OUR CONVERSION

1. Attend conscientiously upon the Word, or the means appointed for your conversion. Attend, I say, not from custom, but conscientiously, with this desire, resign, hope and expectation, that you may be converted by it. Come to every sermon you hear with this thought: “O, I hope God will now come in; I hope this day may be the time, this may be the man by whom God will bring me home.” When you are coming to the privileges of God’s house, lift up your heart to God thus: “Lord, let this be the Sabbath, let this be the season in which I may receive renewing grace. O let it be said that this day such a one was born unto Thee.”

Objection. — You will say, I have been a hearer of the Word a long time, yet it has not been effectual to my conversion.

Answer. — Yes; but you have not attended upon it in this manner, as a means of your conversion, nor with this design, nor praying for and expecting the happy effect from it.

2. You will never be turned from sin till you decline and forego the temptations of sin. I never expect your conversion from sin, unless you are brought to some self-denial, so as to flee the occations. If you will be nibbling at the bait, and playing on the brink, and tampering with the snare, your soul will surely be taken. When God exposes men, in His providence, unavoidably to temptation, and the occasions are such we cannot remove, we may expect special assistance in the use of His means, But when we tempt God by running into danger, He will not support us when we are tempted. And, of all temptations one of the most fatal and pernicious is evil companions. O what hopeful beginnings have these often stifled! How many poor sinners have been enlightened and convinced, and been just ready to escape the snare of the devil, and even escape it: and yet wicked company has pulled them back at last, and made them sevenfold more the children of hell! In a word, I have no hopes of you, except you shake off your evil company. Your life depends upon it: forsake this, or you cannot live. Let this sentence be written in capitals upon your conscience, “A COMPANION OF FOOLS SHALL BE DESTROYED.” (Prov. 13:20). The Lord has spoken it, and who shall reverse it?

— From An Alarm to the Unconverted, by J. Alleine

Courtesy Israel Information Service

“And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.”

“And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:18, 19.

A glimpse of the sea of Galilee. What a multitude of thoughts it brings to mind. The Savior walked on its sands and waters, and taught on its shores. He and His disciples crossed it on many occasions. We read of their encounter with one of the fierce storms that sweep down the mountains into the lake.

The sea of Galilee is a fresh water lake fed by the Jordan River. It is almost 13 miles long and 7½ miles wide and is 628 feet below the level of the Mediterranean Sea.

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