By: Vaughn Morton
This message has changed my life, and if you will get the spirit of this message, it will do something for you. It will help you, although it is not a spiritual lesson. It’s a lesson on just everyday living. You can have a revelation of the oneness of God, and you can be baptized in Jesus name, and you can be filled with the Holy Ghost, and live for God, but if you don’t learn how to live day by day, life will finally eat you up.
There are people that backslide, people that lose out with God. There are people that have been baptized in Jesus’ name and filled with the Holy Ghost, who did not learn how to live in this life. I am not saying
I have all the answers, because I don’t. I am only going to share with you what God taught me many years ago that has changed my life and helped me.
You know, our purpose and goal in life is to be saved. I want to be saved. Don’t you? I’ve got to learn how to live in this life. I cannot be the person I ought to be for God until I learn how to live day by day. I haven’t mastered it all, but I sure feel a lot better about it than I used to. I do not believe the way I used to take life
day by day, that I would ever have made it this far, if God hadn’t taught me this lesson.
A long time ago, I read a story about a man that walked from San Francisco to New York. To walk from San Francisco to New York is a long, long way. After he completed his journey, he was interviewed and they
asked him if there was ever a time that he almost turned back. He said, “Oh yes, there were times that I almost turned back.” They asked him what it was that almost defeated him. Was it the cold winter winds? The hot summer suns? The mountains he had to cross? The streams he had to forge? The robbers by night? The darkness by night? Was it the big cities? What was it that almost caused him to turn around? He said,
“No, it was not the hot summer suns, or the cold winter winds, it wasn’t the deserts, the rivers, the mountains, the robbers, the big cities, it wasn’t being alone. . . the thing that almost defeated me was the sand in my shoes.”
Like the sand in the travelers shoes, it is often the day to day problems that almost defeat us. It’s the everyday living that will get us down if we’re not careful. It’s the everyday grind. There are some
things that are here to stay. If you can get this revelation it will help you. There are some things that are here to stay, some things that will always be. Number one is the everyday grind. It will never go away.
Since there is an everyday grind, we have to learn to accept this everyday grind and learn how to live in the midst of it. If we don’t learn how to live in the everyday grind there will be a day when the everyday grind is going to grind us away and we’re going to lose the freshness of life and we’re going to lose the touch of God and Me is going to become dull, boring, and dreadful. God wants us to be a happy people.
In the book of Proverbs, chapter 17, verse 17, the Bible says, “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” The Bible says that! The Bible says that a brother, a man, a woman, a person, is
born for adversity. The word adversity means tightness, trouble, affliction, tribulation. It means distress. The scripture is telling us that we were born for tightness, trouble, tribulation, distress. If we are not careful, the distress for the day, the tribulation of the hour, the affliction, will get us, it will grind us away. The grind is here to stay.
There are certain bills that are here to stay. As long as you live in this part of the country, in Fresno, California, there will be a Pacific Gas & Electric bill to pay. No matter how much you gripe about it, how
high it is in the winter and summer, it’s going to be there. It looks like most of us are always going to have a house payment or rent, and a car payment. There will always be clothes to buy. If you’re going to
eat, and it looks like most of us do, there is food to buy. There is a job to work on. I am telling you these things are here to stay. We can dread them all we want, but we might as well learn how to live with
them, they are here to stay. You say, “Well I can’t wait ’til I retire.” You think, “Man, I’m going to have it made when I retire.” You can talk to these folks that are here tonight and they’ll tell you retirement has
its problems. Every age in life has its problems. You children can hardly wait until you get to be teenagers and I can hardly wait ’til you’re past being a teenager. You think you have problems as a child, but I’m telling you, as a teenager your problems are going to multiply. You teenagers can’t wait until you can get away from home, but remember this, the older you get the more difficult life becomes.
I’m forty-six years old and I have lived to the place that I’m not young and I’m not old. I’m hung somewhere in between. I feel like Jesus on the cross hung between two thieves. I have lived long enough to know some things about life. When I was a child I wanted certain things, when I was a teenager I wanted to be a certain age. When I reached twenty-one I thought that would be it. That was it, that was the beginning of sorrow. I just thought that was the beginning of sorrow, but when I got a little older it really began. I have found out, the older I get the more difficult life becomes. Since this is the way life is, we’ve got to
learn how to adjust. This is a lesson in itself and one that I teach by itself…. life is full adjustments. Also I teach there is no perfect situation. Learn that…. life is full of adjustments and there is no perfect situation.
