While visiting somewhere recently a lady from our congregation said the preacher announced his subject, it was; “God needs your help”. She told her husband, no God doesn’t need our help, we need His, naturally they left. Who is in need, God or us? Who needs help God or us? Who is helpless, God or us? You and I are tossed about by many things and are often are moved by situations, and circumstances, NOT GOD. We have to make contingency plans, NOT GOD. God is not moved by anything, He is not troubled by troubles, He has never made a contingency plan. He declared “...the end from the beginning, saying all my counsel stand and I will do all my pleasure” (Isa.46:9-10). What would make anyone say, “God needs your help”? Is it because they don’t know God? I challenge anyone to find in God’s Word where He needs our help. What kind of god would need help from us? He would indeed be a sorry excuse for god. The God of the Bible didn’t need any help when He created the universe. He didn’t need any help when He created man. He didn’t need any help when He sent His Son into the world to assume flesh. Christ didn’t need any help when “He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, he by himself purged our sins, and set down on the right hand of majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3- 9:26) Salvation is wholly of God. If a man is saved from his sins, God must do all the saving, without any help or co-operation from you or me. To say that Christ died for all men is totally contrary to what the Bible teaches. John 10 says that Christ laid down His life for the sheep, not the goats. That He gives His sheep “eternal life and they shall never perish,” did Christ tell the truth? Eternal life is a gift, purchased by the Blood of Christ for His sheep, He said plainly; “I lay down my life for the sheep”. If eternal life is a gift, it is not bartered, not sold, not earned as a wage, not merited as a prize, nor won as a crown. It is freely given and sovereignly bestowed. Christ said; “I know my sheep,” He knows them personally, affectionately, eternally, “they shall never perish”, to say that one for whom Christ died would end up perishing is to make Christ a liar. To say He gives them “eternal life” and that eternal life can end is a contradiction in terms. Christ said the sheep would “follow me”, there are no exceptions made, He doesn’t say, “they ought” to follow me, He says they do! This life is GIVEN to them, they did nothing to merit it, and they can do nothing to demerit it. I truly feel sorry for people who are trying to earn salvation, who are “working” their way to heaven, and have never found the sweet rest that is in Christ. Don Bell