http://www.ceciltaylorministries.com/

Cecil Taylor Ministries, Dallas, TX (2026)

08/14/2026

Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: Seagull Eggs and the Golden Rule

While on an Alaskan cruise this summer, I heard a story from an Alaskan native of the Tlingit tribe that I will use to talk about our faith and how to put the Golden Rule into practice.

The Tlingit speaker told about a breakthrough in the tribe's relationship with the National Park Service. Barred from harvesting on what the tribe considered its own land, they negotiated with the NPS to collect seagull eggs for just one day.

The speaker was a teen at the time and was one of two people allowed to harvest seagull eggs. But he didn't know how, so he asked his grandfather how to do it.

His grandfather taught that seagulls always lay one to three eggs, and the teen should collect them according to this rule learned over the tribe's centuries of gathering eggs.

If there is one egg in the nest, take it. The seagull mother will lay another.

If there are two eggs in the nest, take one. The mother will lay a third egg.

If there are three eggs in the nest, take none. If all her eggs disappear, the seagull mother will become discouraged and never lay an egg again.

While this is a wise, wonderful story of working in harmony with nature, I feel it can serve as an analogy for the way we treat people.

Jesus issued the Golden Rule in Matthew 7:12 (NIV), "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

Looking at the Golden Rule on the surface, it seems like we can't go wrong if we just do to others from our point of view of what makes sense. But I feel there is a deeper meaning.

How do I want to be treated if you help me? While any help is useful, ideally I want to be treated according to MY preferences, not YOUR preferences. I would want you to ask for my viewpoint or for you to have the wisdom and experience of discerning my preferences.

We can go down wrong paths when we prescribe for others from our viewpoint. But I believe this verse tells us to consider their point of view when we interact with them.

If the Tlingit people only used their viewpoint when harvesting seagull eggs, they would take all the eggs, and along the way, they would destroy their opportunity for future eggs from some seagulls. They are wise to consider the seagull's perspective in their harmonious interaction.

Similarly, when we interact with others, we should consider the other person's perspective to achieve harmonious interaction. The old saying, "Walk a mile in another person's shoes," also applies here.

===On social media, sometimes you see my posts, sometimes you don't. I offer a steady way to stay in touch and to benefit from my writings. Please subscribe to my free monthly newsletters by visiting CecilTaylorMinistries dot com . In my newsletters, I share practical faith tips, church small group tips, updates on the ministry, and other fun and/or meaningful pieces. It doesn't cost a thing, and you can benefit from a closer connection to my ministry.===

08/09/2026

Freewheeling Blog: "Right Turns on Every Red" - The Legend of My Car Named "Air Force One"

I've often said your first car should be a junker. You can't start a kid off with a Ferrari! They have to drive a bad car so they learn on it and then appreciate every successive car more.

I had not one but two clunkers to begin my driving experience. The first eventually became known as Air Force One.

My first name for it was The Gaseater, Bugkiller Special, because it seemed only good for those traits. This car burned through 6 miles per gallon in the city, 8 miles on the highway. Our family had purchased this used car while I was in middle school, and by high school, it had started falling apart. The rest of the football team loved opening up the hood to look at the collection of bailing wire and clothespins my dad used to hold the engine together.

When I took it off to college, its decline accelerated like a no-brakes vehicle dashing downhill. Of course, I didn't help it. I pulled into a full service gas station near the University of Texas campus to ask why the car sounded so bad; the attendant let me know it was a good idea to add oil, as my car had nary a drop. Oops!

The car possessed a few "features." For example, I noticed if I worked the trunk just right, it would balance midway in an open position. So, on a camping trip with my service fraternity, I decided to sleep in the open trunk, first handing my keys to the most trustworthy person in case someone tried to prank me by closing the trunk. Of course, an attempt was made, but I thwarted it by positioning planks above me to prevent the lid from closing.

On the way back from that trip, bouncing along rocky backroads, the muffler fell off. We threw it in the trunk and kept driving the 45 minutes into Austin. That's when I learned what a muffler does. Driving with the windows open, the three passengers and I kept having the same conversation.

"It's really loud!"
"I can't hear what you're saying! It's too loud!"

Our ears rang about as long as it took to get a new muffler installed the next day.

I became president of that service fraternity, so we renamed the vehicle Air Force One. As I ascended, the poor car descended into a new depth of driving experience.

