The Cloud of Witnesses Release

December 16, 2022 / danny777 / Leave a comment

I am excited to announce a project that I have been working on for the last year and half. On January 1^st, 2023, my new book will be released. The Cloud of Witnesses: Ancient wisdom comes alive for a struggling pastor.

Since Covid took our world by storm, it has led to great challenges for the American church. In fact, many pastors have walked away from ministry, leading to what has been dubbed “The Great Resignation”. This book is my rally cry for pastors and leaders who are facing troubled times.

The book is fiction. An allegory of the life of a small church pastor, John Watkins, who has run out of answers. On the brink of quitting, he has an encounter that changes the course of his life and ministry.

Through his discussions with the Cloud of Witnesses, John Watkins discovers the secrets to true success. This book is for pastors or anyone who wants to understand the heart and ministry of their pastor. I believe it is a good read for any Christian, as well as pastors.

So, mark your calendars for New Year’s Day. The Cloud of Witnesses will be available on Amazon.

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Raising the Bar in Parenting

November 6, 2022November 6, 2022 / danny777 / Leave a comment

On Sundays, we have been in a sermon series about the Gold Standard and raising the bar in different areas of our lives. (Holiness, Marriage, Relationships, and Parenting) This Sunday morning, I shared about expectations and standards we can use in raising our kids and grandkids. If you read through these lists, you will find they are not your common standards that have been set.

Many people live their life hoping their kids will get a good education, excel at sports or some other extracurricular activity, and have a good job. While those are good things, it is a low bar to be set. You can have a great athlete who is arrogant or immoral. When they are done playing sports or done with their education, what do you have then? Are they good people? Can you be proud of the way they live and the decisions they make?

The greatest goal for our children should be their relationship with Jesus Christ. Check out these lists and see if any of these resonate with you. You can download the PDF Version here.

The Standard I Am Raising For My Kids by Danny Cheney

I want my kids to love Jesus and Serve Him.
I want my kids to be responsible and be a positive influence on others.
I want my kids to live moral lives.
I want my kids to be known for their honesty, even if it hurts.
I want my kids to love other people and respect those in authority.
I want my kids to have a love for the Word of God.
I want my kids to learn to pray and know that they can take anything to their loving Heavenly Faither.
When my kids are raised, I want them to choose, on their own, to follow Jesus and go to church for the rest of their lives.

The Noticer Returns by Andy Andrews listed these things for the Gold Standard for our kids.

To be divinely guided
To possess great wisdom, understanding, common sense
To have a grateful spirit
To have a joyful spirit
To be responsible
To be a person of good morals, character
To have a great and abiding faith
To be humble
To be hardworking
To be honest
To have respect for authority
To have servant’s heart
To accept the role of a leader

What we should teach our kids by Landon Coleman: (http://www.landoncoleman.com)

How to support their church through “tithing.”
The importance of making eye contact and speaking clearly.
How to practice spiritual disciplines.
The importance of taking care of your possessions.
How to read and enjoy books.
The importance of saying “thank you.”
How to apologize and how to forgive.
The reality that sin always has consequences.
How to be a good friend, especially to the friendless.
The supreme value of knowing Jesus and being known by Jesus.

Let’s raise the bar in leading our kids.

4-gold-standard_parenting_11.06.22-standards-pdf-1 Download

Grab a copy of my latest book, Worry Less. WORRY FREE.

Daily Disciplines

September 28, 2022September 28, 2022 / danny777 / Leave a comment

What do you do every day? What are your habits?

Forgive me for being so personal but, evaluate your day. What are you doing with it?

Many of us have routines in our lives that we do not even notice. Often, they are routines that we could do without. There are things we need to do that we don’t do and things that we don’t need to do that we do.

I heard a statement recently that I cannot get out of my mind. It has pierced me to the very core of my heart. It said, “What you do daily determines what you will become permanently.” So again, what do you do with your day? I am challenged to look into my daily routines and see what my habits are.

