For Reading and Meditation:      John 8:21-36We saw yesterday that the phenomenon of catharsis comes about not simply through telling someone else our troubles, but when that other person is a warm, accepting and understanding individual. Psychologists believe the explanation for this to be the fact that the warm, accepting manner of the helper is so directly opposite to the harsh, judgmental attitudes of those who caused the hurts that repressed feelings easily surface and are released. What has this law of the personality to do with the subject now under discussion? A great deal, I believe. In Jesus Christ we find Someone who not only yearns for our trust, but is worthy of our trust. To sit in His presence is to hear words similar to those He spoke to the woman caught in adultery: "Neither do I condemn you ' go now, and leave your life of sin" (John 8:11). Such acceptance, such compassion, such concern, cannot fail to produce within every heart a willingness to open up those hurts and fears which have been so deeply repressed. As I said yesterday, I have witnessed on countless occasions this strange and mysterious phenomenon of catharsis take place as, in the presence of love and acceptance, repressed hurts and ideas are discharged from the personality. But beautiful and wondrous as this natural phenomenon is, it is as nothing compared to the glory and radiance that a person shows when they stand in the presence of Jesus Christ, the Wonderful Counsellor, and experience a catharsis that reaches, not merely into the outer regions of the heart, but to its greatest depths. To have such an experience is not just to be free - it is to be free indeed. My Father and my God, slowly things are coming into focus. I am beginning to understand what You mean when You say: "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Purge me to the depths of my being. In Jesus' Name. 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>John 3:1-18</li><li>John 5:24</li><li>Romans 8:1</li><li>Romans 8:34</li><li>Revelation 12:10</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Who brings condemnation?</li><li>What is the promise to the believer?</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

"So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (v. 36)

For Reading and Meditation:      John 3:1-17Yesterday';s point about God finding great pleasure in His Son is worth pursuing as so much hangs on it when contrasting the Bible with the sacred books of other faiths. It seems strange to me that God should have so much to say about His Son in the Bible and yet ignore Him when supposedly revealing Himself to the founders of other religions. Long ago, in India, I sat by a man who, when he discovered I was a Christian, showed me his English translation of the Qur'an. I spent several hours perusing it. When eventually I returned it to him I commented: "I notice that though it talks a lot about God (Allah), it never mentions that He has a Son." He looked startled for a moment and replied: "Sir, in our religion such a thing could not be possible." He drew my attention to these words: "Allah forbid that He Himself should beget a Son." I turned to the Bible verse which forms our text for today, and read him the words. We sat quietly after that, both of us realizing we had touched on the main difference between Islam and Christianity. My heart leaped in gratitude to God that He had an only begotten Son whom He was willing to give up for my sin and the sins of the whole human race. A God who has no Son has to rely on intermediaries to bring people to Himself. And an intermediary who is not God and not man cannot effect complete reconciliation. It would be like a wonderfully constructed bridge that is broken at the farther end. O Father, as I ponder John 3:16 I feel I am putting my heart up against Your heart. I want to feel its beat and catch its rhythm. For Your heart is here. I am so grateful. 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>Luke 22:70</li><li>Matthew 16:16</li><li>Hebrews 1:3</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What did Jesus confirm to His questioners?</li><li>What was Peter's confession?</li></ul></div></div>

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son ..." (v. 16) 

For Reading and Meditation:      Ephesians 2:1-10A Hindu once said in my presence: "A man may change his acts but not his character." He was saying that a change is possible, but not a vertical change; there can be improvement, modification, a change of attitude, but no deep radical change. The Christian church is not without a sprinkling of what yesterday I called "horizontal" conversions. Many historians have called attention to the fact that when Christianity swept through Europe, there were many genuine conversions to Christ but many horizontal ones too - people taking the Name of Christ for political or economic expediency. They were converted horizontally but still in need of a vertical conversion. When I was about fourteen years of age I was "horizontally" converted. I was a mischievous young man, and one day in church I made up my mind to be "a good boy." I tried hard to give up such things as swearing, stealing, and so on, but it didn't last. Although I felt religious, there was no great inward change. On a horizontal level I was converted, but not in relation to God. About a year later, sitting in the same church and under deep conviction of sin, I made a complete and total surrender to God. I was vertically converted. I walked out of that church feeling as if I had been turned inside out. From that moment my life was changed, old habits began to disappear, and my whole being was flooded with light. I tell you with all the conviction of my being, the vertical was much different than the horizontal. O God, help us not to be converted to the things surrounding Christ - religious rituals for example - but to Christ Himself. For if we don't touch Him we don't touch life, and there will be no deep inward change. In His dear Name we ask it. 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>Titus 3:1-5</li><li>Ezekiel 36:26</li><li>John 3:3-7</li><li>1 Peter 1:23</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>How is the change in a person described?</li><li>How is it accomplished?</li></ul></div></div>

