisis, it falls into one of three areas health, financial or relationship. And that could be for yourself or it could be for someone close to you, right? If someone close to you, as a health issue, it impacts you, you know, and you get drawn in on that. So so most crises are associated with with loss or with stress.

Lyvita: 9:15

So a crisis coming into our lives to like hurt us or do they help us? I mean what? what are your thoughts on that? Because people have different views.

Cecil: 9:27

Yeah, and I tell you where I stand on it is that God works for good and all things, and I believe in God's reclaiming power in crisis. I don't really believe that God visits calamity on us, but I believe he works through that crisis to produce something good, make it arise. So let me give you an example. I worked with the youth in my church for over 30 years And I knew a lot of volleyball players and these girls. They were always getting hurt and they would. They would tear that ACL in their knee And a girl would get up and give her testimony and say God tore my ACL so I wouldn't play volleyball anymore.

Cecil: 10:07

Now, personally, i don't believe God tears ACL, so I'll give you a specific example, there's this one girl who tore her ACL and she, she was told you can't do anything for a year. So she wondered, well, what am I going to do with that year? And she decided to participate with the youth worship band at our church And as she got into it, she enjoyed it. She found it so meaningful that she never went back to volleyball. And so you could say, well, god tore her ACL so she would do worship. But I would say God inspired her through that negative event to look outside her own ambition and her own self fulfillment to see that she could serve him and others And with his help, she found her right fit in that worship band. So that's that's kind of how I see it with with crises and what God's role is in it.

Lyvita: 10:58

And you know, and I have to agree with you, because sometimes we think that, like, like today. I went to Staples twice, twice. One time I got lost And all of it was to print out the script for today. Everything else that I printed worked, the computer printed on out, but the script it wouldn't come out. Same, everything's the same, came off the same computer on the same job. And so I'm thinking, and I get lost, okay, so I'm thinking what is it Why, why, why, and you're right, it it listen.

Lyvita: 11:48

if it wasn't for that that crisis, because for me, right then it was it was.

Lyvita: 11:57

You know I had to text. You give me 10 minutes And if it wasn't for that I would what I'm doing right now I'm learning how to to not use paper to do what it is that I need to do, and it's it's. It gives you another take on what it is that you can do, like I would have never thought to just have the computer up and I can just have the notes and just talk, right right right. Exactly, i'll use some paper.

Cecil: 12:33

Well, you know, i say that in a crisis, that that this is a very miniature crisis here, right, but a crisis changes you. You're fundamentally changed by a crisis, so you're a little crisis. You're going to know how to use the computer better as a result of this, right, but? but in a in a bigger crisis. I mean, a crisis teaches us things and it gets inter-wolven in us. It never really goes away. I mean, we have a crisis and we get a wound from that crisis, and people talk about healing from a crisis, but I don't believe you ever truly heal.

Cecil: 13:09

I talk about, you know, a tree. when it gets a wound, a tree will build this tissue around the wound. So you still see it. My tree up front has a big sunburn on it and and it has that wound, but it also has this callus or something that goes around it. So the rest of the tree keeps growing and that hurt is still there for that tree. but life goes on for the tree, right, and that's how a crisis is for us. It's always going to be embedded. We always have that wound and that scar there, but we're still able to grow and prosper despite the crisis, and I think the tree gives us a great model for how we should approach coming out of a crisis and being transformed.

Lyvita: 13:52

That's, that's a blessing, that that is a blessing. It's a blessing to know, because you do, you do, you, can you know? when I look back at my mother's passing, that is, it's it. There is a scar there because there's. I miss her, I really miss her, but I got to go on. I can't stop and dwell in that hurt and that pain and within that crisis. No, I got to, I got to let it heal its way and go on. And I'm finding that, you know, I may pick up something here and there that just reminds me of her. Like I got her earrings and it's just like, oh, you know, and and, and it reminds me of her. But I don't stay there and say, oh God, why did you take her out? What my mom about? No, I take that and I just I remember that mom really liked these earrings and praise.

Cecil: 14:53

God, i got them now, and then I go on.

Lyvita: 14:56

I just remember that you know my mother's, you know she's with the Lord, everything's fine. You know, and that's right, you're right. They're not there to hurt you, no way you look at it. They're not there to hurt you. When they happen, they happen by they happen.

Cecil: 15:11

We live in a broken world, That's that's what it is right, And we humans kind of did it in the first place, but we got to go on.

