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

"Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." -Psalm 107:10 [KJV] What a blessed thing is light, the light of life, the light of God's countenance, of the glorious gospel, of Jesus' face! "Truly light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." But to whom? To those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. How such hail the first rays of light! If you were shipwrecked, cast by night upon a desert rock, how you would hail the first beams of the morning light to shew you where you were, and what hopes there were of final escape. So, similarly, how a sense of danger, magnified by the darkness, makes the shipwrecked soul hail the first beam of light, that it may see the way of escape from hell to heaven. How sweet to such it is to have any divine light dawn upon the mind, to have any breaking in of the goodness and mercy, grace and glory, of the blessed Jesus. The more we sit in darkness, the more we prize li

Mary sat at the feet of the Lord and HEARD HIS WORD. Her sister, Martha, had many things to do which she believed to be important. She must provide bodily comforts and necessities; and when she complained to the Lord that her sister should LEAVE THE PLACE WHERE HIS WORD WAS HEARD and give more attention to fleshly pursuits, our Lord said, "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but ONE THING IS NEEDFUL: Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:39-42) . Wise indeed are the persons, who, like Mary, chose to sit, live, and raise their children where they can HEAR HIS WORD. This is the ONE THING NEEDFUL and the one thing that shall not be taken away when all these worldly comforts, treasures, and honors are perished and forgotten. I weep for those who have made the wrong choice and warn those today who may follow their example. Mary sat at Jesus feet and HEARD HIS WORD. Today, where two or three

O Christ be all our hope, The good hope of Gods grace. The hope of mercy now our own, The Gift we now embrace. O Christ be all our hope. The hope of righteousness. The hope of life eternal now, The hope by faith possessed. O Christ be all our hope. The hope the gospel shows, The hope of glory soon revealed, That blessed hope exposed. O Christ be all our hope, His blood for us to plead, The word of truth, the gospel hope, Is all the hope we need. -Words by Gary Shepard To the tune, “I Love Thy Kingdom”

When the prophets of God spoke in the Old Testament, each distinctly declared what “thus saith the Lord.” Their message was only that which God said. The same must be true of God’s preacher in our day. We must preach what God has said. Paul instructed Timothy, “preach the word.” Preach only the word of God and all the word of God. It is not my opinion of what God has said, nor my ability to speak it, nor my illustrations to explain it but the words of God that He uses to save His people by revealing Christ to them and in them. Again Paul said, “we preach Christ crucified.” We preach Christ as He is set forth in the scriptures and what the scriptures say He has done. Sermons today are designed to be entertaining, to cause no offense, to meet the approval of hearers and to reflect the learning and abilities of the preacher. Only the sermon that is full of scripture glorifies God and benefits the hearer. The scriptures are to be set forth in their context and in the c