Jesus leads. And what do we do? Follow. Let us read about it in John:
If any man serve me, let him follow me. – John 12:26
“You will notice that to have this experience means that there is something to live for, more precious than life itself. This will be clear if we read the preceding two verses”:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me. – John 12:24-26
“Jesus was on His way to the cross when He spoke these words. Within a few hours He was hanging on the tree. He said to each one who was looking to Him as Lord, “If you really want to serve Me, follow Me. I am going to the cross. Come and go with Me.”
“I repeat, it is a wonderful thing to have something to live for more precious than life itself. And fifty million martyrs say, “Amen.”
“There may be some martyrs [reading this right now*]… martyrs to be. The greatest gift of life is not necessarily in sacrifice. It may be in service. But whether we fulfill the destiny that heaven has planned, at a stake, on a cross, in a dungeon, or in a treatment room, in a home, hoeing corn, cooking meals, giving Bible studies, witnessing for Christ, the prerequisite is the same all along the line”:
If any man serve me, let him follow me. – John 12:26
Jesus was giving His life, you see, not simply in Gethsemane and Calvary, but all the way along. All His stay in this world was a pouring out of His life. Now He says, “I want you to do the same. I want you to follow Me.”
Those who accept the one principle of making the service of God supreme, will find perplexities vanish, and a plain path before their feet. – Ministry of Healing, pg. 481
Isn’t that a wonderful promise? But like all promises, it has a condition:
Those who accept the one principle of making the service of God supreme. – Ministry of Healing, pg. 481
“Did you ever hear somebody say that your family comes first? That is at least second cousin to the thought that you come first. And there is a grain of truth and a bushel of chaff in both of those statements. Your family doesn’t come first, friends. You don’t come first. Not if you are on the way with Jesus”:
If any man serve me, let him follow me – John 12:26
“One day, when Jesus was speaking with great multitudes around Him, He turned and said, “Now listen. If any of you folks think you want to follow Me, remember your family doesn’t come first. Your wife doesn’t come first. Your children don’t come first. You don’t come first. Nothing in this world comes first. God must be first.” You can read about it in Luke 14″.
“This is the same lesson He is telling us… in John 12. And today, as then, Satan is in the business of teaching you and me, if we go to his school, how to work for God and still have things quite comfortable and easy, pretty much the way we would like to have them. I understand that out there in [Afghanistan*] it is quite difficult to get some of the soldiers, officers and enlisted men, and draftees, out where the enemy is. It is rather dangerous out there. Many of them would rather stay around headquarters, or at the base hospital or if possible get a furlough home. They think life would be safer, and they are correct, aren’t they? Yes.”
“Tell me, friends, what are you? A colonist or a soldier? What is your goal in life? To find a lovely place to settle down, where conditions are, if not ideal, as near that way as you can find, and have not the extravagances, not the luxuries, but simply the comforts of life in an ideal setting?”
