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

“ It pleased the Father, that in Him should all fulness dwell." -C OLOSSIANS 1:19 [KJV] The religion of nature is the religion of pride. Pride is of the devil. Pride works by a lie, and keeps the soul in unbelief of the truth. Hence, we naturally think some change in us, some good done by us, causes God to be our Father, and we consider ourselves as His very good children. This notion obtains in the mind of many, and is the cause of their rejecting the everlasting covenant of the three-one Jehovah, and denying the covenant relations and transactions of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They are so filled with themselves, with their Stuff of inherent righteousness, freewill, moral agency, and one knows not what unscriptural jargon, that they see not all fulness in Jesus, where it pleased the Father it should dwell. Lord! empty us of all self-fulness, that we may receive out of Thy fulness. The Father, by covenant love, took on Him that near and dear relation to all...

The most difficult thing for any of us to do is to TOTALLY and COMPLETELY trust and rest in our blessed Lord Jesus to redeem us, sanctify us, and make us accepted of the Father. We are prone to self-righteousness and works that we have a constant battle trying to remember that "man at h is BEST STATE is altogether vanity," [PSALM 39:5 ] and in his WEAKEST MOMENTS is no less loved and accepted if he is in Christ. As one preacher said, "My relationship with the eternal God (in Christ) does in great measure determine what I do. But what I do (good or bad) in no way determines my relationship with the eternal God." Actually, "In my flesh dwelleth NO GOOD THING" [ROMANS 7:18 ] . In the flesh no man can please God. It is in Christ that the Father is well pleased; and only in Christ can He love, accept and be pleased with me. I did not come to Christ on the basis of my works, nor am I kept in Christ on the basis of my works! I looked to Him THEN...

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." -C OLOSSIANS 3:1 [KJV]   How many there are even of those who desire to fear God who are kept down by the world, and to whom it has not lost its attractive power; who are held fast, at least for a time, by worldly business, or entangled by worldly persons or worldly engagements. Their partners in business or their partners in life; their carnal relatives or their worldly children; their numerous connections or their social habits; their strong passions or their deep-rooted prejudices, all bind and fetter them down to earth. There they grovel and lie amid, what Milton terms,   "The smoke and stir of this dim spot which men call earth;"   and so bound are they with the cords of their sins that they scarcely seek deliverance from them, or even desire to rise beyond the mists and fogs of this dim spot into a purer air, so as to ...