August 16
MORNING

The house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical.

Ye ... as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house. - Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. - Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. - What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. - Ye ... are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

I CHR. 22:5. I Pet. 2:5. I Cor. 3:16,17. I Cor. 6:19,20. II Cor. 6:16. Eph. 2:19 22.

EVENING

He is before all things.

The Amen; the beginning of the creation of God. - The beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre eminence.

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep; when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment. I was daily his delight rejoicing always before him. - Yea, before the day was I am he.

The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. - The author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

COL. 1:17. Rev. 3:14. Col. 1:18. Prov. 8:22,23,27,30. Isa. 43:13. Rev. 13:8. Heb. 12:2.