“Someone says, “Brother Frazee, why not?” Yes, why not? There is only one reason why not, friends. And that is this, if someone you love real well should suddenly get lost in the jungle, you would forget all about that ease and comfort, and you would be off. Am I correct? If I am not correct, God pity you, my friend, for you know nothing of the meaning of love. Love seeks to be involved where the need is. And if that is a dangerous place, all the louder comes the call. I read something very interesting in Volume 5 that I want to share with you”:
Many are ruined by their desire for a life of ease and pleasure. – Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5; pg. 70
“The prophet is not talking about the night clubs and playing the ponies. The Lord’s messenger is not talking about Las Vegas or Hollywood. The message is about Battle Creek. Battle Creek is worth studying. It belonged to a former generation in this movement. It was built up as a Jerusalem center where people might gather together and enjoy the advantages of being near and in one of God’s centers. And there in that setting, to that church, came this message”:
Many are ruined by their desire for a life of ease and pleasure. Self-denial is disagreeable to them. … They set their hearts upon having the good things of this life. – Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5; pg. 70
“’Well, there is nothing bad about wanting good things, is there?’ Notice the wording of it – not the bad things, not the wicked things, not the vile things, the good things – the good life. I think that the people who are really hunting for good things would skip the whiskey and the tobacco, don’t you? Especially now with all the pictures of lung cancer. I think so. But there is more than one way that leads away from Calvary. The rich young ruler did not turn to the flesh pots of Egypt. He did not end up as the prodigal son did, feeding pigs. The rich young ruler was living a life, and continued to live a life, of respectable conventionality. This is the peril of Laodicea. This is the danger of the sleeping virgins”:
Many are ruined by their desire for a life of ease and pleasure. Self-denial is disagreeable to them. … They set their hearts upon having the good things of this life. – Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5; pg. 70
“If you want something very interesting along this line, you will find a chapter here in Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2 entitled “A Personal Testimony,” beginning on page 268, addressed to Dear Sister M. I hope the dear woman accepted the message. If she did, I will see her in heaven. I would like to learn more about it. She had a very interesting experience. In her earlier married life she had many afflictions. Her husband was an alcoholic; made life miserable. She trained her children the best she could in the things of God. She went through all kinds of hardships, persecution, and then was left alone to battle her way through life raising those children for God.”
“She had to work hard. She was poor. But in all those afflictions she was close to the Lord. She was apparently a woman of more than ordinary ability, very dedicated. And she prayed earnestly to the Lord that she might have means with which to help others and advance the Lord’s cause. And in heaven the Lord said to her guardian angel, “I am going to open to her a chapter in her heart that she is not acquainted with.” And so He began to bless her with means. She was prospered in her business. Read the story. It is a very interesting story… I would like you to notice this little statement”:
In the providence of God your influence has been extended. … When your condition in life began to improve, you said…”As soon as I can get me a home, I will then donate to the cause of God.” – Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, pg. 283
Do you know what the next word is? “But.”
You said, ‘As soon as I can get me a home, I will then donate to the cause of God.’ But when you had a home you saw so many improvements to make to have everything about you convenient and pleasant that you forgot the Lord and His claims upon you, and were less inclined to help the cause of God than in the days of your poverty and affliction. – Testimonies for the Church, vol. 2, pg. 283
“And thus my friends, traveling that road, she changed from a saint to a worldling, from a sacrificial, self-denying soldier to a self-seeking backslider. Read the story. And my friends, in all of it she did not go to the night clubs. She wasn’t found with a gay party. That isn’t the point. She simply devoted her life more and more to making things easy and convenient for herself and her family”.
““Well,” someone says, “Shouldn’t she?” Read the story. This is what I am dealing with… friends. Some of you might rather I would talk about the mark of the beast, or about how wicked it is for the heathen over in Africa to bow down to images of wood and stone. Oh, my dear friends, what is a watchman for, if not to give the warning? How foolish it would be for me to stand here and tell you about grizzly bears or pythons or some other beast that is dangerous. Danger, indeed, thousands of miles away. My business is to point out the dangers of this hour and this place… I must meet God in judgment. I must meet you there at the judgment bar. And I tell you friends… God is laying His finger on the plague spot of many a heart”.
“Back in the 1880s, the servant of God was over in Europe. Our work there was in the pioneer stage. Ministers were having to meet many problems, many sacrifices. And as human nature does manifest itself, it did there and the Lord’s messenger was called to give some earnest warnings about the very danger we are noting. In the book Historical Sketches, I read (this is the Lord’s messenger speaking to those few workers in the pioneer work in Switzerland)”:
There is a great work to be done for many of us. Our minds and characters must become as the mind and character of Christ. Selfishness is inwrought in our very being. It has come to us as an inheritance. – Historical Sketches, pgs. 138, 139
Did you know you had a legacy?
[Selfishness] has come to us as an inheritance, and has been cherished by many as a precious treasure. – Historical Sketches, pgs. 138, 139
“Again I emphasize. This doesn’t mean that all of us want to chew tobacco or smoke cigarettes. Why, no. We are too selfish for that. If a man were selfish, and at the same time had good sense, would he take something into his body that he knew would give him an ulcer of the stomach, or a coronary attack, or a cancer? Would he? Oh, no. Selfishness is a lot more subtle than confining itself to those channels.”
