<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="col+1:1-14">Colossians 1:1-14</span></span></p><p>Yesterday we saw that when we make it a goal to hunger and thirst after happiness, we get nowhere, but when we make it our goal to hunger and thirst after righteousness, we get everywhere. Once again Jesus touches on an aspect of good mental health when He teaches us through these words to focus on right goals. Those who study human behaviour tell us that everything we do has a goal. "We are not conditioned animals that act automatically and unthinkingly in programmed response," says a psychologist, "' neither are we the hapless victims of internal forces that drive us relentlessly in unwanted directions." It may sometimes feel as if we do things we don't want to do, but the truth is that everything we do represents an effort to reach a goal that somehow, albeit at an unconscious level, makes sense. In fact, one of the ways in which you can better understand why you do the things you do is to ask yourself: What's my goal? A woman I once counselled and who was extremely frustrated because her husband would not change to meet her requirements said to me: "My husband is so stubborn and obstinate that I just can't see any future for us together." I shared with her the concept that everything we do represents a goal, and asked her to put into words what she thought her goal might be in her marriage. Without a moment's hesitation she replied: "To change my husband." Her daily prayer was: "Lord, You love my husband and I'll change him." I suggested she altered her goal to: "Lord, You change my husband and I'll love him." She did, and instantly found a new freedom - and a new happiness in her marriage. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">O Father, I see what I need - I need to bring my goals in line with Your goals. Unfold more of this important truth to me as I pursue it over the next few days. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.</p><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><span class="scriptRef" ref="eph+5:1-16">Ephesians 5:1-16</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="ro+6:4">Romans 6:4</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="2co+5:7">2 Corinthians 5:7</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="ga+5:16">Galatians 5:16</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>How are we to live?</li><li>Do you make the most of every opportunity?</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

"And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way '" (v. 10) 

<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="joh+2:12-25">John 2:12-25</span></span></p><p>Yesterday 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. </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">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.</p><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><span class="scriptRef" ref="col+1:1-20">Colossians 1:1-20</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="col+2:9-10">Colossians 2:9-10</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="joh+1:16">John 1:16</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="eph+1:22-23">Ephesians 1:22-23</span></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>

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

<p><span class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold">For Reading and Meditation:</span><br><span class="italic">     <span class="scriptRef" ref="col+1:1-20">Colossians 1:1-20</span></span></p><p>Does salvation come up from mankind through striving, helped by the Divine, or does it come down to us from above, through the act of God and our receptivity of that act? Is it an attainment or an obtainment? The answers separate Christianity from all other religions. Non-Christian religions teach that salvation is the work of mankind; the Christian faith teaches that salvation is the gift of God - Christianity alone falls into the category of obtainment. Some people try to blunt the sharpness of the question "Does mankind strive to reach up to God or does God come down to redeem mankind through the incarnate Jesus?" by saying the answer is both. But by the very nature of things it cannot be both. The starting points are different. One begins with mankind; the other begins with God. Since the beginnings are different, the endings will be different. The whole of the New Testament revolves around the Person and work of Jesus. In some form or another He is on every page. A letter I received protested against a statement I made which went something like this: "There is only one Person around whom the universe can unite, and that Person is Jesus." "There have been good persons in history," said my correspondent, "why not unite around all of them rather than just one?" Because Christ is the meeting point of the human and the divine. No one else can hold that position. An Indian Hindu said recently: "There is no one else bidding for the heart of humanity except Jesus. There is no one else on the field." There isn't! </p><p class="center-it italic bold mlr40 mtb20">O Father, we want to thank You that when we couldn't come to You, You came down the ladder to us through the Incarnation. We are eternally grateful. Amen.</p><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><span class="scriptRef" ref="eph+1:1-23">Ephesians 1:1-23</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="joh+3:31">John 3:31</span></li><li><span class="scriptRef" ref="1co+8:6">1 Corinthians 8:6</span></li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>List some of the things that we have obtained in Christ.</li><li>What did John declare about Jesus?</li></ul></div></div>

"... he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead ..." (v. 18) 

<p>He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. § He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.<br><br>He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. § By this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him … Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. § We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.<br><br>You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. [He] made us alive together with Christ. § He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.</p>

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

 We know that we have passed from death to life. 

<p>The Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. § They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.<br><br>You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. § [Give] thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. § For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.<br><br>We are not of the night nor of darkness.<br><br>The path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.</p>

Evening Daily Light

 There shall be no night there. 

<p>God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. § As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.<br><br>If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. § The Father … has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.<br><br>You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. § You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden … Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.</p>

 Where is the way to the dwelling of light? 

<p>You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect.<br><br>These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. § For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. • [The Father] has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.<br><br>As sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.</p>

 Fellow citizens with the saints. 

<p>Suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” § Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! § The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father.<br><br>In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins … And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love.<br><br>The glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. § Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!</p>

 The Son of His love. 

<p><span class="bible-text "> <sup class="verse-num ">13 </sup>For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness   and brought us into the kingdom   of the Son he loves,   </span></p>

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness<cr>1</cr>  and brought us into the kingdom<cr>2</cr>  of the Son he loves,<cr>3</cr> 

Colossians 1:13

 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness   and brought us into the kingdom   of the Son he loves,  

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

 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,

<p><span class="bible-text ">For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness   and brought us into the kingdom   of the Son he loves,   </span></p>

 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness   and brought us into the kingdom   of the Son he loves,  

Bible Verse of the Day

August 27, 2023

Colossians 1:13 NIV

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