MORNING MANNA                12–6-22

PLEASING GOD

“The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” — Ps 147:11

God takes pleasure in our faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him”; but surely the alternative is true, that our faith is precious in His sight, though it be only as the touch of the hem of His garment.

God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Apostle says that we ought to walk so as to please God. How can we walk thus? It is not within our power. But how blessed to know that if only we will work out what He works in, and abandon ourselves to Him, He will perfect us in every good work to do His will (Heb 13:21).

There are many ways in which we may please God. Generosity is a sacrifice well-pleasing and acceptable unto God; obedience is well-pleasing unto the Lord; a holy and humble walk with God, like Enoch’s, will elicit this testimony, that it has pleased God. Let us not disappoint Him, but “walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.” O God, we pray that Thou wouldst make us what Thou wouldst have us become, that we may perfectly please Thee, and worthily magnify Thy Holy Name. Amen.– F. B. Meyer

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

MORNING MANNA              12-5-22

OUR RELIABLE RESOURCE 

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”- Matthew 5:17–19

As Christians, we have been given a resource to help us learn, grow, and develop as God calls us to do—His Word. Again and again the Bible tells us that it is nothing less than inspired, infallible, and unchanging. Yet throughout history, beginning in the Garden of Eden, people have doubted and questioned what God said. While it is certainly possible to misunderstand or misinterpret the Scriptures, they are completely accurate and reliable. The Bible does not need to be revised, updated, or edited. It needs to be understood, believed, and practiced.

Dr. John Rice said, “You cannot hold on to the Christ of the Bible unless you hold on to the Bible itself. Anybody who is ashamed of the Word of Jesus Christ is ashamed of Christ. They stand or fall together. The Bible is the Word of Christ, and the words are the words of Christ.” There are many voices that try to make us doubt what the Bible says, but none of them can take away the power of the Bible in our lives—only we can do that. We must learn what it says, read it and study it, hear it preached and taught, and hide it in our hearts. Then we must do what it says in faith. Any doubt about what God has clearly said takes us down the wrong path. When we allow God’s Word to be questioned, we diminish its power in our lives.- copied

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

MORNING MANNA            12-3-22

LLVING GOD MOST

And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”- Luke 14:25–27

In his sermon “The Secret of Loving God,” Charles Spurgeon highlighted the importance of taking a public stand for God and declaring our love for Him to the world with the story of his baptism. “I always look back, with deep gratitude, to the day when I was baptized. Up to that time, I was timid and fearful, and afraid to confess Christ; but after I went into the river, and was publicly baptized into His death, I lost all fear of man, and I think I can honestly say that I have never been ashamed to acknowledge my Lord from that day to this. The world has had many a cruel word for me from that day to this, and there is no love lost between us; I am done with the world as the world is done with me; I am crucified to the world, and the world to me.” 

The command for us to love God above all else begins with the internal—our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength—but it certainly does not end there. The proper love of God in our hearts will inevitably be displayed in our actions. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The proper affection for God as the supreme love of our lives guides everything else that we do. It determines how we use our time, what we allow and avoid, and how we treat those around us. There is nothing that can take the place of loving God above all else. Our love for God should be so great that it is visible to everyone who knows or meets us.

David Stone

Lakeway Baptist Church

Humble, Tx.

THINK ABOUT IT             12-1-22

Their Agenda May Dominate The Culture, But Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Is Not As Prevalent As You’ve Been Led To Believe

Because if you watch TV or listen to the (Left) mainstream media, Hollywood, Democrats, public schools, corporations, sports leagues, government, big tech and social media, the average person would think this country is overwhelmingly dominated by LGBTQ individuals and couples.

I saw a man on the street interview several years ago, and most people seemed to think between 20 and 40 percent of the entire population was gay. That’s effective marketing! That spoke volumes about who and what has been influencing the culture.

Tragically, it’s not the Christian church in America. We desperately need a moral and spiritual awakening or we will lose the culture completely. 

We’re now at the point where we’re seeing the purposeful saturation of culture with all things LGBTQ. We have reached the non-stop promotion of what’s known as ‘queer all year.’

The reality is there are about 1.2 million same-sex couple households in the U.S. according to the recently released Census Bureau data. The country’s total population is over 332 million.

In addition to K-12 ‘education,’ one of the major change agents has been government. The home of most federal employees and politicians, the District of Columbia, exceeded all states for the highest percentage of same-sex couple households, 2.5%.

It’s also interesting that “roughly 710,000 of the same-sex couple households were married and about 500,000 were unmarried.”

Wait a minute. Why aren’t the homosexual marriage numbers much, much higher? You know why. Because it was never about marriage. It was about rejecting God’s design. It’s about sex and special rights, not equality.

Moreover, in the build-up to the Supreme Court striking down all state bans on same-sex marriage in 2015, Americans were promised that’s all they wanted; it would end there.

