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

"And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.” -Psalm 106:15  [KJV] Here is a very solemn subject to exercise the mind of a child of God. My soul, take it for thine own exercise this evening. In the part of the church's history alluded to, it should seem that they were just arrived on the borders of Canaan: they had been all along fed and sustained by God's bounty; and the manna, as usual, came fresh and pure from heaven every morning; but tired and dissatisfied with the table of God's providing, they demanded flesh to eat, and the Lord gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. Happy would it have been for the church of God, if such rebellions had been confined to that period of its history. But, alas! in all ages, God's children too often manifest the like temper.     My soul! bring the subject home; thy God, thy Jesus, hath appointed thee the very path best suited for thee. Had a synod of angels been convened to choose wha...

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."   -I Peter 1:13 [KJV] Hope chiefly regards  "the end;" —for that is "better than the beginning," the crowning consummation of all that faith believes, hope expects, and love enjoys. But through what dark and gloomy seasons has hope often to look before this end comes, being sometimes sunk so low as almost to despair even of life! How it has in these low spots to muster all its evidences, look back to this and that Ebenezer, this and that hill Mizar, this and that deliverance, manifestation, and blessing; how it has to hang upon the word of promise, cry out for help, and that mightily, as if at its last breath, and hope against hope in the very face of unbelief, infidelity, and despair.  An end must come to all our struggles, trials, exercises, afflictions, and conflicts.    We shall not be always struggl...

Weekend Gospel message to follow for All Hands (18-20MAR22) Heads-Up --- Please find enclosed encouragement in SO GREAT SALVATION by the perfect and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ in saving poor, needy and wretched sinners by His sovereign free grace - God's unmerited favor - from our sins and from Hell: UNDERSTANDING THE GOSPEL “These things understood not H is disciples at the first: but when Jesus was  glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of H im, and  that they had done these things unto H im.” -John 12:16 [KJV] When the Lord is pleased to glorify and reveal Himself to us and in us, in  the way of mercy and grace, then He also gives us an understanding of the  gospel of Christ ( I John 5:20). Consider these four things: 1). When we see the glory of His electing grace (Eph esians 1:3-6), then He gives us an understanding, that had Christ not chosen us we never would have believed and loved Him ( II Thes salonians 2:13). ...

"The man which had the withered hand."   -Mark 3:3  [KJV] Surely the man in the jewish synagogue, which had a withered hand, will, in the history of his disease and cure, furnish me, this evening, with a very improving meditation. Do Thou, blessed Jesus, the great Healer both of soul and body, render it profitable, by Thy gracious instruction to my heart. This poor man had a withered hand, not only sinew-shrunk, but wasting away. He attended divine worship, for Jesus found him in the synagogue. But we do not read that he asked the mercy from Christ. It was Jesus that first looked upon him; and not he on the Lord Jesus. "Stretch forth thine hand," said the Son of God. Instantly the poor man found the powers of nature restored, the shrunk sinew became lengthened, and the hand which had wasted away, was restored.     Pause, my soul! look at the subject as it concerns thyself. How long didst thou attend the means of grace under a withered soul? And to this hour, had no...

"God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord."   -I Corinthians 1:9 [KJV] When God calls His people by His grace, it is to make them partakers of the highest bliss and the greatest glory that He could confer upon the sons of men. And this not only in eternity, but in time; not only beyond, but this side of the grave. He appeals, therefore, to them by His prophet. "Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness?" (Jeremiah 2:31) When the Lord calls His people out of earthly pleasures, is it for no other purpose than to lead them into paths of affliction and sorrow? Does He make them leave the fleshpots of Egypt to starve them in a waste howling wilderness? This was the complaint of the ancient murmurers, that Moses had brought them up out of Egypt to kill them with thirst (Exodus 17:3) . Does He take them from earthly delights to abandon them to misery and despair? O no!  He calls them even in this time st...

"And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy; even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning." -Isaiah 4:3-4  [KJV] What a precious scripture is here! and what vast things are contained in the bosom of it! Mark them down, my soul, one by one, this evening, and see what of thy personal interest thou canst trace in the whole. And first, who they are, of whom these things are said, namely, "the living in Jerusalem; even every one that is written: and he that is left, and he that remaineth." By living, and being written, can only be meant what the beloved apostle saith of being "written in the book of life." - Revelation 13:8  And of "him that remaineth," there is, as ...

  God’s Thoughts or Man’s?  by  D.G Miles McKee “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the L ORD .”  (Isaiah 55:8). A few years ago, a lady, dying of cancer, became very anxious about her place in eternity. As a result, she began asking almost everyone she met about their views of salvation.  She received various replies. One person told her to pray a lot and she’d be OK.  Another told her to do a lot and she’d be fine.  That person went on to say that salvation came by working for God and doing good deeds.  One man, on the other hand, went as far as to tell her there was no such thing as salvation.  He said that we are born, we grow up, we get old and then we die … that’s it.  It’s all over.  Finito. There’s nothing more beyond. A Christian then visited her. The sick lady, now bedridden, earnestly inquired, “What are your views of salvation?”  “I have no views,’ was the reply.  T...