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

  Salvation, righteousness and everlasting acceptance by a holy God is only to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work of redemption. Paul declared, "I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" ( II T IMOTHY 1:12) . Who we believe is vital. Having said that, we also understand that Who we believe does not mean what we believe is unimportant. If what we believe were of no consequence, the Savior would not have admonished, "Take heed what ye hear" (M ARK 4:24) . We will only believe the Savior as we understand Who and what God is, what we are by nature, what Jesus Christ is in His person, what He did by His substitutionary sacrifice, and what was the necessity for the sacrifice of Himself. By effectual grace we are made to know that the only way God can be a just God and a Savior is through the person and work of Christ. "They shall all be taught of God.

"Lead me in T hy truth, and teach me."   - P SALM 2 5 :5 [KJV] By what steps do we usually embrace the truth as it is in Jesus? First of all, for the most part, we receive it as a doctrine; the judgment being more or less informed, the eyes of the understanding being enlightened to see it in the word. The doctrine for some time may be floating in our mind; but after a time, as the Lord leads us more into a knowledge of our own hearts, and into a deeper feeling of our necessities, he lets down the truth from our head into the heart, and it then becomes a truth. It is very sweet to have a doctrine turned into a truth. But after a time, we want something more than a truth; we want it as a blessing. When we are brought into pressing straits and severe trials, we need the doctrines which we first received into our minds as truths, now to be blessed by a Divine application to our souls. Thus, what we first knew in our judgments as a doctrine, is afterwards received

"For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us." - P SALM 103:11-12 [ KJ V]   Infinitude is borrowed to exemplify God's mercy. Immeasurable distance parts the heaven from earth, so God's mercy exceeds all bounds. Thought cannot conceive it. Words cannot express it. Ransomed souls are its main recipients. They are aptly described as filled with the reverential grace of fear. Infinite space again expresses the removal of our sins. No traversing steps can join the east to west. As we advance from the one the other constantly recedes. Let us bless the Holy Spirit for employing this image to teach how utterly the guilt of sin is canceled. -excerpt from "Daily Prayer And Praise" by preacher Henry Law