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

" That your love may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment." -Philippians 1:9 [KJV] The soul that is not concerned that it may be so with him, is not alive to God. We see many professors, who have lost a warm sense and comfortable feeling of divine truths. But are they deeply concerned for it? Do they earnestly wrestle with God, fervently crying out, O that it were with me as in months past? Alas! no: they say, We are not called to live upon our frames and feelings. Very true: neither, blessed be God! are we called to live without warm frames and comfortable feelings. O, let us beware, lest we despise the comforts of the Holy Ghost! Some professors, by their spirit and conduct, remind us of the fox in the fable, who lost his tail in a trap, and told his brethren he ran so much the lighter without it.    So some, having lost their warm and lively feelings, think little about them, and seem to say, they can run well without them. Truly, so the...

     An elderly gentleman in the church had little formal education, but spent a lot of time with the Bible and was always finding things in the Scriptures that others missed.  At one service, the pastor asked those in the congregation for their favorite verses from the Bible.  When it was the man’s turn, he stated his favorite verse was, “And it came to pass."   All were puzzled, so the pastor asked if he would explain his selection a bit further.  The old gentleman responded, “When trouble comes and I don’t know what to do, I take heart that the Bible never says, ‘And it came to stay.’  But it is chocked-full of places where it says, ‘ And it came to pass .’” Excerpted from The Berea Baptist Banner, Milburn Cockrell, February 5, 1989 A.D.