“…yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend,…” Song of Songs 5:16

 In giving Christ to die for poor sinners, God gave the richest jewel in His cabinet! This is a mercy of the greatest worth, and most inestimable value.

Heaven itself is not so valuable and precious as Christ is! Ten thousand thousand worlds, as many worlds as angels can number — would not outweigh Christ’s love, excellency and sweetness! O what a lovely One! What an excellent, beautiful, ravishing One — is Christ!

Put the beauty of ten thousand paradises, like the garden of Eden, into one; put all flowers, all pleasing fragrances, all colors, all delicious tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness into one — O what a lovely and excellent thing would that be! And yet it would be less compared to that loveliest and dearest well-beloved Christ — than one drop of rain compared to all the seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths!

Now, for God to bestow this mercy of mercies, the most precious thing in Heaven or earth, upon poor sinners; and, as great, as lovely, as excellent as His Son was — what kind of love is this! (John Flavel, “The Fountain of Life” 1671)

– “yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend,”- Song of Songs 5:16
 
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

“These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children”. – Deuteronomy 6:6-7

It is not enough to pass on God’s Word to our children. We must first receive and embrace it in our own hearts, as parents. There is no way to share a love for God and his Word with your children that you do not daily and vitally experience yourself.

Many parents feel an obligation to their children to raise them up in a good environment. So they cart them off to Sunday school or send them to a Christian school, assuming that they have fulfilled their obligation. However, if they are not themselves actively engaged in the Christian faith, they can not expect their children to fall in love with it just because they have been exposed to it externally.

The Word must first be in your heart. But even more than that — you must teach God’s Word to your children diligently. Another mistake that parents sometimes make is the assumption that if they have ever explained a biblical principal or told their children a Bible story, then they understand the Christian faith. But it takes much more dedication and careful application than that.

We must make a daily, overriding, unrelenting determination as parents to teach our children the Christian faith. Not only by making it the subject of conversations, but by displaying Christ as the great goal and treasure of our family.

The overflowing, personal pleasure that we experience in God’s Word must continually and carefully be emanating from our heart, and be diligently communicated to the hearts of our children. ( Baptist Bible Hour)

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

“Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.” – Mark 1:45

Let the Bible scholars account for it as they will, over and over again Jesus discouraged publicity, left the crowd for the solitudes, and never played up to the multitude. His brethren could not understand why He did not go up to Jerusalem and get in the public eye. He did not seek the crowd, the crowd sought Him.

All this would be quite incomprehensible to this age of ballyhoo and the despair of high-pressure advertising. The Early Church grew as one brought another, and the Lord added such as should be saved. The Gospel was its own best publicity. By word of mouth it was noised about. Today we build up a gigantic publicity after the fashion of this age, but what we advertise does not come up to the advance notices. The mountain brings forth a mouse.

God’s ways are not ours and the church did her mightiest work unassisted by radio, television, and modern advertising. The best publicity the Gospel will ever have is a new Christian out to win others. And simple arithmetic shows that if each new disciple brought another the statistics would soon be phenomenal.

Maybe we have it all figured out wrong. Think it over. ( Vance Havner)

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

“Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked;”– Pro. 2:14

Are non-believers dissatisfied with their lives? Are they empty or unhappy with their actions or thoughts? From what I see, most seem to be getting along just fine without Christ and don’t seem unhappy at all. How can this be? The Bible teaches that God looks at their hearts and says they “REJOICE IN DOING EVIL” and “DELIGHT IN PERVERSION AND WICKNESS”. They ARE happy in doing what God calls wrong, what is appalling to anyone with moral values, what is a dark blot on the soul of humanity.

The world has witnessed in America’s recent political realms the UNTHINKABLE DEPTH OF DERAVITY and inhuman wickedness beyond imagination. How could anyone with a heart support butchering babies or “letting” them just starve to death? Yet Senators vote proudly and Democrat candidates announce Presidential bids appealing to the basest action of inhuman monsters. They have mothers applaud their vile actions. They “rejoice” and “delight” in who can endorse the greatest evil.

We know the ultimate fate of such people. God’s Word is clear (whether one wants to believe it or not). So of the most vile and wicked we pray NOT for their sure-judgment in eternal hell, but for God’s grace to enlighten their hearts and minds before it is too late, bringing them to repentance from sin and faith in the Gospel of Christ.

It may be too late for our nation and a society that rewards calling good “evil” and then in turn labels what is evil as “good”. Mercy has limits and what is sown surely will be reaped. But while society spins into a death spiral, the message to the individual is still one of eternal hope and real joy in being united with Christ. 

What those “happy” in endorsing evil and finding “delight” in all that is perverse and vile need to recognize is that this life is short. Judgment is certain. The laughter and clapping stops at the grave, and the screams and torments of eternal hell await. Come to Christ before the opportunity is gone. (Bob Griffin)

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

“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.”– Hebrews 12:15–17

The devil is a deceiver, and one of his most effective lies is to tell us that sin is not really that dangerous. In the Garden of Eden he used this lie to persuade Eve to take the forbidden fruit. “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). But sin is deadly, and it has consequences that reach far beyond what we expect. Indeed if we saw those consequences clearly, we would never yield to temptation. But sin is deceitful, and we must remain on guard.

Dr. John Rice said, “Sin always leads to a hardened heart. You cannot sin and be the same. You think you can play with sin and when you are ready, leave sin alone. When you are ready to leave sin alone, sin is not ready to leave you alone. Sin of itself, necessarily and always, changes the character, hardens the heart, dulls the sensibilities to right and wrong, sears the conscience as with a hot iron, makes it so you do not want to do right, though you once did. Sin itself hardens the heart. It always turns out that way.”

We do not develop immunity to sin by being exposed to small doses of it. Instead small doses of sin damage our conscience and our sensibilities, and leave us vulnerable to even deeper sin. We must treat every sin, even the “little” ones, as the deadly poison that it is. One of the best protections against temptation is a clear understanding of the destructiveness of sin. (Paul Chappell)

Make no mistake about it, no one ever sinned successfully. Don’t try!
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346