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

I Am Coming to Every Household I was sitting at my computer working, praying about the seriousness of the word and judgment falling on households I had recently received when the Lord began speaking this word to me. Tell My people I am coming to visit them. I am coming to every household in every nation and I will render according to what I find there. Those who are found faithful will receive reward. Those who are found pure will receive reward. Those who are found watching and praying for My return will receive reward. Those who are found continuing to cavort in the world will not. Those who love the world still shall receive the world as their just reward for the world is at enmity with Me and My ways and My truths. The world does not honor Me or follow Me. If you choose the world as your god, then you will receive answer from it when you cry out. If you choose the world as your god then occupy, make ready, for from there must your help come when you are in need. My ways hav...

     Man is a strange compound.  A sinner, and the worst of sinners, and yet a pharisee!  A wretch, and the vilest of wretches, and yet pluming himself on his good works!  Did not experience convince us to the contrary, we should scarcely credit that a monster like man, a creature, as someone has justly said, “half-beast and half-devil,” should dream of pleasing God by his obedience, or of climbing up to heaven by a ladder of his own righteousness.       Pharisaism is firmly fixed in the human heart.  Deep is the root, broad the stem, wide the branches, but poisonous the fruit of this gigantic tree, planted by pride and unbelief in the Adamic soil.  And what can  “hew this tree down, yet leave the stump of the roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field?”  (Daniel 4:23).  The axe of the Spirit only.  Self-righteousness is not peculiar to this or t...

     Tell everybody you meet what a good and blessed and faithful God He is and so give Him glory now.  And be happy and cheerful; you cannot glorify God better than by a calm, quiet, happy life.  Let the world know that you serve a good Master.  If you are in trouble, do not let anyone see that the trouble touches your spirit; --nay, more, do not let it trouble your spirit.  Rest in the Lord; take adversity as well as good from His hand, and keep on praising Him.  You do not know how much good you may do and how greatly you may glorify God if you praise Him in your dark times.  Worldlings do not care much about our Psalm-singing unless they see us in pain and sorrow, and observe that we praise God even then.  -preacher C.H. Spurgeon

An old writer of many years ago said, “I know not the way God leads me, but well I know my Guide.”  With those words in mind, I wrote the following hymn.   GRACIOUS PROVIDENCE Tune: “Majestic Sweetness” CM Words by Jim Byrd   God’s wise and gracious providence Directs me on my way; And everything I truly need, Is given day by day, Is given day by day.   How comforting it is to know, Whate’er my lot may be; My steps were ordered by the Lord, From old eternity, From old eternity.   No matter what the future holds, In this I find sweet rest; My life is managed by the Lord, His will I know is best, His will I know is best.   The Christ Who governs all the world, Has saved me by His grace; And He will lead me on my way, Until I see His face, Until I see His face.   His hand shall guide me to that home, Reserved for me above; And then forever I will sing, Of providential love, Of providential love.     -------O-------       THE L...

“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ  His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” -I  John 1:7 [KJV]   Oh what good news the gospel of Jesus Christ declares to guilty sinners. We are by birth and nature children of wrath even as others; loving darkness rather than the Light of the truth (John 3:19; Ephesians 2:12) . However, by the marvelous power of God through the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16) , God has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13) ; that we should show forth the praises of Him Who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (II Corinthians 4:6; I Peter 2:9) . Moreover, the gospel declares unto all that believe the gospel of Christ that the precious blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses and justifies us from all sin (Romans 5:9) . Not with the blood of bulls and goats (Hebrews ...

“For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” - Romans 7:14-17 [KJV]   1 . The law (that system which makes obedience the condition of life and makes righteousness depend on perfect obedience) can never deliver a person from the curse and dominion of sin . If a man is to be justified, he must be delivered from the law as a covenant or method of obtaining life and be brought into Christ, Who is our righteousness.   2 . The law can tell a person what is right and what is wrong. It can command a man to avoid wrong and do right. It can threaten, condemn, and curse him if he does not comply; but it cannot eradicate his sinful inclinations (rather, it irritates and stimulates them) . So, inste...

"O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.  For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.  The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.  O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker ."      -Psalm 95:1-6 [KJV]   ==========    FAITH     Faith is not life giving, but proof of life.  Faith is not a work for salvation, but a work of salvation .  Faith is not what saves us, but is certain proof God has saved us.  Faith is not a condition we meet, but the condition God’s Spirit puts in us to “make us meet” (Colossians 1:12) .  Is all this important?  Do we split theological hairs here?  NO!  NO...

"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD: my soul shall be joyful in my God: for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation; He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness."   -Isaiah 61:10 [KJV]   It would be surprising to see a malefactor going to execution, singing and rejoicing all the way. But, if, when he came to the fatal place, he should produce the king’s free pardon, with royal promises of being admitted to his presence and appearing at court, in the richest robe of the king’s providing, our wonder would cease. We should own that he really had abundant cause for joy. Come, my fellow-condemned malefactors, though sin has stripped you of your innocent dress of righteous clothing; though you are under the sentence of death, yet behold, here is a pardon for you, the best robe to put upon you, and a sure promise of admission into the king’s presence.    Read it and rejoice. “Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life” (Romans 5:21.)...

"Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine inheritance when it was weary." -Psalm 68:9 [KJV] How truly grateful are the falling showers upon the thirsty earth, after a hot summer's day, such as this season of the year abounds with! Such, my soul, (and thou knowest it, I hope, in the many refreshments thou hast had) is Jesus, in the visits of His grace! "He shall come like rain , " was the sweet promise given to old testament saints, "upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth , " Psalms 72:6 . And every new testament believer hath, more or less, a real personal enjoyment of it. Sometimes the Lord comes as the tender dew, for He saith Himself, "I will be as the dew unto Israel , " Hosea 14:5 . And hast thou not found thy Lord, not unfrequently, so to come? Silent and unperceived for a while; yea, at times, when wholly unlooked for, unasked, unsought! Yes! Thou dearest Jesus, Thou tarri...

"Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours."   -Isaiah 54:11 [KJV] By these "stones," which the Lord has promised to "lay with fair colours," I think we may understand the blessed truths of the gospel which are laid into the soul by the hand of God. The fair colours are deeply ingrained and embedded in the very substance of the stone, not artificially laid on. They are like beautiful marbles, in which every bright hue and vein penetrate into the deepest substance of the material. Such are the truths of God, beautiful throughout, penetrated with grace and glory into their inmost depths. But these colours are hidden from view till brought out and laid into the soul by the hand of God. However fair or beautiful any word of God be in itself, it only experimentally becomes so as inlaid by His own divine hand into the soul. This brings out the fair colours.    How often we read the word of God without seeing the least beauty in it! But let ...