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

"My soul fainteth for Thy salvation: but I hope in Thy word."   - Psalm 119:81 [KJV]   David’s words furnish us with these observations:    (1st.) That it is a sure evidence, that that sinner is savingly convinced of sin by the Spirit of God, when the salvation of Jesus is the desire of his heart.    (2d.) That the soul, though destitute of the joy of faith, in the assurance of interest in Christ’s salvation, yet may have the grace of hope in lively exercise .    (3d.) That in fainting frames of soul, the word of the Lord is the sure support of hope. Study these points: settle them in your hearts. The Lord give comfort from them! When a person faints, the blood returns to the heart: it ceaseth to flow through the veins. Hence, the spirits sink; nature fails; life and strength depart; the eyes see not; the hands cannot hold; the feet cannot walk. Have you not experienced it thus with your souls? Have you not found things at a very low ebb with you,...

"By faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones." -Hebrews 11:22 [KJV] See, my soul, the triumphs of faith in this lively instance of the patriarch Joseph! How many have I known, who, though they have given up their souls, with full assurance of faith, into the hands of Jesus, conscious of an interest in Him, and of redemption in His blood; have, nevertheless, felt fears and alarms for the moment in which the soul separates from the body, and have wanted faith "concerning their bones!" Look at the patriarch when dying, and learn from him whence to derive strength and comfort for every emergency, and for every concern. "By faith : " is the one universal charm.  Jesus is in every thing, and for every thing the believer can possibly need or require, all the way home; in death, as in life; concerning the bones, or concerning the soul. In Him the soul goes forth boldly from t...

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones ." -Isaiah 57:15 [KJV] O what a mystery that God should have two dwelling-places! The "heaven of heavens" that "cannot contain Him," and the humble, broken, and contrite heart! But in order that the Lord of heaven might have a place in which He could live and lodge, God gives to His people gifts and graces; for He cannot come and dwell in the carnal mind, in our rebellious nature, in a heart full of enmity and wickedness; He therefore makes a lodging-place for Himself, a pavilion in which the King of glory dwells, the curtains of which are like the curtains of Solomon. His abode is that holy, divine nature which is communicated at regeneration— "the new man, which after God is created in righteous...

Head of Thy church and Lord of all, Hear from Thy throne our earnest call; We come Thy promised grace to seek; We come, O Lord, to hear Thee speak. Without Thy presence, King of saints, Our purpose fails, our spirits faint; Thou must our wavering faith renew, Ere we can yield Thee worship true.   “Lo, I am with you” – that sweet word, Lord Jesus, grant it to be heard; Give exercise to faith and love, And send Thy blessings from above. Lord, send a message from Thy word, That will great joy and peace afford; May Thy blest Spirit now impart Thy grace and love in every heart! -old Gospel hymn, "Doxology"   -------0-------   When an arrow of conviction is at any time shot by the hand of God into thy conscience, by which thy peace and quiet is disturbed, whither dost thou run for ease and relief? The man that is "married to the law," runs to the law for relief and ease. The law is the thing that heals him; his prayers, his tears, his reformation, is that which stops the...

     A naked sinner can be clothed, but a sinner covered with his own righteousness must be stripped. This is always true. We must be stripped of all that has to do with self, or we cannot be clothed with that which pertains to God. We are called to live by faith; we can see nothing with the eye of sense. The Lord Jesus has gone up on high, and we are told to wait patiently for His appearing. God's Word carried home to the heart in the power of the Holy Spirit is the basis of confidence in all things: temporal and spiritual, present and future. He tells us of Christ's completed sacrifice. We by grace believe and commit our souls to the efficacy thereof, and we know we shall never be disappointed.    -preacher Scott Richardson

"Those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified." -Romans 8:30 [KJV]        The justified sinner stands the closest to God of any created being in the universe. Nearer to the throne of the Eternal, he cannot stand. What marvelous love! Who will dare assert that salvation is not from first to last of free, sovereign grace? Let your eye pierce the veil which falls between earth and heaven. Behold that shining, worshiping being, standing so near to the throne of glory, bathed in the overpowering effulgence of its rays! Who is he? He was once a sinner upon earth, the vilest of his race, the dishonored of his generation, forsaken by man, and abhorred of God.  But Jesus met him, and divine love drew him, and sovereign grace rescued, pardoned, and saved him! And now washed from all his guilt by the blood, freed from all condemnation by the righteousness of Christ he stands before the throne "blame...