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

" But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, Who is the head, even Christ." -Ephesians 4:15 [KJV] There is much good or much harm done, by public preaching and private speaking. See to it, Christians. It either makes souls grow up in self-love, self-righteousness, and self-complacency; or to grow quite out of all conceit with themselves, and to grow up into Christ in all things. Vain persons, who think themselves very handsome, are peculiarly fond of looking at themselves in a glass that flatters or deceives them. If they see a disgustful spot, or blemish in their face, their vanity prompts them to give it some better name than it deserves, that it may not bring down their high opinion of their own beauty.  This is the exact case with those who are grown up in themselves, in a high conceit of their own senseless perfection. If a spot or blemish of sin appear, O, that is only an infirmity: they do not call these things sin. But, one loud...

"Followers of them, who through faith and patience, inherit the promises." -Hebrews 6:12 [KJV] How gracious is the Holy Ghost, in not only holding forth to the people of Jesus the blessedness and certainty of the promises, but opening to our view multitudes, who are now in glory, in the full enjoyment of them. My soul, dost thou ask how they lived, when upon earth, in the full prospect, before that they were called upon to enter heaven for the full participation of them? Hear what the blessed Spirit saith concerning it in this sweet scripture. "It was through faith and patience." Now observe how these blessed principles manifested themselves. Another part of scripture explains— "they all died in faith, not having received the promises; but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them." Now this is the whole sum and substance of the believer's life: he sees them afar off, as Abraham did the day of Christ—as Da...

  Trying to Get to Heaven by D.G. Miles McKee Here’s some good news, God is holy, perfect and righteous! Here’s some bad news … we are not!  Here’s even worse news, if ever we are to get to heaven and avoid God’s judgment, we must be just like Him (Leviticus 19:2). But this is impossible! Not one of us comes close to being as righteous, perfect or holy as God. As Ecclesiastes 7:20 says,   “.. there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” So how then can any of us get to Heaven? Let’s face it, under these terms no one is going to make it!  But the good news is, God Himself, knowing the helpless and hopeless mess we were in, came to earth and lived, died and rose again for us. Christ Jesus went to the cross, took responsibility for our sins, and offered Himself as a sacrificial substitute for us.  There, at the cross, He poured out His blood and absorbed the wrath which our sins justly deserved. He was buried, rose again ...

"Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." -Psalm 107:10 [KJV] What a blessed thing is light, the light of life, the light of God's countenance, of the glorious gospel, of Jesus' face! "Truly light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." But to whom? To those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death. How such hail the first rays of light! If you were shipwrecked, cast by night upon a desert rock, how you would hail the first beams of the morning light to shew you where you were, and what hopes there were of final escape. So, similarly, how a sense of danger, magnified by the darkness, makes the shipwrecked soul hail the first beam of light, that it may see the way of escape from hell to heaven. How sweet to such it is to have any divine light dawn upon the mind, to have any breaking in of the goodness and mercy, grace and glory, of the blessed Jesus. The more we sit in darkness, the more we prize lig...