FRIENDS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FAME

December 8, 2008 By Pastor David Stone

“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.”(Phil. 2:4)

There is a story told about Sam Rayburn who was Speaker for the House of Representatives longer than any other man. One of his friends lost a teenage daughter and early the next morning Rayburn knocked on his door. “I just came by to see what I could do to help.” The father replied that there was nothing to do. “Well,” Rayburn said, “have you had your coffee this morning?” The man replied that they had not taken time for breakfast. While Rayburn was working in the kitchen, the man came in and said, “Mr. Speaker, I thought you were supposed to be having breakfast at the White House this morning.” “Well, I was, but I called the President and told him I had a friend who was in trouble and I could not come.”

What a different world this would be if we would learn to become more and more unselfish.

Those who care do!

THE POWER OF THINE HAND

December 7, 2008 By Pastor David Stone

“Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.”( Proverbs 3:27)

Every student of the Bible understands that we have an obligation to others. Everyone knows that God expects us to give, and to do the best we can—in abundance when able. We just don’t do it! We usually try to get by giving or doing as little as we can. We totally ignore the principle of going the second mile (Matt.5:41), all the while bragging about being a “Bible believing church”. The truth is that we generally do just enough to maintain our “respectability” among others, seeming unconcerned about the sin we commit.

Here’s something you might want to think about. When we able to go the second mile and don’t we are just as guility as the person who refuses to go the first mile. Disobedience is sin—period. The man who doesn’t tithe at all is no more guilty than the person who is able to tithe and give an offering, but refuses to do the latter.Yet we criticize the one and commend the other–but God condemns both! We aren’t accountable for what we can’t do, but we are accountable for what we could do.

What is in your hand–under your control? What will you do with it? We are forced to make a choice. We cannot be neutral. We either obey or we disobey. The choice is ours.We know what it should be, but it remains to be seem what it will be.

Remember this–Being average puts you as close to the bottom as it does to the top. You are either the best of the worst or the worst of the best. Either way you are in bad company. God demands and deserves our best. And, oh yeah, He discerns whether or not we give our best.He is never deceived.

BLANK BUMPER STICKERS

December 6, 2008 By Pastor David Stone

Did you hear about the company that makes blank bumper stickers? They’re for people who don’t want to get involved!

Those things ought to sell like hot cakes. There’s just one problem–the folks in that crowd don’t want to admit it. They’re not blind. They can see the needs just like everyone else, but they don’t want to advertise the fact that they don’t care. They expect somebody else to do it.Sadly, a lot of church members fit in this catagory.

They arrive at church and expect the doors to be open, but they don’t want to get there early to do it. They walk into the building and expect the lights to be on and the temperture to be just right, but they aren’t willing to give to help pay the utility bill. They expect the church to supply nursery workers and teachers, but they refuse to volunteer. They complain about the choir not havivg enough sopranos or bass singers, but they refuse to join the choir. Well, as you know, the list could go on and on, but you get the point. Most people are critics rather than contributors. They are getters rather givers. Their favorite excuse for dropping out of church is “I just wasn’t getting anything out of it.” Well, duh! They didn’t put anything into it—that’s the problem. Those who get the most out of it are those who put the most into it. They get the most because they aren’t trying to “get” anything. Their interest is in giving, not getting. May their tribe increase!

If you’re one of those who don’t want to get involved I’ve got just four words for you–” GET A BUMPER STICKER!”

CAN THINE HEART ENDURE ?

December 5, 2008 By Pastor David Stone

“We know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Rom. 8:26).

Much that perplexes us in our Christian experience is but the answer to our prayers. We pray for patience, and our Father sends those who tax us to the utmost; for “tribulation worketh patience.”

We pray for submission, and God sends sufferings; for “we learn obedience by the things we suffer.”

We pray for unselfishness, and God gives us opportunities to sacrifice ourselves by thinking on the things of others, and by laying down our lives for the brethren.

We pray for strength and humility, and some messenger of Satan torments us until we lie in the dust crying for its removal.

We pray, “Lord, increase our faith,” and money takes wings; or the children are alarmingly ill; or a servant comes who is careless, extravagant, untidy or slow, or some hitherto unknown trial calls for an increase of faith along a line where we have not needed to exercise much faith before.

We pray for the Lamb-life, and are given a portion of lowly service, or we are injured and must seek no redress; for “he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and…opened not his mouth.”

We pray for gentleness, and there comes a perfect storm of temptation to harshness and irritability. We pray for quietness, and every nerve is strung to the utmost tension, so that looking to Him we may learn that when He giveth quietness, no one can make trouble.

We pray for love, and God sends peculiar suffering and puts us with apparently unlovely people, and lets them say things which rasp the nerves and lacerate the heart; for love suffereth long and is kind, love is not impolite, love is not provoked. LOVE BEARETH ALL THINGS, believeth, hopeth and endureth, love never faileth. We pray for likeness to Jesus, and the answer is, “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?” “Are ye able?”

The way to peace and victory is to accept every circumstance, every trial, straight from the hand of a loving Father; and to live up in the heavenly places, above the clouds, in the very presence of the Throne, and to look down from the Glory upon our environment as lovingly and divinely appointed. –Selected(from Streams in the Desert)

OUR HOLIEST EXAMPLE

December 4, 2008 By Pastor David Stone

“I have set the LORD always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved” (Psalm 16:8).

This is the way to live. With God always before us, we shall have the noblest companionship, the holiest example, the sweetest consolation, and the mightiest influence. This must be a resolute act of the mind. “I have set,” and it must be maintained as a set and settled thing. Always to have an eye to the LORD’s eye and an ear for the LORD’s voice–this is the right state for the godly man. His God is near him, filling the horizon of his vision, leading the way of his life, and furnishing the theme of his meditation. What vanities we should avoid, what sins we should overcome, what virtues we should exhibit, what joys we should experience if we did indeed set the LORD always before us! Why not? This is the way to be safe. The LORD being ever in our minds, we come to feel safety and certainty because of His being so near. He is at our right hand to guide and aid us; and hence we are not moved by fear, nor force, nor fraud, nor fickleness. When God stands at a man’s right hand, that man is himself sure to stand.

(from Faith’s Checkbook)

FRIENDS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FAME

THE POWER OF THINE HAND

BLANK BUMPER STICKERS

CAN THINE HEART ENDURE ?

OUR HOLIEST EXAMPLE

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