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

  God’s own eternal Son, Christ the Anointed One, Hung on the cross. Servant of God was He, Dying on Calvary; To set His people free, From endless loss. Our sins on Him were laid, By Him our debt was paid, What wondrous grace! Infinite wrath He bore, Who can such love explore? God can demand no more, Christ took our place. Justice was satisfied, When Christ our Savior died, By God’s decree. Risen, He reigns on high, To God He brings us nigh; On Him our hopes rely, Eternally! -Tune to "MY FAITH LOOKS UP TO THEE" 664.6664  Words by JIM BYRD

  The Lord Jesus Christ stated specifically, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11). Who are His sheep? They are the ones whom the Father gave Him and made Him to be their Surety before the world began (John 6:37; 2 Tim. 1:9) . Yes! Jesus Christ appeared in this world as a Representative, Surety, and Substitute of a people given to Him by the Father before the world began. Both His life and His death were vicarious. (Vicarious according to the dictionary means something performed or endured by one person substituting for another or appearing in the place of another.) In Romans 8:33 His sheep are identified as “God’s elect.” It says, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth.”   All of Gods elect have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (see Ephesians 1:3-7 ).

"The flower of the field." - Psalm 103:15 [KJV] Do I not behold Jesus here pre-eminently set forth above His fellows? Yes, dear Lord, Thy people, planted by Thy hand, do indeed flourish as a flower of the field; but never any like Thee. Indeed all their loveliness, fragrancy, value, all are only so, as derived from Thee. Never did God our Father plant so lovely a flower, so sweet, so fragrant a flower in the field of His garden, in the heavenly paradise, or the earthly Eden, as when He planted Thee. Sweet plant of renown! aid my meditations this morning to contemplate Thee under this interesting view, as the flower of the field. And first, let me behold Thee as truly the flower of the field, because Thou art altogether of God's right hand planting, and not of man's. The flower of the field hath no father but God, and no mother but the virgin earth.     Precious Jesus! Thou wert conceived in Thy human nature wholly by the overshadowing of God the Spirit