"... God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions ..." (vv. 4-5) 

For Reading and Meditation:      Acts 4:1-12We looked yesterday at the statement to the effect that all religions are the same. We must watch out for such statements, for when they are repeated over and over again, and by seemingly sincere people, we can be brainwashed into accepting them. In 1966, when the first multi-faith service was held in an Anglican church in London, in which Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians took part on equal terms, some Christian newspapers described it as a "betrayal of the faith." Nowadays there is hardly a mention of such services although they take place regularly in different parts of our nation, and also in other countries. People seem to have given up the idea of syncretism - the idea that all religions can be fused into one - and are focusing more on pluralism-the recognition of each faith as being of equal value. I take my stand with Dr. Visser't Hooft who said: "It is high time that Christians should rediscover that Jesus Christ did not come to make a contribution to the religious storehouse of mankind, but that in Him God reconciled the world unto Himself." The words of our text for today were displayed outside a church in London until the minister was told by the local authority to take the poster down as it offended some local inhabitants who were adherents of other faiths. "It is not the best way to love one's neighbor as oneself" was how one critic put it. But how can we love our neighbor as ourselves if we make no attempt to share with them the knowledge of salvation in Jesus Christ?O Father, in an age when the faith once delivered to the saints is being watered down, deepen my understanding of it so that I may contend for it without being contentious. In Christ's 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>John 3:1-17</li><li>John 6:35</li><li>John 14:6</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What Old Testament example shows there is only one way to salvation?</li><li>What did Jesus declare about Himself?</li></ul></div></div>

"Salvation is found in no one else ..." (v. 12)

" Thou hast considered, Nicodemus, that except God were with him, no man could work such miracles as I have wrought. Thou hast considered, also, that one in whom such celestial power resides, must have a great deal of knowledge respecting the heavens, their marvels, their glories, their inhabitants. Thou wouldst fain hear me speak of these things, and have me enchant thy mind with a description of the amazing things that are found in the paradise of God. I am indeed a teacher come from God, nor is there besides me any one who, having dwelt in the heavens, has descended to the earth. But art thou truly in a condition to hear me tell of the characteristics of heaven? While I speak to thee of the purity of the angels wilt thou not be longing to hear of their stature? When I tell thee of their love, wilt thou not desire to hear of their ivory palaces? When I speak of the songs of the redeemed, will not thy thoughts be of golden rivers and gem-laden trees? When I tell thee of the absence of sin and of temptation, wilt thou not prefer to have the strain relieved by the description of a heavenly banquet? There is reason to believe that a description of the kingdom of God, or, if such be in thy thought, a description of the Messiah's kingdom, would convey no definite ideas to thy mind, and greatly fail to interest thee. Except a man he born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot appreciate the nature of it, or be wrought upon by the descriptions of it. Before the eyes of the blind, the picture were in vain held up. Believe the earthly things I tell you; the things already revealed; the things which relate to your present duty; and then you will be enabled to see in their true glory and beauty, the heavenly things. You must be born again; get a new mind, new views, new affections, new tastes, new perceptions; and then you will speedily discover the kingdom of heaven. This kingdom can not be seen from without. Men might lie all day beneath its crystal walls and pearly gates, without the slightest conception that there was anything near them of an extraordinary character."

A daily devotional written by a Baptist Missionary to India, Reverend George Bowen (1816-1888) over 150 years ago.

Bowen's Daily Meditations

" Except a man be born again, ho cannot see the kingdom of God." - John 3:3. 