Lyvita: 15:20

Right, we just got to go on. Just because something happened here doesn't mean that God does not have a purpose for you in life, because he does. Your purpose, your mission, still the same, you got to keep going on. Oh, I want to ask you this So should believers handle crisis different from nonbelievers?

Cecil: 15:45

Yeah, i think that's a great question because you know, what I believe is that there's a little piece of my book where I talked about this concept of live the life that is given. Okay, and I believe this is biblical. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18 says rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. So you hear that in all circumstances we need to live the life that is given with joy and with prayer and with thanksgiving, and that's God's will that we do that. So you know, we used to have this refrigerator magnet and I thought it was great. My wife put it up there and it says God doesn't promise a calm passage, he promises a safe landing Whoa. Now, ironically, that ceramic magnet.

Lyvita: 16:42

You got to say that one again. That was good.

Cecil: 16:44

Yeah, yeah. It says God doesn't promise a calm passage, he promises a safe landing. Now, at one point that magnet broke and fell on the ground and broke apart, so it didn't get a safe landing.

Cecil: 16:56

We get a safe landing, we get a safe landing And as believers, we got to believe. You know, we're never promised that life is going to be easy. We're promised it's going to be hard but in all circumstances, through Christ Jesus, it's God's will for us to rejoice and pray and give thanks, and that makes it sound like it's simple, and it isn't. I mean, it isn't simple at all. And we go through times, seasons of poverty and prosperity and every way, wealth, health, time, options, all those things I mean. My life is just oscillating up and down between one thing, it's never static.

Cecil: 17:38

Yeah, yeah, it's never static. And so I think you said something earlier about being in crisis, and I read somewhere that you're always coming out of a crisis, going into a crisis or in a crisis, right?

Lyvita: 17:53

Yeah, it always is That's life.

Cecil: 17:56

And believers should be able to look through the circumstance and say I don't care what circumstance I'm in, I'm going to rejoice, I'm going to pray, I'm going to give thanks and I'm going to get through this because it's not going to last. It's going to move on and it's going to change and we're just going to keep moving, and we move forward through Christ Jesus.

Lyvita: 18:17

So that brings up your book. Saints, you will never, never, imagine what this book is called. Okay, i'm going to tell you. It's called The Next Thing. In other words, you're going through crisis. You got to do what? The next thing? I'm going to let Cecil tell you about this, Because this book. I read what I said, page 48. Now, you know I'm going to do a review on the book. You know that, but I just got to finish it. All I have to say is so far, this is helpful. It is really helping me to deal with crises in my life. So, cecil, please, please, tell us. First of all, how did you come up with this? And second, isn't it a award-winning book or something? Is it an award? Did you get an award for?

Cecil: 19:20

This I did. I went to one of these Christian Writers' Conferences in Alabama and they gave me what's called the Living Water Award for the book. I was the runner-up there in nonfiction And what an honor and a blessing that was. Yes, yeah, just amazing for your first book to get some kind of an award.

Lyvita: 19:43

But the Hold on, Cecil. So, saints, you see what happened when you started doing what God called you to do.

Cecil: 19:50

Amen.

Lyvita: 19:54

All right, i'm sorry.

Cecil: 19:55

Cecil, just to tell you. But the next thing, first of all, the reason I wrote the book was I was going through all these crises back in 2020 and so forth during the pandemic, and it had nothing to do with the pandemic, It was just life was happening with people around me and my mother and my mother-in-law's health, my wife's health, all went south at the same time, and so that was. But I noticed that I was handling the crises better than I ever had And I sat down and I said why is that? And I started realizing there were four principles I was using of simplifying, trusting, resting and grieving. And simplifying is just And I'll talk about that more in a minute but it's just trying to pare down the complexity of the crisis and not chew that whole thing at once.

Cecil: 20:49

Second is trusting God and trusting the And this is important trusting the people God brings to you in a crisis. He will bring people alongside you and you need to discern through the spirit is this a person who's here really to help me? and then to trust them. The third is to rest even more than you normally do, because the last thing we want to do during a crisis is rest. We just keep going till we fall over. And then the fourth thing is to grieve, and we usually think of grieving after a crisis, but a crisis starts taking things away from you one by one sometimes, and you need to start. My advice is to grieve your way through, to recognize those things and to grieve them bit by bit, and it actually reduces, i can tell you from experience. It reduces the grief later because you've been working on it all the way through.

