“Who was delivered for our offences…”– Romans 4:25

   Your initial response to that statement might be: “Offenses? What offenses? I’m a pretty good person who lives a pretty good life.” And you are probably right! You have not killed anybody ever, you have not stolen from anybody lately, and you have not lied to anybody… today.

   We are pretty good people. But that is just the problem. We are pretty good people living in a world that was created by a perfectly good God. God is completely good, and we are – at best – only pretty good people with lots of flaws and failures. And because God is good, he does not lower his standards in order to let sinners slide; God does not minimize lying or stealing or selfishness in order to make us feel better. Our sins, our failures offend the goodness of God.

   There is no way that pretty good people can be good enough for a perfectly good God. The Bible, then, is not primarily calling you to be a good person, but to trust in the grace of God to make you good enough. And so now the good news: God has made a way of salvation! And the grace of God is entirely wrapped up in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus was delivered for our offenses.

Jesus was betrayed into the hands of people who hated him, not by accident or merely by human cunning, but according to God’s eternal purpose to deliver Jesus for our offenses. Jesus died in order to take our offenses, and the punishment for them, on himself and pay completely for them on the cross.

   So whether you are a pretty good person, or a notoriously poor excuse for a human being – Jesus is your only hope for standing before the perfectly good God who created this world.( Baptist Bible Hour)

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

“I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world.”-  John 17:15
   
    It is a sweet and blessed event which will occur to all believers in God’s own time-the going home to be with Jesus. In a few more years the Lord’s soldiers, who are now fighting “the good fight of faith” will have done with conflict, and have entered into the joy of their Lord. But although Christ prays that His people may eventually be with Him where He is, He does not ask that they may be taken at once away from this world to heaven. He wishes them to stay here. Yet how frequently does the wearied pilgrim put up the prayer, “O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest;” but Christ does not pray like that, He leaves us in His Father’s hands, until, like shocks of corn fully ripe, we shall each be gathered into our Master’s garner. Jesus does not plead for our instant removal by death, for to abide in the flesh is needful for others if not profitable for ourselves. He asks that we may be kept from evil, but He never asks for us to be admitted to the inheritance in glory till we are of full age. Christians often want to die when they have any trouble. Ask them why, and they tell you, “Because we would be with the Lord.” We fear it is not so much because they are longing to be with the Lord, as because they desire to get rid of their troubles; else they would feel the same wish to die at other times when not under the pressure of trial. They want to go home, not so much for the Saviour’s company, as to be at rest. Now it is quite right to desire to depart if we can do it in the same spirit that Paul did, because to be with Christ is far better, but the wish to escape from trouble is a selfish one. Rather let your care and wish be to glorify God by your life here as long as He pleases, even though it be in the midst of toil, and conflict, and suffering, and leave Him to say when “it is enough.”–Morning and Evening

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

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”– Heb. 12:1

George Matheson, one of my favorite writers, was no stranger to suffering. Although blind and rejected by his fiancee who said, “I do not want to be the wife of a blind man” he continue to serve the Lord. Here is one of his quotes that has been a great blessing to me: “We commonly associate patience with lying down. We think of it as the angel that guards the couch of the invalid. Yet there is a patience that I believe to be harder—the patience that can run. To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength; but I know of something that implies a strength greater still: it is the power to work under stress; to have a great weight at your heart and still run; to have a deep anguish in your spirit and still perform the daily tasks. It is a Christlike thing! The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience, not in the sickbed but in the street.

Is it not human nature that if something takes us a long time to complete, we are inclined to become impatient. Or if a journey is long, we are generally inclined to grow weary and loiter by the way. But if the road is long and dusty, we are to be patient. If the trial is severe, we are to be patient, and not allow our souls to be agitated. Sometimes the blessing we expect may be delayed, but we are to be patient in waiting for it. Sometimes our persecutions may be fierce indeed, but we are to be patient whilst we endure them. This grace is like the rivet that binds all the machinery together.”

As we journey down the rough road of life, let us never forget this – “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” ( Heb. 10:36).
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”- 2 Cor. 4:17-18

Few people will call their present affliction light — and few are disposed to call it short. For while it lasts, it seems hard to bear — and a time of suffering generally appears long. Yet the apostle Paul writes thus about his affliction: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.” 

Paul’s afflictions were not, in themselves, light — few men have gone through more hardships and trials than he did. Nor were they, in themselves, short — for wherever he went he found them; they continued, more or less, to the end of his life.

It was only when he compared his present affliction with the glory that was so soon to follow — that it seemed to him light and short. Then he could say,”Our light affliction, which is but for a moment.”

We must always try to look at our afflictions in this way. If we look at them alone — they will be enough to overwhelm us! But if we think also, and even more, of the eternal rest and happiness and glory which lie ahead of us — then our view of our    present afflictions will be greatly changed. 

“True,” we shall feel, “true, my sorrows are many; my sickness is sore; my pain is great; long have I lain upon a bed of suffering. Yet before me lies a home of perfect rest, where pain and sickness and sorrow cannot come. My Savior has promised it to me and has gone before to prepare it for me. In a little while, I shall be there!”

With thoughts such as these the suffering Christian should comfort himself — and thus weigh present affliction against future glory. For what are all things here below, but short? Joys and sorrows, health and sickness, affliction and prosperity — all the things that pain and that please, “the things which are seen” — all these things are but for a time.

Whereas “the things which are not seen are eternal.” What we hope for, what Christ has purchased for us and gone before to prepare for us — that is forever! Our pains and sorrows will soon end — but our pleasures will never end! Our affliction is but for a little while — but our comforts, our Savior’s presence, our Heavenly home, will be ours always!( Francis Bourdillon, 1864).

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