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

In Us and For Us!                                                                                         If ever we are to be established in the gospel, we must learn not to confuse the work of God for us with the work of God in us!   The work of God for us is the work through Christ Jesus by which God has accomplished, completed and perfected our redemption (Romans 3:25-26) . It is this magnificent work which is the object of our faith. This work is finished.   The second great work is the work of God in us (Philippians 2:13) . This is the continuing, unfinished work of God´s Spirit. It is sad to observe the endless mischief that has been unleashed on poorly taught Christians who confuse these two works. They fail to grasp that it is Christ’...

"Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." -II Corinthians 1:22 [KJV] None but a sinner believing in Christ can say, God hath sealed me . But every believer in Him may truly say so. This seemed very plain from a former meditation. Do all believers alike enjoy the comfort of this sealing? No: no more than any one believer, alike, at all times, enjoys the comfort of it. This is a certain truth, “by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ”   (Romans 5:1.) Though every believer is alike justified before God, and is at peace with Him, yet every one has not the like sense of peace, nor any one, at all times. So it is of this blessed privilege of sealing.  But if it is not considered and believed, that it may be alike enjoyed in common by all believers, many will rest short of the comfort of it. And, indeed, this is the case. How few believers are crying, Lord! give me the comfort of this sealing.  I...

“Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the LORD  hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger." -Lamentations 1:12 [KJV] Dearest Jesus! I would sit down this evening, and looking up to Thee, ask the instructions of Thy blessed Spirit, to unfold some of the many tender inquiries wrapped up in this question of my Lord's. Whatever the mournful prophet's views were of the churches sorrow, when he wrote his book of Lamentations, surely sorrow never had its full potion poured out, but in the cup of trembling which Thou didst drink. And as in all the afflictions of Thy people, Thou wert afflicted, added to all Thine own personal sufferings, their's also Thou didst sustain. And where shall I begin, dear Lord, to mark down the amazing history of Thy sorrow? From the manger to the cross, every path was suffering. Indeed Thou art, by way of emphasis, called "the ...

"To be carnally-minded is death; but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace."   -Romans 8:6 [KJV]   Just in proportion as our heart and affections are engaged on heavenly objects, shall we feel a sweet savour of heaven resting upon our spirit; and as we can only give back what we receive, every going forth of divine life from the soul below is but the fruit and effect of the incoming of that life from above. Christ is our life above   (Colossians 3:4) ; and as He by His Spirit and grace maintains the life of faith in the soul, it manifests itself in gracious actings upon Himself.   Without this spirituality of mind, religion is but a mere name, an empty mask, a delusion, and a snare. God does not take into heaven, into the fulness of His own eternal bliss, those whom He does not love, and who do not love Him. It is a prepared people for prepared mansions. And this preparedness for heaven, as an inward grace, much consists in that sweet spirituality o...

"Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil."   —Ephesians 5:15, 16 [KJV] Light and life are communicated from Jesus to His members, not merely to fill their heads with gospel truths, as matters of speculation, or to make them fluent talkers about religion, but chiefly to affect their hearts, renew their minds, and cause them to be close, consistent WALKERS with Jesus. Without this, we only seem to be religious, and deceive our hearts, while our religion is vain: for we cannot stand approved in the sight of God, before men, nor to our own consciences.  "The wise man's eyes are in his head;"  he looks around him and sees the evil of sin, the vanity of this present world—that its gay pleasures, alluring pastimes, bewitching diversions, are the gilded bait of the god of this world, whereby he ensnares unwary fools to kill their precious time, and to blind and destroy their immortal souls! The wise man lo...

"When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." -Psalm 61:2 [KJV] Yes, Lord! I would make this my morning, noon, and evening petition, that the great glorifier of Jesus would gently lead me to Him who is a rock, and whose work is perfect. I know, dearest Lord, in theory, and can even reason upon it in seasons of coolness, that Thy strength and Thy security never fail; the failure is in me and my unbelief. And it is only when I lose sight of Thee and Thy promise, that I am tossed about with doubts and misgivings. If Jesus be out of sight, and thwarting dispensations arise, Oh! how soon is my poor forgetful heart ready to exclaim with the church of Old, " I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD."  Then come on the reasonings of flesh and blood. And then the question, whether my interest in Jesus and His salvation be sure? And then my poor heart goes forth, like the dove of Noah from the ark, having lost sight...

"That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." -Hebrews 6:12 [KJV]   Patience is necessary in order to prove the genuineness and reality of faith. The Lord generally—I may say invariably—does not accomplish His purposes at once. He usually—I might say almost invariably—works by gradations. Is not this the case in creation? Do we see the oak starting up in all its gigantic proportions in one day? Is not a tiny acorn committed to the ground; and is not the giant oak, whose huge limbs we admire, the growth of a century? Men and women are years growing up to their full stature. So spiritually. "He that believeth shall not make haste."  Faith in the soul is of slow growth for the most part; for the Lord takes care that every step in the path shall be tried by the perplexities and difficulties that surround it.   And He has appointed this that it may be a means of distinguishing the faith of God's ele...