The old car can blow up and you can get a new one, but I promise you the new one will have something wrong with it. I thought if I could ever get a new car I would have it made… boy did I ever have it made. You have a payment to make and there will always be something wrong with it. What I’m trying to say is, there are some things that are here to stay. Your roof, it may not leak this winter, but it will leak some winter. When I moved into my house on San Gabriel I thought everything was fine, then one day I heard water leaking in the wintertime. It sounded like the faucet was on in the kitchen so I went running in there and, God is my witness, there was a hole over my kitchen sink all the way through the roof. Your roof may not be leaking this winter but there will be a winter when it will leak. Your car may not be using oil, boast about it all you want, but there will be a day when she’s going to use oil. That’s life, that’s the way it is, but we must never give up, we must never cave in. There is a spirit in life that wants you to give up, that
wants to cave you in, but we must purpose in our hearts, I will never give up on life and I will never cave in. I am going to live life to its fullest, I’m going all the way.
God wants us to be happy and to live life to its fullest Jesus Christ said He came “that they might have life… and more abundantly.” I want hat more abundant life. If you think you’ll ever reach a place in life where you’re going to be on the mountaintop for ever and everything is going to be rosy, you’ll never reach it. When we walk in the valley we can learn to walk in the valley. When tribulation comes we can learn to
bear tribulation. I don’t like tribulation, I don’t like distress, I don’t like trials, I like nice things, and good days, and sunshine, but I’m telling you the rain is going to come, and the fog is going to come but there is a place where we can have a touch of God and we don’t have to cave in or give up.
Now, the Apostle Paul was not a superman, he was a man just like you and me. In II Corinthians 1:8, the Bible says, “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.” This was the great Apostle Paul, the miracle worker, the powerful man of God, saying, “We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.” We will come to those times when we’re pressed out of measure, above strength even so much that we will despair of life. But in the midst of it all, victory!
II Corinthians 4:8 says this, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed.” He said, “I have trouble on every side.”
Have you had trouble on every side? I’ve had it on both sides and top and bottom. He says, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” And then the great apostle said, ” We are more than conquerors.” Romans 8:35 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Paul was saying I know what it is to be
in danger. I know what it is to have the sword after me. I know what it is to have need of clothes. I know what it is to be in famine. I know what it is to have persecution, to have distress, to have tribulation.
He says, “As it is written, For thy sate we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
There is victory in the midst of tribulation !
In II Corinthians the eleventh chapter and verse 24 he begins to tell of all the things he went through, and in verse 28 it says this, “Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily. ” I’m
talking about the everyday grind, “…that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” I’m telling you, there are certain things that are going to come upon us daily so we must learn how to live with
it all. We’re talking about the everyday grind. It takes patience to be saved. In Luke 21:19 Jesus said, “In your patience possess ye your souls.” Jesus was saying patience is a must. I don’t like to talk about
patience.
Patience means enduring, it means continuing, it means continuing, it means bearing trials calmly without complaint. Patience means manifesting forbearance under strain. It means steadfast despite opposition, difficulties, or adversities. I am talking about patience.
Now let’s go to the book of Matthew chapter 6 verse 25. Jesus says, “Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life.” What He is saying is, “Don’t worry.” In this life we have a lot of worrywarts. Who
enjoys worrying? “Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life.” Don’t worry! We are tempted to fret and fear, but the Bible says “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love,
and of a sound mind”. God doesn’t want us to be worrywarts. “Therefore I say unto you take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or for what ye shall drink or yet for your body what ye shall put on, is not
life more than meat and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.” Notice what it said. He said look at that bird flying there, it doesn’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. “Are ye not much better than they?” He said, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his
stature?” What he is actually saying is, what good does worrying do? What does it add to you? Ulcers, impatience and the list goes on. He says, “And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field which today
is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?” Verse 31 says, “… take no thought…”, don’t worry, “… take no thought saying,” there are certain things he doesn’t want us to say… “What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” He said, don’t say that. Talk faith. Talk positive. “For after all these things do the Gentiles seek: for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first (here’s the key) the kingdom of God, and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.” He said take no thought for the morrow. Don’t
worry. All through the word of God, it teaches us, don’t worry, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
The word worry means to be unduly careful and anxious. To worry means to fret and be troubled or uneasy, to feel distress in the mind. Worry produces fear and II Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Worry is a gravedigger that has no sympathy. Worry is a robber of our faith, our peace, and our joy. Worry should never, never be indulged in by the people of God. Let me read this to you.
