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

IF I AM NOT SAVED   If I am not saved, it is not because I want to be saved and God refuses to save me. If I am not saved it is not because God did not elect me, Christ did not die for me, and the Holy Spirit did not give me life.   If I am not saved it is because I do not want to be saved. That does not mean I do not want to be delivered from the punishment of hell.   But it does mean I do not want to be saved God’s way on God’s terms.       If I am saved, I do want to be saved.   If I am saved, I am saved because God elected me, Christ died for me, and the Holy Spirit gave me life!   But if I am not saved, I have no one to blame but myself.   I do not want to be saved. Could anyone charge God with injustice because He did not give to somebody something they did not want?   -copied 

  What sacred Fountain yonder springs Up from the Throne of God And all new covenant blessings bring? ’Tis Jesus’ precious blood. What mighty sum paid all my debt When I a bondman stood And has my soul at freedom set? ’Tis Jesus’ precious blood. What stream is that which sweeps away My sins just like a flood Nor lets one guilty blemish stay? ’Tis Jesus’ precious blood. What voice is that which speaks for me In Heaven’s high court for good And from the curse has set me free? ’Tis Jesus’ precious blood.   -Gospel hymn, “ O God Our Help ”     -------0-------    “Redeeming the time,  because the days are evil.”   -Ephesians 5:16 [KJV]   The New Year does not change the moral climate around us.   The days are still evil.   Sin is still aggressive.   Evil days are much like their father Satan.   They do not shout, “Waste your life.”   They whisper, “Later.”   Later is how time is lost.   We must not lose time; we ...

"Thy God reigneth."   - Isaiah 52:7 [KJV]   Christ commissions His ministers, to proclaim this joyful truth to Zion, His church, that every member of His might receive it in faith, change the pronoun and say, My God reigneth . Christ’s reign is His people’s glory, their triumph on earth; and the shouts of disembodied saints in glory. Listen to their acclamations of joy. “Allelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come”   (Revelation 19:6, 7.) Are we married to the Lamb? Has He our hearts and affections? Then we shall constantly rejoice, and give honor to Him, that He, who is our God, reigneth . Where? Where He dwells. In heaven for us: and in our hearts over us. For, as He dwells in our hearts by faith, He spiritually reigns over all within us. O what matter of joy and consolation is this!    For (1st.) If our King has set up His throne in our hearts, what ene...

"A place called Golgotha." -Matthew 27:33 [KJV]   And wherefore called Golgotha? It was "a place of skulls;" not a charnel house ( - a place under or near churches, where the bones of the dead are reposited ) ; not a sepulchre for the great; but probably where a number of unburied skulls of poor criminals lay together, or scattered here and there, as the feet of those who visited this place of sorrow, might kick them. Luke calls it Calvary, (Luke 23:33) but both mean one and the same place. And was this a suited place for Thee, Oh Thou Lord of life and glory? Yes, blessed Jesus! if Thou wilt become sin, and a curse for Thy redeemed; then, surely, this of all places becomes Thee, where Thy people must have lain for ever, hadst Thou not interposed, and undertaken all that behoved them to suffer, that they might be made "the righteousness of God" in Thee?   My soul, did Jesus suffer at Golgotha? Go thou forth to Him "without the camp, be...

"And I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." -Revelation 2:17 [KJV]   In ancient times they used to decide cases by white and black stones. The judges (for they were rather judges than jury) did not give their verdict upon the prisoner by oral testimony, "guilty," or "not guilty," as in our country, but by dropping into an urn a white stone to express their opinion that the prisoner was innocent, or a black stone to declare their judgment that the prisoner was guilty. The Lord has made use of this figure. He says, "To him that overcometh I will give a white stone ; " that is, I will give into his conscience a sentence of acquittal. As the white stone was dropped into the urn, so peace and pardon are dropped into the sinner's bosom; and just as the judge, when he deposited the white stone in the urn, declared thereby the prisoner's innocence; so ...