"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

"Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." -G ENESIS 49:22-24 [KJV]   One would have thought that Joseph being a fruitful bough could have looked with complacency, almost with holy scorn, upon these archers who shot at him, but it was not so; "they sorely grieved him." To be sold by his own brethren into Egypt; the dreams and visions God had given him to be derided; to be cast into prison as an ungodly man through the very person who was tempting him to ungodliness, and there to be neglected and forsaken; how these archers had shot their arrows against his bosom, and sorely grieved him! It was because he had the fear of God, because his feelings were tender, that the arrows found a place. Had he had a bosom of ste

"For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power" -C OLOSSIANS 2:9-10 [KJV] All that is necessary to secure and to complete our eternal salvation is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ [PHILIPPIANS 3:7-9; 4:19 ] . There is a completion or a complete filling up in Him, so as to leave nothing lacking in the sinner. In the Lord Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of God [JOHN 1:16 ] . He is perfect and the believer stands perfected in Him [I CORINTHIANS 1:30; C OLOSSIANS 1:22 ] . All that is lacking in us by our ruin and sin in Adam is abundantly, freely and eternally supplied to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, " where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" [ROMANS 5:19-20 ] . Christ's perfect obedience is our righteousness [PHILIPPIANS 2:7-8 ] . His sacrifice for sin is our atonement [ H EBREWS 2:17 ] . His Word is our instruction [II TIMOTHY 3:16

It is of the utmost importance that we learn Christ, not the doctrine of our denomination, not how to live a better life, but to learn Christ, for He is salvation. The only way we will learn our lost, dead condition is by learning Christ. Then and only then will we come to Christ for salvation. •    When we learn Christ our Righteousness, then we will learn our unrighteousness and run to Christ "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" [II CORINTHIANS 5:21 ] . •    When we learn Christ the Just, then we will learn that we are unjust and run to Christ, who died "the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God" [I PETER 3:18 ] . •    When we learn Christ the Way, then we will learn that we are lost and come to Christ the only way of salvation [JOHN 14:6] . •    When we learn Christ the Life, then we will learn that we are dead and come to Christ that we might have life in Him [JOHN 10:9-10 ] . •    When we learn Christ the Truth