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

With humble hearts we gather here, And so begin another year; Another year, to us obscure, But by Thy grace we shall endure. To us the future is unknown, But trusting Thee we journey on, Relying on Thy providence, We face this year with confidence. By day and night our Refuge be, Cause us to always rest in Thee; To look to Christ for everything, And to His Name all honors bring. Without Thy presence and Thy care, To travel on we would not dare; Be Thou our Guardian and our Guide, And evermore with us abide. -Tune: "From Every Stormy Wind" LM Words by preacher Jim Byrd

Indulgent God, how kind are all Thy ways to me; Whose dark, benighted mind was enmity with Thee; Yet now, subdued by sovereign grace, My spirit longs for Thy embrace! My spirit longs for Thy embrace! How precious are Thy thoughts, which o'er my bosom roll! They swell beyond my faults, and captivate my soul! How great they seem, how high they rise, Can ne'er be known beneath the skies. Can ne'er be known beneath the skies. Preserved in Jesus when my feet made haste to hell; And there should I have gone, but Thou dost all things well; Thy love was great, Thy mercy free, Which from the pit delivered me! Which from the pit delivered me! A monument of grace, a sinner saved by blood; The streams of love I trace, up to the fountain God; And in His wondrous mercy see Eternal thoughts of love to me! Eternal thoughts of love to me! Tune: Arise, My Soul, Arise Words by brother John Kent

The reason we all experience so many disappointments in life is because SELF is first in all we want. We want what we want for ourselves and when we don’t get it we are disappointed. The nature of sin is one of self-glory, self-sufficiency and self-love. But this is also why we are so naturally adverse to and even offended by the gospel of God’s sovereign grace in Christ alone. In salvation, as in all things, the glory is God’s alone. In salvation, all is of God’s grace alone. In salvation, all depends on God’s will alone. In salvation, it is all of Christ’s work alone. Thus, there is nothing to satisfy this self principle in us! God must work in us by the power of His Spirit to show us the helplessness, uselessness and emptiness of self and He does it by revealing Christ to us. We see ourselves for what we really are when we see Christ for who He is. The Spirit of God takes the things of Christ and shows them to us. In His light we see light. In Christ we find ...

"My counsel shall stand, and I will do all M y pleasure." -I SAIAH 46:10 [KJV] There is one grand idea running through the whole of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation; and this one grand idea runs through every part of the sacred page, and, like a golden band, unites the whole together. What is this one grand thought? God has many thoughts as well as we, for He tells us that "the thoughts of H is heart stand to all generations." But we read also in the same verse of "the counsel of the Lord, which standeth for ever;" and elsewhere of His "working all things after the counsel of H is own will" (P SALM 33:11; E PHESIANS 1:11) . Thus in the mind of God, as well as in the mode of His subsistence, there is unity and variety. There is His one thought, and His many thoughts; for though His thoughts are many, His counsel is but one; and this counsel is the exaltation and glorification of His dear Son. It may be as well briefly to ...

“ I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations.”     - PSALM 89:1 [KJV] What was it which made David so desirous to sing of the mercies of the Lord? What was it that warmed and emboldened him at all events to make known Jehovah’s faithfulness from one generation to another? It was the glorious gospel of the blessed God, seen in the light of the Spirit and experienced through the influence of grace. Here is the reason for David’s zeal: “ For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever, Thy faithfulness shalt Thou establish in the very heavens” [vs. 2]. What is this mercy that is “ built up for ever,” but the glorious and the gracious scheme, the glorious and the gracious fabric OF OUR SALVATION founded in the eternal purpose of God carried into execution by the labors and the death of Jesus Christ and then applied and brought home to the heart by the illuminating and converting ...

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." -H EBREWS 8:12 [KJV] The sins of God’s elect are not remembered by the Lord because they were heaped upon Christ, as an awful weight, and He bore them away. Isaiah declared, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all " (Isaiah 53:6). "Laid on Him , " means that the sins of all the sheep were gathered together, as though one bundle, and laid on Christ. This was the heaviest of burdens, such as only God could bear. Our sins, having been made to meet upon the head of our Scape-Goat, were then borne away by Him, something the animal sacrifices could never do. "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). The express reason for Christ’s incarnation was to remove the gu...

"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the L ORD 's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is T hy faithfulness. The L ORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in Him. The L ORD is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the L ORD ." -L AMENTATIONS 3:21-26 [KJV]