For Reading and Meditation:      John 2:12-25Yesterday we touched on the statement of a psychiatrist, Dr James Fisher, who said that when searching for the positive attitudes which made for good mental health, he came across the Beatitudes and realised that he need search no longer. After nearly fifty years' experience of helping people with mental, emotional and physical problems he concluded: "If you were to take the total sum of all authoritative articles ever written by the most qualified of psychologists and psychiatrists on the subject of mental hygiene - if you were to combine them and refine them and cleave out the excess verbiage - if you were to take the whole of the meat and none of the parsley, and if you were to have these unadulterated bits of pure scientific knowledge concisely expressed by the most capable of living poets, you would have an awkward and incomplete summation of our Lord's Beatitudes - and it would suffer immeasurably through comparison." Dr Raymond Cramer, a minister and a Christian psychologist, says something similar when he describes the Beatitudes as "the psychology of Jesus". Some may find that expression unacceptable when applied to the Beatitudes, but remember, this is a scientist who is speaking. In studying the laws of human behaviour and seeking to discover what brings a person to his highest point of integration, he came to see that the words of Jesus in the Beatitudes are the clearest and most succinct expression of the principles by which a person can know contentment and inner happiness. In an age which is fascinated with the study of human behaviour, there is only one true psychology - the psychology of Jesus. Father, I see that psychology, as well as all other "-ologies", are only valid as they are brought to Your feet. Show me, dear Lord, not just how to live, but how to live abundantly. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Colossians 1:1-20</li><li>Colossians 2:9-10</li><li>John 1:16</li><li>Ephesians 1:22-23</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Where is fulness found?</li><li>What does this mean for us?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

"He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man." (v. 25)

For Reading and Meditation:      John 1:1-18We continue meditating on the fact that the Christian faith is unique in that it is the Word not of a prophet but of the Son of God Himself. And when I refer to the Son of God I mean also God the Son. The Son is as much God as God Himself. One commentator says of the verse before us today: "If I were to put my finger on the most important verse in Scripture I would unhesitatingly put my finger on this one: 'And the Word became flesh.' " This verse has been described as "The Great Divide," because no other religion can claim that the word they received from God became flesh. In all other religions the essential element is a word become word - a philosophy, a moralistic system, and so on. Only in Christianity does God appear in human form; the Word become flesh. Early in my career as a minister I found that whenever I tried to present the Christian gospel to people of other faiths, everything I said brought the bland reply: "Yes, what you say is good, but we have the same teaching in our sacred books also." The Sermon on the Mount? Muslims have something similar in the Qur'an. Turning the other cheek? Hindus would reply: "Our sacred books tell us the same." Caring and sensitivity to the needs of others? Buddhists would respond: "We believe in that too, perhaps even more than you." Every issue I raised had its parallel. I was puzzled. Where was Christianity's uniqueness? Then it dawned upon me - the Incarnation. No other religion has anything like the Incarnation. O God our Father, just to reflect on the Incarnation is to be filled with amazement and joy. We are not knocking at the door of heaven. You are knocking at the lowly doors of our hearts. How can such a thing be true? Yet it is. I am so thankful. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Isaiah 9:1-6</li><li>Isaiah 7:14</li><li>Galatians 4:4</li><li>Luke 1:30-33</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>How did Isaiah depict the Incarnation?</li><li>What was the message of the angel?</li></ul></div></div>

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (v. 14)