Cecil: 21:43

Back to the simplification the title of the next thing comes from the worst day in my life, and there was a time on that worst day when my wife and I were sitting in a car and we were facing this uncertain future and we didn't know what was going to happen, what was going on. And so she turns to me and she says what are we going to do? And I just popped out. I said we're going to do the next thing, and then we're going to do the next thing after that and the next thing after that, because we don't know where this is going and all we can do is the next thing And that's how big a crisis is And by simplifying and really zeroing in on what's essential and what's optional, what's right in front of me and what's down the line. Just focusing on that, let me give you an example. I know I'm talking a lot here, but let me give you an example.

Cecil: 22:35

Go ahead. So my mother in law situation. they put her in a hospital for cancer. It was the third time she had it. This time it was the big one. And we've raised up to Indiana and they tell us she needs to go into hospice care. Well, of course, hospice care. we got to go figure out hospice care.

Cecil: 22:55

But it was during the pandemic. you couldn't just go to places and visit them And we were having a problem because her house had no cell coverage. We didn't have internet service. We were having to sit in grocery store parking lots to talk to people And we said you know what the next thing is for us? It is getting Wi-Fi and internet access so we can make calls and do research inside the house. So that's the first thing we did.

Cecil: 23:22

in the middle of oh, there's got to be a funeral. We got to put her in hospice care. We said the next thing is taking care of this. And as my wife started researching hospice, i said well, what's my next thing? You know what? We're going to go anything about her bills and run her household, and she's not in a condition to even tell us anything right now. So we got to figure it out. So I'm going to work on bills and you go work on hospice And that's the kind of thing. We just took next things all the way through that crisis until we got all the way through it.

Lyvita: 23:55

And that's a sample. So for a person who, who is always, who always has a to-do list, Oh yeah, that's me. So we just cancel that out? No, I know, I know you said the next thing, I got that. But do we, do we not, do we not plan out?

Cecil: 24:22

No, that's that's a great question, because you like to talk about setting goals and And and. In setting goals, you have to prioritize, right. You can't always do every goal at the same time. There's 24 hours in a day and I'm gonna be sleeping part of those, right? So what you're really doing is prioritizing the essential over the optional.

Cecil: 24:46

You know, an example I give is I traveled a lot on business internationally, right, and and I always have this to-do list, Lyvita, as I'm about to go, I've got 40 things I want to do. Well, I want to get the lawnmowed and I got to take care of these bills and and also, it's really best if I do this and this and this and that doesn't even have to do with this stuff I got to do to actually prepare for the trip, right, I got all the trip preparations. You get down to about two days in front of that trip and you start realizing what's essential and what's optional. Like you know what, I could have somebody else mow my lawn if I have to, right, because it doesn't look like I'm gonna get to it, or maybe it just doesn't get mowed right.

Lyvita: 25:27

It's those kinds of things.

Cecil: 25:28

so you're to-do list gets shape and by whatever is in front of you, and so, believe me, i am such a big to-do list, or my wife says I like nothing better than a to-do list and a spreadsheet, but the crisis teaches you to just you know when to clear your calendar, when to prioritize that essential thing and how to just focus on what's in front of you and then go from there.

Cecil: 25:55

So, you do have some idea. I had it on my to-do list. You know what. We got a plan of funeral also, but what was the timing for doing that? Was that something I needed to bite off on day one, or did I need to go get internet access on day one?

Cecil: 26:11

That's, that's internet access because I can't even do. I can't even talk to the funeral home because my phone isn't working Right in this silly house, right, so so there's things like that. You're just it's really prioritizing that to-do list and also realizing and accepting that the crisis Isn't going to tell you right away what all's going to be on the to-do list. You get to find out some new items for the to-do list as you go along and that crisis is going to start bringing those to you. And then you start realizing like, for example, i was, i was trying to do stuff with my work still and I said you know what? I can't do it. So I called my boss, my colleagues and I said, look, i could be on this meeting, but somebody else has to handle that meeting. I can't do it. I got to prioritize that out. I know somebody else can do the job just as well on that and I'll go to the ones that are essential, but the optional meetings I'm gonna give somebody else.

Lyvita: 27:04

Oh, wow. So I wrote that down, prioritizing the essential over the optional Yep. Oh, like that, I like that. So so you gave us a mouthful.

Cecil: 27:23

So, so everybody go back and pause and rewind it. If you need to hear it a second time, please, please.

