“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” – Rom.12:1-2

Most of all I am sick about my own personal failures. It is easy to see what’s wrong with the world and it’s tempting to devote all my time to denouncing it and to tying to fix it, but nothing would change for the better. If all I do is to denounce the world I will miss the mark. What I need to do is to focus on what’s wrong with me and there is much to be said about that. That’s the only part of the world that I can change by my direct action. And it should be the starting point for each of us. My best chance to see others change is for others to see how Christ changed me. For that to happen I must first surrender myself, as a living sacrifice unto God. I must speak the truth in love while being an example of the believers. Through our witness and our ways we can bring others to Christ, and that changes them forever.  – HDS
 
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346 

“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.” —Lamentations 3:40

A friend told me about a man who shouted the same three words each day from his street-corner newsstand. “Ain’t it awful!” he would say to passersby while extending a newspaper. People bought a paper because they just had to know what terrible thing had occurred.

Tragedy and dire predictions always make the front page, but if we become preoccupied with bad news, we will succumb to what my friend calls “awfulizing”—a pervasive pessimism that clouds every situation with gloom.

If anyone had a good reason for being despondent, it was the prophet Jeremiah. For 40 years, he declared God’s judgment on the rebellious and unrepentant nation of Judah. Jeremiah suffered because of their disobedience, but he clung to his faith in God’s goodness. Even after witnessing the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of his people, Jeremiah wrote: “The Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord” (Lamentations 3:31-32,40).

Disobedience to God can cause great pain, but the doorway out of discouragement leads to the Lord, who “…. is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.” (v.25).

Turn not aside, discouraged one,

Stir up your gift, pursue your goal;

In God’s own time you’ll see Him work,

He’ll give you hope and lift your soul.  (D. De Haan)

Awful circumstances cannot alter the goodness of God.

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

“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” – Job. 23:8-10

Sunday morning I preached about “The Promise of God’s Presence”. That same morning I sent an Morning Manna article entitled “God is thinking of you”. But yesterday’s article seemed to say just the opposite. It was called “When God is Silent”. Today I want you to think about Job’s experience which left him wondering “Where is God?” Overnight Job’s world was turned upside down. Words can’t describe the greatness of his loss. Then, adding misery to woe, out of the depths of his suffering he tells us his search for God seemed futile. He couldn’t find God!

There is a great lesson in this for us. It reminds us the our feelings are sometimes contrary to the facts. For example, the Bible assures us that we are always in God’s thoughts and presence, and that he will never leave us. However, sometimes we feel that God has forgotten and forsaken us. That’s what happened to Job. I suspect the same, to an extent, has happened to some of you. In fact you might be in the throes of some great difficulty right now. You feel forgotten, forsaken, and frightened. Although you aren’t comfortable sharing your feelings with others, that is what you are experiencing. It could be something that is fleeting, or it could linger for days. And it is sheer torture as it troubles you day and night.

You know what the facts are as stated in the Bible, but you feel just the opposite. You aren’t so bold or foolish as to accuse God of being unfair or untruthful, but you can’t shake the feeling that things won’t turn out as He promised. Although your problems are not nearly so severe as those of Job you feel as he did. To get rid of those feelings we must admit to ourselves and to God that He is right and we are wrong. The only remedy is to remember what God said and rely upon it. In other words we must come to our senses. To accuse God of not doing what He promised is serious.

Deliverance from this dilemma comes only by realizing that what we know from the word of God enables us to deal with what we don’t know about the will of God. In other words, not only must we consider God’s promise to never forget or forsake us, we must look at the whole of God’s word and what it says about His glorious attributes. In doing so we come to realize that our feelings are false and God’s word is factual. That changes the way we feel. The circumstances might not change but we do.

“But he answered her not a word….” Matthew 15:23

At first glance this seems hard to understand. Here is a woman in dire need. She said, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.“(vs. 22). Words can’t explain what she must have felt at that moment, yet “he answered her not a word”. Perhaps you have found yourself in a similar situation.

J. R. Miller said, “Who has not come to Christ with a burden, crying out for     help or for relief—only to find him silent? To many of our earnest     supplications, he seems not to answer a word. We are told to ask—and we     shall receive, to seek—and we shall find, to knock—and it shall be opened     unto us. Yet there come times when we ask imploringly, and do not seem to     receive; when, though we seek with intense eagerness, we do not seem to find     what we seek; when we knock at the door of prayer until our hands are     bruised and bleeding, and there is no opening of the door.

Sometimes the heavens seem to be brass above us;     and we ask, “Is there anywhere, an ear to hear our pleadings? Is there     anywhere, a heart to feel sympathy with us in our overwhelming need?”     Sometimes God seems to be far off—so far that our cries cannot reach him.     Nothing is so awful as this silence of God—the feeling that     communication is cut off. Few prayers in the Bible are more pathetic than     that in the psalm: “Be not silent to me, lest I become like those who go     down into the pit!” Anything from God, any punishment, is better than his     silence!

Oh, it would be a dreary world, if the atheist’s creed    were true, that there is no God, no ear to hear prayer; that no voice of     answering help, or love, or comfort, ever comes out of the heavens.” ( J. R. Miller, 1895)

Thankfully the story didn’t end in disappointment. She persisted in prayer rather than giving up, and “Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.” (vs. 28). Our blessed Lord makes no mistakes. Trust Him. Such faith pleases Him and is rewarded in His time and His way.- HDS

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

“The Lord thinketh upon me.”  Psalms 40:17

Do you ever think about the Lord thinking about you? You need to think about it! The following was written by James Smith in 1840. It will bless your heart. 

When we think of the greatness and glory of Jehovah, man appears so worthless and insignificant, that we are ready to ask, ” Will the Lord regard us, bless us, and dwell with us?” Yes – He has promised to do so in His word, and He has informed us that His thoughts are perpetually taken up with us. He thinketh upon us, to supply our need, protect from foes, lead us in His ways, and make us meet for His kingdom and glory. His thoughts are thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give us an expected end. He thinketh upon us by day and by night, when at home or abroad; and He thinks of us with love as His children; with pleasure as His friends; with a purpose to bless us, as His dependant. We think He may perhaps have mercy, He may do a little for us; but as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are His thoughts above our thoughts; and His ways above our ways. His thoughts are worthy of a God. What are the promises? Only His thoughts put into our language. And what do they prove; Truly that He thought of all our wants, wishes, and desires, and made full provision for them.

Father, I want a thankful heart,
 I want to taste how good Thou art;
 To plunge me in Thy mercy seat,
 And comprehend Thy love to me;
 The length, and breadth, and depth, and height,
 Of love divinely infinite.

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