These words tell us that there is a fulness in Christ. There is a fulness of essential Deity, for "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead." There is a fulness of perfect manhood, for in him, bodily, that Godhead was revealed. There is a fulness of atoning efficacy in his blood, for "the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." There is a fulness of justifying righteousness in his life, for "there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." There is a fulness of divine prevalence in his plea, for "He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him; seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." There is a fulness of victory in his death, for through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil. There is a fulness of efficacy in his resurrection from the dead, for by it "we are begotten again unto a lively hope." There is a fulness of triumph in his ascension, for "when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and received gifts for men." There is a fulness of blessings of every sort and shape; a fulness of grace to pardon, of grace to regenerate, of grace to sanctify, of grace to preserve, and of grace to perfect. There is a fulness at all times; a fulness of comfort in affliction; a fulness of guidance in prosperity. A fulness of every divine attribute, of wisdom, of power, of love; a fulness which it were impossible to survey, much less to explore. "It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. " Oh, what a fulness must this be of which all receive! Fulness, indeed, must there be when the stream is always flowing, and yet the well springs up as free, as rich, as full as ever. Come, believer, and get all thy need supplied; ask largely, and thou shalt receive largely, for this "fulness" is inexhaustible, and is treasured up where all the needy may reach it, even in Jesus, Immanuel-God with us.

This timeless classic from Charles Spurgeon will help to both start and end your day with wonderful insight into God's Word.

Charles Spurgeon's Morning & Evening

"And of his fulness have all we received." - John 1:16

Morning Devotional

John 1:1-18The first three Gospels begin on the earth ; the fourth Gospel begins back in eternity. There are no sublimer words in all language than the first words in John's prologue. They give us a glimpse of the eternal past and show us the Word existing then. In the beginning, before anything else was - He was. Genesis is the book of earthly beginnings, but this first verse of John's gospel carries us back far beyond Genesis. We find precious comfort in human friends when we can rest in their love and know that they are indeed ours, true to us and faithful. Yet all the while, as we lean upon them, we know, too, that they are only creatures of a day. They have not lived long, and their wisdom is only inexperience, their strength only weakness. Their love is liable to change and decay; their very life is only a breath, a mere comma in the great sentence of eternity. But in the friendship of Christ we know that we are in the clasp of One who is eternal - the same yesterday and today, yes, and forever.We are told also plainly who this divine Friend is. "The Word was God ." A word reveals thoughts. We cannot know what is in our friend's heart - until he speaks. We never could have known what God's thoughts about us are - if He had not spoken to us. Jesus Christ is the Word, that is, the revealer to us of the mind and heart of God. The Incarnation of Christ brings Him very close to us. In His human life He is one of ourselves, our brother, with feelings, affections and sympathies like ours. But when we can add to our thought and experience of Christ's humanity the wonderful truth that He is divine, it puts a marvelous element of strength and security into our trust. The Incarnation is God coming to us with a great heart of love, offering Himself to us. A great preacher says, "In the last analysis Christianity is nothing more or less than a great dear Figure, standing with outstretched arms." God is love, and He is love yearning, that comes to us in the Word.All divine revelation has been made to the world through the Word. "All things were made by him." One was showing an old watercolor picture which hung in his room. It was beautiful, but the good man said that nothing among his possessions was so precious to him as this faded bit of painting, because his mother had made it. Just so, everything in nature is made sacred and beautiful to one who loves Christ, when he remembers that his Savior made it. The sweet flowers by the wayside would be sweeter to us - if we remembered, as we looked upon them, that the hand of Christ painted them. This is Christ's world. His touch is on everything in it. Everything speaks of Him and of His love.Christ is also the source of all life. "In Him was life." He is the one fountain of life. No one in the world, except God, can produce life. With all his skill, man cannot make the smallest living seed, or create the most infinitesimal particle of matter. Science, with all its wondrous achievements, has never been able to produce life in even the lowest form. No man can make a blade of grass, or the tiniest flower, or the lowest insect. All life comes from Christ.Our lesson turns now to the revealing of the divine Word. First, preparation. "There was a man sent from God." He came as God's messenger, to prepare the way for the divine revealing. Each one of us is likewise "sent from God." We know what John's mission was. We may not know yet what our own mission is - but God will show it to us as we go on, if we are faithful. We may be sure, however, that we are here on no haphazard errand; we are really sent on some errand, some definite mission. There is some word that we were born to speak - and if we do not speak it, the world will be poorer, some life will not know God's message and will not know what God wants it to do.John came to tell men of the Messiah. "He came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light that all men through him might believe."Our highest duty in this world is to give honor to Christ, to show some phase of His glory. Some men in their self-conceit, think only of making a show of themselves, getting people to see them and praise them. The mission of every Christian is to bear witness of the Light, to point others to Christ, that men may believe. It was said of a great preacher, that wherever he went, people, when they saw his life, fell in love with Jesus Christ. They forgot the preacher - and thought only of the Master whom the preacher proclaimed, both in his words and in his life. John hid himself out of sight - and wanted people to see only Christ. We cannot save any soul - but we can point lost ones to Him who can save. We may bear witness of Christ in many ways. We may do it by our words, telling what He was and what He did for us; and by our life and character, showing what Christ can do for all who come to Him.It is strange that when the Son of God came to his world, He was not received. We would say that such a glorious being would have been hailed with highest honor. But there was not welcome for Him. "He came unto his own - and his own received him not." This was one of the saddest things about Christ's mission to the world. For ages He had been waited for and watched for - but when He came He was not recognized; He was even rejected and crucified. We say, "If He came now - He would find a warm welcome." But would He? He does come now as really as He came then. He comes to save us, to be our Friend, to help us in our need, and many of us turn our backs upon Him. He stands yet knocking before many a door which does not open to Him.There were some, however, who received Christ when He came, and to these He brought wondrous blessings. "As many as received him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." Here we have the way of salvation made plain. We have only to accept Christ as He comes to us - and we are led into the household, among God's own children. We need not understand all about Christ, about His person or His work - there may be a great deal of unexplained mystery about Him. There cannot but be, for the Incarnation is the most profound mystery of all ages. But we do not need to understand everything - all we need to do is to accept Christ as our Savior, our Master, our Friend - and we are led by Him into the full light. Then some day we shall understand. In the experience of divine love - our joy will be so full that there shall be no question unanswered, no desire unsatisfied.The beginning of our passage tells us of the Word existing in the eternity past, the Word with God, the Word as God Himself; now we come to the revealing of the Word: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." It is not said that the Word was changed into flesh - He continued to be divine. He became flesh. It does not mean, either, that He took up His abode in a human body merely - He took upon Him the whole of human nature, body, soul and spirit. We cannot divide the activity of Christ into two sections and say, "This the divine nature did, and this His human nature did"; the human and the divine were inextricably blended into one. When we see Christ's compassion, His thoughtfulness, His mercy, His kindness, His gentleness, these are divine qualities, revealed in human ways, through human life. It was all divine, all glory.Christ is the only revelation of God. "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father - he has revealed him." We never can know God, except through His Son. There is no other possible revelation of Him. Christ came in lowly form, and appeared to His friends as a man; but when they learned to know Him, when their hearts had fixed their tendrils about Him, they found that He was divine, the Son of God. If we ever see God and know Him, and enter His family as His own - we must accept Christ. There is no other way. To reject Him is to shut ourselves away from God - in darkness unillumined by a beam of love from His face.

