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

"And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; BUT WE AN INCORRUPTIBLE .” -I Corinthians 9:25 [KJV] As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must strive to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It does a person no good to claim to trust, know and love Christ only to ignore and even reject His Word of grace given to guide us in our thoughts, attitude, character and conduct. Now in striving to be followers of Christ our Lord and Savior, we are well aware that we do not strive in and of our own power. It is by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit that we endeavor to obey the Word of God. To be "temperate in all things" is not to be self-controlled but to be controlled by the Holy Spirit Who fills, guides and motivates us in the ways of Christ. Paul wrote of his own striving in the ministry that it was all "according to HIS working, which worketh in me mightily" (

The hymn writer's words came drifting into my mind, " When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride ." I thought, what a "wondrous cross" the cross of Christ really is! Not that wooden frame but the One who died on it and what He accomplished in His sufferings and death. Central to time and even more central to eternity is the cross death of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul tells us, " It is God that justifieth.... It is Christ that died. " We cannot preach the gospel without our emphasis being on His death and substitutionary sacrifice because it is the gospel of " Christ crucified ." All God's elect were redeemed " by H is blood ." Like the apostles, our message is " the preaching of the cross ." Christ offered " one sacrifice for sins forever ." His obedience was " unto death, even the death of the c