The Fullness in Christ

Another devotional thought.  It seems everywhere I read and study the Word, the fullness of God in Christ and through Him in us keeps coming up.

30 August
by Daily Open Windows<https://www.facebook.com/DailyOpenWindows> on Thursday, August 30, 2012 at 5:09am ·
God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ. (Colossians 1:19 NLT)
Do not take these as just words. Do understand that in every fragment there is this truth: In the dispensation in which you and I are now living God has come to us in all His fullness. There is no more to be added. In His Son we have the absolute fullness of God, and it is out of that fullness that He speaks to us in His Son. God has only one Son in that sense - His only-begotten Son, which means that there is no one to come after Him. Therefore, God's last word is in His Son. The Son brings both the fullness and the finality of God. It is that which gives the solemnity to this whole Letter. It says: "If you fail to hear the voice of the Son there will never be another voice for you. God is never going to speak by another voice. God hath spoken in His Son, and He is never going to speak by any other means." Hence this Letter contains this word of warning and of exhortation: "Because this is the fullness and this is the end, be sure that you give heed...." To come into touch with the Lord Jesus is more than coming into touch with a teaching: it is coming into touch with a living, active Person. "It is God with whom we have to do." It is a glorious thing to come into touch with God in Christ - but it says here that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:31). No, it is not a book, a teaching, a philosophy: it is a living, positive, powerful Person....
 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!

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The On-High Calling - Chapter 10
http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/000975.html

The Ground of Resurrection

I am enjoying periodically a daily reading from T.Austin Sparks.  I do not get to it every day, but whenever I do, the 'deep things' of the Lord are revealed to me.  Today's reading touched me and here is a portion.

"Resurrection is not to be only something that happened with Jesus, but it is something that has happened in us and taken place inside of us. There is a counterpart of that by His risen Life imparted, that we have been raised together with Him. And that is not just doctrine either. That is real, that is vital truth and something to happen in us as well as in Jerusalem so many years ago. It is not just history and tradition, it is experience.... We have not only to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, but we have got to be alive ourselves with Him in that resurrection and on that ground."
(the author's italized and my bold)
If you get a chance, read the beginning of this and see why the author makes the statements above.
Grace and Peace

http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/openwindows/003344.html