He Freely Gives

“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32) 

If this is not a promise in form, it is in fact. Indeed, it is more than one promise, it is a conglomerate of promises. It is a mass of rubies, and emeralds, and diamonds, with a nugget of gold for their setting. It is a question which can never be answered so as to cause us any anxiety of heart. What can the Lord deny us after giving us Jesus? If we need all things in heaven and earth, He will grant them to us: for if there had been a limit anywhere, He would have kept back His own Son.

What do I want today? I have only to ask for it. I may seek earnestly, but not as if I had to use pressure and extort an unwilling gift from the Lord’s hand; for He will give freely. Of His own He gave us His own Son. Certainly no one would have proposed such a gift to Him. No one would have ventured to ask for it. It would have been too presumptuous. He freely gave His Only-begotten, and, O my soul, canst thou not trust thy heavenly Father to give thee anything, to give thee everything? Thy poor prayer would have no force with Omnipotence if force were needed; but His love, like a spring, rises of itself and overflows for the supply of all thy needs. ( Faith’s Checkbook)

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

LIFE AND DEATH

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”— Phi 1:21.

            

How close life and death are! In this verse there is only a comma between them, and every one of us stands where that comma stands, between life and death. Life is the vestibule of death, and death is close on the heels of life. The systole and diastole;   the throb and beat of the pulse; the swing of the pendulum this way or that!

      

St. Paul is enamoured with the joys of life. He was a toiler and a traveller, and lived amid the busy throng that jostled him in the streets. The philosopher, as he passed, carrying his scrolls of learning, said: “To me to live is knowledge”; the soldier,       passing, looked with contempt on the man of letters, and said: “To me to live is fame”; the merchant in passing, said, with pride: “To me to live is riches”; the toiling masses passed by, saying: “To us to live is toil and trouble.” Amid all these, the Apostle strikes in with no bated breath, saying joyously: “To me to live is neither wealth, nor labour, nor fame, nor glory, but Christ.” If you had asked him just what he meant, he would probably have replied, as Tyndale brings out in his translation, that “‘Christ was the origin of his life.”

      

If we would become partakers of the Divine Nature, we also must have such a definite experience. We can trace our natural life back to our parents, and our       spiritual life must begin in the hour when, in early childhood, or later, we are made partakers of the Nature of the Risen Saviour (John 1:12-13; 2Pe 1:4).

      

Christ must be the model of our life. Every man works to a model. Consciously or not, we are always imitating somebody, and every true follower of Christ seeks to approximate to the measuring of the stature of our Lord–“Beholding, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory.”

      

Christ must be the aim of life. That His will may be done on earth as in heaven; that others may know and love and serve Him as we do; that He may be the crowned King of men–that must be our purpose and aim. External things have no power over the one who can say: “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”; then we can triumph   over Death itself, and say: “To die is gain.”–F. B. Meyer

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

DEPENDABILITY

“And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”–Genesis 18:17–19

I read about a man who was preparing to leave for an important business trip when he realized that one of his suits was badly in need of cleaning. Remembering that there was a cleaners with a huge “One Hour Dry Cleaning” sign, he drove across town to drop off his suit. As he filled out his ticket, he told the clerk, “I’ll come back in an hour on my way to the airport to pick this up.” “Oh no,” she said, “It won’t be ready until next Thursday.” Somewhat taken back he pointed out the sign hanging over the door. “That’s just the name of the business,” she responded. “We don’t do dry cleaning in an hour!”

Though it is true that our character is even more important than our reputation, it is still important that we maintain our testimony. It should never be truly said of a child of God that he or she cannot be counted on to do what is right. Others should learn from their interactions with us that we live up to our “advertising” in terms of our lives matching what we say we believe. 

The best way to develop a reputation for dependability is to simply do what we say we will do—over and over and over again. Each of us should desire to have the reputation of Abraham, as God described him as a person who could be trusted to do what was right. Each day you either enhance or detract from your reputation as someone who can be relied on. (Daily in the Word)

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

The Purpose Of Life
“Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” — John 18:37     

This was our Lord’s answer to Pilate’s inquiry, and to a certain extent each of us may appropriate His words. Wordsworth’s immortal lines suggest that we stood before God to receive our commission, ere we became clothed with this body of humiliation. Whether or not the poet is right in his surmise, that “not in utter nakedness or forgetfulness do we come from God, who is our Home,” we need not argue. It is enough that God, who hates nothing that He has made, sent us forth to realise an ideal, to fulfil a purpose, to bear witness to some phase of Truth! Shall we not ask ourselves, as in His Presence, whether we are fulfilling the Divine purpose of what the Apostle calls “our high calling”? (Phi 3:14).

God created each soul with a purpose. The potter takes in hand a lump of clay with a distinct design. He means, when he places it on the horizontal wheel, to make of it a vessel to adorn a temple or palace, or he has in mind to serve some household use. The revolving wheel on the one hand, and his skilful manipulation on the other, will evolve and complete his purpose. “Cannot I do with you, as this potter? saith the Lord.”

“Thou hast made me and fashioned me. Thou didst choose the time and circumstances of my birth, my parentage and heredity, my mental equipment and my physical frame. From the first Thou didst know the constitution of my body, which Thou didst fashion in secret, and curiously work in the lowest places of the earth.”

To our humble challenge: “Why hast Thou made me thus?” God does not always give an audible reply. His answer is often voiceless, it steals in upon the soul insensibly, and we know that we are fulfilling His purpose. If you are engaged in some unwelcome task, which evidently is your duty; if you are shut up as companion with some uncongenial charge; if you are called to minister to people who seem unresponsive or unsympathising, ask that the Saviour and you may be yoked together, that His Will may be done through you, that His love and kindness may bear and forbear in you, and that you may witness to the truth, as it is in Jesus. O God, some of us shrink from our life-work, from those with whom we have to associate, from unwelcome toil and irksome tasks. Enable us to see Thy plan, and to trust Thee who art working out Thy plan in our lives. May the love of Christ constrain us no longer to live unto ourselves, but to Him. Amen.– F. B. Meyer

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

TRUE VALUE

” But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”–1 Corinthians 2:9

An article in Senior Living relates the following story: When the Western Union company asked the great inventor Thomas Edison to “name his price” for the ticker he had invented, Edison asked for a few days to think it over. His wife suggested he ask for $20,000, but Edison thought that was too much.

So when the time came for the meeting, the Western Union official asked Edison for his price. Edison wanted to say $20,000, but couldn’t get the words out of his mouth. So the official broke the silence. “Well, how about $100,000?”

It’s sometimes easy to undervalue things that haven’t come to full fruition yet. Edison hadn’t really seen the full potential of his world-changing invention, so he wasn’t aware of its incredible value. The same is often true of salvation. You see, no living person has seen what God has prepared for those who love Him, but its true value is beyond what anyone could imagine.

As a believer, what you have in Jesus Christ is the most valuable thing in the world. Yet there are still those who take it for granted, using it as license to live as they please. But a Christian who knows its value will live every day in thankfulness to the glory of God.

Live today in light of your salvation, giving thanks to God and doing everything to bring honor to Him! Thank God for His saving work in you and pray your life would bring glory to Him!

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