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

" Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer." — Romans 12:12 [KJV] The gospel brings us from a hopeless into a hopeful state; but not into an independent one. We are never to expect freedom from trials and tribulations in this vale of tears; they lie in our way to the end of our hope, the enjoyment of God in glory. Faith takes hold of something that is material, and maketh the soul triumph in hope. Hope makes the soul joyful, and excites to patience. Tribulations cause a throne of grace to be prized, a covenant God in Christ to be sought unto and delighted in. In the rough waves of difficulties, in the storm of affliction, in the boisterous sea of temptation, hope is an anchor to the soul; when that is cast within the veil the vessel shall safely ride out every storm; though tossed, it shall not be driven from its moorings; it keeps the soul safe and steady. The grace of patience is ranged between the joy of hope and the constant e...

  The Day Zacchaeus Got Saved. Part II by D G Miles McKee Ref: Luke 19:1-10 [KJV]   Last week we looked at the man Zacchaeus. Let’s consider next, 2) His Meeting with Jesus! V3  ‘ And he ( Zacchaeus ) sought to see Jesus who He was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.”   When it says there was a problem with the press it’s not talking about the newspapers. It simply means that the multitudes had pressed in and around our Master and prevented Zacchæus from getting close to Jesus and seeing Him for himself.   Did the crowd stop him?  Of course not!  He wanted to see Jesus, and no one could stop him.   Zacchaeus was unlike many that I’ve talked to about the Lord.  They often have excuses as to why they won’t follow Jesus.  But Zacchaeus wouldn’t let any excuse get in his way. He didn’t, for example, try to find fault with Christ’s followers. He did not point to Peter and say, “He is a lou...

" I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection." —I Corinthians 9:27 [KJV] The neglect of this brings on leanness of soul. If this enemy gains ground, it is alarming; if he prevails, it causes mourning; but when he is kept low, and supplies are cut off, his power is weakened, and victory over him is easily gained. Such are the sensitive powers, carnal affections, and sinful inclinations which compose part of our present frame, the body; a body of sin and death. To gratify and fulfil them is very pleasing and delightful to nature and sense. But how awfully subversive of the comforts of faith, the peace of the mind, and the joy of the soul, thy own sad experience, O disciple, hath proved. Nor can it be otherwise; let us not deceive ourselves; we cannot indulge and pamper the life of the flesh but to the hurt and injury of the life of the soul. There is an irreconcilable enmity between the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new. The variance and strife...

"Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh." — I Timothy 3:1 [KJV] The truths of the gospel are undoubtedly great mysteries to carnal reason. We have naturally no ideas of their existence; but being plainly revealed by the Spirit of truth, they cease to be hid from our knowledge. They are no longer secret mysteries, as to their matter, but plain and open truths to faith. True, the MANNER of their existence is incomprehensible to reason. So they will ever remain mysteries to us. Therefore the sons of natural pride and human ignorance reject and disbelieve them: but the children of wisdom and humility esteem the whole mystery of godliness, every bible-truth, as precious objects of their faith. Blessed be God, our comfort and salvation consists in believing , not in explaining. The Christian, like the prophet, being born of the Spirit, is a "man of strife and contention with the whole earth." — Jeremiah 15:...

" The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat." — Proverbs of Solomon 13:4 [KJV] In the busy scenes of life, in the awful moments of death, the formal professor, as well as the profligate and profane, will desire to escape misery and woe, and enjoy heaven and happiness. But alas! how vain and fruitless are such desires! If these may be called good desires, 'the way to hell is paved with them,' saith an ancient father of the church. But in this, the wisdom of the children of God is manifested . They are diligent in the use of such means, which, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, will be crowned with a blessed end. They cannot rest in desiring, but in possessing; not in wishing, but enjoying. They find and feel their souls want continual supplies of food from Jesus, support from His promises, nourishment from His word and ordinances, and life from His Spirit. And as their desires are quickened, thei...

"If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." — I John 2:1 [KJV] In the glass of God's holy and righteous law we see what an unholy and unrighteous thing sin is; it is hateful in the eyes of a pure God; it has separated between God and the sinner, and tends to his eternal destruction. The gospel in no wise renders sin less odious to God, less heinous in His sight; far from it. Yea, rather it paints sin in the blackest colours, and shews its deepest malignancy, by the gracious method of its atonement. View the holy Lamb suffering for sin on the cross; see the streaming blood, and hear the direful agonies of the Son of God on account of sin; and say, O believer, is sin a little matter, a trifling thing? Learn daily sin's evil by its remedy—sin's poison by its antidote—the hell it deserved by the Person Who redeems. And ever, O my soul, hold fast this as a sacred truth, though God loves thy person in Christ Jesus, ye...

" God hath chosen us in Christ, before the foundation of the world." — Ephesians 1:4 [KJV] So the apostles wrote and preached, to comfort and establish their brethren in the faith of Christ, in the love of God, and in the sanctification of the Spirit unto all true holiness. The election of sinners, by God the Father in Christ Jesus, from all eternity, is the foundation from which all faith and hope spring. If this truth is rejected, the atonement of Jesus is made precarious, the work of the Spirit uncertain, salvation doubtful, faith void, the promise of none effect, and the hope of eternal life is made to depend on the will and power of weak and vile sinners, instead of the grace and truth of God. But in every age, men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, have opposed God's sovereign grace, everlasting love, and eternal purposes. God hath suffered it, "that those who are approved might be made manifest." — I Corinthians 11:19 . Humble, self-e...