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

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." - ROMANS 12:1 [KJV] If the Son of God has redeemed us by His blood, all that we are and have belongs to Him; our body, soul, and spirit are His. Nothing is our own; we are bought with a price. In laying down His precious life for us, He has redeemed us unto Himself, that we should be His peculiar people, and not only render to Him the calves of our lips, but give Him body, soul, spirit, substance, life itself; all that we are and have being His by sovereign right. He lays claim to them all, not only as our Creator, but as our Redeemer, having bought them by His precious blood. When we feel His mercy warm in our soul, can we keep body or soul back? Look at Abraham. When God called to him, and said, "Abraham!" what was his answer? "'Here I am' Here is my body, here is my s...

"Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless" [MATTHEW 22:12 ] . He had a garment, but not a wedding garment - one of his own providing; like those who have a righteousness of their own, of whom the Lord elsewhere speaks: "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the L ORD , that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin" [ISAIAH 30:1 ] . Precious Lord Jesus, clothe me with the wedding garment of Thy righteousness; and feed me with the rich food of Thy body and blood; yea, Lord, be Thou my covering, my joy, my all; that when at Thy church, at Thy table, at Thine house of prayer below and at Thine kingdom of glory above, the King cometh in to see His guests, my soul may cry out, in Thine own blessed words and with a joy unspeakable and full of glory: "I will greatly rejoice in the L ORD , my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He...

"Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: the archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." -G ENESIS 49:22-24 [KJV]   One would have thought that Joseph being a fruitful bough could have looked with complacency, almost with holy scorn, upon these archers who shot at him, but it was not so; "they sorely grieved him." To be sold by his own brethren into Egypt; the dreams and visions God had given him to be derided; to be cast into prison as an ungodly man through the very person who was tempting him to ungodliness, and there to be neglected and forsaken; how these archers had shot their arrows against his bosom, and sorely grieved him! It was because he had the fear of God, because his feelings were tender, that the arrows found a place. Had he had a bosom of ste...

"For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power" -C OLOSSIANS 2:9-10 [KJV] All that is necessary to secure and to complete our eternal salvation is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ [PHILIPPIANS 3:7-9; 4:19 ] . There is a completion or a complete filling up in Him, so as to leave nothing lacking in the sinner. In the Lord Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of God [JOHN 1:16 ] . He is perfect and the believer stands perfected in Him [I CORINTHIANS 1:30; C OLOSSIANS 1:22 ] . All that is lacking in us by our ruin and sin in Adam is abundantly, freely and eternally supplied to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, " where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" [ROMANS 5:19-20 ] . Christ's perfect obedience is our righteousness [PHILIPPIANS 2:7-8 ] . His sacrifice for sin is our atonement [ H EBREWS 2:17 ] . His Word is our instruction [II TIMOTHY 3:16...

It is of the utmost importance that we learn Christ, not the doctrine of our denomination, not how to live a better life, but to learn Christ, for He is salvation. The only way we will learn our lost, dead condition is by learning Christ. Then and only then will we come to Christ for salvation. •    When we learn Christ our Righteousness, then we will learn our unrighteousness and run to Christ "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" [II CORINTHIANS 5:21 ] . •    When we learn Christ the Just, then we will learn that we are unjust and run to Christ, who died "the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God" [I PETER 3:18 ] . •    When we learn Christ the Way, then we will learn that we are lost and come to Christ the only way of salvation [JOHN 14:6] . •    When we learn Christ the Life, then we will learn that we are dead and come to Christ that we might have life in Him [JOHN 10:9-10 ]...

"For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." - The Gospel of Mark 4:28 [KJV]   Faith, I believe, has in it always a measure of assurance. For what is assurance? It is merely the larger growth and fuller development of faith. The nature of assurance is much misunderstood. It is often considered something distinct from faith. This is not the case. It is merely faith in a fuller, larger development. The word "assurance" in the original has a very simple, yet beautiful meaning. It means literally "a full bearing;" and the word is applied sometimes to a large crop of corn or fruit, and sometimes to the tide coming in with a fuller wave. Now it is the same corn which grows in the fields, whether the crop be much or little; it is the same tide that comes up the river whether in a scanty or full flow. So it is with assurance and faith: it is the same faith, only increased, enl...

Only the Spirit of God can tear down the strongholds and idols of men’s minds. He does this by the “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.” Our responsibility is but to set forth the “word of truth of the gospel.” When that is done, something happens like that which happened when the ark of the covenant was put in the temple of Dagon. When they came back the next day, the ark, without the help of man, stood whole and the image of Dagon was fallen and broken. Oh they set Dagon up again as men do their idols but God brought him down again. We preach the gospel and wait upon God to do the rest. He will bring down every idol and exalt Christ in the hearts of His people!    -Gospel report by preacher Gary Shepard