Lyvita: 27:31

So you even gave us a good example for helping, like people who have cancer, you know, burying the loved ones, all kinds of stuff, divorce and all that. The next thing, the very next thing is, is prioritizing the essential. Once you prioritize that essential, do it.

Cecil: 27:57

Yeah, oh, just do it. You got to do it. Yeah, that's right. You know, in a crisis, you feel like you are out of control, right? So there's some things you could control and you can control that thing right in front of you. You can't control every, every combination of things that might happen. You know I went to what time Lyvita? I went to India when my mom was alive and it was first time I'd gone there, and it's right. After they lost that plane Remember that Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared.

Cecil: 28:26

Oh, yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah that time there was also a terrorist shooting at a hotel in India, and so my mother had me dying, not just one way, but every possible way. You're gonna. Your plane's gonna get lost, those terrorists gonna take you, your hotel's gonna get shot up, you're gonna eat bad food and die. Yeah, i was like mom. I can only die one way, so you just deal with you know, look, i'll take my precautions. And right, a crisis mushrooms, right, we can start thinking of that. This could happen. That could happen. The doctor's gonna come back. What is he gonna say? or I don't know what my bank's gonna say, because that my finances are going crazy. And and what's that credit card company gonna say? I mean, you're, you're starting to worry about Every possibility and, most likely, every possibility isn't gonna happen. So you do your best to address the crisis and how you're gonna get over it, but you can, you know, try to avoid getting caught up in all the different combinations that could happen.

Lyvita: 29:37

So so we have talked about How to use our faith to deal with crises and our personal life, and this, this first part of this two-part series, and Cecil is telling us we do the next thing, which is the name of his book. The next thing Okay, what, what, what are two things you want the saints to remember before we leave this Part of the the series when it comes to dealing with crises in their personal life.

Cecil: 30:16

Yeah, i think one of the keys that I talk about. So the first thing I would say is accepting the crisis, and I give some examples of the book. But sometimes we want to fight the fact that we're in a crisis. We don't want to admit that we're in a crisis. Somebody you're talking about reviewing the book somebody who reviewed the book on Amazon just put something interesting that they were talking about a problem that they had with their mother's health And they were really struggling to handle the crisis because they wouldn't accept that there was a crisis, that the daughter the daughter was not accepting that there was a crisis. So you got to say, look, i got to admit I am in a crisis right now and I need to go into crisis mode. I need to be thinking about how am I going to handle the crisis. And then the second part is doing these steps of simplifying and trusting and resting and grieving.

Cecil: 31:14

And the same reviewer said something very interesting. She said I went into that crisis and I really was lousy at doing them And I realized the reason I was lousy was because I never practiced them beforehand. She said you know, in my life, in my daily life, i need to simplify, i need to trust, i need to rest And I need to grieve where it's appropriate. And if I'm doing that in my life today, then when the crisis hits, i've already got it. I've already got the momentum, i've already got the habits that I need. So you accept the crisis and then you practice in advance, but also you'll get better at it. You're not going to be perfect at it the first time There needs to be some for yourself, right, but just keep going back to it.

Cecil: 32:01

You know what I need to increase my rest? I need to look at this person being placed in front of me, and how am I going to trust them in an era where we don't like to trust anybody, but I'm going to trust that this is somebody from God who's going to help me, who's my funeral home guy, or who's this banker guy or whoever. And those are the things. So accepting the crisis and then practicing the habits of a crisis.

Lyvita: 32:26

I know this. The next thing that the book. You said that and it hit me. You have to accept what you're going through, because the first thing in your mind is God really no, god does not have them. No, come on, seriously, what? And yeah, and when you accept it, it puts a different spin on it. It makes you want to deal with it. You were talking about the tree. Yeah, so it does. It's like you got the sun stain on the tree. That's the crisis.

Cecil: 33:07

Yeah, Yeah, that's right.

Lyvita: 33:08

Yeah. So, Cesar, how can our listeners find you and follow you? Because you've been giving us some very good information here.

Cecil: 33:19

Well, thanks so much. We mentioned Amazon earlier And of course, my books are on Amazon. You can search for the next thing, cecil Taylor, and find it on there. But where I really want to point everybody to is my ministry homepage. So it's called CecilTaylorMinistriescom CecilTaylorMinistriescom, and that's really the launch point for looking at my products and services and my free content. Like, i've got blogs, i've got my own podcast, that kind of thing, and then I also have a Facebook page. So if you're on Facebook you can go to, you can search for CecilTaylorMinistries and you can follow me there.

