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

When Jesus died on Calv’ry, salvation’s work was done, Redemption was accomplished by God’s eternal Son;  Christ bore our sins and sorrows, He made them all His own,  And died to honor justice, our sin-debt to atone.  O what a wondrous Savior, O what a matchless Friend, What love and great compassion which none can comprehend;  The Lord came down from glory, His very life He gave,  He died by God’s appointment our guilty souls to save. With deepest gratitude Lord, we praise Thy gracious Name, And thank Thee for Christ Jesus Who took our sin and blame; O may we fully trust Him, may He within us dwell, Who died to seal our pardon and save our souls from hell. -old Gospel hymn, "The Church’s One Foundation"   Words by Jim Byrd Too Good to be True?   When God brings one of His chosen people to see the true nature, the depth and magnitude of His free and sovereign grace in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ the Lord, it is so amazing, so miraculo...

"...that in all things He might have the pre-eminence." -Colossians 1:18 [KJV] We cannot be happy, till this truth is brought into the experience of our hearts. The regenerate soul is ever at war with the flesh, for it opposes the pre-eminence of Christ. And is also at war against the proud notions of profane, as well as self-righteous men, who reject Christ our precious Head, from having the pre-eminence in the salvation of the body. They put Him in subordination in many things, instead of giving Him the pre-eminence in all things.  When our Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work , ” (John 5:17,) some self-sufficient sinners become bold intruders, and add, “Lo we work also, and our works must have some part in our salvation.” Well, it will be so, till the law of works, which has the pre-eminence in their hearts, kills their legal hopes and self-righteous confidence. Soul, can you say with St. Paul, “I, through the law, am dead to the law?” (Galat...

"The stranger did not lodge in the street; but I opened my doors to the traveller."   -Job 31:32 [KJV] Though Job was thus hospitable, yet we know that angels would have lodged in the street, if Lot had not taken them in. Nay, the Lord of angels, when He came a stranger upon earth, had not where to lay His head. He came indeed "unto His own, but His own received Him not." My soul, pause! Hast thou done better by thy Lord? Nay, thou hast not.  And though thou knowest the precept the apostle had it in commission to tell the church, "not to be forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby," as in the instance of the patriarch, and others, "some have entertained angels unawares;" yet, my soul, how long did the Lord of life and glory stand without, knocking at the door of thine heart, by the ministry of His word and ordinances, saying—Open to Me; yea, and would have stood to this hour, had He not, by His own sovereign grace, put in His h...

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together." -Ephesians 2:4-6 [KJV] Eighteen hundred years have rolled away since the body of Christ was quickened in the sepulchre; but the virtual effect of that quickening reached all the election of grace, and will stretch down to the remotest period of time. Now, by virtue of this quickening, when the Holy Spirit comes forward for the execution of His purpose, life enters into the soul. "You hath He quickened who were dead."   With quickening comes living sensations, such as conviction of sin, guilt of conscience, the fear of God, the heart broken, the spirit of prayer, repentance unto life; in a word, all the first work of grace in the soul. As in the body of Christ, when quickened by the Holy Ghost, there were vital movements before that body left the sepulc...