It [Selfishness] has come to us as an inheritance, and has been cherished by many as a precious treasure…No special work for God can be accomplished until self and selfishness are overcome. -Historical Sketches, pgs. 138, 139
“Would you like to do a special work for God? Would you be willing to give up your comfortable home to do it? “Oh, sure I would, if they would build me another one as comfortable.” Would you be willing to go away from where spiritual influences make you happy, to a place of need, where every influence would be to pull you down, unless you wrestled with God in prayer, and go out there and pull souls out of danger?”
I ask again, are we colonists or are we soldiers? What is our mission? Well, I go back to the reading:
No special work for God can be accomplished until self and selfishness are overcome. To many everything connected with themselves is of great importance. Self is a center, around which everything seems to revolve. Were Christ on the earth now, he would say to such, ‘Launch out into the deep.’ Be not so self-caring. There are thousands whose lives are just as precious as yours. Then why do you wrap your coat about you, and hug the shore? Awake to duty and to usefulness! Launch out into the deep. – Historical Sketches, pg. 139
I was interested in that question the Lord’s messenger asked:
Why do you wrap your coat about you and hug the shore? – Historical Sketches, pg. 139
“Well, because the wind is blowing and it is cold. I can hardly bear the thought of getting in the boat and going out into that ocean, because that is where the cold wind is coming from. And the water is cold.” Why would anybody ask:
Why do you wrap your coat about you and hug the shore? Historical Sketches, page 139
“Ah, my friends, that is the natural thing to do. That is the human thing to do. But let me tell you, if you see a head bobbing out there, and it is someone you love, what do you forget about? The cold wind and the cold water. Oh, that God might awake the sleeping virgins. Oh, that He might spoil the lackadaisical sleep of Laodicea.”
If any man serve me, let him follow me. John 12:26
Same wonderful little book:
Some have made it a point never to let temporal matters come between them and the work of God, and they have lost much in consequence of this. But what of that? – Historical Sketches, pg. 128
Somebody said that their boy had gotten back from [Afghanistan*], minus a foot. Some came back in a coffin. You know that, don’t you?
Some have made it a point never to let temporal matters come between them and the work of God, and they have lost much in consequence of this. But what of that? What are temporal things compared with the eternal? We have enlisted in the army of the Lord. – Historical Sketches, pg. 128
How many have enlisted in the army of the Lord?
We have enlisted in the army of the Lord, and now let none of us create such a condition of things that we shall have to desert it. – Historical Sketches, pg. 128
Remember, ordinarily, soldiers get shot at by the enemy, more than civilians. Is that right? It is kind of dangerous, isn’t it? Rather dangerous.
“I want to ask you some questions. What are the advantages of life all for? The comforts, the conveniences, the labor-saving devices, the helpers, mechanical and human – what are they all for? What is their purpose? Are they the means or are they the end? What do you say? In other words, do you work so you can have a nice home and a good car, a washing machine, and a refrigerator, and all these other things and some more labor-saving and timesaving devices? Do you work so you can have them, or do you get them so that you can do more and better work?”
You say, “What difference does it make?” It makes all the difference in the world, friends. It makes all the difference in the world.
“And I press the question, how does it work out? If you really believe that all these things are simply a means and not the end, how does it work out, do you get more work done as you multiply these facilities? Do you win more souls because you have an automobile, and a house, and furniture, and all the rest of the things that everyone has to have, you know? Do you get more souls won because of that? Or do you feel that you still have to have more of those things before you can do much?”
“Years ago, and it was before the days of automobiles or jet planes, before the days of refrigerators, – I could name a long list of things that everyone here nearly would think were essential – before the days of any of those things, the Lord’s messenger wrote in 1894 to Battle Creek. You can read it in Volume 8”:
I wish to remind my brethren of the cautions and warnings that have been given me in reference to constantly investing means in Battle Creek in order to make a little more room or to make things more convenient. New fields are to be entered. – Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, pg. 48
If you have never been tempted in that direction, you will be. Make a note of it. And this relates not merely to material things, it relates to other things we do for help. Why do you get an education? “Oh, to help to do the Lord’s work.” Does it help you?
