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

When our Lord hung in agonies and blood on the cursed tree, He cried with a loud voice, " IT IS FINISHED. " One would think that such a statement made by the very Son of God would carry a reasonable weight. Yet, there are those who proclaim that the work is not truly finished unless they give their nod of faith which miraculously makes the work really effectual. Setting aside that such thinking is utterly foolish, consider, for a moment, the arrogant presumption of such an incredible notion. Apply this convoluted musing to any other finished work. Go to a contractor after he has finished a building and is getting ready to turn the key stand before him, and in your most audacious voice, say "Wait a minute, it is not finished unless I believe it is finished!" Go to the composer who has spent his life in pursuit of the classic score. After he has signed his masterpiece and the conductor is about to wave his baton stand up in the audience and cry in your mos...

Christ spoke the parable in Luke 18 to the Pharisees who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others" (v. 9). What we say about others and how we treat them often reveals more about us than it does them. Sad as it is, all people, even believers, are by nature like these Pharisees. Self-righteousness plagues us all our days. Often we manifest this self-righteous spirit in our attitude toward others. Christ said they believed themselves to be righteous and "despised others." Christ illustrates this in the parable of two men that went up to the temple to pray. "The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." His prayer was really about his superiority over others. Listen to how he speaks of the man: "this Publican." His speech revealed contempt for a man he probably didn’t even know. He probably put the m...