Daily Bible Notes: April, 2nd
The following daily bible notes for every day of the year, are taken from six public domain sources:
- "Morning and Evening" by Charles H.Spurgeon
- "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by John H.Jowett
- "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
- "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by Charles H.Spurgeon
- "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan
- An Evening Meditation from "Searchlights from the Word" by G. Campbell Morgan
1. "Morning and Evening" by C.H.Spurgeon
Morning
He answered him to never a word.
Matthew 27:14
He had never been slow of speech when He could bless the sons of men, but He would not say a single word for Himself. "Never man spake like this Man," and never man was silent like Him. Was this singular silence the index of His perfect self-sacrifice ? Did it show that He would not utter a word to stay the slaughter of His sacred person, which He had dedicated as an offering for us? Had He so entirely surrendered Himself that He would not interfere in His own behalf, even in the minutest degree, but be bound and slain an unstruggling, uncomplaining victim? Was this silence a type of the defenselessness of sin ? Nothing can be said in palliation or excuse of human guilt; and, therefore, He who bore its whole weight stood speechless before His judge. Is not patient silence the best reply to a gainsaying world ? Calm endurance answers some questions infinitely more conclusively than the loftiest eloquence. The best apologists for Christianity in the early days were its martyrs. The anvil breaks a host of hammers by quietly bearing their blows. Did not the silent Lamb of God furnish us with a grand example of wisdom ? Where every word was occasion for new blasphemy, it was the line of duty to afford no fuel for the flame of sin. The ambiguous and the false, the unworthy and mean, will ere long overthrow and confute themselves, and therefore the true can afford to be quiet, and finds silence to be its wisdom. Evidently our Lord, by His silence, furnished a remarkable fulfillment of prophecy . A long defence of Himself would have been contrary to Isaiah’s prediction. "He is led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth." By His quiet He conclusively proved Himself to be the true Lamb of God. As such we salute Him this morning.
Be with us, Jesus, and in the silence of our heart, let us hear the voice of Thy love.
Evening
He shall see His seed; He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
Isaiah 53:10
Plead for the speedy fulfilment of this promise, all ye who love the Lord.
It is easy work to pray when we are grounded and bottomed, as to our desires, upon God’s own promise. How can He that gave the word refuse to keep it? Immutable veracity cannot demean itself by a lie, and eternal faithfulness cannot degrade itself by neglect. God must bless His Son, His covenant binds Him to it. That which the Spirit prompts us to ask for Jesus, is that which God decrees to give Him. Whenever you are praying for the kingdom of Christ, let your eyes behold the dawning of the blessed day which draweth near, when the Crucified shall receive His coronation in the place where men rejected Him. Courage, you that prayerfully work and toil for Christ with success of the very smallest kind, it shall not be so always; better times are before you. Your eyes cannot see the blissful future: borrow the telescope of faith; wipe the misty breath of your doubts from the glass; look through it and behold the coming glory. Reader, let us ask, do you make this your constant prayer? Remember that the same Christ who tells us to say, "Give us this day our daily bread," had first given us this petition, "Hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Let not your prayers be all concerning your own sins, your own wants, your own imperfections, your own trials, but let them climb the starry ladder, and get up to Christ Himself, and then, as you draw nigh to the blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, offer this prayer continually, "Lord, extend the kingdom of Thy dear Son."
Such a petition, fervently presented, will elevate the spirit of all your devotions. Mind that you prove the sincerity of your prayer by labouring to promote the Lord’s glory.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the LORD's arm been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn't respect him.
4 Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn't open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn't open his mouth.
8 He was taken away by oppression and judgement. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
9 They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the LORD's pleasure will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
"ON HIM!"
"The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
Let me tell a dream which was given by night to one of my dearest friends. He beheld a stupendous range of glorious sun-lit mountains, with their lower slopes enfolded in white mist. "Lord," he cried, "I pray that I may dwell upon those heights!" "Thou must first descend into the vale," a voice replied.
Into the vale he went. And down there he found himself surrounded with all manner of fierce, ugly, loathsome things. As he looked upon them he saw that they were the incarnations of his own sins! There they were, sins long ago committed, showing their threatening teeth before him!
Then he heard some One approaching, and instinctively he knew it was the Lord! And he felt so ashamed that he drew a cloak over his face, and stood in silence. And the Presence came nearer and nearer, until He, too, stood silent. After a while my friend mastered sufficient courage to lift the corner of his cloak and look out upon the Presence: and lo! all the loathsome things were on Him!
"The Lord had laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
April 2nd.
Holy God, teach me this day how to worship! May my soul be upon its knees! May I discern Thy presence, and be filled with
holy reverence and fear! Teach me to pray!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
1 Timothy 4:15
This is, practically, a promise that, by diligent meditation and the giving up of our whole mind to our work for the Lord, we shall make a progress which all can see. Not by hasty reading, but by deep meditation, we profit by the Word of God. Not by doing a great deal of work in a slovenly manner, but by giving our best thought to what we attempt, we shall get real profit. "In all labour there is profit," but not in fuss and hurry without true heart-energy.
If we divide ourselves between God and mammon, or Christ and self, we shall make no progress. We must give ourselves wholly to holy things, or else we shall be poor traders in heavenly business, and at our stock-taking no profit will be shown.
Am I a minister? Let me be a minister wholly, and not spend my energies upon secondary concerns. What have I to do with party politics, or vain amusements? Am I a Christian? Let me make my service of Jesus my occupation, my life-work, my one pursuit. We must be in-and-in with Jesus, and then out-and-out for Jesus, or else we shall make neither progress nor profit, and neither the church nor the world will feel that forceful influence which the Lord would have us exercise.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him.
Psalm 42:5
We live in the springtime of spiritual things, because Jesus died and rose. The summer and the autumn are not yet. The sunlit glory and golden fruitage are our hope, but they come through this awakening of the spring. Our winter is over. It had its place and value, that long, dreary stretch of the centuries, in which for the earth at least the only colour was that of prophetic pictures and the singing of that constrained and imprisoned psalmist.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:4
If the words: "Ye shall be My witnesses," reveal the mission of the Church, and the method by which she is to fulfil that mission, these declare the secret of her power. It is a power which is hers by gift, and is not in any sense her own, except as it is thus bestowed. This is a distinction which it is of the utmost importance that we never forget. As the Church has grown she has ever been enriched by the natural abilities of all her members. Those wonderful capacities resident within human lives are all needed and must be dedicated to the work of witnessing. But none of them is of any use whatever apart from the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the Spirit means fullness of the very life of Christ concerning which witness is to be borne. That fullness of life possesses and employs all natural capacities, so that through them the things of the mind of Christ may be made known to men, the things of the heart of Christ may be persuasive among men, and the things of the will of Christ may be prevailing in men. This is the wonder and glory of the Spirit-filled life. All natural gifts, which in themselves are powerless to witness for Christ, are by the Spirit cleansed, energized, and directed, so that they may become the media through which Christ is made known. The story of the Acts, and of the whole Church, in so far as it is the story of the victories of Christ, is the story of the capture and employment of all natural human capacities by Christ through His Holy Spirit.
Note: To the best of our knowledge we are of the understanding that the above material, all published before 1926 and freely available elsewhere on the internet in various formats, is in the public domain.