The next "feature" it developed was that the engine would die at all speeds under ten miles per hour. I want you to think about that for a moment. Backing out of a parking space was quite the adventure, as the car would keep choking. (Yes, I parked in pull-through spaces whenever possible). To back out, I had to rev the engine, slam the car into reverse, screech out of the parking space, pop the car into drive, and peel out to go forward. This sequence could take anywhere from five to fifteen minutes before I got it just right.

Unsurprisingly, my girlfriend didn't like to ride with me. She had no patience with all the false starts. Say she was visiting my apartment. She would stay up in my second-floor apartment until I honked to indicate I had successfully put Air Force One into drive. In a delicate balancing act, I would try to go 11 miles per hour in a parking lot only eight cars long before I reached the street. When I honked, she would tear down the stairs and leap into the passenger side just as I entered the traffic flow.

(I took a previous girlfriend to a prom. I rented a car for that event. All I could afford was a Pinto).

Upon reaching the streets of Austin, Air Force One faced a new challenge: red lights. Oh, stop signs were bad too, but I pretty much just ran them. But I had to drive cautiously on the main streets, trying to time every light to reach it in green status with no traffic stopped in front of me.

I stayed in the right lane, because if I did reach a red light, I would have to turn right on red without hesitation and hope to God no traffic was coming. Then I would drive until I could turn right. . . then turn right. . .then turn right onto the main street again.

I recall one time when a bunch of friends all left one location to go eat somewhere. It was about a ten-minute drive. I showed up thirty minutes later. They had all ordered and starting eating. "Where were you?" they asked. "Too many red lights," I replied.

When I graduated from college, I happily hand-me-downed Air Force One to my sister and purchased a used car at a Texas Department of Public Safety auction, christening it as Air Force Two. Coming from a public safety background, however, didn't mean it was safe. In fact, I was convinced Air Force Two wanted to kill me. I'll share that tale in next month's Freewheeling Blog post.

08/08/2026

Practical Faith Academy Blog: S6, E7 - Kevin Taylor, Listening For and Following God's Voice

God speaks to us in many ways. For example, Rev. Kevin Taylor's life was redirected through the combination of a conversation with another faithful person and a scene from "The Lion King."

Kevin Taylor is a pastor who also has an extensive career in business leadership. He has allowed God to direct him in new ways in both career settings. Rev. Taylor joins this episode of the Practical Faith Academy to discuss how we can discern God’s will and how we can reach beyond our own preferences and comfort zones to obey.

The Selah Award-winning Practical Faith Academy Podcast from Cecil Taylor Ministries presents guests who have important things to say about putting your faith into practice. Cecil interviews each guest to understand their life stories and their ideas for living a seven-day practical faith.

In this episode, Rev. Taylor shares his own story of doing less than what God was asking and what he learned from that experience. He also discusses how to better listen and know what God is asking and how we are affirmed when we move forward in faith.

One key segment that struck me was our discussion on how to approach risky faith situations, including in business settings.

Highlights of the podcast:

2:34 What a seven-day practical faith means to Rev. Taylor
4:07 A viewing of “The Lion King” changed Taylor’s mindset about his role in ministry.
8:42 How God lets us know we should not let a calling or other key decisions linger
12:20 How to suppress our preferences to listen and obey God
16:21 How can we develop our listening skills so we can achieve clarity of God’s direction?
20:15 How Taylor has experienced affirmation when following God’s direction
22:43 Taylor’s guidance on accepting and implementing faithful risk in our lives.
27:30 Taylor’s advice when a business asks you to do something unethical
31:21 His best tip for developing and maintaining a seven-day practical faith
34:12 How you can follow Taylor and find his books and services (receive a 10% discount if you indicate you heard him on the Practical Faith Academy podcast)

The Practical Faith Academy podcast can be played directly on the Cecil Taylor Ministries website at https://www.CecilTaylorMinistries.com/podcast. While on the site, please check out everything Cecil Taylor Ministries offers, including our Instant Content books and video studies for individual learners, small groups, and churches.

The episode is also available on major podcast platforms (Spotify, Apple, YouTube, iHeartRadio, and others) and hosted on Podbean. Search on each platform for "Practical Faith Academy."

08/07/2026

Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: Addressing Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

Marketers talk about creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) in their target audience. They want you to feel FUD about yourself, your current solution to a problem, your standing in society, and so forth. FUD is a powerful weapon to motivate you to buy.

As Christians, we have to guard against FUD and recognize these elements as tools of Satan. How can we push back on them?

Let me preface the discussion by saying that doubt, on its own, isn't necessarily bad. Questioning can lead us to deeper faith when we seek and find satisfactory answers to our questions. Doubting Thomas wasn't wrong for questioning, but if he could get no farther even when presented the truth of Christ's resurrection, that would've been a bigger problem.

