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In God is my Salvation and my Glory

"Lest Israel vaunt themselves against Me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me."   -Judges 7:2 [KJV] Thus the Lord reasoned with Gideon. He knows what is in man. He sees the pride of the human heart: how prone we all are to boast in an arm of flesh. The Lord is jealous of His own glory. Gideon’s army of two and thirty thousand, is brought down to three hundred. By this handful of men, and no more, did Gideon gain the victory of the Midianites. The Lord’s wisdom in this was, “Lest Israel should vaunt themselves, and say, Mine own hand hath saved me.” But I have not transcribed the text right. There are two little words of great import, which I have omitted.    Mind then, O Christian—against me. Now remember, whenever thou dost boast of thy power, thy free-will, thy human goodness, thy works, ditties, conditions, and performances in order to be saved, thou art then, as it were, two and thirty thousand strong. “Thou vauntest thyself against the Lord.” Thou art glorying in t...
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God's Visitations Unto His People

"O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?" - Jeremiah 14:8 [KJV] My soul, follow up these holy pleadings with thy Lord. Jesus loves boldness, and not bondage frames. Remember, when thou goest to Him, thou goest to a tried friend, a long-proved, a faithful friend, and one that loveth at all times; and He that was and is the hope of Israel, hath ever been, and will be thy hope, thy Saviour, the Rock of Ages; yea, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Is then thy Jesus as a stranger to thee? Are His visits short, and but as the wayfaring man that is hastening on his journey, who, though he stops at the inn for the night, stops only to refresh himself, and takes no account of what passeth in the house?   Pause, my soul, it is time to enquire. I hope no shyness has crept in between thy Lord and thee! When did He last ...
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God's Grace ~ Infinite Value

"Wherein shall it be known that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight?" -Exodus 33:16 [KJV] Grace is always "found." It is not earned, nor merited, nor worked into; but it is found; and if a man never "found" it, he never had it. It is stumbled upon, so to speak, as the Lord sets forth in the parable of the man who found the treasure hid in a field (Matthew 13:44) . The man was not thinking about the treasure. He was, we may suppose, ploughing in the field. He had no idea that there was gold beneath the clods. But he finds it all on a sudden, in the most unexpected and unlooked-for manner, and for joy thereof "goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."     So it is with the way in which grace is found. It comes so suddenly, so unexpectedly, and so sweetly into a man's soul, that when it comes he is like a man who has found something which he had no conception of till he found it. He had no idea what it was, nor h...
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Set Loose All Creature Enjoyments

"And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive ."   -Genesis 46:30 [KJV] Strange request! What, just come to the sight and embrace of thy long lost son, and yet want to leave him at the very first interview? One should have thought the language of Jacob would have been, Happy man! I not only see my beloved son, but also see him governor over all the land. Well, I hope I shall live long to enjoy his riches and grandeur. But, no. The good man had lived long enough to make an estimate of the uncertainties of life: to know the evil of days, the vicissitudes of time, and how soon the day of brilliant joy might be changed into the night of gloom and sadness. The sight of his son was the summit of his wishes: that granted, he sought no more. He wished to be at home with his Lord.    Happy Christian! thus to set loose to all creature enjoyments, even when there is the highest enjoyment of them, than to have one’s mind go out...
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A Prayer-Hearing & A Prayer-Answering GOD!

"And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled." -Acts 4:31 [KJV] Think, my soul, what a blessed testimony this must have been, in confirmation to the disciples, that their God was a prayer-hearing, and a prayer-answering God! And what a full reply to all they had been praying for!' The enemies of God, and of His Christ, had threatened the poor disciples what they would do to them, if they persisted in preaching Jesus to the people. The purport, therefore, of the apostles prayer was, not that the Lord would stop their malice, and silence all their opposition: this they sought not to avoid. But the single prayer was, that their souls might be animated to go on, let the malice of their foes manifest itself as it might. In answer, "the place is shaken." As if the Lord had said, "He that shakes the place, can make your enemies hearts tremble." And so it proved.    Now, my soul, take thine improvement from it. Jesus sees all, k...
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These Glorious Realities...

"Peace, peace to him that is far off." -Isaiah 57:19 [KJV] Far off! What means that? It means that the soul passing through that experience is separated, in its feelings, and at an infinite distance from God. Now this inward sense of being "far off" is one of the most painful feelings that a quickened soul can experience. The ungodly, who are really afar off, know nothing experimentally of distance from God, for they have never been brought spiritually near. They have felt no "cords of love, no bands of a man" drawing them with sweet attraction to the throne of the most High; they have never sighed after the sweet manifestations of God's mercy and love; but they live gladly, and wallow willfully in those things which separate the soul from its Maker.    But those who are "afar off" in their feelings, are such as have seen something of the beauty of the Lord, and felt the evil of sin, who spiritually know Jehovah's purity and the creat...
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LOOKING TO CHRIST

"First, souls look to Christ, by faith, for pardon through His blood; and then they mourn for sins pardoned: and never do they mourn better and more kindly, or are more ashamed and confounded because of their sins, than when they are most satisfied that God is pacified towards them for all that they have done." -preacher John Gill
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