Daily Bible Notes: April, 11th
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
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint.
Psalm 22:14
Did earth or heaven ever behold a sadder spectacle of woe! In soul and body, our Lord felt Himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground.
The placing of the cross in its socket had shaken Him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all His bones. Burdened with His own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general weakness were overpowering; while to His own consciousness He became nothing but a mass of misery and swooning sickness. When Daniel saw the great vision, he thus describes his sensations, "There remained no strength in me, for my vigour was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength:" how much more faint must have been our greater Prophet when He saw the dread vision of the wrath of God, and felt it in His own soul! To us, sensations such as our Lord endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come to our rescue; but in His case, He was wounded, and felt the sword; He drained the cup and tasted everydrop. "O King of Grief! (a title strange, yet true To Thee of all kings only due) O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for Thee, Who in all grief preventest me!"
As we kneel before our now ascended Saviour’s throne, let us remember well the way by which He prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink of His cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness whenever it may come. In His natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the spiritual; but as out of all His griefs and woes His body came forth uninjured to glory and power, even so shall His mystical body come through the furnace with not so much as the smell of fire upon it.
Evening
Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
Psalm 25:18
It is well for us when prayers about our sorrows are linked with pleas concerning our sins - when, being under God’s hand, we are not wholly taken up with our pain, but remember our offences against God. It is well, also, to take both sorrow and sin to the same place. It was to God that David carried his sorrow: it was to God that David confessed his sin.
Observe, then, we must take our sorrows to God . Even your little sorrows you may roll upon God, for He counteth the hairs of your head; and your great sorrows you may commit to Him, for He holdeth the ocean in the hollow of His hand. Go to Him, whatever your present trouble may be, and you shall find Him able and willing to relieve you. But we must take our sins to God too . We must carry them to the cross, that the blood may fall upon them, to purge away their guilt, and to destroy their defiling power.
The special lesson of the text is this: - that we are to go to the Lord with sorrows and with sins in the right spirit . Note that all David asks concerning his sorrow is, "Look upon mine affliction and my pain;" but the next petition is vastly more express, definite, decided, plain -"Forgive all my sins" Many sufferers would have put it, "Remove my affliction and my pain, and look at my sins." But David does not say so; he cries, "Lord, as for my affliction and my pain, I will not dictate to Thy wisdom. Lord, look at them, I will leave them to Thee, I should be glad to have my pain removed, but do as Thou wilt; but as for my sins, Lord, I know what I want with them; I must have them forgiven; I cannot endure to lie under their curse for a moment." A Christian counts sorrow lighter in the scale than sin; he can bear that his troubles should continue, but he cannot support the burden of his transgressions.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Romans 5:1-11
1 Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
2 through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope:
5 and hope doesn't disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6 For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a righteous person someone would even dare to die.
8 But God commends his own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God's wrath through him.
10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
11 Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
THROUGH DEATH TO LIFE
The Lord went through death to make a path to life. He descended into shame and suffering, and appalling desolation in order that He might "open the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers." And the way is now open!
Therefore, "let us have peace with God." Let us reverently and willingly tread the heavenly road, and seek the King's presence, and gratefully accept "the everlasting covenant." Let us go, as once rebel soldiers, and let us surrender our arms, and at His bidding take them again, to fight in His service.
And let us "glory in tribulation." If we are in the King's road, at peace with the King, every stormy circumstance will be made to do us service. Yes, all our troubles will be compelled to minister to us, to robe us, and to adorn us, and to make us more like the sons and daughters of a royal house. "Out of the eater will come forth meat, and out of the strong will come forth sweetness."
And, therefore, let us "joy in God." Don't let us be "the King's own," and yet march in the sulks! Let us march to the music of grateful song and praise.
"Children of the heavenly King,
As ye journey, sweetly sing."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
April 11th.
Spirit of all good counsel, fill my life with holy purpose. Refine my discernment! May I see the good and love it!
In all my difficulties make known to me Thy will! May I be a child of light!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for
they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:34
Truly, whatever else we do not know, we know the Lord. This day is this promise true in our experience, and it is not a little one. The least believer among us knows God in Christ Jesus. Not as fully as we desire; but yet truly and really we know the Lord. We not only know doctrines about him, but we know HIM, He is our Father and our Friend. We are acquainted with him personally. We can say, "My Lord, and my God." We are on terms of close fellowship with God, and many a happy season do we spend in his holy company. We are no more strangers to our God, but the secret of the Lord is with us.
This is more than nature could have taught us. Flesh and blood has not revealed God to us. Christ Jesus has made known the Father to our hearts. If, then, the Lord has made us know himself, is not this the fountain of all saving knowledge? To know God is eternal life. So soon as we come to acquaintance with God we have the evidence of being quickened into newness of life. O my soul, rejoice in this knowledge, and bless thy God all this day!
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Matthew 16:6
It is always but a step from formalism to rationalism, and if external things lack internal force they themselves will crumble to decay.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Men of Cyprus and Cyrene.
Acts 11:20
Who were they? None can tell. They remain anonymous. And yet it was their action which prepared the way for Paul's missionary journeys. They, coming to Antioch, overstepped the boundary of the Hebrew people, and "spake unto the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus." That action was followed immediately by the most far-reaching effects. That it was unusual, is proved by the action of the Church at Jerusalem which immediately sent Barnabas down to investigate. That it was of God, is proved by the action of Barnabas, "who, when he was come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad"; and after a while went away to Tarsus and brought Paul to his work. In the processes of this age of the Church's witness it is in the purpose and plan of God that men shall appear, whose works are manifest, and whose names are widely published abroad. But when the age is consummated many names unknown and unpublished during its processes will be made known. No man called to the places of conspicuous service has any right to attempt to hide, but every such man knows that his work is prepared for, and sustained by those who are anonymous on earth, but whose names are registered in Heaven. This registration, rather than our success in service, should be the cause of our joy, as our Lord distinctly told His disciples in the days of His flesh.
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.