Going element by element, fear always threatens to weaken faith, as it is the opposite of faith. We fear the future, death, and what others may think of us. Faith overcomes fear in surprising ways, as we learn in the Bible. For example, Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV) reads:

===Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.===

Uncertainty can disrupt our spiritual growth or our calling. For example, a Christian author may feel messages like, "You're not qualified spiritually," or "You're not capable of being a good writer," or "Who would listen to you anyway?" Similarly, in so many endeavors, we can feel stunted by uncertainty that we are good enough or that we can capably figure out how to achieve good works.

Doubt sows questions about God's goodness, whether the Bible is accurate, whether we're worthy of salvation, and whether our Lord will actually provision us as needed.

FUD taken together can produce shame. In my book, "Live Like You're Loved," I address the topic of guilt vs. shame. In a nutshell, my view is guilt has to do with our actions while shame has to do with our self-image. God provides a path of forgiveness to address the guilt of our actions. I see shame, on the other hand, as a tool of Satan to create FUD about ourselves and whether we are redeemable. (I realize "shame" is sometimes interchanged with "guilt" in the Bible, but I use those words to draw a boundary between our actions and our self-worth).

To address Satan's FUD as he tries to confuse us, we start by seeing FUD for what it is. We see it as discouragement, manipulation, and even a lie - and lying is Satan's favorite activity.

We can start to manage FUD by bringing God into the conversation. What does God say about us, both in scripture and in our personal revelations through prayer and the Holy Spirit's presence? Would God discourage us from serving the kingdom? Would God insult our self-worth?

Again, we sin with our thoughts and actions, but we address our sin by repeatedly approaching God through a forgiveness cycle that cleanses us. God protects our value and worth, because God provided those to us in the first place.

Over time, as we repeatedly fight back against FUD, it begins to lose its hold on us. Satan will always look for new opportunities. But when we practice FUD removal, we get better at it, Satan is weakened, and we can freely pursue the paths to which God leads us in our seven-day practical faith.

===If you have any doubts about your worth, or if you worry about your calling or your future, please look into "Live Like You're Loved" at CecilTaylorMinistries dot com under Books & Videos. You can also find it through your favorite online bookseller.===

07/31/2026

Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: Compassion + Action + Relating = ...

>>>Luke 10:33

07/29/2026

Podcast Blog: Season 6, Episode 6 - Gina Romero, Welcome to a Christian Home

When I wrote my book, "Unison Parenting," I felt it fit into the vein of practical faith because our faith life should start with what we do at home. Gina Romero feels the same way.

Romero is a Christian author, podcaster, and speaker focused on helping women make their home life into a form of ministry and worship. She hosts the Welcome Home podcast and wrote the award-winning book, “Welcome Home: A Guide to Homemaking, from the Heart.”

The Selah Award-winning Practical Faith Academy Podcast from Cecil Taylor Ministries presents guests who have important things to say about putting your faith into practice. Cecil interviews each guest to understand their life stories and their ideas for living a seven-day practical faith.

In this episode, Romero shares her thoughts about putting faith into practice and reflecting that faith in our homes. She offers realistic views on unique pressures on women while striving for best possible outcomes in your home life; Romero gives hope and reassurance that you can make your home and family better, even if the results are not as neat and tidy as you see on social media. Romero also talks about how to discern God’s voice and leadership as you make decisions in your life.

One of the ideas I got from this episode is how we don't need to expect constant perfection of ourselves just because someone has posted a brief moment of perfection on social media. Still, we have an opportunity to do much better in ordering our homes, reflecting the order God brings out of chaos.

Highlights of the podcast:

2:44 Why it’s important to practice our faith seven days per week
6:54 Why Romero considers homemaking a ministry
11:11 Hospitality is a form of worship
14:50 Romero’s thoughts on designing and ordering your home
18:32 What she wants to share in her cookbook being released this fall
21:50 Romero focuses on reality, not manufactured perfection
24:15 Romero’s experience in discerning what opportunities to pursue and which to set aside
29:53 Her best tip for developing and maintaining a seven-day practical faith
32:21 How to connect to her ministry, Welcome Home by Gina

The Practical Faith Academy podcast can be played directly on the Cecil Taylor Ministries website at https://www.CecilTaylorMinistries.com/podcast. While on the site, please check out everything Cecil Taylor Ministries offers, including our Instant Content books and video studies for individual learners, small groups, and churches.

