MORNING MANNA            5-4-21

WHY JESUS DIED

He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities– Isaiah 53:5

It was love that sent Jesus to the cross. It was “the joy set before Him” that kept Jesus on the cross. But it was our sins that necessitated the cross.

Why couldn’t Jesus simply come to earth and preach and call for repentance and then go back into heaven? Why was it not good enough for Him to live a perfect life and then return to His Father in heaven? It was because sins, before a holy and just and good God, require punishment.

Because God is just, He will not allow us to go free without punishing our sins. That would be like a judge letting a convicted serial killer back onto the streets.

Because God is good, He will avenge every one of the countless wrongs in the world. He will not allow victims of violence and deceit to be victims for ever.

Most importantly, because God is God He will not allow His holy character and position to be ignored and violated without consequence. Therefore, our sins must be paid for.

The great beauty and tragedy of the cross is that there the perfect Jesus received the wounds for our transgressions, there He was bruised because of our sins. He chose to take our place and receive our punishment.

How can we dare to willfully sin any more, knowing that precisely those sins were what caused the great wounds of our great Savior? ( Baptist Bible Hour)

David Stone

Lakeway Baptist Church

Humble, Tx.

MORNING MANNA             5-3-21

GOD’S CURE FOR IGNORANCE

I would not have you ignorant…
Romans 11:25; I Corinthians 10:1; II Corinthians 1:8; I Thessalonians 4:13; II Peter 3:8

After preaching yesterday about the church at Laodicea and the need to see our need, I happened to read the following article by Vance Havner this morning. It is so closely related to my thoughts I couldn’t resist sharing it. As usual he says it well:

The Outstanding characteristics of this intellectual age, believe it or not, is ignorance. We do err, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. (Mt. 22:29).

The world does not know its peril, like those of Noah’s day who ate and drank, married and gave in marriage and knew not (Mt. 24:39). The church does not know its need. It is like Laodicea, that boasted it was rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing and knew not that it was wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked (Rev. 3:17). The sinner does not know the saviour. Jesus said to the woman at Jacob’s well, “If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink…” (Jno. 4:10).

And Christians do not know the Lord. “Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip?” was our Lord’s pointed question to His dull disciple (Jno. 14:9). We know Him so poorly, we are so ignorant of the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.

Ignorance unbounded! And the cure is to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (Jno. 17:3).

David Stone 

Lakeway Baptist Church

Humble, Tx.

MORNING MANNA               5-2-21

THE GREATNESS OF GIVING

“  But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God. ”- Phil. 4:18

Paul’s letter to the Philippians was really an acknowledgment of a gift which he had received from the believers at Philippi. We are probably safe in assuming that it was a gift of money. The surprising thing is the way in which the apostle magnifies the gift. He calls it “an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.” In Eph. 5:2 He uses a similar expression to describe Christ’s great gift of Himself at Calvary. He speaks of it as “an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” It is breathtaking to think that a gift given to a servant of the Lord should be memorialized with language similar to that which describes the Unspeakable Gift.

J. H. Jowett comments finely on this point. “How vast, then, is the range of an apparently local kindness! We thought we were ministering to a pauper, and in reality we were conversing with the King. We imagined that the fragrance would be shut up in a petty neighborhood, and lo, the sweet aroma steals through the universe. We thought that we were dealing only with Paul, and we find that we were ministering to Paul’s Savior and Lord.” When we understand the true spiritual nature of Christian giving and the vast range of its influence, we are delivered from giving grudgingly or of necessity. We are immune forever to the gimmickry of professional fund-raisers who extort by cajolery, pathos or comedy. We see that giving is a form of priestly service, not a legal enaction. We give because we love, and we love to give.

The truth that my minuscule gifts to the Great God fill the throne room of the universe with fragrance should inspire me to humble worship and hilarious giving. Never again will the offering on Sunday morning be a boring, if necessary, part of the service. It will be as truly a means of giving directly to the Lord Jesus as if He were bodily present. – William MacDonald

David Stone

Lakeway  Baptist Church

Humble, Tx.

MORNING MANNA            4-30-21

THE TRUE TEST

“ And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the LORD was with him.”- 1 Sam. 18:14

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the same could be said of all of us? It would make a world of difference in this wicked world. Of this subject John H. Jowett wrote the following:

The hour of victory is a more severe moral test than the hour of defeat. Many a man can brave the perils of adversity who succumbs to the seductions of prosperity. He can stand the cold better than the heat! He is enriched by failure, but “spoilt by success.” To test the real quality of a man, let us regard him just when he has slain Goliath! “David behaved himself wisely”!

He was not “eaten up with pride.” He developed no “side.” He went among his friends as though no Goliath had ever crossed his way. He was not for ever recounting the triumph, and fishing for the compliments of his audience. He “behaved wisely.” So many of us tarnish our victories by the manner in which we display them. We put them into the shop-window, and they become “soiled goods.”

And in this hour of triumph David made a noble friend. In his noonday he found Jonathan, and their hearts were knit to each other in deep and intimate love. It is beautiful when our victories are so nobly borne that they introduce us into higher fellowships, and the friends of heaven become our friends.

David Stone

Lakeway Baptist Church

Humble, Tx.