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

The preaching of the Gospel, the prayers, service, and obedience of the saints, are all God-given, Holy-Spirit wrought means for the accomplishment of God’s sovereign, predestinated purpose. We walk in the light we have been given, and we trust Christ and His righteousness alone for our whole salvation. We follow His commandments as He speaks to us by His Word and as He drives and motivates us by His sovereign grace and mercy.  We must not walk and act by our own reasoning and logic. The man who concludes that if God is absolutely sovereign, and if His will cannot be changed or thwarted, then there is no use for preaching, praying, and obeying the Lord, does not know the God of the Bible . He does not know himself, and he does not know Christ, the true Lord and Savior of His people.   —preacher Bill Parker

1. I was drifting away on life’s pitiless sea, And the angry waves threatened my ruin to be, When away at my side, there I dimly descried, A stately old vessel, and loudly I cried: Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy! And loudly I cried: Ship ahoy! 2. ’Twas the old ship of Zion, thus sailing along, All aboard her seemed joyous, I heard their sweet song; And the captain’s kind ear, ever ready to hear, Caught my wail of distress, as I cried out in fear: Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy! As I cried out in fear: Ship ahoy!   3. The good Captain commanded a boat to be low’red, And with tender compassion He took me on board; And I’m happy today, all my sins washed away In the blood of my Savior, and now I can say: Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord! From my soul I can say: Bless the Lord! 4. O soul, sinking down ’neath sin’s merciless wave, The strong arm of our Captain is mighty to save; Then trust Him today, no longer delay, Board the old ship of Zion, and shout on your way: Jesus saves! Jesus saves

" I know that my Redeemer liveth." -Job 19:25 [KJV] Matters are sometimes brought to a close point between God and the soul. It is stript of all its comforts. The soul is in heaviness (I Peter 1:6.) It is broken in the place of dragons, and covered with the shadow of death, as the Psalmist most emphatically paints the scenes of horror and affliction (Psalm 44:19.) So that he says, “I had fainted, unless I had believed” (Psalm 27:13.) Nothing within, nothing without, for the soul to stay itself upon, but the word of the Lord, and the Lord revealed in the word. Then is that sweet promise fulfilled. “They shall hang upon Him all the glory of His Father’s house” (Isaiah 22:24.)   This was Job’s tried, tempted, afflicted, yet blessed state. Though all his comforts were dead, still his Redeemer lived. In the midst of all his losses, he had not lost this blessed knowledge. I know, it is a matter of the greatest certainty to my soul, I am as sure of it as my exist