DON’T WORRY
Has worry ever changed a thing
Or caused a broken heart to sing
Has worry every brought relief
Or lifted man from pain and grief
Has worry comforted the ill
Or warmed a house or paid a bill
Or soothed a rough and weary road
Or ever lighten someone’s load
Did worry ever heal or mend a broken life
Or win a friend
No! Worry is man’s enemy
It drives into despondency
It harms the mind
Worry! It agitates and confuses
It makes woes increase
It robs a man of joy and peace
Worry! It magnifies the poor man’s plot
And gives the rich a sleepless night
Worry ! It makes a coward of the brave
And of the free man makes a slave
Yes, worry takes a molehill small
And builds a mountain wide and tall
Jesus said, ” Don’t worry.” One time in life I was really going through it. I’m not going to take the time to explain it, but up to that time, it was the trial of my life. You see, you may be sitting there saying I’ve already gone through the trial of my life. I will not say I have gone through the trial of my life, because the other trial that I went through may just be getting me ready for the big one. The big one may not have come yet. But up to this time, it was the trial of my life. You cannot believe how I hurt and how low I was, how despondent. There is such a thing as a broken heart. You can hurt you can die inside. I was hurting, I was dying inside. I wasn’t losing out with God. I was doing my best to hold onto God while I was hurting. At that time I was twenty-seven years old and I was preaching revivals.
I went to preach for Brother I.H. Terry. Now some of you know Brother Terry, there is only one like him. Brother Terry pastored one church in Bakersfield, California for forty years. That’s a long time. During that
forty years, somewhere, I came along. Now Brother Terry is very unique. If he walked in here right now, you’d think, “Who’s that?” If you heard him talk for just a few moments, you’d think, ” Him? Pastor one church for forty years?” But I want to tell you, he has the wisdom of Solomon. He’s turned out more preachers than any preacher that I know.
I went to Brother Terry’s church and preached a revival. The first morning after the first night, we were eating breakfast and after we got through, he said “Brother Morton, come on, go with me.” Now you have to understand, I’m talking about a man who has been a success in God, won people to God, and built a church. (Remember I was hurting and I was caving in.) We went out the side door of the house and went down the street a little ways. Down the street there was a telephone pole and Brother Terry went up to this telephone pole and went like this (tagged the pole) and then stepped back and said “All right Brother Morton, tag in.” Huh? He said, “I said tag in.” So I went over to that telephone pole and I tagged in. This is the truth. Now he said, “I’m going to tell you why we tagged in.” Now this was in the days when people did not jog, but Brother Terry was jogging. He said, “We’re going to jog.” I didn’t even know what jog meant. I went jogging down the street with him and boy, did I feel stupid. That’s right. I was so glad when he turned the corner and we went down the alley.
I remember when one day he said, “Brother Morton, every man ought to have a pecan tree.” He always had pecans in his pockets. So when I moved to Fresno and bought a house I bought a house with a pecan tree.
There was another day. Then, nearly every day Brother Terry would say, “Let’s go to the dump.” And every day we would either go to the Salvation Army and dig around in the junk or we would go to St. Vincent
de Paul or we would go to the dump. He would say, “Let’s go to the dump.” and in my heart I would say “I don’t want to go to the dump, I’m in the dumps.” I really was in the dumps. I remember saying one day, ”
Brother Terry I don’t want to go.” He said, “You’re going to the dump with me.” “Brother Terry, I don’t want to go.” He said, “You’re just like Verbal Bean was when he came here to preach a revival. You just
want to stay in that church all the time. You come on and go to the dump with me.”
I would get my heart that was in the dumps and take it to the dump. At that time he had a green Chevrolet pickup and we would chug along to the dump. They had torn down a bunch of telephone poles and they had those insulators on them and he would make me pick them all up. So I picked those things up and put them in his pickup and he would sell them. Pastoring that big church and picking those things up and selling them, but people would buy them. It was in the winter time and it was foggy in Bakersfield. I remember I had a black overcoat. It was cold and foggy and sometimes raining, I was in the dumps and Brother Terry wouldn’t leave me alone. I’m telling you the truth! You may be laughing now, but I was crying. Every chance I got, I would get off and cry. Some of you know what I’m talking about. You may be laughing here, but every chance you get, you’ll get off somewhere and hide and cry. If you have never
done it, you will. There will be a day when you will pull the cover over your head and cry. There will be a day when you will pray and there will be no answer. There will be a day when it is going to be cold and foggy and you’ll be dressed in black and it’s going to be a sad day. You’re going to go forward and can’t find him and reach back and can’t find him, You will look to the left and can’t find him, you’ll reach up and
can’t find him, you’ll dig in, but you’ll never reach him. It’s going to be a sad day. I’m telling you those days will come. You say, Brother Morton be positive. I am telling you that’s the way life is, but through it all there can be victory. God loves us. He loves us when we’re on the mountaintop. He loves us when we’re in the valley low. He loves us when we’re in the rain, the snow, when the sun shines through. Jesus Christ
loves us! “… and his eye is on the sparrow.” He has the hair on your head and my head numbered. He knows how many the bald man has and how many he doesn’t have. He knows exactly what your address is, what your phone number is, where you are in life, how you feel in your heart, what you have, and exactly what you need.
