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

"WHEREFORE  DOTH A LIVING MAN COMPLAIN?" - Lamentations 3:39 [KJV] I do not know who wrote this but here are twelve good reasons not to murmur or complain. 1. God commands me never to complain (Philippians 2:14). 2. God commands me to give thanks in every circumstance (1 Thessalonians 5:18). 3. God commands me to rejoice always, especially in trials (1 Thessalonians 5:16; James 1:2). 4. I always deserve much worse than what I am suffering now, in fact, I deserve hell (Lamentations 3:39; Luke 13:2-3). 5. In light of the eternal happiness and glory I will experience in heaven, this present trial is brief and insignificant, even if it were to last a lifetime (Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 5:19). 6. My suffering is far less than that which Christ suffered, and He did not complain (1 Peter 2:23). 7. To complain is to say God is not just (Genesis 18:25). 8. Faith and prayer exclude complaining (Psalm 34:4). 9. This difficulty is being used by God for my good, and it is ...

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree."   - Psalm 92:12  [KJV] It forms a beautiful illustration, which the Holy Ghost condescends to give of a true believer's state, as it stands before God, in the allusion not unfrequently made in scripture to that of the palm-tree. The direct tendency of the palm-tree is upward: it lifts its head, in defiance of all impediments, towards the clouds. Now a true believer in Jesus is always looking upward, and directing all his pursuits after Jesus. His person, blood and righteousness are the objects of his desire. And as the palm-tree is said to flourish the more when trodden upon and attempted to be crushed; so the believer most oppressed for Jesus's sake, will flourish in the graces of the Spirit more abundantly. How fruitful also is the palm-tree: and how much the people of God bring forth fruit in their old age, when, after long experience, they have found that in Jesus alone their fruit is found. How much the palm-tree...

  Good News for Believers : Part 2 by D.G. Miles McKee   Romans 5: 38-39,   “ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Notice the ‘ US.’   Nothing shall separate ‘ us.’   Who are the ‘Us he’s talking about?’ Last time we discovered that they were the foreloved, the predestinated, the called,the justified and the glorified ones. Here, therefore, is good news for believers … we can never be separated from the love of God.  There will never be a moment in history when God will cease to love us. Paul says, I am persuaded that  death  cannot separate us from Christ’s love. The long icy finger of death could grip any of us at any time …  no one is immune. But the cold clammy hand of death cannot separate us from the love...

"THE GOSPEL, my dear sir, is a salvation appointed for those who are ready to perish, and is not designed to put them in a way to save themselves by their own works. It speaks to us as condemned already, and calls upon to believe in a crucified Savior, that we may receive redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And the Spirit of God, by the Gospel, first convinces us of unbelief, sin and misery; and then, by revealing the things of Christ to our minds, enables us, as helpless sinners, to come to Christ, to receive Him, to behold Him, or, in other words, to believe in Him." -preacher John Newton (1725-1807 A.D.)

"Arise, and go down to the potter's house; and there I will cause thee to hear My words." -Jeremiah 18:2 [KJV] Yes, Lord, with the first of the morning will I arise, and go down at Thy command, where, by the secret and silent whispers of Thy divine teaching, I may gather suitable instructions for interpreting all Thy dispensations, both in providence and grace, towards me. Mark, my soul, the vessel marred in the hand of the potter. Alas, how hath our nature been marred since it came out of the hand of our Almighty Potter! Will the potter cast His vessel away? No, He will new make it.     Oh Thou glorious Lord! Methinks I hear Thy words in this, for Thou hast not thrown us away, but hast new made us, and more blessedly made us in Christ Jesus. My soul, art thou indeed thus new made, a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use? Attend then to thy proper character, and never lose sight of it. Refer every act of mercy and favour in thy ori...

"Without Me ye can do nothing." -John 15:5 [KJV] Dearest Jesus, I know this in theory, from Thy gracious teachings, as well as I know that I am by nature a sinner; but I am for ever failing in this knowledge, when I come to put it into practice. Teach me, Lord, how to preserve the constant remembrance of it upon my mind, that I may never go forth to the holy warfare to subdue a single foe but in Thy strength, and never make mention of any thing but Thy righteousness, and Thine only. Be convinced, my soul, every day, more and more, of this most precious truth, and behold it proved from all the circumstances around thee. See and remark the total inability either of God's judgments or God's mercies to induce the least alteration upon the heart of man, without His grace.     Behold the prosperous sinner bathing in a full river of blessings, himself in health, his circumstances flourishing, his children like olive-branches round his table, wealth pouring in...

"Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes." - Song of Solomon 2:15  [KJV] My soul, mark the sweetness and tenderness of this precept. Foxes no doubt resemble, in this scripture, the subtle, less open, less discovered sins and corruptions which lurk in us, like these cunning creatures, under a covering, and perhaps sometimes under a fair covering. Moreover, they may mean also false but fair teachers. "Oh Israel," said the Lord, "thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts;" crafty, designing, malignant, and filthy. And in proportion as they put on a more fair and specious appearance, the more are they to be dreaded. Satan never more artfully, nor perhaps more effectually deceives, than when he is transformed into an angel of light. Moreover, the precept is enforced by that important consideration, that vines, by which no doubt are meant believers, have tender grapes. What more tender than a weak consci...