MORNING MANNA                2-8-25

HOW TO WIN OVER WORRY

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God.”Philippians 4:6

 I’ve got an idea that the most commonly confessed sin is worry. Few people have the audacity to say that they never worry. But although we readily confess it, we seldom repent of it. Why ? Maybe it’s because we fail to realize what great harm it does. We seem to believe it is a harmless sin. Nothing could be farther from the truth. 

Someone defined worry as “a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.” James describes the danger like this–“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”(James 1:8). The worrier is like the mule that starved to death while standing between two stacks of hay, because he couldn’t make up his mind which one to eat out of. The fact of the matter is that worry affects us in every way: emotionally, physically, socially, and spiritually. Worry can be deadly. When the Bible says,”Be careful for nothing” we ought to take it as a serious warning. God is looking out for our welfare! Heed His warnings, obey His commands,and claim His promises. A child of God in the will of God has nothing to worry about. When trouble come, go to God in prayer. When your burden is heavy cast “all your care upon him” and leave it there.

Dear friend, that’s the only way any of us can make it! – HDS, 

David Stone 

Lakeway Baptist Church   

Humble, Tx

MORNING MANNA             2-7-25

LIKE GOLD

Job 23:10“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.”

It’s a well-known fact that many people have become successful by compensating for personality or physical flaws. Winston Churchill, for example, stuttered as a youth yet became a great orator. Glenn Cunningham was so badly burned as a boy it was thought he would never walk again. He became, however, one of the world’s great milers. George Bernard Shaw was so painfully shy that he found it difficult to talk with anyone. But Shaw forced himself to join organizations where he would have to speak before audiences. In each of these situations, it was the fiery trials that brought out the best in the person.

As Job looked at the tests that God allowed in his life, he did not despair. Instead, he saw them as the instruments that would be used to bring about good. He knew that as the heat of a fiery furnace was needed to remove the dross from precious metal, so it took the cleansing flames of affliction to remove thoroughly the impurities from his life. He was confident that he would come forth not as a burned-up cinder but as a nugget of purest gold.

God is not in the demolition business, but He does run a refinery. His purpose is not to destroy but to purify. The burning difficulties that test us are designed to remove the dregs that hinder us from serving Him with clean hands and a pure heart. He seeks not to ruin us but to increase our value. His desire is to separate from us anything that would detract from our worth and make us ever more useful in service to Him.

If you are in the fiery furnace of affliction, take heart. God’s hand is on the thermostat. He will allow the heat to do no more than remove the impurities. As you go in mixed with the dregs of this world, you will come forth pure and refined.——By Woodrow Kroll

David Stone  

Lakeway Baptist Church 

Humble,Tx

ALTOGETHER LOVELY

“…. yea, He is altogether lovely..” Song of Solomon 5:16

Lost men cannot see the stupendous beauty of Christ. All sparkling beauties are found in Him, but they lack eyes!

He is infinitely and superlatively lovely! All that we could ever say about Jesus falls infinitely short of His matchless worth. He is pure, unspotted beauty! There is an infinite resplendency, a sparkling luster to His beauty!

Jesus is most lovely in His sufferings, when He made an atonement for our sins. What, lovely in His sufferings? Lovely when He was buffeted, spit upon, and besmeared with blood?

Oh yes, He was most lovely upon the cross, when He showed most love to us.

He bled love at every vein!

Those drops were love drops!

The more bloody–the more lovely!

Oh how lovely ought a bleeding Savior be to our eyes…

The cross of Christ is the key that opens paradise to us!

How beautiful is Christ on the cross!

The ruddiness of His blood, took away the redness of our guilt!

Christ’s crucifixion, is our coronation!

He left His Father’s bosom, that hive of sweetness, to come and live in this poor world. Truly, He exchanged the palace for the dunghill.

“The unsearchable riches of Christ!” Not even the angels can dig to the bottom of this mine! They adore Christ, being ravished with His amazing beauties!

Jesus is the very extract and quintessence of beauty. He is a whole paradise of delights!– Thomas Watson

MORNING MANNA              2-5-25

BY GRACE

When we were dead in sins, [God] hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)– Ephesians 2:5

If you are saved, how were your saved? Why were your saved? Was it because you were more spiritually sensitive, morally disciplined, or personally worthy than your unsaved neighbor?

Paul reminds us here that it was God who gave life to (quickened) us, when we were still spiritually dead in our sins. It was not we who loved God, but God who first loved us. It was not we who reached out for God, but God who reached out for us. It was not we who took hold of God, but God who took hold of us.

But why did He do it? What was His motivation for saving us when we were still enemies of Him and of His Son? Paul also gives us that answer: by grace you are saved.

Not by works, not by wisdom, not by worth — by grace you are saved. The very use of the word “grace” tells us that the motivation for salvation was not in us, but in God Himself. Grace is “unmerited favor” (or, in our case, demerited favor).

Not only did we not deserve salvation, we did deserve hell because of our sins. But God dealt graciously with us, reached out to us, gave life to our dead souls, and saved us from the powerful prison of sin.

The question, then, for us is not “What can I do to deserve salvation?” but rather “What response does this free and gracious salvation deserve?”–A GOOD THING

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

MORNING MANNA              2-4-25

DAILY GRACE

“-as thy day, so shall thy strength be.–“ Deuteronomy 33:25 

The grace needed for a particular trial does not come until the trouble comes. When it does come it is always sufficent for the occasion. That’s why we shouldn’t live in dread of the days ahead. Do not torture yourself by supposing that some difficulty or even death itself might overwhelm you. There will be grace enough for the emergency to come–when it gets here and not before.Think about it like this– Since grace is promised, tomorrows trials are already provided for in the mind of God. You haven’t received the grace yet because the need has not come.

 In order to keep us humble and dependent upon Him, God doesn’t give us a storehouse of grace. Instead He dishes out what is needed when it is needed, not before. This way we are forced to live in the awareness of our weakness and dependence upon our Father in heaven for our daily bread.

 At this moment some are suffering and able to survive only by taking it one day at a time. And they feel they are at their limit and can’t take anymore. But then “more” comes! However, along with the additional trials comes additional grace. Suddenly you find strength that did not exist before. You discover a supply of grace that, in the plan of God, was there all the time, just waiting for your moment of need. Cheer up, whatever this day holds for you, God has already measured out the exact amount of grace you will need. He has just been waiting for this very moment! As someone said–“Has it ever occured to you that nothing ever occured to God?” God is never surprised. He knows what we need before we need it and already promised to provide it. Have you noticed–if you believe this, your day is getting brighter already! – HDS, 9-28-10 

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