“I remember hearing one of the leading faculty members of Loma Linda, a man that I have deep respect for, tell us about an experience that he saw, where a man had forgotten the end because his mind had gotten obsessed with the means. This was a young man that my doctor friend got acquainted with in his student days. This young man was planning to work for God and be a missionary. He saw him in his senior year, and the young man said, yes, those were his plans, but he had decided that first he would have to take a residency. That took him two or three years. My doctor friend saw him again when he was nearing the end of that. By that time he was so much in debt that he had to go out and go into private practice in order to clear his debt.”
“And a number of years later he saw him. By that time he was so comfortably settled in his practice and in his nice home, and his family was so comfortably situated, that what he had started out to do had faded from his mind. Tell me, friends, was it worth it? Tell me, what is the purpose of education? Is it to prepare us for the work of God? If it is, then the more education we get, the better we should be able to work for God. Is that true? But if it works the other way around, and the more education we get, the less we accomplish for God, until finally we don’t do anything, something is wrong. Do you agree with me? Something is wrong.”
“This relates to all these conveniences and comforts and getting more room. How is it in your home, my dear friend? How is it where you work? Are you always thinking how you can add and add and multiply, get more room, more conveniences, more comfort so you can do more? It is too bad if the only way God can help us to exercise temperance in all things is to have a depression come, or some catastrophe come, that will send us out as poor as the early disciples. God help us, friends, to learn our lesson. What do you say?”
“May I ask you another question, you folks who are married? Why did you get married? Well, if you were a Christian, I trust you got married to advance the Lord’s work. Most of the young people I know that claim to serve God, claim that is why they are interested in getting married, to advance the Lord’s work. Isn’t that right? It ought to be, shouldn’t it?”
“Tell me, how has it worked out? Has it advanced the Lord’s work? Do you and your wife do more for God in soul winning than you were doing singly? If you are, thank the Lord for it. If you are not, maybe you had better study the question of what the goal of it all is. Don’t get the end and the means mixed up. Think about that for a little while.”
Come and look with me at another scene… 
Suppose we are sitting in our home and here comes a knock at the door. You and I go to the door and there we see a sight – somebody ragged, dirty, emaciated, wounded. Everything about them from head to foot cries out their need. What shall we do? What will we do? What would you do? What will you do? There they are on the porch. “Oh,” you say, “Of course, we will have them in and clean them up and dress their wounds and give them something to eat.”
“All right. But just as we are about to invite them in we see another one just like the first one, coming up the steps. And then we look and there is another one coming through the gate. And then we look and there is another one down the street. And we keep looking and we see that as far as the eye can see the line extends. They are coming to our door. Do you know how long that line is, my friends? In a single file, three times around thisglobe, the needy ones of the earth.”
The One who made us all and Who died for us on the cross, says to you and me:
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. – Matthew 25:40
“Some day soon we are going to meet Him, and He is going to say to some folks, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” I don’t think He is going to say well done unless we have done well. What do you think? How much, then, shall I work? The answer, friends, of a blood-bought soul who sees this vision we have looked at tonight, is “All I can. I am going to work all I can. If I could work twenty-four hours a day, the cause demands it. It is worthy of it.” Do you agree with me?”
“Well, then, why don’t I work twenty-four hours a day? There ought to be just one reason, friends. Because I can accomplish more in a given amount of time if I spend part of it recharging the battery. This is the meaning of life. To put it in another way, there are only two things for a blood-bought Christian to be engaged in. One is discharging the battery and the other is recharging the battery. That is all. And we haven’t one single volt to waste in discharging the battery on self-pleasing, or merely pleasing our families, our relatives, or trying to keep up with the neighbors. We haven’t one single penny to waste on that, friends. Not one minute.”
