MORNING MANNA            1-22-24

CHOOSING CONTENTMENT

“ Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”- Heb 13:5

MORNING MANNA           1-19-24

THE GOD OF HOPE

”Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”Rom. 15:13

I’m not sure of the source, but here is a story I read many years ago. In 1927 an American submarine collided with a Coast Guard vessel off the coast of Provincetown, Mass., and began to sink. The Coast Guard and Navy sent divers to assess the damage and begin a rescue operation. As the divers got close to the submarine, they heard a sailor tapping on the hull in Morse code. He asked, “Is there hope?”

That’s a fundamental question of life. It’s asked every day by countless people in countless ways: when sitting in the doctor’s office awaiting test results, when a couple puts months and months into counseling and gets nowhere, when dealing with a tax accountant in bankruptcy court, or when a family hears their child is missing.

You can survive 40 days without food, three days without water, and eight minutes without air. But you can’t last a single second without hope. It’s an essential part of life. When hope is gone, life is over.

People everywhere are looking for hope in all the wrong places. They look for it in their relationships, in self-help books, in religion, and in self-righteousness. But there is only one place to find real hope. The Bible says real hope is found by turning to God: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 15:13 ).

You need that kind of hope. And it’s only available through a relationship with Jesus Christ. When you trust in him, the Holy Spirit works in you to fill you with hope that God is in control, he loves you, and he is working for your good.- HDS

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

MORNING MANNA             1-17-24

THE REFINERS FIRE

“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”- Job 23:10

Slowly you will discover God’s love in your suffering. Your heart will begin to approve the whole thing. You will learn from yourself what all the schools in the world could not teach you–the healing action of faith without supporting pleasure. You will feel and understand the ministry of the night; its power to purify, to detach, to humble, to destroy the fear of death and, what is more important to you at the moment, the fear of life. And you will learn that sometimes pain can do what even joy cannot, such as exposing the vanity of earth’s trifles and filling your heart with longing for the peace of heaven. What I write here is in no way original. This has been discovered anew by each generation of Christian seekers and is almost a cliche of the deeper life. Yet it needs to be said to this generation of believers often and with emphasis, for the type of Christianity now in vogue does not include anything as serious and as difficult as this. The quest of the modern Christian is likely to be for peace of mind and spiritual joy, with a good degree of material prosperity thrown in as an external proof of the divine favor. Some will understand this, however, even if the number is relatively small, and they will constitute the hard core of practicing saints so badly needed at this serious hour if New Testament Christianity is to survive to the next generation.–A W Tozer

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

MORNING MANNA          1-16-24

I WILL NOT BE AFRAID

“And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage…”- Joshua 10:25

Those who know the story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot know what great difficulties she faced after Jim was murdered. I mention this to show that she was speaking from experience when she wrote the following.

“News reports come every day concerning economic and political calamities about to befall us all, not to mention famines, tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanoes, things which may at any moment strike us or people we love. There are always plenty of good reasons to be afraid–unless you know that things are under control. A Christian has this “inside information.” Things are, in fact, under control. God is our Refuge, our Strength, our Mighty Fortress. Nothing will get by the moat of his protection without his permission. To be afraid of what happens today or what may happen tomorrow is not only an awful waste of energy, it is not only useless, it is disobedient. We are forbidden to fear anything but the Lord Himself. 

When Christians in China were being hounded to death in the 1930s, one of them (I am told) wrote this simple song, which has helped me in countless times of fear ever since I learned it as a high school girl: 

I will not be afraid.
I will not be afraid.
I will look upward, and travel onward,
And not be afraid.

Will power, of course, will not always overcome human emotions. But willed obedience to the One who is in charge, coupled with prayer for his help in vanquishing our natural fears, is something else.”

Davis Stone  

Lakeway Baptist Church   

Humble,Tx.

MORNING MANNA            1-15-24  
 WHO HOLDS THE ROPE ?

  “…The Lord is my helper…”13:6

Many years ago I read the following story from M.R.DeHann

A group of scientists and botanists were exploring remote regions of the Alps in search of new species of flowers. One day they noticed through binoculars a flower of such rarity and beauty that its value to science was incalculable. But it lay deep in a ravine with cliffs on both sides. To get the flower someone had to be lowered over the cliff on a rope.

A curious young boy was watching nearby, and the scientists told him they would pay him well if he would agree to be lowered over the cliff to retrieve the flower below.

The boy took one long look down the steep, dizzy depths and said, “I’ll be back in a minute.” A short time later he returned, followed by a gray-haired man. Approaching the botanist, the boy said, “I’ll go over that cliff and get that flower for you if this man holds the rope. He’s my dad.”

Oh, that God might give us the faith of that boy! Have you learned to trust the Lord like that, my friend? If anyone else holds the rope, I dare not go. But since Jesus is holding me fast, I can never doubt. Are you willing to say, “If my Father holds the rope, I shall not fear”? 

“He holds my hand, this wonderful Savior,

And He is mine;

So why should I fear when I know He’s so near,

And I know that His hand holds mine?” –Smith

David Stone   

Lakeway Baptist Church   

Humble,Tx.