Habits are okay for our lives as long as they are the good kinds of habits. Life controlling substances are not good habits, but spiritual habits are good. As believers we often find it hard to discipline ourselves in spiritual things. We find it difficult to “MAKE” time to do the things necessary for us to be sharp spiritually. It is a decision on the believers part to pray, to read the Word, to witness and serve the Lord. These should be a daily habit of ours.

The Bible tells us to Redeem the Time and so we should but we must redeem the time for the things of God. Paul even said that we should keep our minds on things above. The way to do these things is to discipline ourselves and form a habit of focusing on the Lord.

In the above statement it said we would become what we do daily. If I want to have a relationship with God and be known by Him, I must pray daily. If I want to KNOW Him, I should make habit of reading His Word daily. The Word is Him. The Word Is God. If I want to have His heart, I should be a witness daily, for God’s heart is for the lost.

Often, we make a habit of things that have no eternal value and that is sometimes necessary on our jobs and so forth. The fact is, however, that we should never forsake the most important habits that are found in the things of God. Friends, you will become what your daily routine is. If you do not like your daily routine change it. Don’t dread the day! Make God your habit and your hum-drum day will turn into a day of joy and peace.

Grab a copy of my latest book, Worry Less. WORRY FREE.

The Spirit-Filled Life from my Grandma’s Bible

September 8, 2022 / danny777 / 2 Comments

I found these notes in my Grandma’s old bible:

Joel said, “I will pour our my Spirit on all flesh.”

Sinner’s verse – John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Christian’s verse – Luke 3:16 – John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

The believer who is baptized in the Spirit will have or be:

1. Fruit of the Spirit

2. Sensitive to the Spirit of God

3. A desire for perfection (maturity)

4. Easy to get along with

5. Humble man or woman of God

6. Soul-winner

7. Praising Jesus under every circumstance

8. Walk in humble obedience to the will of God

9. Jesus will be real to you, nearer than any other person

These are the results of a Spirit-filled life. How do we line up?

Here are another couple of quotes from her Bible:

“People say God stopped His supernatural works in the first century. I’ve never heard anyone say the devil stopped his.”

“Would God expect us to go up against a supernatural enemy (devil) without supernatural weapons to fight him?”

Grab a copy of my latest book, Worry Less. WORRY FREE.

A Prayer Idea

September 1, 2022 / danny777 / 2 Comments

Here is something we can all try. In E.M. Bounds book The Complete Book of Prayer, he quotes a gentleman that has a great “tactic” of prayer. I think it would do our community and world good if we employed something similar.

Sir Thomas Browne wrote, “I purpose to take occasion of praying upon the sight of any church which I may pass, that God may be worshipped there in spirit, and that souls may be saved there; to pray daily for my sick patients and the patients of other physicians; at my entrance into any home to say, “May the peace of God dwell here;” after hearing a sermon, to pray for a blessing on God’s truth…upon the sight of a deformed person, to pray God to give them wholeness of soul, and by an by to give them the beauty of the resurrection.”

We should put these things into practice. It reminds me of what the Apostle Paul said, “Pray without ceasing”.

Is God Enough?

August 25, 2022August 25, 2022 / danny777 / 4 Comments

The Levites labored for the Lord nearly night and day. They were in charge of the tabernacle and its service. To be a Levite was not an easy labor job. It was often a hard task considering they sacrificed animals daily. It was not for the weak stomached.

In the book of Joshua, Joshua is dividing the land for the Israelites inheritance. One tribe would get one place, another would get another piece of choice land. What did the Levites inherit? Nothing physical!

Here these great men, served the Lord daily and administered the rites of worship, yet they inherited nothing…well, nothing but GOD!

Joshua 13:33 records, “But to the tribe of Levi Moses had given no inheritance; the LORD God of Israel was their inheritance, as He had said to them.”