“If we take a vacation, it should be for just one purpose – to recharge the battery so we can come back and do more. If we go to sleep at night it should be for just one purpose – to recharge the battery so we can get up refreshed and go to work pulling men out of the fire, pulling souls out of the briny deep, ministering to the needs of the hungry, the sick, and most difficult of all, needy souls that don’t know they are needy; souls who are without God and yet may be fat in flesh; souls that may have all the riches that the world can offer, but don’t know the Man of Calvary.”
“This is our destiny, friends. One hand on God to be recharging, one hand reaching out to souls who need help, discharging – this is our business. We have no other. Did Christ have any other? Watch Him in His ministry. Where do you see Him? With the multitude or else on the mountain; giving of His life in healing the sick, preaching the gospel, saving the lost, or else out in the wilderness, in the garden, on the mountain, sometimes sleeping but often praying. Always with one object – to recharge that battery so He can come back and do more for God.”
“Friends, when I see it, I get so ashamed. How easy I have been on myself. God forgive me… I want to clear the channel and let Him have all there is of me. What do you say? Oh, that God may help us to do it, my friends. This is what life is all about. The paradox of it is – but it’s so true – the people who don’t go this road, the people who are content to build fancy homes and buy expensive cars and pour out money and time in expensive furniture and all the rest, they never really reach the goal of deep contentment. Do you know why? They weren’t born for that. They weren’t made to tick that way.”
“But the paradox is, friends, that the soul who forgets self-pleasing and says to Jesus, “I want to follow You. I want to give my life in service. I will take the time I need to sleep and to eat and to get recreation, but for just one purpose; to recharge the battery, so I can get on the firing line and do all I can as the moments tick by, to make that time most efficient in winning souls to Christ – I say the paradox of it is, that, that soul finds the real joy of life. Do you know why? He was made that way.”
“But the reason for doing it is not so you can find fulfillment, not so you can get adjusted. The great reason for doing it is to please the One who made you and gave His life for you, and to minister to the needs of that long line of people that are coming up the path to your door. Oh, they may not be there literally. They may not know to come to your door. But friends, in your vision see them. They are there, literally, by the thousands, by the millions.”
“Ah,” you say, “I can’t reach the millions.” You can reach someone. And if you, and you, and you, and you, will let Jesus use you, He will multiply your efforts as He multiplied those loaves by Galilee. Let us not withhold the few barley loaves we have because they seem so inadequate. In the hands of the great Creator Redeemer they will meet the needs of multiplied millions, my friends. Oh, this is what is going to bring the loud cry, when the people of God sense that they have just one thing to live for, the thing we are studying… Will you do it, friends? Will you
do it, cost what it may?”
“It doesn’t mean to get fanatical and wear your life out by some extreme thing. Not a bit of it. I want to tell you something, what God is asking us for, friends, is not to make ourselves sick working for Him. It is to give up all the self-pleasing that leaves us so precious little time and energy to do the work we were born for. This is it. What was our text?”
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me. – John 12:25, 26
“I should tell you, friends, that there are plenty of people who would be glad to capitalize on what I have studied with you, and tell you exactly what you ought to do. Be careful how you listen to them, even if it is the man that is preaching. Be careful about people who are fast to define your personal duty. If you want something interesting, take the book Medical Ministry and read page 80, and see the warnings of inspiration about missing sleep and overworking in order to meet the demands of other people. I want to tell you something, when we have settled the question we
have raised tonight, then we can go to God and let Him direct us as to how to use our time and our energies. It is written in Isaiah”:
And the Lord shall guide thee continually.- Isaiah 58:11
“Isn’t that good news? Have you ever seen anyone carrying around one of these walkie-talkies? The policemen, you know, have them on their motorcycles or in their automobiles. They are in touch with headquarters all the time. You can be in touch with headquarters. Don’t let somebody else drive you to overwork and a nervous breakdown, in your endeavor sincerely to carry out what we have studied. You don’t need to. Just play fair with God.”