A unique type of devotional from the writings of James Russell Miller, published between 1908 and 1913.

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

John 1:1-18

Christ the Life and Light of Men

Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for 
grace. (John 1:16)

It is a grand thing and a 
source of tremendous strength to come to the same position as that of Christ as 
Man, where we know that boundless heavenly resources are available. I think we 
only come there progressively, and not all at once. We only come there by the 
way of discipline - discipline which takes the form of bringing us to an utter 
dependence, but which is yet not an emptying and a breaking down as an end in 
itself, but one which is accompanied by that grace of God - that graciousness of 
God - which, when we are empty, makes His fullness to abound. 
There is a positive as well as 
a negative side. God is no believer in negatives as being the ultimate goal; but 
when He breaks and when He empties, He does something on the positive side which 
ever causes us to marvel, and we have to say every time: "Well, that was the 
Lord, not ourselves." We come progressively by that way of discipline to know 
that there are heavenly resources which far outstrip all human possibilities, 
and these resources are operative. This is what constitutes spirituality - this 
is what makes a life or service spiritual: it is the drawing upon heavenly 
resources, living the life as out from heaven. That is spirituality. That 
constitutes a spiritual life and a spiritual walk. The resources are not drawn 
from self or from the world; they are all drawn from above. The government is 
not that here of men or of the world, but that which is from above. Everything 
is so utterly from above - and so utterly not from man - that the life or work 
becomes spiritual as a consequence.

