Daily Benefits.

When daily we obey God:

Psalm 61:8

So I will sing praise to Your name forever, That I may daily perform my vows.

Friends, do you find delight in prayer, or is prayer only an “emergency exercise” to get you out of trouble?  David ended the psalm with an expression of praise and an affirmation of obedience. Prayer changes things, but prayer   also changes people, starting with the one who does the praying!

Praise His name:

Psalm 72:15

And He shall live; And the gold of Sheba will be given to Him; Prayer also will be made for Him continually. And daily He shall be praised.

And Pray:

Psalm 88:9

My eye wastes away because of affliction. LORD, I have called daily upon You; I have stretched out my hands to You.

Friends, Heman did not give up. Instead he looked by faith to God, the God of wonders, loving kindness, and faithfulness (vv. 10-12). He cried out to God and told Him just how felt. Your feelings may change, but God never changes. You can trust Him even in the dark, even when you seem to be drowning.

Think it over:

What man needs is not a boast from below but a birth from above.

                                                                                                                    … Vance Havner

Christ My All

Christ for sickness, Christ for health,

Christ for poverty, Christ for wealth,

Christ for joy, Christ for sorrow,

Christ today and Christ tomorrow;

Christ my Life, and Christ my Light,

Christ for morning, noon and night,

Christ when all around gives way

Christ my everlasting Stay;

Christ my Rest, and Christ my Food

Christ above my highest good,

Christ my Well-beloved Friend

Christ my Pleasure without end;

Christ my Savior, Christ my Lord

Christ my Portion, Christ my God,

Christ my Shepherd, I His sheep

Christ Himself my soul to keep;

Christ my Leader, Christ my Peace

Christ hath wrought my soul’s release,

Christ my Righteousness divine

Christ for me, for He is mine;

Christ my Wisdom, Christ my Meat,

Christ restores my wandering feet,

Christ my Advocate and Priest

Christ my Rock, in Christ I hide,

Christ the Ever-living Bread,

Christ His precious Blood hath shed;

Christ hath brought me nigh to God,

Christ the everlasting Word

Christ my Master, Christ my Head,

Christ who for my sins hath bled;

Christ my Glory, Christ my Crown,

Christ the Plant of great renown,

Christ my Comforter on high,

Church:

Being efficient is not the same as being effective. Peter Drucker says, “Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” Many churches are efficient in that they are well organized and maintain a full scale of programs. But while they generate a lot of activity, there is little productivity.

Energy is wasted on trivial issues. It is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic; everything may look nice and organized, but it doesn’t matter because the ship is still sinking! It is not enough for a church to be well organized; it must be well organized to do the right things.

After Surrender – What ?

Surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the will; when that is done, all is done. There are very few crises in life; the great crisis is the surrender of the will. God never crushes a man’s will into surrender, He never beseeches him, He waits until the man yields up his will to Him. That battle never needs to be re-fought.

Surrender for Deliverance.

“Come unto Me and I will give you rest”. It is after we have begun to experience what salvation means that we surrender our wills to Jesus Christ for rest. Whatever is perplexing heart or mind is a call to the will – “Come unto Me”. It is a voluntary coming.

Surrender for Devotion.

“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.” The surrender here is of my self to Jesus, my self with His rest at the heart of it. “If you would be My disciple, give up your right to yourself to Me.” Then the reminder of the life is nothing but the manifestation of this surrender. When once the surrender has taken place we never need “suppose” any thing. We do not need to care what our circumstances are, Jesus is amply sufficient.

Surrender for Death.

John 21:18-19. “…another shall gird thee.” Have you learned what it means to be bound for death? Beware of a surrender which you make to God in any ecstasy; you apt to take it back again. It is a question of being united with Jesus in His death until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.

After surrender – what? The whole of the life after surrender is an aspiration for unbroken communion with God.

186, Things Men Can Do

(7 to 10 out of 186)

7)

Fall from grace

Galatians 1:6-8  

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—

7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!

Hebrews 12:15  

See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Jeremiah 16:13  

So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

8)

Fail of the Grace of God

Hebrews 12:15  

See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

9)

Fall from own steadfastness

2 Peter 3:14-18  

14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.

15 Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.

16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

17 Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.

18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

10)

Be lost after receiving eternal life

John 17:2  

For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

I am crucified with Christ.

—Galatians 2:20

The Lord Jesus Christ acted in what He did as a great public representative person, and His dying upon the cross was the virtual dying of all His people. Then all His saints rendered unto justice what was due, and made expiation to divine vengeance for all their sins. The apostle of the Gentiles delighted to think that as one of Christ's chosen people; he died upon the cross in Christ. He did more than believe this doctrinally, he accepted it confidently, resting his hope upon it. He believed that by virtue of Christ's death, he had satisfied divine justice, and found reconciliation with God. Beloved, what a blessed thing it is when the soul can, as it were, stretch itself upon the cross of Christ, and feel, "I am dead; the law has slain me, and I am therefore free from its power, because in my Surety I have borne the curse, and in the person of my Substitute the whole that the law could do, by way of condemnation, has been executed upon me, for I am crucified with Christ."