The episode is also available on major podcast platforms (Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and others) and hosted on Podbean. Search on each platform for "Practical Faith Academy."

07/25/2026

Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: Responding to Grace, Not Earning It

=== 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— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. ===

One of the things I worry about when I talk about putting faith into practice is that readers will think I'm proposing to earn God's grace. Nothing could be further from the truth, but I want to clearly state my view.

Paul says it best in the Ephesians passage above. Our salvation comes from faith in Jesus, not by our works. That was the problem with trying to follow the covenant of laws in the Old Testament; humans simply couldn't do it. The law taught us proper behavior, but it also revealed its insufficiency to save us.

That's why we need a Savior: Jesus. This concept is absolutely core to Christianity, whatever variant you practice. It is by grace that we are saved, through God providing the Lamb of God, and through our faith in that Lamb.

Yet after Paul states this, he pivots immediately to the topic of good works. But those works are not in the context of salvation but rather in the context of our response to grace and our fulfillment of our purpose as designed by God.

So, our practice of faith has a perspective. We don't pray because we're checking a box; we pray to connect to God, to understand what we should do in response to grace. We read scripture for the same reason, to learn how to place our lives into the context of God's kingdom.

When I discuss the practice of our faith, the purpose is to become God's handiwork 24/7, not just on Sundays, not just in pews or chairs or a building, but as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) interacting in the world.

OK, enough theology - my goal is to focus on faith practice, not arguing theology. Still, scripture is the foundation for this blog, and I wanted to clarify the connection.

+++ I offer so many ways, both free and paid, to enhance your faith walk. The starting point for everything I do is CecilTaylorMinistries dot com. Please check it out to see my practical faith toolkit. +++

07/17/2026

Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: A Bee-Sized Approach to the World's Problems

===This is a summer rerun from Sept. 2023. It still feels relevant today.===

The world's problems can feel overwhelming. War and conflict in Gaza, Ukraine, and beyond. Threats to our democratic, financial, and even religious institutions. Violence and crime that could strike any of us.

Of course, if I could either go backward or forward in time by ten, one hundred, or one thousand years, I would find an overwhelming set of problems beyond my capacity to fix. The world will always be filled with turmoil and inhumane acts.

That's why I have to consider the bee.

My friend, Rev. Edlen Cowley, recently pointed out that a worker bee will carry enough nectar over the course of its lifetime to create 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey - a few tiny drops. It takes a whole hive to produce honey of any substantial amount. To make one pound of honey, worker bees fly 55,000 miles and extract from more than one million flowers.

Similarly, my own meager efforts will fall well short of solving the world's problems. But together, many of us can make an impact.

God doesn't expect us to fix all of the world's problems. I can't find a Bible verse telling me to fix all of the world's problems. Instead, we hear Jesus telling us to shine the light of our individual lamps before the world. We read God's expectation about the essential work we can do in Micah 6:6-8 (NIV), and it's not about the volume of magnificent acts.

With what shall I come before the Lord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

When we act with justice for the oppressed and the weak, when we cherish and exhibit mercy and kindness, when we walk with our Lord daily with a humble attitude rather than an arrogant or judgmental attitude, then we are doing the essential work of God. If more and more of us "worker bees" fulfilled such individual duties, then the sum of our efforts would provide plentiful sweet honey to an aching, troubled, hungry world.

07/12/2026

Freewheeling Blog: Fun with Words

===This is a rerun of one of my favorite Freewheeling blog entries from 2022.===

There's a reason why my children give me mugs with sayings like, "Dad Joke Champion."

It's not just the jokes per se. It's more of a way of life. I have a random, curious mind, and sometimes its contents spill out in odd ways.

For example, I have perfected the art of ending sentences in contractions. Take this simple exchange:

"Dad, are you joining us?"
"Yes, I'm."

My kids argued for years that English doesn't allow contractions at the end of sentences. Then I met my daughter's English teacher at a social event. I told her about our argument, and she said there was no grammatical reason why I couldn't end a sentence with a contraction. Score one for Dad!

Recently I was musing about words that seem derived from another word that may not exist. Take "inert" as an example. "In" means "not," so it seems logical that its root is "ert." But "ert" isn't a word. Or should it be?

So, I started using such words in my conversations around my family. "I'm not inert. I'm moving, I'm active, I'm ERT!" Or how about with inept? "I'm not inept. I'm very EPT." (Yes, I realize there is an opposite word, "adept," but still, I challenge you, what about "ept"?)

