“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.”– Job 23:8–11
Very few people have suffered the number and intensity of the trials that Job faced. His story is so familiar that even the secular world uses it as a reference guide for struggles. Yet for all its familiarity, too many times the point of the story gets lost. All of us endure hardship and affliction from time to time. Thankfully most of these trials are not on such a life-altering scale, but that does not mean that they are not painful and difficult to endure. The underlying truth we must remember is the one that Job kept coming back to: God is always faithful, and we can trust His purposes even when we cannot see what He is doing.
Alan Redpath wrote, “There is nothing—no circumstance, no trouble, no testing—that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret—for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is! That is the rest of victory!” Victory is not found in the absence of trials, but in trusting God’s purposes through them. (Daily in the Word)

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

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.“- 1 Cor. 10:31

Were you made only to be a machine for digging holes, laying bricks, or cutting out pieces of wood? Were you  created only to stand at a counter and measure or weigh out goods? Do you think your God made you for that and that only? 

       

Is this the chief end of man — to earn so many dollars a week, and try to make ends meet? Is that all immortal men were made for? 

              

As a man with a soul, capable of thought and judgment — and not a mere animal like a dog, nor a machine like a steam engine; can you stand up and look at yourself, and say, “I believe I am perfectly fulfilling my destiny”? 

       

God has made man that he may glorify him — and whatever else man accomplishes, if he attains not to this end, his life is a disastrous failure!

       

Others are lovers of pleasure. They are merry as the birds, their life is as the flight of a butterfly, which lightly floats from flower to flower, according to its own sweet      will.    

       

It cannot be that an immortal spirit was made for frivolities — spending all its time on the playthings of the world. So great a thing as an immortal soul could not have been made by God — with no higher object than to spend itself upon trifles as light as air.       

Oh, pause a while, you careless, godless one! There is something more than the fool’s laugh. All things are not a comedy. Death and Heaven and Hell are serious — and should not life be? 

       

The charms of music, the merriment of the mirthful assembly, the beauties of art, and the delights of  banqueting — there must be something more for you than these. Something more must be required of you than that you should waste your precious time from morn to night upon nothing but to please yourself!– Charles Spurgeon

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

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.“- 2 Peter 3:18

Elisabeth Elliot was a woman who knew about faith, sacrifice, loss, and love. If you want to become helpful and happy you need to consider what she said in the article below:

Love is the way to maturity. Selfishness stunts growth and keeps us in a spiritual playpen. The world is full of emotional babies, crawling over each other, screaming, “Mine! This I want, and this I shall have, and never mind what it does to anybody else!” What a relief, what peace, when one who has reached spiritual adulthood, who by love has grown out of himself, comes along. He freely gives up his own aims and ambitions, his safety and his cherished plans, his possessions, his feelings, anything at all that will help and says my life for yours. Such a one comes as a rescuer.

To give myself up is the last thing I think of doing. It looks like weakness. In God’s eyes, though, it is power.

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

” But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,” Luke 10:33 
 J. R. Miller, one of my favorite writers, told about this unusual prayer and the seriousness of it: “O Lord, advertise your love through us!” was the prayer of an earnest Christian. A young Christian, when asked if she loved Jesus, was moved to tears, saying in her heart, “What a dim light mine must be, if others are not sure that I love Jesus!” A Christian writer has recently said, that the deadliest heresy is to be unloving.
 God advertised his love through the good Samaritan. Others needed not to ask him if he loved God. He was not guilty of the deadly heresy of being unloving. He had true compassion. He was not content merely to say a few pitying words. His sympathy took the practical form of doing something. He bound up the man’s wounds—that was help of the best kind. He stopped the bleeding away of the sufferer’s life. He rested not until he had him safe in a warm shelter.
 He did not even content himself with getting the man into an inn, then throwing off further responsibility. He might have said, “I have done my share; let some other one look after him now.” But he was in no hurry to get the case off his hands. He took care of the man for a time, and then provided for the continuation of the care as long as it would be needed. The good Samaritan is Christ’s own picture of what Christian love should be in everyone of his disciples.

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