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

" Lo, this is the man that made not GOD his strength." -Psalm 52:7 [KJV] The following fact I had from my late beloved friend, and faithful minister of Christ, the Mr. Jones. A poor infidel deist had conceived a strange notion, that men need not die unless they would. Upon his deathbed, he affected to be resolute, and bid God defiance. In his last moments, he sprang up, gnashed with his teeth, and with looks of horror cried out, “God! I will not die!” With these words he expired. O the fearful death of the ungodly, who make not God their strength!  They have hope in their death. For they make God their strength in their life. What can a vile sinner do to make God his friend? Where is the impotent sinner, who can make God his strength? What meaneth this? Why, God is that to every poor sinner, which the word reveals Him, and faith takes Him to be. Consider this. You say, I am a weak needy creature . What saith the Lord? “Let him take hold of My strength , ” (Isa...

  Thought for the Day, December 24, 2024,   "Christians are tried to show what measure of grace they have and to purify that which is in them. They can rejoice if they are partakers of Christ’s sufferings: “that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10) . Christ is the saints’ example, but they must understand that their imitation of His suffering is not attainment. No one can flatter himself with the hope of arriving at a point in this life beyond which there is no further improvement. Whatever the trials might be, God will complete that which concerns His children because He will not forsake the work of His grace. Severe trials in the lives of Christians produce perseverance, not apostasy. -W. E. Best, excerpt from ' Christian Suffering'

"It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes." - Psalm 119:71 [KJV] We may have everything naturally that the carnal heart desires, and only be hardened thereby into worldliness and ungodliness. But to be brought down in body and soul, to be weaned and separated from an ungodly world by affliction sanctified and made spiritually profitable, to be brought to feel our need of Christ, and that without an interest in His precious blood our soul must be for ever lost—how much better it is really and truly, to be laid on a bed of affliction, with a hope in God's mercy, than to be left to our own carnality and thoughtlessness. Affliction of any kind is very hard to bear, and especially so when we begin to murmur and fret under the weight of the cross; but when the Lord afflicts it is in good earnest; He means to make us feel. Strong measures are required to bring us down; and affliction would not be affliction, unless it were full ...

"Shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." -Luke 2:8 [KJV] My soul, think what a memorable night was that, which ushered in the wondrous day, the most momentous ever marked in the annals of time, since reckoning of days or years was made. The unconscious shepherds in the fields had no other thought but of their flock. But what a morning did the angels call them to celebrate! Now, my, soul, sit down and take a leisurely survey, of the wonderful story of Jesus's birth. Mark the several volumes in it; for a night, yea, for a whole eternity must end before the subject of God incarnate can be exhausted in the meditation. Let thy evening thoughts on this, be followed by the night contemplation; and let thy midnight only be broken in upon, by the same call that the heavenly host gave to the shepherds. Arise but to sing as they sang, and to go in quest of Jesus, as they went. God and all in one person, one Christ; and God in Christ co...