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

THE TRADITIONS OF MEN    The Pharisees were very offended that some rag tag fishermen would follow Jesus and teach contrary to what they taught. They said to Christ, "Why do Thy disciples transgress the traditions of the elders?" (Matt hew 15:2) . A tradition is something that is passed down from generation to generation and with the Pharisees it was the oral law. It was not the scriptures but what they (and those like them that preceded them) said about the scriptures and the rules they added to them. They could not defend their teachings from the scriptures alone so they accused the disciples of teaching contrary to "the traditions." Our merciful God spoke audibly from heaven on one occasion some very important words. "This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him..." The Word of God supersedes all the teachings of men, especially what they teach about the Word! Christ said to these Pharisees, "Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may k

"For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."   -Hebrews 10:36 [KJV] Why is patience needed? Because if we are the Lord's people, we are sure to have many trials. The Lord sends us afflictions that He may give us the grace of patience to bear them. But O, what a rebellious heart do we carry in our bosom! What perverseness, peevishness, and self-will dwell in us! How soon our temper is stirred up, and our irritable minds roused in a moment by the veriest trifle! How little patience have we under the trials that God sees fit to lay upon us! We thus learn our need of patience, and that it is not a fruit of nature's soil. The want of it makes the soul follow after it; and when the Lord does give submission to His will, and enables His children to see how profitable these trials are for their souls, and how, but for this heavy ballast, they would certainly have been carried away into the world, they can see His me