John 3:1-15Nicodemus is well-known. His story has often been told. We study here, the beginning of his Christian life. It is the fashion to speak slightingly of his coming to Jesus by night. It is sometimes said that it was cowardly. But this may not be a fair criticism. Night may have been the best time for him to make his visit. It may have been the only time when he could hope to find Jesus free for an undisturbed hour's talk with him. We must read the story through to the close, and see if the subsequent mentions of Nicodemus, confirm the charge of timidity or cowardice in him. We shall find that just the reverse is true. It is said that he desired to be a secret disciple. If that was his thought, we know that he did not persist in this kind of discipleship - but that the time came when his secret friendship for his Master grew into majestic strength. We may be glad, therefore, that he came to Christ, even though he came first under cover of darkness. The end of the story, justifies its beginning ."I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." John 3:3. The heart of the lesson which our Lord taught Nicodemus, is the necessity of the new birth. The natural human birth is not sufficient. We must be born of the Spirit, or we cannot even see the kingdom of God, much less enter into it.That is, we are not fitted for heaven or the heavenly life - while we have only our old sinful nature. We would not enjoy heaven even if we could be taken up and set down in the midst of it - unless our hearts have been changed. A wicked man would not enjoy a prayer meeting in one of our churches, where the exercises consist of prayer, hymns, singing, preaching and conversation on spiritual subjects. He finds no pleasure in reading the Bible. Think of this ungodly man, his heart full of worldliness, without love for God, without the spirit of prayer - finding joy in heaven!To one who was speaking of heaven being so far away and asking how one could ever find the way there, the answer was given: "Heaven must come down to you. Heaven must begin in your heart." Nothing could be truer than this. Heaven must come into our heart before we can enter into the heavenly life. Our nature must be so changed that we shall love holiness, purity, and the things that God loves. This change can be made only by the Holy Spirit.A second natural birth, even if it were possible, would not effect the change. We would be the same being still, with the same carnal desires, the same evil nature, and the same hatred of God and of holiness. "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The new birth is more than education - the drawing out of the powers that are in the nature. There would be no improvement in this process. The new birth is more than the refinement produced by good society, by familiarity with beautiful things, by association with gentle and refined people. It is a new life which must come down from heaven into the heart of him who believes. Without this we cannot be made into the likeness of God.This new life is like its Author. "That which is born of the Spirit - is spirit." John 3:6. Like produces like. Everyone who is born of God - will bear the features of God's likeness. He will begin to love the things that God loves - and hate the things that God hates. He will be like God in holiness, in forgiveness, and in love.If we would know what God is like - we need only to look at Jesus Christ, for He is the image of God; and if we are born again, we will have the same features in us. At first they may be very dim - but they will come out clearer and clearer - as we grow in spiritual life. We can tell whether or not we are born again - by looking closely at our lives, to see if they bear the marks of the Holy Spirit. Do we put away sin and strive to live holy lives? Do we love the Bible and prayer? Do we love the pure worship of God? Do we love to be with Christ in Christian fellowship and in personal communion? Is it our deepest desire to have the divine features stamped on our lives?It would put strong confidence into our hearts if we would learn to think of Christ's words as eternal verities. They are not like any other words. A dying woman cried to the minister who entered her room, to try to comfort her, "Oh, give me a word that I can lay hold of!" She felt herself drifting out upon the sea with nothing to which she could hold. We will all need words of this kind - as we come into life's crisis places. Nothing but the words of Christ will then meet our needs.Jesus said to Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen - but still you people do not accept our testimony." Very much of human science is only guessing and speculation ; we cannot be sure of it. Every now and then some new discovery is made which overturns and sweeps away whole volumes of boasted theories. We have to be all the time buying new books - just to keep up with the times; and we are afraid to quote from any but the newest editions, lest there may have been some recent discovery which contradicts the older.But Christ's teachings are eternal certainties. He came down from heaven, where from all eternity He had dwelt, and He knew what He taught. We may accept His words without the slightest doubt - and may build our soul's hopes upon them. We need never fear that there will be a revision of these teachings - or that anything yet to be made known to us will contradict or set aside what we have already been taught. What Jesus said about God, about God's love, about the way of salvation, about Christian duty, about the judgment day, about the future life - is all eternal certainty. We may infallibly believe and unfalteringly trust every word of Christ - and be sure of these eternal verities.There is no other infallible teacher but Christ. "No man has ascended up to heaven." There are some people these days who take it upon themselves to question what Christ revealed about the heavenly life. They talk as if they knew more about these matters, than did He who lived from all eternity in heaven, and then coming to earth, told men of the invisible things of God. Christ's words to Nicodemus mean that there is no other one, that there never has been any other one so qualified to speak of heavenly things - as was God's own Son, who came to reveal Him. He was an infallible teacher and a true witness. There is no guesswork about the statements which He makes concerning God and God's love for men, God's will and the provision made in the heavenly kingdom for God's children. All manner of books have been written, telling us of "gates ajar" and "gates wide open," and we find whole volumes of guesses and theories about the eternal world. But these are of no value whatever when they go beyond what the Son of God has made known to us. We must turn to Christ's words for any real knowledge of the land beyond.The shadow of the cross lay upon the heart of Christ from the beginning. He knew in what way He was to make salvation for men. He says here, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness; even so must the Son of man be lifted up." The reference to the incident of the brazen serpent is instructive - so must Christ be lifted up. He referred to the cross - He knew He must die on it. It was at the beginning of His ministry, that Jesus spent the evening with Nicodemus. Even then He knew what was before Him. Why the "must"? Not merely because it had been foretold by the prophets. The prophets foretold it because of the necessity that He must suffer. Only by dying for sinners - could He save them.The way in which bitten ones in the Hebrew camp could be saved by the uplifted serpent, illustrates the way lost men can be saved by Christ on His cross. Those who looked lived; those who behold the Lamb of God shall live. Anyone who looked, whatever his condition, was healed; "whoever" believes on Christ, no matter who he may be, of what nation or color or condition, shall have everlasting life!