This devotional contains short daily portions from a selection of Mr. Austin-Sparks' messages. In his own words, “Perhaps this is just like a window opened into heaven. If you get the right window you can see quite a lot. You can see great things and you can see far things. But the best that I can hope is that this has just opened a window, and that as you look through it you are seeing one thing - how superior is Jesus Christ to all else, and how superior is the dispensation into which we have come, and how superior are all the resources at our disposal to all that ever was before!” Open Windows messages have been selected and compiled by Austin-Sparks.Net from the works of T. Austin-Sparks. In some cases they appear in abridged form. The introductory verse and its associated Bible version have been selected by the editor and did not always appear within the original message.

Open Windows

Boundless Heavenly Resources

From the fullness of His grace we 
have all received one blessing after another. (John 1:16 NIV)
When the Lord has blessed and prospered, how 
many people have not themselves become something? Here is a successful movement! 
Here is my chance! There is a laying hold of that work, and a turning of it to 
personal account. That is the history of things. The most dangerous time for the 
work of God is the time of blessing. You will always find people coming in when 
there is blessing, not because they have God's end in view, but because a realm 
of blessing means personal good.... The Lord is calling us on to the fullness of 
Christ, and sometimes on the way He may let us see the working of His power, 
that He is with us. The world may be against us, the devil may be withstanding, 
and the Lord lets us see in some little way that He is with us. And then 
alongside of that there comes the most awful peril, in that we snap our fingers 
at everything and everybody, and at the devil himself. We are supported by the 
Lord in the position we have taken! We are vindicated! That is a perilous 
position. The Lord may have to say, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven! 
Do not find any personal gratification in the fact that the demons are subject 
unto you!" It is all in the same realm as glorying in a wrong way in the 
blessings of the Lord. We have to go on steadily, and take our encouragements 
when they come, thank the Lord quietly for them, and get on with the main 
business, not staying to gloat over the fruits of the Lord's blessing in a 
personal way.
There is a great deal of ground covered by 
that. It is often a source of so much gratification if only you can tell people 
of the success that is coming to you in the work of the Lord, how many people 
are coming, how many souls are being saved, how you are being used, how the 
Lord's seal is upon you. All unconsciously we take hold of the honor for our 
own flesh. The Lord has to hide so much from us, because it is dangerous for us; 
our flesh makes it dangerous. We shall be tried by blessing as well as by 
adversity. The keenest fires of trial are often those of success or prosperity. 
Such tests discover whether our hearts are fixed upon the Lord or upon things.

Partnership with Christ - Chapter 2

 The Danger of Blessings 

The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. § God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. § [He is] far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. § By Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. § And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. § Of His fullness we have all received.

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Morning Daily Light

 It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. § Saved by His life. Our … Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. § As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. § In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him. § Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

 God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities. 

This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. § Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things. § If children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. I and My Father are one. § The Father is in Me, and I in Him. § My Father and your Father, and … My God and your God. § I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one. The church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

 Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. § It pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. § Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. You anoint my head with oil. § The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

 You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. 

Mount Sion (that is, Hermon). § There the Lord commanded the blessing—life forevermore. I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as rain- drops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. § As the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. God does not give the Spirit by measure. § And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. § It is like the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard … of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments.

Evening Daily Light

 The Dew of Hermon. 

You 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 become rich. § Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. § My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. § God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? § Not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

 Poor, yet making many rich. 

16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

Out of his fullness<cr>1</cr> we have all received grace<cr>2</cr> in place of grace already given.

John 1:16

 16 Out of his fullness   we have all received grace   in place of grace already given.

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 Out of his fullness  we have all received grace  in place of grace already given.

Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.

 Out of his fullness   we have all received grace   in place of grace already given.

Bible Verse of the Day

August 24, 2016

John 1:16 NIV

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