So, I was at Brother Terry’s and one day we were coming back from the dump, he said, “Brother Morton, do you have a pocket knife?” Here I was sitting in that pickup, so pitiful you would have felt sorry for me. I
was hurting. I said, “No, Brother Terry I don’t have a pocket knife.” He looked at me, just like a commander and said, ” Every man ought to have a pocket knife.” So, he took me over to an old store (looked like an old general store) and this fellow had Case pocket knives. Brother Terry said, “I’m going to look around this store.” Then he said to the man, “Let him pick out a pocket knife. I’m going to buy him a pocket knife.” He started roaming around in the store while I looked at knives. That old guy sort of whispered to me, “You know what? He’s got a thing for pocket knives. You know what he did? He came in here one time and bought 40 pocket knives.” If Brother Terry likes you, he’ll give you a pocket knife. He gave me a pocket knife.
As I was there at his place, there was a day when he said, “Let’s go out behind the house.” So we went behind the house and there, where he was living at the time, there were some rose bushes. He reached over to a rose bud and picked it and put it in my hand, he said, “Now, Brother Morton, unfold that rose bud.” I didn’t think I could, but he said do it, so I started. When I did it started falling apart in my hands, petals breaking off. I said, “Brother Terry, I can’t do it.” He said, “Unfold it!” I said, “I’m tearing it up.” He said, “Unfold it!” I was hurting, I wanted to get away from him. I was wanting to lay on the floor and cry. I thought, when I get through, Brother Terry is going to reach over and get another rose bud and show me how to unfold it and I am going to feel so ignorant. When I got through he said, “See! You tore it up!” He said, “Let me tell you something else. That’s just exactly the way your life is going to end up. At the end of your life you’re not going to have anything but broken pieces. You’re uptight, you’re full of fear, worry, and trying to work everything out yourself.” And I was. I was trying to force things, close certain doors, open certain doors, work things out my way. He said, “If you don’t stop and relax, that’s the way your life is going to end up.” Then he reached over and cut off a rose, and it was a beautiful rose. He said, “Now you see that rose? It used to be a rose bud. I could have come out here and said, I want roses right now, and I could have started unfolding these roses but you know what I’d have? I would have nothing but broken pieces. That’s all I’d have. But I didn’t do that I just came here everyday and looked, and I watched God unfold the rosebuds. It takes a lot to have a rose. It takes the cold winter winds, the hot summer suns, fertilizing, watering, it takes a lot of ingredients to have a beautiful rose. I just watched God, a second, a minute, an hour, a day at a time, turn the rosebuds into roses. Brother Morton, if you’ll just relax and quit forcing life,
that’s exactly the way your life can turn out. It can turn out beautiful. It can amount to something. If you’ll just relax and let God unfold your life.”
It is only a tiny rosebud
A flower of God’s design
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine
The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I
The flower that God opens so sweetly
Would in my hands fade and die
If I cannot unfold a rosebud
This flower of God’s design
Then how can I think I have wisdom
To unfold this life of mine
So I’ll trust Him for his leading
Each moment of every day
And I’ll look to Him for His guidance
Each step of the pilgrim way
For the pathway that lies before me
My heavenly Father knows
I’ll trust Him to unfold the moments
Just as He unfolds the rose
– author unknown –
Brother Terry said, “Brother Morton, what you need to do is relax and just let it unfold.” That was one of the greatest lessons I ever learned. “Just let it unfold.”
We’re talking about life, our life. Each one of us here tonight, we are a rosebud. Let’s yield our life to God and let God unfold our life. A second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year at a time.
Brother Morton, what are you doing in Fresno? Well, fourteen years ago this month I came to this city and became the pastor. Here I am fourteen years later and I’m here because this is just the way it unfolded. There have been things in my life that I have gone through that I cannot explain, I don’t have the answer to. The Bible says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.” How do
you explain it? Some folks just go crazy hying to find an answer. My only answer is, “This is just the way it unfolded.” As you pass through life there are some things you have no control over, some things you
just can’t help, some things you can’t start, and some things you can’t stop, it’s just that way. This is just the way it unfolded. You don’t ask for it, you may not want it, but somehow we have to learn to accept life and say that’s just the way it unfolded. Sometimes you get in the midst of things, and you don’t know what to do. I’ll tell you what to do, just pray and let it unfold.
