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

"Jesus saith, Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God."   - John 20:17 [KJV] Why your Father? Because My Father. Why your God? Because My God. As His only-begotten Son from all eternity, God was the God of our Lord Jesus Christ; as the Father's messenger and servant, doing His will upon earth, even in His lowest humiliation, God was His God; and now that He is risen from the dead and gone up on high to be the great High Priest over the house of God, now that He is entered into His glory and ever lives to make intercession for us, God is still His God. This view of Jesus is most strengthening and encouraging to faith.   The great and glorious God, the great self-existent I AM, the God in Whom we live and move and have our being, the God before Whom we stand with all we are and have, the God against and before Whom we have so deeply and dreadfully sinned—this great and glorious God is "the God of our L...

  Built on the Rock  by D.G. Miles McKee   It is a Biblical fact that the true Church is founded and built upon the Lord Jesus. "Oh, but," says someone, “the Church was built upon Peter, for Jesus said, 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock, I will build My Church’ (Matthew 16:18).   Christ's Church built upon Peter?  Hardly!   Peter above all?  Bah Humbug!   Peter was doubtless a decent man but look at his performance.  He was the very opposite of a steady rock. A foundation built on that dear brother would be worse than shaky, it would be quite inept and useless.   Three times in scripture the Holy Spirit records Peter’s fallings. 1.   He fell in Matthew 16:21-23. Peter would have kept the Lord Jesus from the cross and because of this Jesus called Peter ‘Satan’ and an offense.  That’s hardly material to build the church upon. 2.   He fell in Matthew 26:74 where we read, “Then began he (Peter) to curse and swear s...

"Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" -John 4:29 [KJV] Those are sweet and blessed views of the Lord Jesus, which He Himself gives, when, by letting the poor sinner see himself, how wretched he is, and at the same time how glorious the Lord is, and how exactly suited to his wants and necessities, He makes the soul cry out, as this woman of Samaria did, "Is not this the Christ?" For who but Christ can read the heart, and tell all that passeth there? And as she found it, so all taught of Jesus find the same, that every true discovery of Christ must end in condemning ourselves, and exalting the Redeemer. My soul! there are numberless instructions to be gathered from this scripture, and the history connected with it.   Sit down, this evening, in the coolness of the shade, and look at a few of them. The Lord the Holy Ghost will open them to thy meditation. Jesus, we are told, "must needs go through Samaria." Yes...

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."   -I  Peter 1:3 [KJV] The resurrection of Jesus Christ was God's grand attestation to the truth of His divine mission and Sonship, for by it He was "declared to be the Son of God with power." It therefore set a divine stamp upon His sacrifice, bloodshedding, and death, shewed God's acceptance of His offering, and that sin was thus for ever put away.   Now, just think what would have been the dreadful consequences if Christ had not been raised from the dead, or if we had no infallible proofs (Acts 1:3) of His resurrection. There would have been, there could have been no forgiveness of sin (I Corinthians 15:17) ; and therefore, when the conscience became awakened to a sense of guilt and condemnation, there could have been nothing before it but black and gloomy despair. But...

"Unto me who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given." -Ephesians 3:8 [KJV] My soul, hear what the great apostle to the gentiles speaks of himself. He calls himself "less than the least;" a thing almost impossible in itself; but he doth it with a view to magnify the riches, the exceeding great riches of grace. And in the same moment that he views himself so low and abject, he is lost in amazement at beholding the exalted office to which he was called. So that Paul cries out, "Unto me," a poor, sinful, unworthy creature of the earth, "to me was this grace given!"   My soul, leave for a moment the view of the apostle, and make the subject personal, by looking to a renewed instance of that grace, most freely given, in a case as far surpassing Paul in the greatness and undeservedness of it, as the imagination can conceive. Perhaps every sinner feels the same; this at least is certain, all may well feel the same. But the subject ...

"Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies."   - Psalm 103:4 [KJV] The coronation of a king puts the last and highest seal upon his reigning authority. This made the spouse say, "Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold    king    Solomon with the crown wherewith his    mother crowned him in the day of    his espousals, and in the day of    the gladness of his    heart" (Song of Solomon 3:11) .  And what a day will that be when the anti-typical Solomon is crowned Lord of all. Thus there is a crown put upon the soul which is healed of all its diseases, and whose life is redeemed from destruction. It is as if God could not be satisfied till He had put the crown of His lovingkindness upon the soul, until He had Himself crowned the heart with His own love. And what is the effect? The soul puts a crown of glory upon His head. So the soul has the crown of grace, and God has the crown of glory.   Thi...

"My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise ." -Psalm 57:7 [KJV] My soul! Here is a delightful subject proposed for thine evening meditation, in the fixedness of the heart. The only possible way of really "singing and giving praise to the Lord" with the heart, is when the Lord hath fixed thine heart to the service. Many rush to ordinances, as the unthinking horse rusheth to the battle: not so, my soul, be thy practice. See to it, that He who alone can give a fixedness to the heart, hath fixed thine; for then, when the view of a God in Christ is brought home by the Holy Ghost to thy warmest and most devout affections, then, and not before, will there be a going forth of those affections, awakened and led by the same Almighty Spirit, upon the glorious person of thy Lord, and faith will be in lively exercise, in a way of praise, and love, and obedience, and joy. Then thou wilt sing and give praise "with the spirit, and with the unde...