Naturally none of us can walk in the shoes of the apostles and literally follow Christ on His earthly journey. But we can and should follow Him as He leads us today – through the Scriptures and by the Spirit. And that ought to be the top priority in our lives. To be a faithful follower of Christ should be the great desire of every believer in Christ. That is the path to success and blessedness in life.

Rather than seeking fortune, fame, and fun our focus should be on following the Lord. Not only would we not go astray, we would not waste our lives. We would be laying up treasures in heaven and making investments that pay eternal dividends. Being fully committed to Christ our lives would be both useful and fulfilling. Those who spend their lives on anything else will be faced with the remorse of regret in the future.

Our greatest help for the present and hope for the future is to do as the Lord Commands in Matt. 6:33 “..seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness..“. Then He says, “all these things shall be added unto you“. Following Christ is the path to success, supply, and satisfaction. Why would you refuse? The quickest way to create a shortage in your life is to stop giving God your all. Refusing to follow Him is the surest way to get into trouble.  – HDS

Speaking about the potential of prayer, someone wrote, “Prayer has divided seas, rolled up flowing rivers, made flinty rocks gush into fountains, quenched flames of fire, muzzled lions, disarmed vipers and poisons, marshalled the stars against the wicked, stopped the course of the moon, arrested the sun in its rapid race, burst open iron gates, recalled souls from eternity, conquered the strongest devils, commanded legions of angels down from heaven. Prayer has bridled and chained the raging passions of man, and routed and destroyed vast armies of proud, daring, blustering atheists. Prayer has brought one man from the bottom of the sea, and carried another in a chariot of fire to heaven. What has not prayer done?”

How grateful we ought to be that God is willing to draw from all the resources of heaven to provide the needs of His children. We don’t deserve it. So how is it then that we have such a glorious privilege as prayer? It is due to God’s grace. Therefore, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”( Heb. 4:16). -HDS

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

To feel the impact of this question consider who is speaking. It is Christ, the one with all power in heaven and earth, the one who is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” (Eph. 3:20). Now, that makes things interesting!

Can you imagine how exciting it would be to speak with the One who has all the answers and have Him to ask you this question. This was an open door for them to make their petition, declare their desires, and make their needs known. They had seen what He could do and now they see a willingness on His part to grant their request. What would you have said? Be honest. Put yourself in their place, picture yourself looking into the face of your dear Savior, and imagine hearing these words from the lips of the One who cannot lie. How would you answer? What do you want him to do for you? What is the desire of your heart?

Actually you might have already answered that question. Your manner of life reveals what you desire, what you consider important, what you deem worthy of your time, effort, and money. Our answer reveals what we favor and our asking reveals our faith. It’s hard to imagine anyone not answering. Why would you squander such a great opportunity?

However, while we ought to be quick to respond we ought to be careful how we answer. Their answer was sad and selfish. It came from the influence of their mother (Matt. 20:21). No doubt she thought she knew what was best for them (that sounds like a mother), but she was wrong. Keep in mind that Jesus knew what they were thinking. He knew what they wanted, and He was testing them so He could teach them.

Hopefully we also will learn something from this. We need a clear understanding of what is important and what’s not. And let us remember that when our desire is the same as God’s desire we ought not hesitate to pray. Knowing He has all power, speaks the truth, keeps His promises, and knows what is best makes prayer and life exciting. – HDS

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

Yesterday I spoke about the need to examine ourselves. Today I want you to notice why. We do so to prove ourselves. And that demands that we examine everything about our lives, our behavior as well as our beliefs. Far too often, when people do examine themselves, they just do so in isolation – without consideration for their relationship with others, their public life. It’s easy to sit alone and take comfort that we examined certain beliefs and now feel at ease about what we found. But that alone isn’t proof. Where are the facts?

Spurgeon made an interesting comment about this. He said, “Now, ‘prove yourselves.’ Do not merely sit in your closet and look at yourselves alone, but go out into this busy world and see what kind of piety you have. Remember, many a man’s religion will stand examination that will not stand proof . We may sit at home and look at our religion, and say, ‘Well, I think this will do!’ . If the scales of earth tell you that you are lacking, what message will the scales of heaven give you?”– “The man who does not like self-examination may be pretty certain that things need examining.”

I recently mentioned that neither image nor imagination can save us. Regardless of what you think, salvation comes only according to the scriptures. And, based on that I can say that most people are far off course. That’s not just unfortunate it is awful beyond words. It means the difference between heaven and hell. Yet, as important as this is, there is more confusion about this than anything in the world – senseless confusion, because the Bible is perfectly clear about the matter.

No where does the fallibility of man’s thinking shine brighter than it does in regards to redemption. Man brags about all his achievements, which according to him is evidence of his brilliance, but on the whole he has yet to recognize the plain simple soul saving message of the gospel. Indeed, “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which beleive not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” ( 2 Cor. 4:4).

It is no wonder that Paul said, “Examine yourselves… prove your own selves“. But how do we prove ourselves? We do so by examining ourselves, as he says – to see if we are “in the faith“. The phrase “in the faith” speaks of the body of truth that was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). It has to do with the Bible, the pure unadulterated truth. That is the standard by which we must examine and measure ourselves. It includes what we ought to believe regarding how a person is saved and the evidence of it. It’s not what you think or believe that saves you, it is what the Bible tells you. To know for certain that you are saved you must examine yourself in the light of what God’s Word says. Your image, imagination, and ideas are useless in making that determination. Feeling like you are saved and even believing that you are saved isn’t enough. Many people believe they are going to heaven who have no idea what the gospel is. You must know the facts and have faith in them to be saved. Our blessed assurance is based on the firm foundation of God’s revelation regarding redemption. Examine yourself and you will know the truth about your spiritual state. Have you? Will you? When? – HDS

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