As I opened my office door tonight before church, someone had slipped a picture of a rose under the door. It says, “Just Let It Unfold.” In the midst of this beautiful rose is a handsome face. She took my picture and
pasted it in the center of the rose and wrote “Just Let It Unfold.” Your picture fits there too. We’re just a rosebud in the hands of God and sometimes he unfolds our Me into a beautiful rose. There are all kinds
of beautiful roses. You should go over to Brother and Sister Thacker’s house sometime. They have roses on top of roses. Different colors and different sizes. As I look around here tonight, there are different colors and different sizes, different places in life, but everyone of us should be yielded to the hands of God as God is unfolding our lives. I want to be like so and so. God has a different plan for this little rose. Some roses are sent to hospitals, some roses are given to sweethearts, some roses end up here and some roses end up there, some roses are never picked and some grow wild, some are in beautiful shops, some get to be in weddings, and some don’t, but God has control over it all, and he’s unfolding our life as it pleases him. Thank God that I can be a rose in his garden.
Oh God, unfold my life according to your will. If I as a rose end up in the hospital, I will have a fragrance to make things smell better. If I never get picked and I wilt on the stem, God knows what he is doing.
There are different kinds of roses, different types and different colors, different places for roses. I’m one of God’s flowers. And somebody out there says, “Yeah, a blooming idiot!” No, one of God’s flowers in his garden. I am in Fresno, California. I would be somewhere else. Some of are saying, “I wish you were.” But if you belong here, you need to thank God that your life has unfolded this way.
What are you going to do? We’re going to get up in the morning and just let it unfold.
I believe that God has a divine plan for me. I believe that this plan is wrapped in the folds of my being,
Even as the oak is wrapped in the acorn and the rose is wrapped in the bud. I believe that this plan is divine and when I relax myself completely to it, It will manifest completely and perfectly through me. I can always tell when I am completely relaxed to the divine plan,By the inner peace that comes to me. This inner peace brings a joyous, creative urge That leads me in activities that unfold the plan. It brings a patience and stillness that allows others to unfold the plan to me. I believe that this beautiful divine plan for me is
A perfect part of the larger pattern for the good of all, Not something separated to me alone. I believe that God has selected those persons who are to belong to my plan and That through mutual need, they and I are continually finding each other out.
I believe in asking God for only that which is mine to have, Knowing that when the right time has come, it will be manifest. This enables me to look forward to receiving only those Things which are mine according to God’s plan. It releases my mind from all anxiety and uncertainty and eliminates fear and jealousy and anger. It gives me courage and faith to do the things that are mine to do. I believe in asking God for only that which is mine to have. I believe that God’s plan for life is a healthy, happy expression for the good of
all. Everything that makes me happy to do, will bring happiness to others. Therefore when I am hindered from doing the thing I want to do, I believe that God has closed the door only to open another, And that upon every closed door, there is a sign pointing to a better and larger door just ahead. My disappointments therefore become His appointments. I believe that the chief essential of life is to keep in touch with God.
I believe that the whole world about me is filled with beauty and joy and power, Even as it is full of God and that I can share it and enjoy it if I tune myself to my divine plan And am inwardly open toward God and outwardly helpful toward men. I shall ask my God who dwells within me and has given me this vision of
life To help to share it with others that it may bring peace and happiness to many.
(Clark, God’s Reach)
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good for them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” All things work together for good to them that love God.
Another writer put it this way, “All things work together for good to those who love God.” God has a master plan for our lives. So what do we do? Just let it unfold. Psalms 18:30 says, “As for God, his way is
perfect.” The way he unfolds my life and your life, it’s right. That’s why we’ve got to stay in tune with God and walk in the spirit so he can lead us and guide us and unfold our life. In the end it’s going to be
beautiful because it’s going to be what God wants, and what we want.
II Corinthians 4:17 says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” These things that are happening to us, they are not working
against us, they are working for us. They’re making better men, better women, better children, better young people out of us. The Apostle Paul in Philippians 4:11 says. “For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” I have learned there is no perfect situation, that life is full of adjustments. “Affliction,…worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” These things that happen in
our lives, they are not working against us, the Bible said they are working for us! They’re making better men, they’re making better women, they’re making better children, they’re making better young people out
of us.
The apostle Paul, in Philippians 4:11 says, “…for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” I have learned, there’s no perfect situation. Life is full of adjustments. I found this one day,
I want to read it to you.
Waiting for Gods Time
A little girl eager and curious, picked several rose buds from her mother’s garden and tore them open to make them bloom. Her eagerness turned to disappointment when the flowers failed to respond to her
efforts. Her mother explained that God has a time for the roses to bloom and they would have bloomed perfectly had she left them alone. Some of us, weary with waiting for God tear at the wrappings of tomorrow and sometimes spoil what would have bloomed naturally had we only been willing to wait.
You and I may walk in step with God. When He moves, let us move, when He waits, then blessed are those who wait for Him. Wait on the Lord, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait on the Lord, and He shall bring it to pass. God will not withhold any good thing from them that wait upon him. Wait upon the Lord! Don’t tear at the wrappings of tomorrow against His will.
