MORNING MANNA           3-27-22

HE STAGGERED NOT

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.”- Romans 4:20

Faith does not nervously go over the same committal again and again. Faith goes on from there ruggedly believing that what God has promised He will perform. Abraham did not even consider what were really impossibilities. He considered God, not circumstance. So did Hannah when “she went her way and her countenance was no more sad.” So did Paul in the storm at sea, when he said, “I believe God.”

It is a mark of unbelief, not of faith, when we uneasily look around us and keep reminding God that we are depending on Him. We are trusting Him more when, instead of constantly reminding Him, we move on to do the next thing and the next, counting it all as good as done. A father would be grieved if his child kept on asking, “Are you sure you will take care of me?” A trusting child goes on about other things and wastes no time trying to trust its father.

You are not really trusting until you quit trying. The more you examine your faith, the sicklier it will be. Don’t look at your faith. Look unto Jesus! – Vance Havner

Some say they can’t believe, but that is a lie. They could if they would. The only ones who don’t believe are those who won’t.- HDS

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

MORNING MANNA            3-26-22

CHRISTIANITY IS SIMPLE

Although I would not agree with everything about Bill Bright and his ministry, I believe what he says below is on point. He said: “Dear friends: Christianity is really very simple.  Many people try to complicate it in all manner of ways.

Much of what we call Christianity today is nothing more than the tradition of men.  Paul wrote, “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3 

After five years as a student of Princeton and Fuller theological seminaries and 58 years of walking with the Lord, my faith is very simple.  I just seek to love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, trust His promises, and obey His commands. 

In all my writing and whatever I do, I try to make that central. It took me years to figure out that the true Christian life is not complicated.  It is just like the Lord to make His way so simple that a child would understand and comprehend — but we are so prone to complicate God’s ways. 

Nobody sat down with me and explained most of the things that we are teaching….  My associates and I have learned by doing it. Most of the truths which I have spoken and written about are from the front line of spiritual warfare.  The important truths which I learned in seminary were a confirmation of what I already believed, mainly a profound respect for and the divine inspiration, authority and inerrancy of God’s Word, the Bible.

The God who created the universe did not make it difficult to know Him. He came to earth disguised as a slave — the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth — not as a grand, ceremonial religious leader with pomp and circumstance, such as an exalted member of the Sanhedrin.  Of course, before Christ came, the ancient Israelites lived under a complicated religious system God had given them, but that was for a special purpose, to point to our Lord’s coming and grace in the future.  “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Galatians 3:24.   Peter later called that religious system, “a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10}.

“And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.” (1 John 3:23.

Yours for fulfilling the Great Commission each year until our Lord returns.”

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

MORNING MANNA             3-25-22

OUR SAVIOR

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”- Isaiah 53:4-6

The center of our faith is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The stain of our sins was so deep and the penalty for our sins was so heavy that only a Divine sacrifice could provide the hope of pardon and salvation. Although it was free to us, our salvation came at a very high cost indeed for the Lord. He endured the physical torment of one of the most painful deaths ever devised. Even worse, He endured the spiritual torment of taking our sins upon Himself.

Octavius Winslow who pastored for many years in both England and America in the 1800s wrote, “The cross of Jesus displays the most awful exhibition of God’s hatred of sin and at the same time the most august manifestation of His readiness to pardon it. Pardon, full and free, is written out in every drop of blood that is seen, is proclaimed in every groan that is heard, and shines in the very prodigy of mercy that closes the solemn scene upon the cross. O blessed door of return, open and never shut, to the wanderer from God!”

The cost of our salvation should never be far from our hearts or minds. We need to be reminded of the extent of God’s love for us, and the amazing grace that allowed us to be part of His family. Rather than taking that for granted, we should be continually grateful, rejoicing, and praising God for what He has done for us. Jesus bore the weight of our sins to be our Savior. The incredible cost of our salvation is an amazing evidence of God’s unfailing love toward us. — By Paul Chappell

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

MORNING MANNA          3-24-22

THE ONLY DOOR TO HEAVEN

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.” – John 10:1–3

Paul Chappell said, “The most important question every individual must answer is the question that determines his or her eternal destiny. Despite what many in our day teach and promote, God has clearly and firmly declared that there is only one way to Heaven. There are not many paths all leading in the same general direction that eventually get everyone to the right destination. The only way that we can be justified in the sight of God is to accept in faith the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross on our behalf. Many people fail to receive salvation because while they believe that Jesus is important, they also wrongly think that they have to be part of the process by doing something to deserve or earn salvation.”

Dr. Curtis Hutson put it this way: “I am a church member. I have been baptized. I try to live right. I have been preaching since I was twenty years old. I travel every week of my life going from church to church throughout this country to preach the gospel. But I do none of these things to be saved. My only hope of Heaven is the fact that Jesus Christ died for me. He paid my sin debt. I am trusting Him alone for salvation. I am not trusting my good works, my church membership, my baptism, or anything else. When we stand before God, the only thing that He will count is what His Son did at Calvary.” Salvation is only found in Christ alone, and anything we try to add to His gift keeps us from truly receiving it.

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