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

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

John 3:1-15

Jesus and Nicodemus

Truly, I tell you with certainty, unless a person is born from above he cannot 
see. (John 3:3 ISV)
This is something very searching for us as to our being 
children of God, being the spiritual children of the travail of Christ. This is 
not something that is extra to the Christian life, or for those who advance to 
certain heights and degrees. Right from our new birth, you and I, every one of 
us, ought to have a faculty of spiritual understanding and perception and 
knowledge that is possessed by no other person outside this Kingdom! We could 
spend much time in pointing out the tragedies that have come into Christianity 
because of failure to recognize or live up to this. I would go so far as to say 
that the largest proportion of all the trouble between Christians is due to 
either a lack of, or a failure to live on, the basis of spiritual understanding, 
spiritual discernment, spiritual perception, spiritual knowledge. There is any 
amount of natural knowledge in the Christian world: Bible knowledge, prophetic 
knowledge, and what not. But spiritual knowledge is a rare commodity; and yet it 
is supposed to be a constituent of our new birth from above, a faculty that we 
ought to have.
Now, if you are thinking: “Then woe is me – I 
don’t know much about that!” the Lord is simply saying to you: “Look here, this 
is yours by rights. It is not some extra thing to which you attain by struggle 
and effort, or by years of laborious Christian living, or by some specific act, 
some terrific upheaval in your spiritual life. It is a birth thing, it is 
a birth right: you have a right to this!” But it may be that, 
after all, you do know in this way, although you do not know that you 
know! You have a new sense, a new faculty, a new “something” in you, that causes 
you to know – in some measure at least – what is of the Lord and what is not, 
what is spiritual and what is not. But oh for the increase of that! It is the 
development of that, the increase of that, which is the 
apprenticeship in the school of Christ. We learn by mistakes, we learn by 
blunders, but the thing that we are learning is not something objective. We are 
learning inwardly that such and such is not the way of Life and we should do 
well to avoid it; and that such and such IS the way of Life, and that is 
the way for us to go. We learn it inwardly. It is a new kind of knowledge.

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

The Israel of God - Chapter 6

 Vision and Vocation 

Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. § There shall by no means enter it anything that defiles. § There is no spot in you. You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. § As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but 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.” And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear. §  Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and … put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. § He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

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

 Holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. 

We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. § Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. § At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise … But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, … having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

 This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it. 

Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. § If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. § Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump. § The new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name. Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. § Since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?

Evening Daily Light

 Behold, I make all things new. 

Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. § Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. § A High Priest … holy, harmless, undefiled. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. § The prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

 Shall the throne of iniquity … have fellowship with You? 

3 Jesus replied, <woj>“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. ” </woj>

Jesus replied, <woj>“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.<ft>1</ft>”<cr>1</cr> </woj>

John 3:3

 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. ”  

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

 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Jesus replied, <woj>“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. ” </woj>

 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. ”  

Bible Verse of the Day

December 19, 2017

John 3:3 NIV

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