THINK ABOUT IT            8-13-23

Are you living?

   Jonathan Swift wrote: “ May you live all the days of your life”. That should be every person’s desire. Yet many are satisfied with merely existing. They eat, sleep, work, play, and plan, but they do not live in the truest sense.

   There is more to life than just maintaining our existence, keeping the blood flowing through the veins and air in our lungs. We exist for a purpose and unless we are fulfilling that purpose we aren’t really living. Our purpose is to glorify God and we do that by living in joyful obedience to His will. To really live, in the strictest sense, is to live a life of significance, one that emulates and reflects Christ.

   Jim Eliot wrote: “ I seek not a long life, but a full one like you, Lord Jesus”. Commenting on that statement, someone said, “ A life cut short, as Jim Eliot’s was isn’t necessarily the greatest tragedy. Rather, it’s a life that has been squandered—a life that has been wasted and thrown away on nothingness and self- indulgence.”

   Many are worried about their life being cut short. They should be more concerned about never really living. The true tragedy is not that life ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. Think about it! – HDS

David Stone

Lakeway Baptist Church 

Humble, Tx 

THINK ABOUT IT           8-12-23

When I received these words from our missionary Jacob Jones, “I was reading and meditating on this hymn this morning!”, it reminded me of the times that I have suggested that we spend more personal time reading hymn books. They are a treasure trove of inspiration. Here’s the song:

1. As I journey through the land singing as I go,Pointing souls to Calvary– to the crimson flow,Many arrows pierce my soul from without, within;But my Lord leads me on, through Him I must win.

Refrain:Oh, I want to see Him, look upon His face,There to sing forever of His saving grace;On the streets of Glory let me lift my voice;Cares all past, home at last, ever to rejoice.

2 When in service for my Lord dark may be the night,But I’ll cling more close to Him, He will give me light;Satan’s snares may vex my soul, turn my thoughts aside;But my Lord goes ahead, leads whate’er betide. [Refrain]

3 When in valleys low I look toward the mountain height,And behold my Savior there, leading in the fight,With a tender hand outstretched toward the valley low,Guiding me, I can see as I onward go. [Refrain]

4 When before me billows rise from the mighty deep,Then my Lord directs my bark; He doth safely keep,And He leads me gently on through this world below;He’s a real friend to me, oh, I love Him so. [Refrain]

THINK ABOUT IT!

THINK ABOUT IT              8-11-23

 FINDING FULFILLMENT

I love the following true story told by Pastor Tom Goodman:

Newlyweds Doug and Sylvia Whitt were not impressed their honeymoon accommodations.
 
Their wedding reception had gone late into the night, and it wasn’t until the wee hours of the morning that they made it to their hotel room.
 
They had booked what they thought was a fancy honeymoon suite. But when they walked in the door, all they saw was a sofa, a table, and some chairs. They found the sofa had a hide-a-bed with a lumpy mattress and sagging springs.
The next morning, the new husband went to the hotel desk and gave the management a tongue-lashing.
 
The clerk asked, “Why didn’t you open the door and see the rest of it?”
 
Doug went back to the room. He opened the door they had thought was a closet. There, complete with fruit baskets and chocolates, was a beautiful bedroom.
 
Some of us might say our Christian experience has been a lot like that. We’ve been living in a cramped little room and we’re calling that Christianity. There is so much more to life with Jesus.
 
We open the door to more life with Jesus when we understand what it means to be “in Christ.” That phrase and close variations of it show up 164 times in the New Testament. We tend to use the word “Christian” to describe ourselves today. But while that word only shows up three times in Scripture, again and again Paul preferred to describe us simply as people who are “in Christ.”
 
Marinate your soul in this truth—and, yes, the word “marinate” is the right one. It’s not enough just to hear this truth once or twice every now and again. We have to soak in it. We have to sing songs about it and attend Bible studies about it and reflect on it in personal devotion times and remind each other about it.

THINK ABOUT IT!
David Stone
 Lakeway Baptist Church 

Humble,Tx.

THINK ABOUT IT            8-9-23

PRESCRIPTION FOR UNHAPPINESS

1. Make little things bother you: don’t just let them, make them!

2. Lose your perspective of things, and keep it lost. Don’t put first things first.

3. Get yourself a good worry—one about which you cannot do anything but worry.

4. Be a perfectionist: condemn yourself and others for not achieving perfection.

5. Be right, always right, perfectly right all the time. Be the only one who is right, and be rigid about your rightness.

6. Don’t trust or believe people, or accept them at anything but their worst and weakest. Be suspicious. Impute ulterior motives to them.

7. Always compare yourself unfavorably to others, which is the guarantee of instant misery.

8. Take personally, with a chip on your shoulder, everything that happens to you that you don’t like.

9. Don’t give yourself wholeheartedly or enthusiastically to anyone or to anything.

10. Make happiness the aim of your life instead of bracing for life’s barbs through a “bitter with the sweet” philosophy.

Use this prescription regularly for awhile and you will be guaranteed unhappiness

—source unknown

David Stone   

Lakeway Baptist Church 

Humble, Tx 

THINK ABOUT IT            8-7-23

Humble, Tx