“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”- 2 Timothy 4:2–5

It is tempting to look around at a society that is increasingly anti-Christian and think that we are going through something unprecedented. But as Paul’s final letter to Timothy makes clear, the problem of people rejecting the truth is not new. It may take different forms from one generation to the next, but the allure of listening to comfortable lies rather than painful truth is hard to resist. Indeed we need to be on guard in our own lives to reject false teaching that simply tells us what we want to hear.
Our mission is not to, by argument or logic, correct all those who believe what is wrong. Instead, we are simply to stick to proclaiming the truth and trust God to provide the harvest. “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Our responsibility is to be faithful to present the truth. There are times when there are great results and times when there are none. That does not reflect on us if we are remaining faithful in either circumstance.
The temptation is to judge ourselves by whether we are seeing great harvests. But while we should do everything we can to reach others, as President John Quincy Adams liked to say, “Duties are ours, results are God’s.” The seasons may come and go and the harvest will change with them, but He always honors those who remain faithful in His service. God is looking for those who are willing to remain faithful to the truth in every season of life. (Daily in the Word)

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

“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.”– Ecclesiastes 9:10–12

Edward Everett Hale, who served as Chaplain of the U.S. Senate in the early 1900s, wrote, “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, that I ought to do. And what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I shall do.” Each day, every one of us has opportunities to do things for God that will never come again in exactly the same way. We meet people who are lost, people who are discouraged, and people who are suffering. If we are not diligent in our efforts, the opportunities to help them will be lost forever.

The reality is that none of us knows how long we have to live. Moses wrote, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Proverbs 90:12). When we number our days as the Bible teaches, we come up with one—today is the only day that we know we have to serve God and serve others. That means we need to seize every opportunity to work for God, and do all that we can for Him while there is still time. Seizing the opportunities that come to us day after day is the only way to have a life of faithful service. (Daily in the Word)

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

Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.  Habakkuk 3:17-18
This is one of those verses that grabs your heart and won’t let go. I remember well the first time I heard a message from this text and the first message I preached from it. Over half a century later I still am blessed by this wonderful testimony of faith. The old devotional “Streams in the Desert” says it better than I. Here it is—

    Observe, I entreat you, how calamitous a circumstance is here supposed, and how heroic a faith is expressed. It is really as if he said, “Though I should be reduced to so great extremity as not to know where to find my necessary food, though I should look around about me on an empty house and a desolate field, and see the marks of the Divine scourge where I had once seen the fruits of God’s bounty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.”
    Methinks these words are worthy of being written as with a diamond on a rock forever. Oh, that by Divine grace they might be deeply engraven on each of our hearts! Concise as the form of speaking in the text is, it evidently implies or expresses the following particulars: That in the day of his distress he would fly to God; that he would maintain a holy composure of spirit under this dark dispensation, nay, that in the midst of all he would indulge in a sacred joy in God, and a cheerful expectation from Him. 
Heroic confidence! Illustrious faith! Unconquerable love!–Doddridge

   Last night I heard a robin singing in the rain,
    And the raindrop’s patter made a sweet refrain,
    Making all the sweeter the music of the strain.
    So, I thought, when trouble comes, as trouble will,
    Why should I stop singing? Just beyond the hill
    It may be that sunshine floods the green world still.
    He who faces the trouble with a heart of cheer
    Makes the burden lighter. If there falls a tear,
    Sweeter is the cadence in the song we hear.
    I have learned your lesson, bird with dappled wing,
    Listening to your music with its lilt of spring
    When the storm-cloud darkens, then’s the TIME to sing.
   –Eben E. Rexford

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

“They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.”– Isa 41:6
   It was Charles Kingsley who said, “We become like God–only as we become of use.” The saying is truer than at first we may think. Every glimpse we have of heaven’s life–is a glimpse of usefulness, helpfulness. In olden days, angels sometimes came down to earth, and they always came on some errand of service to men. Then, we are told in our New Testament, that the mission of the angels to earth is “to minister to those who shall be the heirs of salvation.” Thus these pure creatures of heaven live only to serve. God himself is revealed on every Scripture page, and always in the same character of helpfulness. Christ came as God incarnate; and his whole life is summed up in the words, “He went about doing good.” Thus the divine life finds its expression in serving, doing good. “God is love;” and love cannot but minister and bless, even to the point of utter self-sacrifice.- J. R. Miller
 “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”– Gal. 6:10

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

“And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”-– Jude 1:22-23
One of the complaints against the church has often been about the hellfire-and-brimstone preachers. People say they don’t like that kind of preaching.
   My question is where are they? When is the last time you heard a hellfire-and-brimstone preacher? When I watch preachers on television, I can’t remember the last time I saw that type of guy, much less a mention of Hell.
   We have to tell the whole truth. I know there is a discomfort concerning the topic of Hell, but the Bible deals with this subject. Therefore, we need to take a hard and careful look at it. A lot more people are going to Hell than are going to Heaven, because Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:” (Matthew 7:13).
Yes, the gospel is good news. But we can’t fully appreciate the good news until we first understand the bad news. The bad news is that we are separated from God by our sin. We are headed to Hell, and there is no way we can resolve our own problem. The good news is that God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, on a rescue operation to die on the cross in our place and atone for our sin. And if we will turn from our sin and believe in Him, we can be forgiven and know with certainty that we will go to Heaven when we die.
   We hold in our hands the key to the prison door that nonbelievers are in. We have the solution, and it’s the gospel. There needs to be an urgency on our part to reach people who are headed to Hell.– Greg Laurie

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