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

"I have all and abound: I am full."   - Philippians 4:18 [KJV]   Happy Paul! infinitely richer than the most opulent monarch under heaven. Ye poor, wretched, covetous, worldlings! whose gold is your god, and who are labouring to add heap to heap—how long? Till ye drop into eternity, die like fools, and forever lose the idol of your hearts? Behold here a man, who has more than ever you possessed. He has ALL: you only obtain a part of what you aim at; you are still in want of more. Rich, happy Paul possesses ALL. “And,” says Paul, “I abound.” Not in want and wish, but in full enjoyment. “I am full.” I can contain no more.    He had “the unsearchable riches of Christ” for his portion. His wealth consisted in his mind being contented with that, as his greatest treasure. O! thou poor, murmuring disciple of Christ, who art often fearing and distrusting, lest thou shouldst want the bread that perisheth for thyself and family; and thou, my soul! who hast ofte...

"So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall, not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that Thou wouldest keep me in secret, until Thy wrath be past, that Thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me! " - Job 14:12-13 [KJV]   My soul! thou hast been viewing and reviewing some of the blessed things, connected with the glorious doctrine of thy Redeemer's resurrection, for several nights and mornings past; but there is one more point of view in which that heavenly truth demands attention, and which thou hast not even glanced at. Sit down, and ponder over the joy, the gratulations, the unspeakable rapture which will result from the meeting of thyself! I mean thou and thy body meeting together after the long separation made by the grave, and all the humbling circumstances of this flesh of thine having seen corruption. Figure to thyself what an interview that will be of soul and...

"And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." -Ephesians 1:22, 23 [KJV]   In the mind of God, and as chosen in Christ, the Church is a perfect body. It is, therefore, the fulness of Christ. Just as our head and members, in their union with each other, form one perfect harmonious body, so it is with Christ and the Church. As the natural head would be incomplete without the body, as the body would be incomplete without the head, so it is with Christ mystical, and His body the Church.    Each lacks the other, and the union of both makes the whole complete. The Son of God, by becoming incarnate, needed a body of which He should be the Head. Without it, He would be as a bridegroom without the bride, a shepherd without the sheep, a foundation without the building, a vine without the branches. He did not need the Church as the Son of God, but He ne...

"Christ is to be answerable for all those that are given to Him, at the last day, and therefore we need not doubt but that He will certainly employ all the powers of His Godhead to secure and save all those that He must be accountable for."                                       --Thomas Brooks, puritan preacher     -------O-------          There is a book entitled in the Word of God,  “the Lamb’s book of life” (Revelation 21:27) .  Within this book are all the names of the elect of the Lord.  It is called  “the Lamb’s”  book with good reason.  We were chosen to salvation in Christ the Lamb; we were entrusted to Him who had to join Himself to our flesh in order to compensate divine justice for the sins we have committed against the Lord. ...

"My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen Thou me, according unto Thy word."   - Psalm 119:28 [KJV]   While the wicked are gay, alert, and merry, many of God’s beloved children go bowed down, from day to day, with heaviness of soul. When they compare themselves with the men of the world, under such seasons, they are tempted to write bitter things against themselves, and to pass a verdict in favour of others. Soul! in the heaviest season, and most dejected frame you ever experienced, say, Could you find it in your heart to wish to change lots with them? What! quit your faith in Jesus, and hope of eternal enjoyment of Him—for what? the momentary gratifications and short lived pleasures of time and sense.    Alas! my soul is in such heaviness, that I doubt whether I have either a spark of faith or a ray of hope in Christ. My soul melteth: it bears no image nor impression of any grace, or of the power of any truth. Faith fails: hope decays: my heart sinks. ...

"Thy dead men shall live; together with My dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." -Isaiah 26:19 [KJV]   Thy morning meditation was a blessed portion, to shew thee, my soul, how the justification of the believer is effected by the person of his glorious Head. When Jesus died on the cross, not as a private person, but as the public Head of His church, then He paid the full debt of sin: and when He arose from the dead, the full release was given to our whole nature in Him. Jesus received the discharge; the bond He had entered into for His people was cancelled, and His resurrection became the proof of theirs also. But as the justification of all the persons of His redeemed is in Him, and by Him, so another sweet confidence is in Him also: Jesus is not only the cause of their being justified, but of their being glorified also . In these precious words we have, firs...