Go to God and say, “From now on, no more self-pleasing. I am going to take time to do what you want me to do. I am going to take time as a part of that, to recharge the battery. I am going to take time to sleep. I am going to take time to pray. I am going to take time for outdoor exercise. But in it all, I am remembering those are simply means to an end. The end is working for souls physically and spiritually. I am not going to spend so much time with the means that I forget the end.
“Lord, I am going to be fair with You, and I am going to do the thing that I think You want me to do. And if that is more than other people think I ought to do, I am going to do it, and if it is less than some other people think I ought to do, I will leave that with You.” This is the happy way to live, friends. This is the safe way to live. When Jesus comes and spreads out to us those arms of love, and we see in His hands the marks of Calvary and hear from His lips those sweet words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” it will be worth it all.”
Bless the Lord, we don’t even have to wait until then. Every day we can have the joy of a closer fellowship with God:
If any man serve me, let him follow me. – John 12:26
A Special Appeal
Christ accepts, oh, so gladly! every human agency that is surrendered to Him. – Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, pg. 30
“How many of you… would like, in a special, definite way, to reconsecrate your life fully to the Saviour? … There are just two things that you need to settle. One, is that you are really surrendering everything to Jesus and to His call. The other, is to believe He accepts you. I want to spend just a few minutes on each of those, because if you have those two things clear, that is all there is between here and final success. You are accepted and your future is underwritten if you just get those two things settled. One is to surrender all and the other is to believe that you are accepted.”
“You see, the plan of salvation is very simple. Of course, there is plenty to study about it. We will be studying it a million years from now. That is all right. But thank the Lord, friends, we don’t have to wait until we understand it all, in order to experience it.There are just two things, I repeat, that we need to have clear. One is to make a full surrender. Somebody says, “Well, Brother Frazee, that is my problem. I don’t know whether I have made a full surrender or not.” Well, I tell you how you can settle it. Just do it right now, this minute. You say, “Well, how do I do that?”
Let me explain it very simply. [Practical Demonstration*] Do any of you have a dime you could give me? Will you give it to me?
(your response) “Yes.”
Will you really give it to me?
(your response) “Yes, take it from me.”
Have [you] made a decision? Yes. All right. Thank you very much.
Now, let me ask you another question. Do you believe I got it? Yes. Who did have the dime? [You] had it. Who has it now? I have it. Now, will you do that with your life to Jesus?
“Ah, but,” you say, “The problem is, I can’t see Jesus.” Well, friends, things can be real whether we can see them or not. And I will tell you this. If you have to see it with your eyes in order for it to be real, then you have missed the whole point. For without faith, it is impossible to please Him. Faith is believing what God says when we can’t see it. You can’t see Jesus now with these eyes. Some day soon, we will see Him, but He is here, just as real. And what does He want? He wants you. And that is what you have come to the altar for. That is what we are all reconsecrating our lives for, [right now]. Don’t make it hard. Don’t make it complex. It isn’t. Just give your life to Jesus, like [you] gave me the dime. That is all.
Now, if there is somebody that still doesn’t know how to do it, I am going to give you some words to say. They are inspired words, I didn’t make them up. I just read them and I have said them many a time, myself, and you can say them:
I will give my will to Jesus, and I will do it now. – Messages to Young People, pg. 153
So, you say, “Well, I don’t know whether or not I mean it.” Well, friends, just settle that you do mean it. Don’t let the devil confuse you or bother you with that. Don’t try to convince the devil. You don’t have to convince him. All you have to convince is Jesus and He is easy to convince on this point; very easy. He wants you. So when you give yourself to Him, he takes you. No problem.
“You don’t have to wait for some mysterious feeling. You don’t have to wait until you feel that everything is okay. Feeling has nothing to do with it. I don’t know how [you] feel about the dime, but I know I got it. And feelings don’t have anything to do with it. [You] made a decision. [You] gave me the dime. I have it. Give your life to Jesus that same way. Just that simple, friends. And I repeat, don’t let the devil confuse you.”
