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

"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." -John 3:3 [KJV] True religion begins with an entrance into the soul of supernatural light and supernatural life. How or why it comes the soul knows not; for "the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit." The wind itself is not seen, but its effects are felt. The sound of a going is heard in the tops of the mulberry trees, where God Himself is not seen. The voice of the LORD, powerful and full of majesty, was heard by those who saw no similitude (Deut eronomy 4:12) . Thus effects are felt, though causes are unknown.   Streams flow into the heart from a hidden source; rays of light beam into the soul from an unrisen sun; and kindlings of life awake in us a new existence out of an unseen fountain. The new-born babe feels life in all its limbs, though it knows not yet the ear...

The Apostle Paul instructed Timothy to “preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” ( II Timothy 4:2) . The “word” here is the Word of God (the Scriptures) as it reveals and pertains to the glory and greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ and the great salvation HE has attained for and gives to His people by the free, sovereign grace of God. To “preach the Word” is to “preach Christ crucified” ( I Corinthians 1:23) , to “preach Christ’s Gospel” ( II Corinthians 2:12) , both the glory of His Person as God with us and the power of His obedience unto death as our Surety, Substitute, and Redeemer, the Lord our Righteousness. All instructions in righteousness, faith, repentance, obedience, love, and worship are to be taken directly from God’s Word and not man’s opinions and preferences. Let us pray that our lives be motivated by His love and grace in Christ and guided by His Word as it is in Christ. -preacher B...

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." -Hebrews 2:14-15 [KJV] It is only because of the substitutionary death and resurrection of Christ that believers may face death without fear. Death, the penalty of sin, has already been endured for us by the Savior. In fact, rather than us dying, the Savior said to Martha, in John 11:26, "And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this? " When believers pass from this life, they "sleep in Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:14); the soul goes to paradise and the body sleeps in the dust, awaiting a glorious resurrection. "Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the everlasting dawn has finally arrive...

It makes the wounded spirit whole, And calms the troubled breast; 'Tis manna to the hungry soul, And to the weary rest. Dear Name! the Rock on which I build My Shield and Hiding-place; My never-failing Treasury fill'd With boundless stores of grace. By Thee my prayers acceptance gain, Although with sin defiled; Satan accuses me in vain, And I am own'd a child. Jesus! my Shepherd, Husband, Friend, My Prophet, Priest, and King; My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, Accept the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of my heart, And cold my warmest thought; But when I see Thee as Thou art, I'll praise Thee as I ought. Till then I would Thy love proclaim With every fleeting breath; And may the music of Thy Name Refresh my soul in death! -preacher John Newton

"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." - I Peter 2:5 [KJV] God's people require many severe afflictions, harassing temptations, and many powerful exercises to hew them into anything like shape, to chisel them into any conformity to Christ's image. For they are not like the passive marble under the hands of the sculptor, which will submit without murmuring, and indeed without feeling, to have this corner chipped off, and that projecting angle rounded by the chisel; but God's people are living stones, and, therefore, feel every stroke. We are so tender-skinned that we cannot bear a thread of trouble to lie upon us, we shrink from even the touch of the probe. To be hewed, then, and squared, and chiselled by the hand of God into such shapes and forms as please Him, O what painful work it is!   But could the pillar know, could it tell what the sculptor w...

"It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes." -Psalm 118:8-9 [KJV] On true doctrine rests the worship of the true and living God. From error in doctrine springs the worship of a false god. There is a tendency among many religious people to undervalue true doctrine, to exalt morality at the expense of the character of God and the teachings of our Lord, and to deny the importance of a sound creed. I do not doubt that a sound creed has often covered an unsound life. But when I hear it said, "Such and such do not believe the doctrines of sovereign grace and substitution, but they love the Lord and are saved," I wonder and ask, "What then was the Bible written for?" Is it no infallible expression of the mind of God? Is it no standard of truth? Are we to believe what appeals to us and deny the rest? God forbid! God's Word declares the oneness of truth and condemns EVER...

"Accepted in the Beloved."   -Ephesians 1:6  [KJV] We are ever looking for something in self to make ourselves acceptable to God, and are often sadly cast down and discouraged when we cannot find that holiness, that obedience, that calm submission to the will of God, that serenity of soul, that spirituality and heavenly-mindedness which we believe to be acceptable in His sight. Our crooked tempers, fretful, peevish minds, rebellious thoughts, coldness, barrenness and death, our alienation from good, and headlong proneness to ill, with the daily feeling that we get no better but rather worse, make us think that God views us just as we view ourselves. And this brings on great darkness of mind and bondage of spirit, till we seem to lose sight of our acceptance in Christ, and get into the miserable dregs of self, almost ready to quarrel with God because we are so vile, and only get worse as we get older.   Now the more we get into these dregs of self, and the more we keep...