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

O what a good and perfect Gift, The Father gave in love; To save our souls, His Son He sent, Down from His throne above. What other good and perfect Gift, Compares with that dear One? By Him our ransom price was paid, Salvation fully done. Since Jesus died upon the cross, And met the law's demand; This good and perfect Gift now sits, Enthroned at God's right hand. So bless the Lord, and thank Him for His good and perfect Gift; Join heart and voice to worship Him, And to Him praises lift. -words by preacher Jim Byrd T o the t une: "O For A Thousand Tongues"

"By grace ye are saved" -E PHESIANS 2:5 [KJV]   Oh! the volumes of blessed truth that are couched in these few words; thrown in out of the Apostle's full heart as if to give a moment's vent to his love of salvation by grace! Mercy, love, and grace are all in the bosom of God toward His saints; and yet they differ from each other. But how? Mercy regards the criminal; love regards the object; grace, perhaps, is a blending of the two,—the union of mercy and love. God loves the holy unfallen angels; there is an object of sovereign, distinguishing, free, and superabounding. Every attribute of Jehovah is distinct, and yet so blended that the whole shine forth in one glorious effulgence. The rays of the sun united form one complete body of pure, bright light; but the prism or the rainbow separates these rays into distinct colours. So the attributes of God are not confused though blended, and all shine forth in one pure bright glory. But this is the p

The Marked Sheep by preacher D.G. Miles McKee   Being raised in rural Northern Ireland, I had occasion to notice how shepherds took care of their sheep. One of the things they did was to mark them with various coloured dyes. When I asked the reason for this, I was informed that the sheep were marked to show to whom they belonged. Apparently, a good shepherd marked His sheep. The Lord Jesus Christ is our Good Shepherd, and in John 10:28, He puts three marks upon us. The First mark is: He gives us eternal life . The Second is: We shall never perish . The Third is: No one shall pluck us out of His hand . Jesus is the Shepherd, who, in love and compassion, came to seek and to save His lost sheep [ see L UKE 19:10; E ZEKIEL 34:12 ] . We, like sheep, had gone astray. We had all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There was none of us righteous, no, not one [ see I SAIAH 53:6; R OMANS 3:23; R OMANS 3:10-19 ] . But the Great Shepherd stepped in and s

“ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, W ho hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." - EPHESIANS 1:3 [KJV] Many think that spiritual blessings are held in reserve for those who plead with God for them. They acknowledge He has a storehouse of gifts, but the distribution of those blessings they believe to be conditioned upon the willingness of sinners to request and accept them. It is clear, however, that God has already blessed a chosen people with all benefits in Christ. They are not kept from men because of non-request; they already belong to the children of God. Nothing pertaining to eternal salvation is given because sinners beg God. His greatest gift was His own Son, and God did not send Him in response to men pleading for a Savior. The "unspeakable Gift" was unasked for, and when He did come, He was unwanted [II CORINTHIANS 9:15 ; ISAIAH 53:3] . He was sent according to the eternal purpose