Now a variant of that is this. The devil says, “But how do you know you are going to hold on?” Why, friends, you don’t know anything about what you are going to do tomorrow. You may be dead before tomorrow’s sun rises. All you can settle is now, this moment. That is all you need to settle. You can settle your purpose to do it forever, but I will tell you, friends, no matter how fully you purpose tonight to do it tomorrow, you will have to do it tomorrow. Tomorrow’s dime will have to be given tomorrow. And when you wake up in the morning let this be your first thought:
Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee. – Steps to Christ, pg. 70
“You see, that is the very first thought before we ever get out of bed. Give Him the dime. Give Him your life. Give Him your heart. Do it moment by moment. Never let the devil bother you about either the past or the future. The past is all under the blood of Christ because you have given yourself to Him. He has covered you with His life. That is good coverage. No use hunting for better. You can’t find it. Just leave the past under His blood. Will you do that? No use to worry about the future. Leave it with Jesus. There is one thing you can settle and that is the present.”
“And remember, friends, if this moment you settle the present, to fully surrender to Him, then the past is all covered and the future is all assured. Can you think of anything better than that? All hangs on that one decision of yours, to give yourself fully to Him.
“Ah, but,” somebody says, “I have done this many a time and I have failed.” Well, did you ever choke when you were trying to eat something? How many of you ever did? You quit eating then, didn’t you? What? What did you do? Well, you tried again. Most of the time you manage to eat, don’t you. I know because that is why you are [able to read this lesson now]. Ah, my friends, let us be simple in our faith, what do you say? When we are trying to do something and we fall, we get up don’t we? Yes. If you are trying to solve an arithmetic problem and you get the wrong answer, what do you do? Work it over again.”
“Any of you ladies ever try to make a batch of bread, or some cake, or pie, and it didn’t come out good? How many of you ever did? Come, ’fess up. Well, what did you do? Quit cooking? Did you say, “Well, these recipes don’t work for me”? What did you do? Try again. Look at the recipe closer. Isn’t that right? What finally happened? You get something that people can eat, don’t you? Don’t you? Why, it will work just the same with this.”
“Don’t make something mysterious out of it, friends. We are just little children. We may fall. We don’t need to, but then we might. But if we fall, get up and go on again. Isn’t that sensible? Isn’t it worth it? There is nothing to go back to. And there is nothing to lie in the ditch about. Lie there in the gutter and just squall? No, friends. Up and on. Ask God to forgive us. Put our hands in Jesus’ hand again and up and on.” 
“That is the way Peter did, the way he did in the water there in Galilee. That is the way he did down there in the garden of Gethsemane after he had denied the Lord with cursing and swearing. Did the Lord, both times, reach out and help him? He will do the same for you. He loves you. You can’t exhaust His love.”
“Remember there are just two things to settle. One: give Him everything. The second: believe He accepts you. Now, are you doing that now? Are you giving Him everything? “Well,” somebody say, “Brother Frazee, I don’t know whether or not I have.” Then let me put it this way. Do you know of anything you haven’t surrendered? If you say, “Yes, I do know of one thing.” Well, then, surrender that. And If you say, “No, Brother Frazee, I can’t think of anything I haven’t surrendered.” Then you have surrendered. That is it. It is just that simple.”
“Don’t miss it, friends. Don’t make it complicated. Just give Him everything you know about, and then believe He accepts you. Don’t question about His accepting you.If you were in jail and somebody paid $10,000 to get you out, and they brought you the good news and stood there at the cell door and opened it and said, “Look here, John, I just paid $10,000 to get you out. Come on out.” Would you huddle there in the cell and say, “I don’t know whether or not you want me out?” Would you? Why, you know you wouldn’t? Yo would come running out and throw yourself in his arms, wouldn’t you? Do that with Jesus.”
“Don’t wait until you are perfect. Oh, no. He came all the way from heaven to get people that weren’t perfect. He had plenty of perfect ones up there. It was you He was after, you and your need, your imperfection, your sin, your weakness, your unworthiness. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
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* This study has been adapted from classes taken by Elder W.D. Frazee.