The Levites had no inheritance but God Himself! I believe God is enough for them and for us! So often, we think in terms of a temporal blessing or inheritance. I would rather have God Himself than a piece of land! God is more than enough.

So, what do you long for?
Are you in a pursuit for more?

Chasing dreams and buying possessions
Even climbing the ladder of your profession

What is it you live for?
Is it this constant pursuit of more?

Not more of God, but more things
Filling our treasures for that is our dream

Why do we do this? Why do we pursue?
The wrong things daily, that won’t satisfy you.

A little of this, a little of that
So people will envy the place you are at

Is it stuff we are after or the position we can have?
Is it prestige we long for and the recognition we can grab?

In light of eternity, does this really matter?
When life is over, can we take it to the hereafter?

Is it the temporal things that we truly love?
Or would you say, “that God Himself is enough?”

-Danny Cheney-

Grab a copy of my latest book, Worry Less. WORRY FREE.

Are you in control?

May 27, 2022 / danny777 / Leave a comment

Who is in control of your life?

Some may be thinking about their boss on the job, their spouse at home, or even, in some families, it might be the kids. The question, however, is directed to the spiritual aspects of your life. Are you in control or is God in control?

As human beings, we like to be in charge…in control of our own lives. We don’t like to live our life for someone else. We may think, “It is my life I can do as I please.” That statement is true. You can do whatever you please, but we should be doing what pleases God not us.

The fall of man came because man did what was pleasing to himself. In fact, Satan fell from Heaven because he wanted to live his own life. We were born into sin because of what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. We now have to endure the tempting of the pride of life. We have to suppress our desire to live a life of our own will.

John the Baptist said, “That I may decrease so He can increase.”

What a powerful statement! This sums up the whole definition of surrender. As a child of God, we know longer seek to live for our own wills but God’s will. We should seek to die to ourselves, our plans, our own agendas, our pleasures and take up God’s life and plans.

Man’s problems today can all be traced to the fact that people do not want to give up any part of themselves to God. Christians have a hard time laying down their pride, to submit to the leadership of God. We can say that we love God. We can work for His kingdom. We can pray and read our Bible and still not be submitted to Him.

How can you tell when someone has surrendered to God? Humility and servant hood. They humble themselves and care nothing about who gets credit for their service. They lay down the pleasures of this life so that they can walk in God’s life. Evidence of a surrendered Christian is seen in the reflection of Christ in the believer. They don’t tout spirituality they just walk in Christ’s love.

Surrender your life to Christ. Give up everything to Him. Quit worrying about what God can do for you and think of what you can do for Him. Lay down your pleasures, your will and all that is in you and walk in humility. God blesses those who are surrendered to Him.

Grab a copy of my latest book, Worry Less. WORRY FREE.

Simple Prayer

April 27, 2022 / danny777 / Leave a comment

In my devotional reading, I stumbled upon a great verse in Psalms. It is a simple prayer that David prayed in the midst of his declaration. Psalm 68 is a psalm of praise to God. It declares God’s provision of deliverance and victory. It is an offering of worship for an all-powerful God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or even imagine.

As David recounts God’s power and justice, he prays, “Summon your might, O God. Display your power, O God, as you have in the past..” (Psalm 68:28 NLT)

I like that wording, “summons your might”. A summons is a calling by an authority to show something. The Psalmist prays, “God You have the authority to summons, show us your power.” As I read that portion of Psalm 68 I couldn’t help but think about how powerful a simple prayer can be. “Summons your power, the power by which you have worked for us.” David was praying, “Lord, show us your power, the power, you have worked so many times before.”

This ought to be the cry of our heart. A cry for God to reveal Himself in the power of the early church. The power that is revealed in the words of the Holy Scriptures. My prayer is as David’s, “O God, we need your power. You have worked it before, work it again.”

Grab a copy of my latest book, Worry Less. WORRY FREE.