But Paul meant even more than this. He not only believed in Christ's death, and trusted in it, but he actually felt its power in himself in causing the crucifixion of his old corrupt nature. When he saw the pleasures of sin, he said, "I cannot enjoy these: I am dead to them." Such is the experience of every true Christian. Having received Christ, he is to this world as one who is utterly dead. Yet, while conscious of death to the world, he can, at the same time, exclaim with the apostle, "Nevertheless I live." He is fully alive unto God. The Christian's life is a matchless riddle. No world ling can comprehend it; even the believer himself cannot understand it. Dead, yet alive! Crucified with Christ, and yet at the same time risen with Christ in newness of life! Union with the suffering, bleeding Savior, and death to the world and sin, are soul-cheering things. O for more enjoyment of them!

They go from strength to strength.

—Psalm 84:7

They go from strength to strength. There are various renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of progress.

Our own good translation of the Authorized Version is enough for us this morning. "They go from strength to strength." That is, they grow stronger and stronger. Usually, if we are walking, we go from strength to weakness; we start fresh and in good order for our journey, but by-and-by the road is rough, and the sun is hot, we sit down by the wayside, and then again painfully pursue our weary way.

But the Christian pilgrim having obtained fresh supplies of grace is as vigorous after years of toilsome travel and struggle as when he first set out. He may not be quite so elate and buoyant, nor perhaps quite so hot and hasty in his zeal as he once was, but he is much stronger in all that constitutes real power, and travels, if more slowly, far more surely. Some gray-haired veterans have been as firm in their grasp of truth, and as zealous in diffusing it, as they were in their younger days; but, alas, it must be confessed it is often otherwise, for the love of many waxes cold and iniquity abounds, but this is their own sin and not the fault of the promise which still holds good: "The youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." Fretful spirits sit down and trouble themselves about the future.

 "Alas!" say they, "we go from affliction to affliction.” Very true, O thou of little faith, but then thou goest from strength to strength also. Thou shalt never find a bundle of affliction which has not bound up in the midst of it sufficient grace. God will give the strength of ripe manhood with the burden allotted to full-grown shoulders.

186, Things Men Can Do

(3 to 6 out of 186)

3)

Follow or refuse to follow Christ at any time

Matthew 16:24  

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Mark 8:34  

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Luke 9:23  

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

John 12:26  

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

1 Peter 2:21  

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.

4)

Stumble at the Word

1 Peter 2:8  

And, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

5)

Cast off first faith

1 Timothy 5:12  

Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge.

6)

Cast away confidence

Hebrews 10:35  

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

For the love of the game

By John Fischer

Last Thursday night, my son, Chandler, and I checked into a hotel near the Los Angeles International Airport in order to meet my wife who was due in late from a business trip. I was surprised to find the lobby bustling with people. It seemed like an odd hour for so many to be checking into a hotel. They were definitely traveling as a group and many of them were toting large duffle bags. When I saw baseball bat handles sticking out of one bag, I assumed they were some kind of team, but they were not a very well-heeled team in that they could not afford team bags.

They were all traveling with their families. Kids were running all over the lobby and it did not take Chandler long to join them. Finally, I caught the red and green colors of Mexico on a laminated ticket pass that one of them was wearing around his neck and I wondered if this was Mexico's team in the World Baseball Classic – the guys that hours earlier had knocked Team USA out of the games with a convincing win. I would have expected much more of a display of color and uniformity from an international team.

“Are you guys on Mexico's baseball team?” I asked two families in the elevator. They nodded. “Are you still in it?” Yes, they shook their heads. “So, you just knocked us out?” They grinned ear to ear with satisfaction. “Well, congratulations!” I said as they spilled out onto their floor – women, children, players, and bats. One guy had signatures all over his jacket. Two others had Team USA hats signed, I assumed, by Major League players.

These were no-names from nowhere who had just knocked off their millionaire heroes and gotten their autographs in the process. These guys were playing only for pride and the love of the game, and they were carrying their own bags. You can bet that USA players never touch their own equipment outside the ball field.

I want to remember that picture: the smiles, the kids, the players, and the equipment bags strewn all over the lobby. Something about it seems true and pure – the kind of thing that will keep this game alive.

Something about this also seems right about our relationship with God. When you serve God, you carry your own stuff. No one is above being a servant. And we're in it for the love of the game, only this game is life. It's the real thing.

That guy may have autographs of big league players all over his jacket, but in his heart, he's got something better than all their million-dollar contracts combined – he's got the real game and the real reason to play it. And look who won.