MORNING MANNA          3-3-22

JOY

“The fruit of the spirit is… .joy.” – Gal. 5:22

Man never finds real joy till he finds the Lord. Then he enters into what Peter calls “joy unspeakable and full of glory”.

Anyone can rejoice when circumstances are favorable, but the joy which is the fruit of the Spirit is not the result of earthly circumstances. It springs from our relationship to the Lord and from the precious promises He has given to us. Christ would have to be dethroned before the Church could be finally robbed of its joy.

Christian joy can coexist with suffering. Paul weds the two when he speaks of “all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness”. The Thessalonian saints had received the word “in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost” ( 1 Thessalonians 1:6). Suffering saints down through the centuries have testified how the Lord has given them songs in the night.

Joy can coexist with sorrow. The believer can stand by the grave of a loved one, shed tears of sorrow at the loss, yet rejoice at the knowledge that the loved one is in the presence of the Lord.

But joy cannot coexist with sin. Whenever a Christian sins, he loses his song. Not until he confesses and forsakes that sin is the joy of his salvation restored.

The Lord Jesus told His disciples to rejoice when they were reviled, persecuted and falsely accused. And they did! Not many years later we read of them leaving the courtroom, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name”.

Our joy increases as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord. At first, perhaps, we can rejoice in minor irritations, chronic ailments and trivial inconveniences. But the Spirit of God wishes to bring us to the point where we can see God when circumstances are at their worst and rejoice in the knowledge that His way is perfect. We are spiritually mature when we can say with Habakkuk, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation”. – William MacDonald

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

MORNING MANNA          3-2-22

 Sovereignty of God
“Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world”– Acts 15:18

Perhaps you have known, even recently, the unsettling and sorrowful experience of receiving a phone call, or a doctor’s report, or an employer’s notice that delivered unexpected and tragic news — “You have cancer.” “We’re letting you go.” “Your loved one has been in an accident.” No matter what form these moments take in our particular situation, they always remind us of our personal frailty and inability to control the details of our lives.

The great consolation from God’s Word, however, is that God never has such moments. He is never surprised by calamity that befalls us, He is never taken back by sudden tragedy, His plans are never disrupted by the unexpected. In short, He is never at a loss for a solution to any problem…or for the power to implement it… or for the wisdom to make sure it is the right solution.

God knows all His works (and subsequently, obviously, the events those works will be connected with) from the beginning of the world. It is for this reason that God can, and does, give us such rock-solid assurances in the midst of earth-shattering catastrophes. “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5); “my grace is sufficient for thee” (2 Corinthians 12:9); “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28); “trying of your faith worketh patience” (James 1:3).

Beloved, in your moments of overwhelming pain, or grief, or disappointment, flee to the God Who is never disappointed or surprised, but is touched by the feelings of your infirmities. Rush to Him, rest in Him, believe on Him. – Baptist Bible Hour

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

MORNING MANNA        3-1-22

DO WHAT YOU CAN“—-ye shall be witnesses unto me–” Acts 1:8

I recently ran across this following story in my drafts by a missionary. It told of a loathsome leper, old and dying, who came to the leprosarium operated by the Methodists in China. Someone had told him that he would find room there, and he had come there to die. He was in the final stages of the disease, clad in nothing more than a bit of burlap tied around him by a string. He had not a relative in the world. But in the leprosarium he settled down in the room given him and began talking with the Chinese chaplain. After hearing the Gospel, he was asked if he wanted to become a Christian. “No,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because,” the poor man replied, “you say your Jesus died for me. He gave himself for me. I have nothing to give him in return for a gift like that.”

“Oh, he wants no gift except yourself.”

“But how could he possibly want an ill-smelling, rotten old leper like me? It can not be!”

But eventually the old leper was convinced, and he humbly asked Jesus Christ to come into his life as Savior and Lord. Then what did he do? He started limping from patient to patient, telling the good news——

But he had less than two years to live. Soon both of his feet dropped off, both of his eyes decayed from his head, and his life ebbed away. As he was dying, the chaplain came to his bedside for a final conversation. The old man felt badly that he had been converted so late in life. He worried that he had not done more. And when the chaplain leaned over to speak with him, the old fellow said this: “When I reach Father’s house, will Jesus blame me for not getting any more, or will he remember that I was just a rotten old leper? I only got fourteen.”

What did he mean? He meant that during his two years, he had won only fourteen souls for Christ. Fourteen souls! He only had twenty-four months, but he had been about his mission — doing what he could where he was.

May God forgive us of our unconcern and help us do what we can, where we are, while we can.

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

MORNING MANNA            2-28-22

OBSTACLE OR OPPORTUNITY?

But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.– Philippians 1:12-1 

Maybe you’ve heard the old story about the shoe salesman who was sent to a new territory. After just a week on the job, he quit in disgust. “No one here wears shoes. There’s no market,” he wrote in his resignation letter. After his replacement had been on the job for a week, he also wrote a letter to headquarters. “Send more shoes and more salesmen. No one here wears shoes, and we can corner the market!”

All of us have things happen in our lives that may not be part of what we had planned. There are obstacles and hardships and difficulties that we face. The difference between people who move forward and accomplish things and those who sink into defeat is not whether or not they have trouble. All of us have trouble because that is part of living in a fallen world. The difference is in how we view and respond to those things. We must never forget that God is able to use even the things that are meant against us for His purpose and for our good.

Paul endured a great deal more than most of us ever will, but he viewed everything that happened in his life through the lens of God’s plan. When some people were tempted to think that the hardships Paul faced were evidence that he was doing something wrong, he reminded them that all of the things he endured were being used by God to take the gospel to new places—even inside Caesar’s own house. If we view opposition as an opportunity rather than an obstacle, we will not yield to the temptation to give up when the going gets tough. We need to be aware all the time that God is using our circumstances for His purposes. (Daily in the Word)

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

MORNING MANNA          2-27-22

MAKING DISCIPLES
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen“ – Matt. 28:19-20

Being a disciple, in the truest sense of the word, is difficult (Read Luke 9:23; 14:26-33). But it’s even more difficult to be a disciple who makes disciples – which is exactly what the Lord, just before ascending into heaven, tells us to do.

Sadly we live in a day when churches are content just conducting services and taking a token interest in the Great Commission. Pastor Renaut van der Riet writes about the difficulty of making disciples – “In this fast-food, instant-access generation, we have often substituted true discipleship for a superficial community experience and a program-driven approach to faith. These require far less work and a much lower level of commitment. Our churches may grow numerically, but we are left dabbling in the shallows of God instead of diving into the depths of God. We have come a long way since the days when someone would drop everything for the honor of following their rabbi…As a young pastor charting a course through the jungle of planting a church and now shepherding that church, I’ve discovered that it is increasingly difficult to find mentors who will guide me through the ins and outs of practical, biblical discipleship.” 

Since I don’t know this brother, I can’t endorse him or his church. But I can certainly agree with what he says here. Most churches today seem to have forgotten why they exist. They act as though they’re on a playground rather than a battlefield, or a cruise ship rather than a lifeboat. We are to be salt and light to this corrupt confused world, but we seem more interested in entertaining it. 

May God help us to rediscover our God given purpose and devote ourselves to it. May we so live that when our life on earth is done that we will hear the Lord say, “….Well done, good and faithful servant…(Matt. 25:23). – HDS

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