Things just don’t happen to the children of God, They’re part of a wonderful plan, The trouble, the reverses, the sorrows, the rods, are strokes of the \ Master’s hand.
When some dreaded accident strikes you a blow, and you restlessly fret and demand.
Why try so hard the mystery to know. It’s not just an accident, it’s part of the Master’s plan.
Just let it unfold!
Sometimes you can go up in the mountains and see an artist painting a picture, or you can go over on the seashore and you’ll see an artist painting a picture. You can walk by the artist and maybe they’ve got a
canvas out and they’ve got a brush mark here and brush mark there and it doesn’t look good. You come back by and there are some marks and it still doesn’t look right. After awhile you come back by and it’s some pine trees with a mountain, a little snow on the tip and a little valley with grass, and little cabins, and a little chimney with smoke. You look and say how beautiful it is. You can look at your me right now and say I on’t like that, but remember, God’s not through with us yet. The picture of our life is not over yet, God is still painting. He’s putting a stroke here and a stroke there. He’s putting one color here and one
color there. If, like the canvas, we’ll yield to the artist’s touch and hand, God will make something beautiful out of our life. God’s not through yet. This is not finished yet. Life is not over yet. The secret to success in every day living is a right attitude, and being in tune with God. When I’m in tune with God, I’m in tune with my fellow man. I can’t be out of tune with my fellow man and be in tune with God.
Psalms 118:24 says, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” I don’t know what has happened in your life today, but this is the day that the Lord hath made. I thought I had this
day planned. It didn’t unfold anything like I planned, nothing like I wanted. There was a time in this day I didn’t like, but that’s just the way it unfolded. Psalm 23:1-3 says, “The Lord is my shepherd: I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness.” I Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In every thing give
thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” He knows what’s best.
I was preaching some rallies in Arizona one time and I preached this message. Afterward, Brother Terry Gunn wrote this song while driving down the road.
I watched as the blossoms turn to flowers
With the beauty that God alone can give,
He cares enough to send the sunshine and the showers
And as much about the way that I live.
I tried many times to chart my pathway,
In despair I almost lost my way
But when I stop and let the Lord guide my footsteps
My life unfolds.
He leads me on day by day.
Unfold my life like the flowers in the spring time.
Lord, let your will bring the rain or the sunshine,
Teach me to wait with patience
Until I see my life unfold in your will.
Life used to ride me. Every once in a while life tries to get on my back. This is the way it was many years ago. Life came along and life put a bit and bridle in my mouth. Life put a saddle on my back. Then life
crawled up in the saddle with spurs on and began to put the spurs in my ribs. And life would ride me. Life would make me walk the floor. Life would make my stomach hurt. That every day grind, you know, the sand in your shoes.
Do you ever feel like life is trying to get the best of you? After Brother Terry taught me this lesson, and I received the revelation of this lesson, I got excited. One day I said, “Life has ridden me long enough.” I reached up and jerked life off my back. I wasn’t made for life to ride on my back. I jerked life off my back. God gives us power to jerk life off of our back. I jerked the saddle off my back and I put the saddle on life’s back. I jerked the spurs off of life and I put the spurs on. I took the bit out of my mouth and stuck it in life’s mouth. I climbed on life’s back, in the saddle with the spurs, with the bridle and the bit and I began to spur life and I began to ride life and that’s what I’m doing here tonight. Life’s not riding me.
Every once in a while life comes along and tries to get back on my back, and I feel it. You have to shake it off again. I wasn’t made to ride. I wasn’t made to cave in. I wasn’t made for life to ride me and the
everyday grind to get me down. By the grace of God I’m going to ride life. It’s more fun riding than it is being ridden. Begin to work on this. Life is not going to ride me. If you do, you will do real good for
a while and then all at once you will hit a hard place. Life is always trying to sneak up on you. Come on folks, let’s shake life off. It has ridden us long enough. Let’s crawl in the saddle, let’s take command of
the situation. Don’t lose it. Don’t worry. A real good cowboy can just run and jump on the back of a horse. That’s the way life will treat you. Life will run and jump on you and dig in those spurs. If you don’t
believe this, you have a loose bolt that needs a nut on it. And you’re the nut. God wants us to enjoy living. God wants us to enjoy life.
Every day is not going to be peaches and cream, but when we don’t have peaches and cream we can go looking for it. When we aren’t looking for it that means we love it and we enjoy it. We need to be enjoying life. Get a big spoon. Some folks go through life with one of those baby spoons. Why, you can’t get enough life to enjoy. You need one of those big ones. Jesus came to give life and that more abundantly. Don’t let
life ride you.
