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

     When we speak of the whole of our salvation by God’s sovereign grace in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, this is what we mean: ELECTION is God’s choosing His people in Christ before the world was made. JUSTIFICATION is God clothing us with and imputing to us the righteousness of Christ. REDEMPTION is God purchasing His elect out of the hands of His own law by the blood of Christ.  FORGIVENESS is God pardoning our sins through the blood of Christ. REGENERATION is God giving dead sinners life in Christ, and Christ living in us – God forming Christ in us, imparting His life to us.   PERSEVERANCE is God preserving us to the end by His preserving grace in Christ. RESURRECTION is God raising us up by the power of Christ. GLORIFICATION is God conforming us to the image of Christ, to which end we were predestinated in the eternal purpose of His grace.    —Unknown preacher of righteousness  

"Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." -I Peter 5:7 [KJV]   In casting our cares on God, there are plainly required three things: (1) A persuasion that God has complete control in reference to those things which excite our anxiety.   (2) A persuasion that He will use this control in the best way, abstractly considered; and,   (3) A persuasion that He will use this control in the best possible way, as far as we are concerned. I could not get rid of painful anxiety by casting it on God if I did not believe He could sustain it.  What lies at the very basis here is the conviction that God is the sovereign of the universe, uncontrolled & uncontrollable. He is one, “Whose Kingdom ruleth over all,” “Who can do everything,” “Whose arm none can stay,” to Whom none dare say, “What doest Thou?” I cannot cast my care, all my care, on Him unless I believe that His power is guided by wisdom and righteousness. If I were not convinced that God is ...

"Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake ."   -John 13:37 [KJV]    Peter seems now in a happy frame indeed. All is warmth of love and sunshine of joy. Ecstacies carry us out of ourselves. We forget what we are, where we are, what we are exposed to, and what may soon befall us. Like Peter on the mount, we are apt to speak without due consideration. We know not what we say. The fire of passion exceeds the bounds of solid judgment.    “Why cannot I follow Thee now? Let the way be strewed with ever so many difficulties—let ever so many dangers oppose, nothing is able to dismay or dishearten me. I have just now such fervent love to Thee, that I could face death in the most frightful form, and lay down my life with the greatest pleasure for Thy sake.”    Doubtless, Peter now thought himself perfect and free from all sin. What thinkest, O soul? Is Peter’s language becoming him or not? Is it not...

"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you." - Ezekiel 36:25 [KJV] Was there ever a more precious scripture? And was there ever a poor sinner needed it more than thou, my soul? And what a thousand beauties are contained in it? Who is the great Promiser, but the Lord Jehovah, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation? And what is the clean water here spoken of, but the blood of Christ? Christ, with all His redemption, all His fulness, all His suitableness, and His all-sufficiency?    And what doth this sweet promise imply? Every thing, in one, is folded up in it. It is all of God; all in Himself, and all to be wrought by Himself. He provides the clean water; He cleanseth the sinners; He sprinkles, He applies, He promiseth the sure efficacy; for they "shall be clean ; " and He makes the blessings most comprehensive, and full, and complete; for it s...

"The desire of our soul is to Thy Name, and to the remembrance of Thee." -Isaiah 26:8 [KJV]   How sweet and expressive is the phrase, "The desire of our soul!" How it seems to carry our feelings with it! How it seems to describe the longings and utterings of a soul into which God has breathed the spirit of grace and mercy! "The desire of our soul," —the breathing of our heart, the longing of our inmost being; the cry, the sigh, the panting of our new nature; the heavings, gaspings, lookings, longings, pantings, hungerings, thirstings, and ventings forth of the new man of grace—all are expressed in those sweet and blessed words, "The desire of our soul!"  And what a mercy it is, that there should ever be in us "the desire" of a living soul; that though the righteous dealings of God are painful and severe, running contrary to everything nature loves; yet that with all these, there should be dropped into the heart that mercy...