Cecil: 34:00

I blog at least 10 times a month. I'm always posting something on there devotional blogs and sometimes just crazy stuff that I call random, you know. And then another great way to follow me is by subscribing to my free monthly newsletter And so on the homepage. When you go to CecilTaylorMinistriescom, there's going to be this pop-up And I've got a free gift for you. So I've written an e-book called 30 Minutes Over 30 Days And it's a series of one-minute devotionals So you can quickly connect to the Lord and just, you know, just take one minute out of your day And it's got a little Bible verse, it's got a little meditation And you can just go through your day And in 30 days, i think you'll feel really enriched and blessed by that.

Lyvita: 34:49

So that's awesome.

Cecil: 34:50

Thank you, and so you can get that by. You know, i just want to give you that gift And when you give the email address, then we're going to also send you a newsletter to just keep you up. Once a month free newsletter, just so you know what's going on, what books are coming out or what videos I do videos and what all is coming out, and so that's a great way to find and follow me.

Lyvita: 35:10

Oh, wow. What's the name of your podcast?

Cecil: 35:12

Well, actually it's just called CecilTaylor Monthly Podcast And you can find that on Apple and on Spotify, but then I'll do it on Podbean, but so you can search for CecilTaylor Monthly Podcast. But then I kind of do seasons. So I'm actually in the season right now called the Top 11 Themes of Jesus, and I went through and I counted up in the Gospels how many times Jesus said what And I came up with 11 themes and then I'm counting it down, counting them down 11 to one, and I talk about them and then I have a guest come on who specializes in this. So one that's coming up soon is one of the things Jesus talked about was miracles, and I have a lady who had a miracle happen to her. That's going to come on and talk about that on the podcast. So that's coming up in a couple of months yet. But that's the kind of thing that is on the podcast People coming alongside and talking about scripture and how it applies to their daily lives, because the theme by ministry is teaching Christians how to live a seven day practical faith.

Cecil: 36:22

How do we apply scripture and faith to these life situations like crisis?

Lyvita: 36:27

I had to check out the podcast because that sounds interesting. Thank you, yeah, yeah, and what's the video? you said you do videos, so are you on YouTube?

Cecil: 36:39

Yeah, well, there's some things on YouTube and you can find my sample lessons. So what I do in addition to books Whenever I put out a book LaVita I also put out a video for Sunday school classes and small groups, and I put out a study guide that you could do like a workbook, you can do at home, and so you can be an individual learner and read that book, or you can be in a small group and watch my video and maybe buy the book So you remember what was in the video and you can buy all that off my website. But when I talk about videos every series I do there's a sample lesson on YouTube that you can go to and you can access it through my page.

Lyvita: 37:18

So you can just go to.

Cecil: 37:18

CecilTaylorMinistriescom, and you can access and go to that video over on YouTube and see what I look like and see that first lesson for free in the video series.

Lyvita: 37:31

Oh wow, You're doing a lot. That's a blessing. Well, thank you so much, Lord is blessing you, go ahead, go ahead. Oh wow, saints, you see how when you just start one thing, you just get the book published and see how the Lord bless I tell you.

Lyvita: 37:50

I tell you because, so that keep telling you how saints that you got to start doing what the Lord called you to do, because there's a lot of gaps out there and the believers need to start closing the gap, because we need more saints, we need more labors in the harvest. So, cecil, can you pray us out?

Cecil: 38:13

I'd be honored to. Lord, i want to start off. I'm just feeling so grateful right now for LaVita and her mission and her podcast, and I'm so grateful for her listeners, who are going to benefit from this. I know because I know you multiply our words and our actions and you make things happen behind the scenes and somebody from listening to this is going to be blessed by it and have an impact in their lives. So I pray for the work you're doing and are going to do and have already done.

Cecil: 38:49

Lord, this isn't a perfect world, because we humans broke it And so we have crises to face. So, but we know you stand with us. In crisis, you offer reclamation and turning things for good. So help us to approach these inevitable crises in life by changing our focus, by simplifying and trusting in you and resting and grieving, and by also knowing that, as we go through every circumstance in life, that we need to rejoice and pray and give thanks and be with us through it all. We know you want to be, we know you will be And we praise you for that. In your holy name, we pray, amen.

Lyvita: 39:30

Amen. So, saints, until we meet again on the airways, intentionally and daily, hang out with Jesus, shalom.