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

Mothers, invested as you are with such an influence [to teach your children the commandments of the Lord], often dwell upon your responsibility.  With such a power conferred upon you by God, you are responsible to  your children themselves. ... You are responsible to your husbands.  They entrust the education of their children to you.  ... You are responsible to the church of God, for family education is, or ought to be, in the families of the godly, the chief means of conversion. It is a fatal error for Christian parents to look to the ministers of religion for the conversion of their children.  And, alas! It is the error of the day.  The pulpit is  looked to for those benefits, which should flow from the parent’s chair ... -John Angell James (1785-1859 A.D.), excerpt from  ‘For Mothers, Experienced and New’

Abounding Grace:  Part II by D G Miles McKee The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23) . Just as there’s nothing we can do to earn the gift, there’s nothing we can do to repay it. A gift is a gift is a gift! There’s a designated word for trying to pay back God for His gift; it’s called legalism .   Where did we get this faulty idea that we must repay God?  Perhaps, it sometimes comes from some faulty choruses and hymns that we sing.  Now, don’t misunderstand me, I love many of the old hymns. But when we talk about the “great old hymns” some of their verses were not so great.   Consider, for example, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”    I love that hymn, but I stopped singing it for two reasons. First of all, it talks about ‘raising our Ebenezer’….I got tired of having to explain what Ebenezer meant.   The second and more serious reason is that...

"My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad." - Psalm 34:2 [KJV] There was a poor, vain-glorious boaster, who had arrived to the summit of his happiness, and attained the zenith of his glory. The sun of prosperity shone with great splendour upon him. He bid adieu to all care. Down he sat to solace himself. “Soul!” said he, “thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease: eat, drink, and be merry.”  But, awful moment! solemn speech! God said unto him, “Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Luke 12:20.) O how many such fools are there, who think the soul can be made happy, in outward ease, eating and drinking, and carnal enjoyments. Alas! one moment dashes the honey of their comforts, into the gall of disappointment.  Not so, that soul who boasts in the LORD. This was not a transient fit of David’s, caused by a warm frame of the passions. For, says he, “I will bless the LORD at all tim...

"...but Him they saw not."   -Luke 24:24 [KJV] Mark, my soul, what is here said. Though Jesus sought out His disciples in the morning of His resurrection, and was found of them that sought Him not; yet many saw Him not, while He was thus gracious to many that looked not for Him. So is it now. Many, like those women, have seen the sepulchre, as it were, of Jesus, heard His word; nay, many saw His body when on earth, yet saw not God in Christ in Him. "The grace of God , " saith the apostle, "hath appeared unto all men ; " that is, the gospel grace is preached in common before believers and unbelievers; but believers only see Jesus as the wisdom and the power of God for salvation ; of others it may be said, as here, "but Him they see not."   Oh precious Jesus, give me to see Thee as the Sent and Sealed of the Father, that my soul may have such a saving sight and knowledge of Thee as the apostle had, which flesh and blood cannot reveal...

"Until the redemption of the purchased possession." -Ephesians 1:14 [KJV] The Church has been redeemed by price, but is not as yet fully redeemed by power. Christ has bought with His precious blood both the souls and bodies of His people, but He has not yet redeemed them openly. This redemption is still future, and will not be accomplished till the glorious resurrection morn, when the bodies of the dead saints will be raised, and the bodies of the living saints changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.  This, therefore, is "the redemption of the purchased possession ; " and this being future we have to wait for it, as the apostle speaks, "But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it " (Romans 8:25) . Our body is not yet redeemed from its native corruption. But, in the resurrection morn, when the dead will be raised incorruptible, then the redemption of the body will be complete. Then the...