Not so.

For decades, the godless left has pushed the limits. They realized there was such a lack of resistance to the promotion and expression of sin, perversion, and the marketing of evil that they rapidly gained ground they never thought possible.

In their arsenal of weapons, words have been most effective. Accusations and labels of hate, homophobia, intolerance, fascism, and even racism have somehow been used as a battering ram to silence into submission those who dare publicly oppose the agenda.

Few are now allowed to debate LGBTQ ideology or refute propaganda presented as fact. One would think those who believe in God and biblical values such as two genders, the traditional family, and natural marriage between one man and one woman are outnumbered. Again, not even remotely close.

And yet here we are.

The radical left has been lobbying, pridefully parading, infecting legislation and infringing on religious freedom, spreading its poison nationwide.

The Washington Stand’s Ben Johnson declares “one of the most pervasive lies insists that Americans support same-sex marriage by ever-increasing margins.” He refers to the lifestyles of those in gay relationships and notes by their own admission that the average gay couple begins having sex with other people within an average of 5-6 years.

“As decades of polls show, virtually all Americans do not respect marriages built on a foundation of perpetual, mutual adultery. (Why not simply remain single?) Indeed, nine out of 10 Americans still find any single instance of adultery “morally wrong.” Legislation compelling the American people to “respect” such marriages simply seeks to shut down opposition…”

Americans clearly do not support this – at least the majority of citizens – but today’s government is no longer about the people’s business. It’s about pushing an agenda. The minority with the loudest voices and their depraved Hollywood/big tech/media allies enforce mob-rule to gain power. 

Hollywood’s first LGBTQ romantic comedy, “Bro’s” tanked dramatically at the box office in October and its writer blamed homophobia for the film’s dismal numbers. Could it be Americans are getting tired of the gay and woke agendas being shoved in their faces? 

“If I want to teach my children about sex and or sexual preferences at 7 and 8 I would do it in my home. I don’t need a Disney movie to help me out with it. STOP making everything sexual, it’s unbelievable.”

Another reviewer tweeted, “First Lightyear and now Strange World. Disney and Pixar releasing woke flops, one after the other. How many box office bombs before Disney learns?”

Parents have been warned. LGBTQ activists want to force their morality upon the entire population. They demand there be no restrictions on sexual behavior and one primary goal is to destroy marriage, the most sacred and foundational institution in human history. 

The forces of darkness will never stop because evil never sleeps. It will be interesting to see what they do next. We just need to be reminded these are souls needing to be saved and not every one of them is an activist. They are however, ignorant of the judgment to come. They’re lost, they’re anti-Christ, they hold and promote the wrong worldview.

Pray for the protection of children and a revival of the church. 

MORNING MANNA

STIR UP THE GIFT OF GOD
“Stir up the gift of God–“- 2 Timothy 1:6

Maintaining enthusiasm can be difficult, especially for Christians who are going through tough times. At the beginning of our Christian life we are excited–“pumped-up” as some would say. We are so thrilled with our new life in Christ that we can’t keep our feet on the ground. If you are saved you know exactly what I mean. We start off with high ideals and a wagon load of determination, it seems that nothing can stop us. We are highly motivated and we press on toward our goals, accepting challenges that stretch us to our limits. We are excited and it shows. Life is adventurous. We can’t wait to see what tomorrow holds.
 
Then “it” happens–whatever “it” is. We’re slowed down by some unexpected and unpleasant experience. We’re disappointed, but we press on because we know we should. Then another “it” hits us and this time our recovery period is longer. We are still headed in the right direction, but we’ve lost our zip, now we’re dragging our feet as we trudge along. Then, from out of nowhere, another “it” smacks us, and another and another. Finally we find ourself living in a survival mode, just trying to hang on for dear life!
 
It might be that Timothy was in this condition when Paul wrote this letter, telling him to “stir up the gift of God”. That simply means to fan the embers, kindle, or keep the fire alive. But, notice that, although Paul tells him what to do, he doesn’t tell him how to do it. The idea seems to be, do whatever it takes. Dear friend, that’s what we must do.
 
For some that means going into your prayer closet, falling on your face and crying out to God in a spirit of desperation. Others need to knock the dust off their Bible and get into the Word and stay in it until the fire is ablaze. Some need to exercise their gift God has given them. Life gets stale when you don’t live what you learn. Students ought to become servants. As Vance Havner said, “We need to take ourselves by the nape of the neck and make ourselves do the thing we know we ought to do, whether we feel like it or not.” He was right. You will be amazed how much better you will feel when you put your head on the pillow at night knowing you’ve done your duty during the day. Do with all your might what God has planned for you and your life will be a bright and shinning light in the midst of a sin-darkened world.- HDS
 
DAVID STONE
LAKEWAY BAPTIST CHURCH
5801 FM 1960 E.
HUMBLE, TX. 77346