There is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.
Isaiah 45:21-25
Many people come and go from the assembly of the local church. People decide to “go to church” because they are looking for something that will satisfy a need and make them feel better about themselves. If they come for a while and then leave, it is because they didn’t find anything to satisfy, so they are still looking for something to make them feel better.
A true believer has found Christ who satisfies the craving of their soul. A believer keeps coming back to hear the gospel over, and over, and over again because only Christ satisfies the desire of their soul.
Noah sent forth a raven and a dove from the ark when the flood waters began to recede. The raven never returned because it could live on the decaying flesh of all the dead bodies left behind after the flood. The dove could not, so it returned to the ark. The religious man is like the raven. He can live on the dead works of the flesh so he will not come to Christ. The believer is like the dove. He can live on nothing but Christ, so the believer is constantly coming to Christ.
Beware of any preacher who courts praise and recognition, who seeks light to shine upon him, who calls attention to himself, and does nothing to promote the ministries of other men. John Trapp said, “Self-love makes men unreasonable, and ever teacheth them to turn the glass to see themselves bigger, and others lesser, than they are.”
Ezekiel uplifted the name of Daniel (Ezekiel 14:14).
Paul promoted Epaphras (Colossians1:7).
And Peter praised Paul, though he had been publicly reproved by him at Antioch (2 Peter 3:15; Galatians 2:11).
Faithful men promote one another, but never themselves!
Pastor Don Fortner
When did the Lord first begin to deal with my soul? When, exactly, did I first begin to believe? When did I actually become a Christian? A child of God? I gave up tying to answer those questions a long time ago, as being totally unimportant. George Whitefield once said, “I have heard of a person who was in a company with fourteen ministers of the Gospel, some of whom were very eminent servants of Christ, yet not one of them could tell the time when God first manifested Himself to his soul.” It is quite sufficient to me that, by the grace of God, I do believe in the Christ of Scripture. And as a believing sinner I continue to pray for grace to continue to believe in Christ (Hebrews 10:38-39).
Pastor Maurice Montgomery
THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS
Few persons are aware that one secret of being miserable is to live only for ourselves, and one secret of being happy is to try to make others happy. In an age of peculiar selfishness and self-indulgence it would be well that we took this to heart.
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