Lawrence O. Richards - Daybreak Verses for Men

Compiled by LARRY RICHARDS

You are a special person.

You are loved by God

and have a significant place in his plan.

This booklet will help you

sense the wonder of your

identity as Gods person,

and it will show you how to find

fulfillment with your spouse,

your family, your church, the world

and in your inner life.

PART ONE
MY IDENTITY AS A CHRISTIAN MAN

PART TWO
MY RELATIONSHIPS AS A CHRISTIAN MAN

PART THREE
MY INNER LIFE AS A CHRISTIAN MAN

What does it mean to be a Christian man? First, it means to learn to see yourself as God sees you as a person who is loved and significant. Second, it means to understand the wonderful place God has for you in his plan. That place is found as you live out your most significant relationships guided by Gods Word and strengthened by his promises. And it means to build your own inner life, developing your potentials as a Christian.

There are three sections to this booklet. In each a series of topics brings together verses from Gods Word that will give you guidance, insight and strength to help you be all God intends you to be as his person.

The first section, My Identity as a Christian Man, shares evidence that you truly are important to God and have a significant place in his kingdom.

My Relationships as a Christian Man looks closely at your relationship with your spouse, your family, your church and in the world. Verses from Scripture portray Gods ideal and share insights on how you can live as Christs person to achieve the ideal.

My Inner Life as a Christian Man focuses on deepening your personal relationship with God and on finding help from him to meet special, very personal challenges. Issues such as getting the most from Scripture, living the single life and overcoming temptations are examined.

As you read these verses and meditate on them you will find them to be a source of guidance, for God points us in his Word to a productive and meaningful life. You will also find them to be a source of strength, for here too are Gods promises, reassuring you that the Lord is committed to helping you become the Christian man you yearn to be.

When you became a Christian you began a personal relationship with God. In this wonderful relationship you can discover your true identity and your true significance. God wants you to base your confidence that you truly do have worth and value on his affirmation that you are vitally important to him!

G ENESIS 1:2728

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule

P SALM 8:4,6

What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet.

P SALM 100:3

Know that the L ORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

P SALM 119:7374

Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands. May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word.

P SALM 139:1316

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

L EVITICUS 19:2

Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: Be holy because I, the L ORD your God, am holy.

E PHESIANS 2:45

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved.

G ALATIANS 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

R OMANS 8:32

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

J OHN 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

C OLOSSIANS 1:22

But now he has reconciled you by Christs physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

R OMANS 8:35,3739

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

R OMANS 8:1617

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are Gods children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I SAIAH 49:15

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

G ALATIANS 3:2628

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

E PHESIANS 5:12

Follow Gods example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

1 P ETER 1:1416

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy.

1 J OHN 3:9

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because Gods seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.

E ZEKIEL 36:2627

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

J OHN 14:1617

The Father will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

R OMANS 8:26

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

R OMANS 8:11