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

His Works not Mine!   by D.G. Miles McKee   When God saves us, He declares us righteous.  We are reckoned as having a righteousness that comes from God to man, not a righteousness which man brings to God.  Therein lies the difference between the Gospel and religion. We are justified, ( declared not guilty ), without doing any good works . In fact, we are saved when we have done nothing at all but bad works (see Romans 3:10-12). We have no merits with which we can earn salvation.  Salvation is entirely of grace and mercy, freely given to those who deserve nothing.  Because of the doing and dying of Christ we are declared not guilty.  Jesus alone is our qualification for heaven.   When it comes to salvation, we are like the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11-32).  He, like us, brought nothing with him but his sin and need.  Notice how the father in this story doesn’t tell the prodigal to make himself worthy to sit at the banqueting ...

" Come now, and let us reason together , saith the L ORD : though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool ." -Isaiah 1:18 [KJV] Whenever our Lord denounces His judgments against hardened and impenitent sinners, we are sure to find a word of grace from His precious lips to our dear trembling souls. His loving heart knew that what He had been declaring against others, His people would take to themselves, reason their hearts into dejection and sorrow, and cast away their hopes and their comforts; therefore, as He frequently, in the days of His flesh, turned aside to His disciples and said, “Come now,” —let not trouble arise in your hearts, let not terror and dread seize on your spirits one moment; so here, “Let us reason together.”   Do not reason with flesh and blood—with your carnal notions, and your legal hearts; confer not with Satan, who is your enemy and accuser;—but reason with Me: I am ju...