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

  “We cannot keep our eye too exclusively or too intently fixed on Jesus. All salvation is in Him. All salvation proceeds from Him. All salvation leads to Him. And, for the assurance and comfort of our salvation, we are to repose believingly and entirely on Him. Christ must be all! Christ the beginning; Christ the center; and Christ the end. Oh sweet truth to you who are sensible of your poverty, vileness, and insufficiency, and of the ten thousand flaws and failures of which, perhaps, no one is cognizant but God and your own soul! Oh, to turn and rest in Christ; a full Christ; a loving Christ; a tender Christ, whose heart's love never chills, from whose eye darts no reproof, from whose lips breathes no sentence of condemnation! Christ must be all!” -Gospel report by preacher Octavius Winslow (1808–1878 A.D.)

  “Then drew near unto H im all the publicans and sinners for to hear H im. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them .” -L UKE 15:1-2 [KJV] While the self-righteous Pharisees and Scribes withdrew from the Lord Jesus Christ and then harshly criticized Him, many publicans and sinners drew near to hear Him. What a blessing from the Lord to have a willingness to draw near to Him [JOHN 6:44 ] and then to have ears to actually hear a word from Him [ACTS 10:33 ] . His words are words of life [JOHN 5:24 ] . His words are words of salvation [ROMANS 1:16; H EBREWS 4:12 ] . The worst thing the Pharisees and scribes said of the Lord, “This man recieveth sinners, and eateth with them;” is the best thing any sinner could hear. It is not sin that keeps a man from hearing the good news of the gospel of Christ, it is his presumed righteousness he is going about to establish by his religious deeds [ROMANS 10:1-4 ] . No ma...

"They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them." -J EREMIAH 31:9 [KJV] Until God is pleased to pour out upon us the spirit of grace and of supplications, we cannot worship Him aright; for God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth; nor can we without this spirit offer up that spiritual sacrifice which is acceptable to Him through Jesus Christ. When this spirit has been once given and kindled in a believer's breast, it never dies out. It is like the fire upon the brazen altar, which was first given by the Lord Himself from heaven, and concerning which God gave this command: "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out" [LEVITICUS 6:13 ] . This fire might sink low; it might be covered with the ashes of sacrifice, but it never was suffered to go out for want of supply of fuel. So at times it may seem to you as if there were scarcely any spirit of pray...