MORNING MANNA         1-20-22

WORSHIP OR WATCH?

“I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” –Psalm 34:1

Do you worship or watch? Someone addressed the subject like this—

“How do you worship? Even though there are many ways to worship God, we all need to remember that worship is an action.

It’s not sitting and watching, it’s something you do. It is participation. It is not mere emotion. It is not a feeling, not a thought process, but rather the active response of your heart, your life, and even your body to God! 

If you go to a worship service and watch everyone else worship, you haven’t worshipped… you have become a religious consumer rather than a spiritual communer. You’ve become a spectator rather than a true worshipper.  

Perhaps you grew up in a church where you sang hymns and participated at some level. But maybe… just maybe… you have never had a genuine experience of encountering the presence of God in true worship. 

If not, I challenge you to take time even today to tell God you desire to be a genuine worshipper. He will honor your prayer because He has made you to worship Him! You were created that you might know Him and make Him known.  

As a believer in Jesus Christ, worshipping Him intimately and intensely should be the driving force in your life. That’s why I want to call you to become a true worshipper of the Lord Jesus Christ today… whether in or out of church!”- Author unknown

Worship all your days by filling your days with continual praise!

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

MORNING MANNA          1-19-22

CONFESSING SIN

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”– 1 John 1:9

Without the assurance of this verse, it would be practically impossible to go on in the Christian life. As we grow in grace, we have a deepening awareness of our utter sinfulness. We must have some provision for instant cleansing for sins, otherwise we are doomed to perpetual guilt and defeat.

John tells us that, for believers, provision is made through confession. The unbeliever receives judicial forgiveness from the penalty of sins through faith in the Lord Jesus. The believer receives parental forgiveness from the defilement of sins through confession.

Sin breaks fellowship in the life of the child of God, and that fellowship remains broken till the sin is confessed and forsaken. When we confess, God is faithful to His Word; He has promised to forgive. He is just in forgiving because the work of Christ at the Cross has provided a righteous basis on which He may do so.

What this verse means, then, is that when we confess our sins, we can know that the record is clear, that we have been completely cleansed, that the happy family spirit has been restored. As soon as we are conscious of sin in our lives, we can go into the presence of God, call that sin by its name, repudiate it, and know with certainty that it has been put away.

But how do we know for certain? Do we feel forgiven? It is not at all a question of feelings. We know that we have been forgiven because God says so in His Word. Feelings are undependable at best. God’s Word is sure.

But suppose someone says, “I know that God has forgiven me but I can’t forgive myself”? This might sound very pious but actually it is dishonoring to God. If God has forgiven me, then He wants me to appropriate that forgiveness by faith, to rejoice in it, and to go out and serve Him as a cleansed vessel. ( William MacDonald)

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

MORNING MANNA          1-18-22

GOD HAS NO GRANDCHILDREN

“To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” – James 4:17

Gibbon describes the degeneration of Christianity under the Greek scholars of the 10th century, who handled the literature and spoke the language of the spiritual but knew not the life: “They held in their lifeless hands the riches of their fathers without inheriting the spirit which had created and imparted that sacred patrimony. They read; they praised; they compiled; but their languid souls seemed alike incapable of thought and action.”

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day handled the things of God, read the Scriptures, faithfully kept the letter of the law, were painstakingly separated from sinners. But the publicans and harlots went into the Kingdom before them.

To have grown up in a Christian home and in a church, early fluent in the speech of the Kingdom, familiar with its subjects and observing its practices, yet never a citizen, produces a type of sinner often harder to awaken than the most ignorant heathen. Truth long heard and not acted upon means awful self-deception (James 1:22).

Second generations do not inherit salvation. God has no grandchildren.- Vance Havner

“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”– John 3:7

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

MORNING MANNA         1-17-22

LOVE

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

MORNING MANNA          1-16-22

WALK WISELY

 “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,” – Ephesians 5:15

You are in an enemy’s land; surrounded by temptations; and have a heart that is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. To honour Jesus in your spirit, communications, and every action, should be your constant aim.

You are to live unto the Lord, for Him who died for you and rose again. To this end, provision was laid up in the everlasting covenant, for this purpose the precious promises were made, and with this design the Holy Spirit is given; that you may serve Him in righteousness and holiness all the days of your life.

This world is not your home; Satan’s family are not to be your associates; riches, honours, or pleasure, are not to be your objects; you are to walk as in the midst of snares; watchful, prayerful, depending upon Jesus, and cultivating fellowship with Him.

O keep your eye on Jesus, as your example; walk by His word, as your rule; be not venturesome or presumptuous, but avoid the very appearance of evil. Never leave the Lord’s ways or ordinances, to join the world’s parties or to please a carnal fancy. Keep close to Jesus, and follow on to know the Lord. Act as a loving child going home to his father’s house.- James Smith, 1840

So let our lips and lives express

The holy Gospel we profess;

So let our works and virtues shine,

To prove the doctrine all Divine.

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