My son said, "Your made-up words are inane." I replied, "No, I think they are ANE." Inane means lacking sense or significance; silly. Is my premise silly? Well, maybe. But no, I'll argue that it is not silly, that it is actually "ane."

My wife laughingly tells me, "You're incorrigible." That means beyond correction or reform; uncontrollable. In this case, there is a corresponding word: "Corrigible" means capable of being corrected or reformed.

In the case of silly words, yes, I'm incorrigible. But as a follower of Jesus, I need to be corrigible. I need to be shaped by the Holy Spirit into the character of Christ. God illustrated this to the prophet in Jeremiah 18: 1-6 (NIV):

===This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said, "Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel."===

The old hymn says, "Thou are the potter, I am the clay." In my experience, I am clay in God's hands. The Spirit corrects and reforms my bad behaviors, shaping me into a better person.

Throughout my life, God has called me to new purposes. God has revitalized my being. God has taken my past experiences and integrated them to shape me into someone new. I'm still the same lump of clay, but I have taken different forms, if you will, for God's use, just as Jeremiah's potter was revising to construct a vessel that was useful to him.

So as Christians living a seven-day practical faith, let us be:

- Ert rather than inert - Active and power-filled rather than motionless and powerless.
- Ept rather than inept - Using our God-given gifts in effective ways.
- Ane rather than inane - Sensible and acting in significant ways to serve God's kingdom.
- Corrigible rather than incorrigible - Ready to be molded as God sees fit in this season of our lives.

God can mold and use us in surprising ways. Today God used my cleverly silly side to teach a lesson!

07/10/2026

Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: Loving Beyond Differences

From the 1950s into the 1970s, University of Arkansas football coach Frank Broyles and University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal did battle through their teams. Their games were usually close, including the 1964 14-13 Arkansas win that paved the way to a national championship and the 1969 "Big Shootout" 15-14 win by Texas that was the key to their national title.

The rivalry was intense. Broyles convinced his players that the Longhorns represented the evil empire of rich Texans. Players and fans on both sides embraced the hate of a great rivalry.

But outside the stadiums, Broyles and Royal became great friends. They each had prevailed over a hardscrabble Depression-era youth and had a similar approach to coaching. The two would golf together, and their families would even vacation together. When Texas beat Arkansas in that 1969 Game of the Century, Royal hugged and consoled Broyles's crying teenage daughter on the field. The two men jointly retired from college football after their season-ending matchup in 1976 (I was actually nearby on the field, straining to hear their combined announcement interview with ABC reporter Jim Lampley).

Broyles and Royal epitomized the idea of not getting along in some ways while maintaining a relationship. We could use this trait these days in our divided society, and certainly as Christians, we need to find ways to maintain relationships as much as possible. After all, Jesus said to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). Why can't we also do that for friends and family that disappoint us?

I have a fairly new friend who publicly expresses a different political opinion than mine. But we bond over our love of travel, art, and willingness to be goofy and vulnerable.

I understand there are times for boundaries. Recently I learned of a family that split over politics because one branch expressed insensitivity toward the needs of the other branch. To everything there is a season, and there is a season for time off in relationships.

But we have made relationship-breaking our go-to move rather than the exception. Even within the Christian community, we have drawn hard lines over what makes someone "Christian," and we have rejected the other side completely. Personally, I often find myself in circles that express differing theological points. I try to focus on the commonalities and the good hearts of the people with whom I may disagree intellectually.

Methodism founder John Wesley and his protege, George Whitefield, broke off their relationship over the doctrine of predestination; their churches divided into warring camps. After a while, both men realized that they actually agreed on much more than they disagreed with, and they worked to mend fences. As Christians, we must realize what is denominational doctrine and what is truly foundational to being a Jesus follower. Too often we push doctrine as foundation when it's really not.

Through prayer and the Spirit fruits of patience and peace, let us be peacemakers so we will be called children of God (Matthew 5:9). Let us, bit by bit, one by one, find avenues for relationship maintenance and mending rather than breakage. Certainly, it is not all up to us individually; it takes two to make a relationship. But in our seven-day practical faith walk, let us do our part to go the extra mile, manifest love for those who oppose and persecute us, and search for hidden commonalities rather than clear differences.

===I hope you'll choose to stay in close touch with Cecil Taylor Ministries by registering for my free monthly newsletters. They are the best way to stay in the know while also receiving practical faith tips, small group tips, and fun stuff. You can register at CecilTaylorMinistries dot com in the pop-up box or in the area under "Stay in Touch with Cecil Taylor Ministries." Either way, you'll receive a free gift called The Practical Faith Game Plan.===

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