Brother Terry is a real character. Many years later I just dialed his number and he answered the phone, “Hello!”, and real quick I said, “Brother Terry, this is Brother Morton in Fresno. Give me a word from
God.” Like a bullet shot out of a gun, he didn’t hesitate, he just went pow, just like that. He didn’t say, well let me think here a minute. He said all right, “The longer you live the bigger mess you’re gonna make.”
Just like that. He is full of things. One day he called me, after I was pastoring here. He said, “Brother Morton, I’m gonna tell you something. Not everyone likes you!” Can you imagine? That’s what he said. He said, “I want to tell you something. There are some working against you, but don’t get bitter. Not everyone likes what you preach, not everyone likes what you stand for, not everyone likes the way you operate. If you’re not careful, you can get bitter. I have something here in a book and I want to read it to you. This is what I want you to live by in life.” And this is what he read to me.
They drew a circle that shut me out,
They called me a heretic, a rebel, a thing to flaunt
But love and I had a wit to win
We drew a circle that took them in.
He said, “Brother Morton, as you go through life people are going to draw circles. They’re going to draw a circle and cut you out.” Have you ever been cut out? That’s the way life is. They’re going to cut you
out. Don’t get bitter, don’t feel bad. They may call you a “heretic, a rebel, a thing to flaunt, but love and I had a wit to win and we drew a circle that took them in.” What you need to do is go through life drawing big circles. When they draw a circle and cut you out, you just draw a circle and bring them in. Doesn’t that make sense? When they get outside of your circle and they draw a line and they say, “Don’t come
past that I’m cutting you out.” You just step out there and draw a big old circle and take’m in. All at once they look around and they’re in the circle of your love again. They can’t get away from your love. And
when they get away, draw another circle. Just go through life drawing big circles.
You’re going to be treated wrong in life. Whether it is accidentally or on purpose, it will happen. What do you do? Do you get bitter, sour, mad? No, “love and I had a wit to win, we drew a circle and took them in.”
Brother Terry taught me some things in his day, and his day isn’t over with yet. He said, ” Brother Morton, as you pass through life, there are three things I want you to work on getting.” At that time I didn’t have
one of them. He said, “There are three things I want you to work on getting. You need to work on getting a good pair of shoes, and a good bed, and a good car.” He said, “As you pass through life, life can be
rough on you, uncomfortable. If you get a good bed, a good pair of shoes, and a good car, that will make life a little more comfortable. As you pass through life, if you’re not in one, you’re in the other.” If you stop and think about it, if you’re not in your shoes, you’re in your bed, and if you’re not in your bed, you’re in your shoes and you’re usually in the car. So I worked on getting a good bed, a good pair of shoes, and a good car.
One day we were behind the church. At that time I think he had a horse named Rocky (That was a long time ago). There was a little pasture outside behind the church. We went out there one day and somebody had turned the water on in the trough and it ran over and water was running everywhere. He looked out there and said, “You see this water? Somebody turned this water on and they didn’t turn it off. That’s so ignorant to turn the water on and not turn it off. You know what I’m gonna do? I’m just gonna turn the water off. Why should I ruin their day and my day when the whole world is lying in wickedness and in sin and that ought to be my goal.”
Let me tell you something about this “Just Let It Unfold” business. You can be so careful with this that you make mistakes. Let us imagine you have a boy, and his name is Brian. Brian is next door and he takes a can
of red paint and pours it all over the kid next door. He comes walking in and the boy’s mother, from next door, calls Brian’s mother and says, “Your boy just poured red paint all over my kid and they’ve strung it
all over my house and it’s a mess.” So Brian just comes in and says, “Well mama, don’t worry about it, that’s just the way it unfolded.” Mama could take the attitude, “You know, that is just the way it unfolded,
just forget about it.” No. Mama says, “That’s just the way it unfolded and this is the way it’s gonna unfold.” POW! POW! POW! The Bible does say, “Command and teach.” You have to balance all this thing out.
One day we were out behind Brother Terry’s house and we went through this old gate that he had. He stopped by the gate and he said “Brother Morton, see that gate?” I looked at the gate and he said, “Takes a long time to get a gate.” He just walked on and I stood there by the gate and I looked at that old gate and I thought, “Who want that gate?” Remember all this time I was hurting, I felt like I was slammed in the gate.
One day we were out there and he said, “See that fence?” It takes a long time to get a fence.” Then one day we were out and he said, ” See that cement drive way? It takes a long time to get a cement driveway.” One
day we were seated in the house and he said, “See that carpet on the floor?” By that time I knew what he was going to say. He said, “It takes a long time to get a carpet on the floor.”
