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

“ And I will betroth thee unto M e for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto M e in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.” -H OSEA 2:19 [KJV]   Communion with Christ begins below, in our time state. It is here that the mystery of the marriage union is first made known; here the espousals entered into; here the first kiss of betrothed love given. The celebration of the marriage is to come; but the original betrothal in heaven and the spiritual espousals on earth make Christ and the Church eternally one. As then the husband, when he becomes united to his wife in marriage ties, engages thereby to love her, cherish her, feed her, clothe her, count her interests his interests, her honour his honour, and her happiness his happiness, so the blessed Jesus, when in the councils of eternity, he betrothed the Church to himself, undertook to be to her and do for her everything that should be for her happiness and honour, perfection and glory. His own

Jesus cannot change. He is as constant as He is great. As surely as He ever lives, so surely He ever lives the same. He sits on the calm throne of eternal serenity! Change is the defect of things below. Our brightest morn often ends in storm. Summer's radiance gives place to winter's gloom. The smiling flower soon lies withered. The babbling brook is soon a parched channel. The friend who smiled, smiles no more friendly welcomes. Bereavement weeps where once the family beamed with domestic joy. Gardens wither into deserts. Babylons crumble into unsightly ruins. On all things a sad inscription writes . . .fleeting! transient! vanishing! Time flaps a ceaseless wing, and from its wings, decay and death drop down. But Jesus sits high above all this. He is “ the same yesterday, and today, and forever .” The love of Jesus is in perpetual bloom. It is always in summertime. The roots are deeply buried in Himself; therefore the branches cannot fade. Believer, drink hourly

“ Ye a , He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend. ” -SONG OF SONGS 5:1 6 [KJV] As if she had said, “Look on Him in what respect or particular you wish; cast your eye upon this lovely One, and view Him any way; consider His person, His offices, His works, or any other thing belonging to Him. You will find Him altogether lovely, there is nothing disagreeable in Him, there is nothing lovely without Him.” Jesus Christ is the loveliest person souls can set their eyes upon. He is the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them! As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is the meeting-place of all the waters in the world--so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet! Christ infinitely transcends the most excellent and loveliest of created things. The excellencies of our altogether lovely Christ are pure and unmixed. He is a sea of sweetness without one dro

“ Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” -PSALM 127:1a [KJV] Man’s efforts could be compared to those of the men who would have built the tower of Babel along with the same results. This is true of all our efforts to obtain salvation by works, they are vain, evil and useless. Paul writing to the Hebrews said, “Every house is builded by some man, but He that built all things is God” (H EBREWS 3:4) . ‘Except the L ORD keep the city, the watchmen waketh but in vain’ (PSALM 127:1b) . Whether it’s the things of this world we hold precious or even our own souls, our efforts to keep them are vain. He keeps our physical bodies, but above all He keeps our souls. We are kept by the power of God (I P ETER 1:5) . ‘As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.’ May we be faithful in raising our children to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,

The notion of the world is that salvation in Christ is an emotional dream; a lot of sentiment and feeling. But there is nothing dreamy about it. It is not fiction but fact upon fact. The Lord Jesus does not gloss over nor conceal the condition of those whom He came to save. He finds us guilty, condemned in the worst sense; and as our S ubstitute, He endures the penalty for our sins and dies in our stead. He takes us as we are and deals with us as we are. The Lord Jesus meets the law of God as it is; holy, unchangeable, and exact. He does not alter the law nor brand it as being too stern, too exacting, nor too holy. He is made under the law as it is and, in the flesh, He honored and obeyed the law in every jot and tittle. Christ deals with us as we are, He deals with us as the law is, and He deals with us as God is; on the principles of pure righteousness and justice. If there is anything questionable or uncertain in the work that Christ has done to redeem us (either in hono

  “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” -I PETER 1:3-5 [KJV]