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

"She said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table ." -Matthew 15:27 [KJV] Here is blessed reasoning. It produced admiration in the Lord: “O woman, great is thy faith!” It obtained a free grace grant from Him also: “Be it unto thee, even as thou wilt.” Great faith! How does it appear? We do not find she came to Christ in full assurance of faith; saying, I know Thou art my Saviour, I am assured Thou hast loved me, and wilt save me. No. Still there was great faith without this. Look at her faith. Imitate it. She honoured the Lord by it. He honours her for it.  (1st.) She was in trouble: she flies instantly to Christ. She tells Him of her sorrows. “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.” To cry to Jesus for mercy, under a sense of being vexed with a devil, is the prayer of faith, and honours the Lord of glory.  (2d.) Here are great discouragements. Christ answers her not a word. The di...

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life."   -John 3:14, 15 [KJV] Pause, my soul, over these words, and remember that they are the words of Jesus. Call to mind the wonderful event to which Christ refers, in the church's history in the wilderness, as related, Numbers 21:5-9 . Israel had sinned; and the Lord sent fiery flying serpents among the people, which bit them, and they died. In their distress they cried unto the Lord, and the Lord appointed this method of cure.  A figure of a serpent was made in brass, to which Israel was commanded to look only, and be healed . They who did so, lived. If any refused, he died. This was the ordinance of God. "Now," saith Jesus, "as Moses, at the command of God, lifted up the serpent, so must I be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Me shall never perish, but have eternal life....

"...but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." -I Corinthians 2:4 [KJV] In human reasoning, demonstration cannot usually be obtained except in mathematics, but not so in divine. There grace outshines and exceeds nature, for the teaching and testimony of the blessed Spirit is always demonstrative, that is, convincing beyond the possibility of doubt.  It is not demonstration simply we require, not demonstration of the word, as if there were some innate proof and power in the word itself to demonstrate its own truth, though doubtless it is so when the Spirit shines upon it, but it is the "demonstration of the Spirit."   This is very necessary to observe, for you will often hear the word of God spoken of, as if the Bible possessed not only demonstrative proof of its own inspiration, but was able to give that demonstration to the souls of men. But the demonstration not of the word but of the Spirit in, through, and by the word, is the thing wanted to...

"Behold, this dreamer cometh." -Genesis 37:19   St. James says, “The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.” - James 4:5  This is fully manifest in the conduct of Joseph’s brethren against him. Joseph seemed open hearted, simple, and without guile. If he had not told his dreams, he had not raised his brethren’s envy. But the Lord’s hand was in it: no thanks to them. Their cruelty to Joseph, raised him to the greatest eminence, and saved them from death by famine. Thus the Lord brings good out of evil.  Methinks I see young Joseph coming towards his brethren, and they looking upon him with an air of the greatest contempt and derision, saying, “Behold, this dreamer cometh!” There, that’s he, that we are all to bow down to, worship, and serve. Look at this mighty dreamer of foolish dreams. St. Paul, in enumerating the sufferings of the faithful, says, “Others had trials of cruel mockings” (Hebrews 11:36.)   Samson by the Philistines; Elisha by the c...

"For Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." -Isaiah 25:4 [KJV] Who so poor as Jesus' poor? Who so needy as the needy of the Redeemer? The world knoweth them not, because it knew Him not. And as the Master was, so are His servants in this world. But, my soul, observe how sweetly Jesus is all this.  A strength to the poor in his distress, by taking all the storm Himself. He is a shadow from the heat, the heat of the wrath of a broken law, which Jesus bore Himself, when He died to expiate the breaches of it. His blood and righteousness cool the heat of sin, and quench all the fiery darts of the wicked: these terrible ones which beat upon a poor sinner like a storm against the wall. Moreover, when the showers of wrath shall fall at the last day on the wicked, when that horrible tempest of fire and brimston...

"And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom."   -I Corinthians 2:4 [KJV] It is not the work of the Spirit to produce doubts and fears, but to overcome them. And yet we are continually subject to them. Infidel thoughts fly across the mind; doubts and questionings suggest themselves Satan is busy in plying his arguments; a guilty conscience falls too readily under his accusations; painful recollections of past slips, falls, and backslidings strengthen the power of unbelief, so that to come to a spot wherein there is not the least shadow of a doubt of divine realities, and, what is far more, of our own interest in them, is a rare circumstance, and only attainable at those favoured moments when the Lord is pleased to shine into the soul and settle the matter between himself and our conscience.  But these very doubts, these very questionings, these cutting, killing fears, these anxious surmisings work together for good, and are merc...

It Is Finished! Part II   by D G Miles McKee Here’s more good news about Christ’s Finished Work … All that the Lord did in that work, He did as our substitute . This is one of many ways Jesus demonstrates His Love for His people. He was born  for us  (Isaiah 9:6)- Consider this, the eternal God entered time and history in the person of His Son. The Creator became a creature. What immense love. He humbled Himself, yet the world scorned Him. He humbled Himself, but they called Him Beelzebub. He humbled Himself, but they called Him a bastard … an illegitimate child. He humbled Himself, but they said He was merely "the carpenter's son." At His trial one man could only refer to Him as "this fellow" (Matthew 26:61) . He was born for us, but more than that,   Also, He Lived for Us! Paul says, "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich." II ...