It has been said, Lord, that the head of a company survived 9/11 because his son started kindergarten that day.
Another fellow is alive because it was his turn to bring donuts.
One woman was late because her alarm clock didn't go off in time.
One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because of an auto accident.
One of them missed his bus.
One spilled food on her clothes and had to take time to change.
One's car wouldn't start.
One went back to answer the telephone.
One had a child that dawdled and didn't get ready as soon as he should have.
One couldn't get a taxi.
One man put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work, but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot...he stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.

I'm sure at the time these seemed like petty annoyances...
But Your hand, Father, was sovereignly at work in each of these souls lives.
You sent sovereignly appointed interruptions into each soul's path that changed their destiny.

Oh, Lord God, our Country is in a crisis.

Without your intervention, we perish!
The wicked, through the pride of their countenance, will not seek after God;
Thou are not in all their thoughts.
The wicked in their pride persecute the poor...let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
The wicked boasteth of their heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.
The wicked, through the pride of their countenance, will not seek after God...
God is not in all their thoughts.
Their mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud:
Under their tongue is mischief and vanity.
They sitteth in the lurking places of the earth...in the secret places doth they murder the innocent.
Their eyes are privily set against the poor.
They lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den;
They lieth in wait to catch the poor...and they do catch the poor, when they draweth him into their net.

Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

In the Lord put I my trust;
How say ye to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain?"
For lo, the wicked bend their bow...
They make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privately shoot at the upright in heart.
Their sorrows shall be multipled that hasten after another god.

Oh, Father, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Thou, Lord, art in your holy temple...
Thy throne is in Heaven:
Thine eyes behold, Thine eyelids try, the children of men.
Thou Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked and him that loveth violence Thy soul hateth.

Hold up my goings in Thy paths, Father, that my footsteps slip not.
I have called upon Thee, for Thou wilt hear me, O God:
Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.
Shew Thy marvelous lovingkindness, O Thou that savest by Thy right hand...
Them which put their trust in Thee...
From those that rise up against them.

[Psalmist's quotes...portions from Psalms 10, 11, 16, & 17]

I wait,
Dear Lord.  Thy ways
are past finding out.
Thy love too high.
O hold me still
Beneath Thy shadow.
It is enough that Thou
Lift up the light of
Thy Countenance.
I wait
Because I am commanded
So to do.
My mind so filled
With wanderings.
My soul asks, "Why?"
But then the quiet word,
"Wait thou only
Upon God."
And so, not even for the light
To show a step ahead
But for Thee, dear Lord,
I wait.

The sorrow of my life is that I cannot sing.  My vocal chords and my ears will not work together.  They are like some church folks.  They start off all right, but then they go to being disagreeable.  I just cannot do it.

I remember when I was a little country boy attending a little country school in Alabama, we were getting ready to close the school year.  Our old-maid schoolteacher lined us all up to teach us a song.  I remember the words to this day…”The last day of school is come, and now we are going to say good-bye.”  She said, “Now get ready, children.  We are going to learn this song because your parents will all be here and we’re going to have a good time.  Get the words now.”  I opened my mouth and began to sing…”The last day of…” starting off ahead of the others.  So, the teacher stopped us, and looking in my direction said, “Now boys and girls, watch me now…let’s all get the words.”  I knew the words so started out again same as before.  After awhile she looked at me and said, “Bobby, I am awfully sorry, but I might just as well tell you now and be done with it.  You just can’t sing anyhow.  And the trouble is that when you sing, nobody else can sing either!”  Well, I do not know anything about psychoanalysis, but that old sister broke my heart; and from that day to this I am ashamed to sing in public.

Sometimes when I get alone and there is nobody for me to bother, I sing the old songs that I love as best I can:  “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!”  If the world had to depend on me for music, it would be a terribly gloomy world…I cannot sing!  But I have a song in my heart.  And when I get to Heaven, I am going to ask the angels to set a pitch for me on harps of gold.  I am going to dip my tongue in the melody of the sky and sing an unsung song that Jesus put in my heart the night I was saved when I was just a boy, seven years old.  I wish I could sing for Jesus now.  But I can do something for Him.  And this is my message to you…you can do something for Him too.   God looks on the heart.  He is not looking for a voice with perfect pitch, but for someone who is perfectly surrendered to Him and His will.  So be fruitful and serve Him with gladness where you are capable to.


Taken from Do Right, Chapel sermons by Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.