Hi, friends. I am Annie F. Downs. Let's read the Gospels. The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament, the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

These are the stories of Jesus Christ's life on earth, the friendships, the parables, the sacrifices, the meals, and the miracles.

So each month we read all four books in 30 days. If you're jumping in with us today, as we start the book of John, welcome, welcome.

This is the last of the four books for this month. But on September 1, we will start all over again. It is so fun.

So here's how it works. I'll read three chapters to you today. You can listen or read along in your own Bible, and then I'll pray, and that's it.

So today is August 24, day 24, and I'll be reading John chapters one through three. And this month, I'm reading from the message.

John 1. The word was first, the word present to God, God present to the word. The word was God in readiness for God from day one.

Everything was created through him. Nothing, not one thing, came into being without him. What came into existence was life, and the life was light to live by.

The life light blazed out of the darkness. The darkness couldn't put it out.

There once was a man, his name, John, sent by God to point out the way to the life light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in.

John was not himself the light. He was there to show the way to the light. The life light was the real thing. Every person entering life, he brings into light.

He was in the world. The world was there through him, and yet the world didn't even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn't want him.

But whoever did want him, who believed he was, who he claimed, and would do what he said, he made to be their true selves, their child of God selves.

These are the God begotten, not blood begotten, not flesh begotten, not sex begotten. The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.

We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one of a kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous, inside and out, true from start to finish.

John pointed him out and called, this is the one. The one I told you was coming after me, but in fact was ahead of me.

He has always been ahead of me. He always had the first word. We all live off his generous abundance, gift after gift after gift.

We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, this endless knowing and understanding, all this came through Jesus the Messiah.

No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one of a kind God expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day.

When Jews from Jerusalem sent a group of priests and officials to ask John who he was, he was completely honest.

He didn't evade the question. He told the plain truth. I am not the Messiah. They pressed him. Who then? Elijah? I am not. The prophet? No.

Exasperated, they said, who then? We need an answer for those who sent us. Tell us something. Anything about yourself.

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