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

" God left him to try him, that He might know all that was in his heart." -II Chronicles 32:31 [KJV] Hezekiah was a great and a good man: he had rich experience in divine grace. Still he discovered, that he had a sinful nature, and a deceitful heart. Though an eminent saint of God, yet pride and vain-glory beset him. I have been led to think, there seems a little of the spirit of the pharisee, in his beseeching the Lord to remember how he had walked before him in truth, with a perfect heart, and done that which was good in His sight (II Kings 20:3.)   At least, some of a self-righteous spirit, have been led to think from hence, that they have had somewhat in themselves whereof to glory. O! if we have walked well, and done well, we need not remind our Lord of it. If the heart be simple with its Saviour, it will not: for it was by His grace we did so. He Who gives us grace, can never be unmindful of its effects. We hear of Hezekiah’s sickness—of the Lord’s giving ...

Owned by Jesus by D G Miles McKee "Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." -I Peter 1:18-19 Among the many and varied meanings of redemption is the idea of making a purchase .  In Leviticus ch. 25, for example, we read of how people, upon getting into financial difficulty, could sell themselves as slaves to pay their debts.  They could then, at a later date, buy themselves back or if unable to do so, a near relation, a kinsman, could redeem them (pay to have them released).  Believers have been redeemed, bought and paid for, with a price, the price of God´s own blood (Acts 20:28). Do you know what we have been redeemed  from ? We´ve been redeemed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14). That´s excellent news! We were slaves to death, darkness and the devil b...

"For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living." -Romans 14:9 [KJV] And was this the cause, dearest Jesus, of all Thy sufferings, that Thou mightest be the universal monarch on Thine eternal throne? Then bend thy knee, my heart, and all the affections of my soul, and hail thy Jesus Lord of all! Now, Lord, I see through Thy blessed teaching, though a fool, and slow in heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken—now I see how expedient it was that Christ should suffer, and should enter into His glory. Yes, Thou art, indeed, Lord both of dead and living; the dead to raise, even the dead in trespasses and sins; and the living to live in them, and rule, and guide them. And as Thou art Lord both of dead and living, so, precious Jesus, wilt Thou be Lord over all the dead and lifeless affections of Thy redeemed. Surely, Lord Jesus, my soul may well believe this; for if, when upon the cross, Thou didst co...

"A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." -Proverbs 17:17 [KJV] If I may use the expression, we want not a dead but a living, not an absent but a present, not a once but a now Jesus; we want a Friend at the right hand of God at the present moment; an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and yet pitiful and loving Mediator between God and us; an interceding High Priest, Surety, and Representative in our nature in the courts of heaven, Who can shew mercy and compassion to us now upon earth: "Whose heart is made of tenderness, Whose bowels melt with love." Our wants make us feel this. Our sins and sorrows give us perpetual errands to the throne. This vale of tears is ever before our eyes, and thorns and briars are perpetually springing up in it that rend and tear our flesh. We want a real friend. Have you not sometimes tossed to and fro upon your weary couch, and almost cried aloud, "O that I had a friend!" You may have...

" Is it true?" -Daniel 3:14 [KJV] Note: read all of ch. 3 A question, this from a potent monarch, backed with a dreadful threatening: enough to have put Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego to the stand. Their answer must provoke their God, or their king. But did they hesitate a moment? were they at all in doubtful suspense? No: they had faith in their Lord; and they boldly replied, “O king, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.”   Our cause lies before our God. We are not left to ourselves. Our present life, our immortal soul, is in His hands. If you command us into the fiery furnace, our God will be with us. We shall be safe: He will deliver us. Either our bodies that we have shall not be burnt; or, if they are, the burning furnace shall be only a fiery chariot, to convey our souls to heaven and glory.  See the power of faith. According as they believed, so it was. The Son of God was with them: the fire could not hurt them. Hence, consider,  (1st.) ...

"Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” -Matthew 24:28 [KJV] My soul! these are the words of Jesus, none of which should be suffered to fall to the ground. No doubt much instruction is contained in this passage. An eagle is a bird of prey: and Job saith, that the eagle hasteneth to the prey as the swift ships, see Job 9:26 . In all birds of prey there is great sagacity, a vast quickness of scent to smell their proper food afar off; and thus natural instinct, added to a rapacious appetite, compel those creatures to fly swift to their prey, and to devour the carcase. Is there nothing in all this that suits thee, my soul? Oh yes: If Jesus hath given thee a real principle of life in Himself, which becomes a spiritual quickening from day to day, and from one hour to another, thy hungering and thirsting for Jesus will be as earnest and as importunate as the instinct of nature in those birds for daily food. Pause, my soul, and say— is it s...

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is ." -I John 3:2 [KJV] What Christ is to the Church, what the Church is to Christ, can never be really known till time gives place to eternity, faith to sight, and hope to enjoyment. Nor even then, however beyond all present conception the powers and faculties of the glorified souls and bodies of the saints may be expanded, however conformed to the glorious image of Christ, or however ravished with the discoveries of His glory and the sight of Him as He is in one unclouded day,—no, not even then, will the utmost stretch of creature love, or highest refinement of creature intellect, wholly embrace or fully comprehend that love of Christ, which, as in time so in eternity, "passeth knowledge," as being in itself essentially incomprehensible, because infinite and divine. Who can calcu...