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

"It is better to trust in the L ORD than to put confidence in man." and verse 9 reads, "It is better to trust in the L ORD than to put confidence in princes."

“The L ORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.” -Zephaniah 3:17 [KJV]   -------O-------   THE BOOK OF ETERNAL PURPOSE  (Revelation 5:1-10)   A book there is of God’s decrees, Which Christ our Savior holds; And every page of that great book Our mighty King unfolds. From north to south and east to west, He executes His will; And everything, both great and small, His purpose shall fulfill.   Within the pages of the book, Recorded by His pen; Are all appointments and decrees, For angels and for men. No one can look within the book, And learn our destiny; We do, however, know that Christ Shall reign eternally.   What God has written in that book, Is perfect, just and fair; And so we lift our praise to Him, His glories to declare. Though all unworthy, we approach And bow before His throne; And ask, through Jesus Christ our Lord, That grace to us be shown.     Tune: “There

" Every one who useth milk, is unskillful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe." -Hebrews 5:13 [KJV] This is a sharp reproof. As then, so now there are many who need it. The word rendered unskillful, in the margin of our bibles, is, hath no experience. Christian experience is much talked of, but too little understood. Many are ready to give a long detail of experience which they have had of one thing and another, but you can find nothing of the word of righteousness in it. It all begins in self, ends in self, and tends to exalt self. O! there is a great deal of self-seeking, self-soothing, and self-complacency, in what is called Christian experience.  But real Christian experience is that inward proof or trial, which our minds have of the word of righteousness; how the belief of it has brought relief to our guilty consciences, ease to our troubled souls, and rest to our weary minds. From hence, Christ, the sum and substance of the word of righteousnes

  When Jesus died on Calv’ry, salvation’s work was done, Redemption was accomplished by God’s eternal Son; Christ bore our sins and sorrows, He made them all His own, And died to honor justice, our sin-debt to atone.   O what a wondrous Savior, O what a matchless Friend, What love and great compassion which none can comprehend; The Lord came down from glory, His very life He gave, He died by God’s appointment our guilty souls to save.   With deepest gratitude Lord, we praise Thy gracious Name, And thank Thee for Christ Jesus Who took our sin and blame; O may we fully trust Him, may He within us dwell, Who died to seal our pardon and save our souls from hell.   -sung to the hymn, The Church's One Foundation Words by preacher Jim Byrd

Let all who name the name of Christ as witnesses  before men be diligent and proactive that our dealings with others are just and honest, that our promises to others are true and well-intended, that our worship of God is devout and sincere, and that our lives before men are moral and blameless. We know the heart and substance of our witness before men is the message and light of the Gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. The means of our witness before men is the preaching of the Gospel, pointing sinners to Christ and His righteousness alone for salvation, not to ourselves or our works.  Our prayer to God is for the salvation of sinners by His grace, not glory and esteem for ourselves from men. No one will be saved simply by looking at us. Salvation is by looking to Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith.   -unknown preacher