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

  “ Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus through-out all ages, world without end. Amen.” -Ephesians 3:20-21 [KJV] The grace, love, and mercy of God shown toward us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ are more than doctrines we believe. They are dynamic powers of God implanted within our hearts to motivate and drive us in the obedience of faith as we seek to follow and honor Christ in our lives. God the Holy Spirit is the sovereign Agent who imparts these graces to us. He does this by giving us a powerful revelation of God’s glory in our full salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of Christ’s blood and righteousness for our complete forgiveness and justification before God. He imparts faith to believe in Christ and submit to His righteousness whereupon we are given such a real sense of God’s love to us that we cannot help but seek to w...

"Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." - I Thessalonians 5:6 [KJV] Here sobriety is opposed to sleepiness, and is connected with walking in the light and in the day, as sleepiness and its frequent cause, drunkenness, are connected with darkness and night. One of the greatest curses God can send on a people and its rulers, its prophets and seers, is a spirit of deep sleep, as the prophet speaks: "For the L ORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath H e covered." But to be sober is to be awaked out of this sleep, and, as a consequence, to walk not only wakefully but watchfully. It implies, therefore, that careful, circumspect walking, that daily living, moving, speaking, and acting in the fear of God, whereby alone we can be kept from the snares spread for our feet at every step of the way. How many have fallen into outward evil and open disgra...

Purchased! "Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; b ut with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." - I Peter 1:18:-19 [KJV] Among the many and varied meanings of redemption in the Old Testament is the idea of making a purchase. They are one and the same. In Leviticus 25, for example, we read of how people, upon getting into financial difficulty, could sell themselves as slaves to pay their debts. They could then, at a later date, buy themselves back or if unable to do so, a near relation, a kinsman, could pay for them. In other words, they could be redeemed. Some years ago, a young teenage girl lay on her death bed. The poor child was, understandably, concerned about her soul. Looking at her grieving mother she said, “Mum, let me ask you a question. When you pay the money for a dress or goods of any kin...

"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD… I also have heard thee ." - II Kings 22:19 [KJV] This tenderness of heart was a mark in Josiah, on which the Lord, so to speak, put His finger; it was a special token for good which God selected from all the rest, as a testimony in His favour. The heart is always tender which God has touched with His finger; this tenderness being the fruit of the impression of the Lord's hand upon the conscience. You may know the difference between a natural conscience and a heart tender in God's fear by this, that the natural conscience is always superstitious and uncertain; as the Lord says, it "strains out a gnat, and swallows a camel." It is exceedingly observant of self-inflicted austerities, and very fearful of breaking through self-imposed rules; and whilst it will commit sin which a man who has the fear of God in his heart would not do for the world, it will stumble at mere unimpor...