Then he began to explain to me what he was trying to teach me. Takes a long time to get a gate, long time to get a fence, Takes a long time to get a cement driveway, Takes a long time to get a carpet on the floor.
He said, “You’re just a young man, just a young preacher, and you pass this way. I’m an older man, I’ve been here for a long time. You see these buildings God has given me? You don’t realize I started from
scratch, from nothing. You see these buses, and these people, and these men, and all these women, and all the blessings of God in my life?” He said, “Son, it takes a long time to get all this. I’ve got people in my
church, young married couples, they are working on two jobs and working their fingers to the bone, because they want carpet right now and they want a cement driveway right now and they want a fence right now, they want a gate right now. It takes a long time to get a gate. They’re losing out with God.”
In the Bible it says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Your mama has a gate, your daddy has a fence, a cement driveway and carpet on the
floor, but they’re a lot older than you are. Don ‘t lose out with God trying to get a gate, trying to get a fence, trying to get a cement driveway. Just live for God, put God first seek first the kingdom of God, live for God, work hard on your job and in time God will let all these things unfold in your life. Use wisdom right now with what God has given you. I can point out people in this church that were raised on welfare but they said, “I’m gonna do better in life.” And they have done better, they have jobs and they have benefits and they have retirement and they’ve made something out of their life because they said, “I’m gonna do better.” The way they did it was, they sought God, and they gave their life to God, and they paid their tithe, and they gave their offerings, and when we needed pledges to build these buildings they gave, and they’ll do it again when the time comes. God has blessed them and God has taken care of them. They put God first and God has given them a gate, a driveway, a carpet and a fence. This is not my lesson in the first place. Brother Terry gave it to me. I learned it from my elders. This is a good lesson, get the spirit of it.
There was a man and a woman that had a teenage son. The teenage son went blind and people were amazed at how this mother and father accepted it so well. A handsome teenage son gone blind. They asked the father how they could take it so calmly. And the father of the son said, “It seems to me that we have three choices. Number one, we can cure life for doing this to us and look for some way to express our grief and rage. Number two, we can grit our teeth and endure it. Number three, we can accept it.” He said, “The first alternative, that is cursing life for doing this to us, is useless. The second, gritting our teeth and enduring it, is exhausting. The third is the only way, just accept it.” Things happen in your life and my life, let’s don’t grit our teeth and endure it, let’s don’t curse life for doing this to us, let’s learn to accept it
and say, “That’s just the way it unfolded.”
Oh Lord, grant us the strength to change the things that need changing, the courage to accept the things that cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference. Just let it unfold.
As you pass through life sometimes life will give you a lemon, and it really is. You can get a lemon in a car. But you can also get some lemons in life. There will be some real situations in life where you’ll get a lemon. You can stand on the street corner, if you want to, and say “Life gave me a lemon, I don’t have anything but a lemon. Life’s sour, I don’t want this.” There was a man standing there doing that, but all at once he got a revelation. The fellow stood there and cut his lemon in two, squeezed it into the water, mixed a little sugar in with it, stirred it up, and stood there on the corner saying, “Lemonade, lemonade, lemonade.” He built himself a lemonade stand. He turned the sour thing of his life into something sweet. Somebody came along and bought the lemonade and there he stands saying, “I got rid of my lemon. Instead of a lemon I got some green back, because I set up a lemonade stand.” It’s just according to how you look at it.
Let’s change our attitude about life. Life is fair, life is right. What are we going to do tomorrow? Just let it unfold. When something happens in our life that we don’t understand, we’ll say, “That’s just the way it
unfolded.” Make a sign, hang it up in your house where you can see it. Start practicing, just let it unfold! That doesn’t mean you get so loose about life and living that you let everything pass by. You don’t say,
“I’m not going to work tomorrow, that’s just the way it unfolded” That doesn’t mean you go to work late in the morning, go strolling in and say, “Well boss, praise God, don’t get upset, the preacher said last
night just let it unfold.” When things happen out of your control, that’s just the way it unfolded. Don’t tear at the wrappings of tomorrow. Let’s relax. Let’s take it easy. Let’s let God unfold our life. Quit trying to plan it and work it out. Let God take care of it.
It’s only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God’s design,
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.
The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not your own to such as I.
The flower that opens so sweetly
Would in my hands fade and die.
If I cannot unfold a rose bud
This flower of God’s design,
Then how can I think I have wisdom
To unfold this life of mine.
So I’ll trust in Him for His leading
Each moment of every day,
I’ll look to Him for His guidance
Each step of the pilgrim way.
For the pathway that lies before me,
My heavenly Father knows.
I’ll trust Him to unfold the moments
Just as He unfolds the rose.
– author unknown –
(The above sent by Truth Tabernacle in Fresno, CA.)
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