Daily Bible Notes: April, 12th
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
My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
Psalm 22:14
Our blessed Lord experienced a terrible sinking and melting of soul. "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Deep depression of spirit is the most grievous of all trials; all besides is as nothing. Well might the suffering Saviour cry to His God, "Be not far from me," for above all other seasons a man needs his God when his heart is melted within him because of heaviness. Believer, come near the cross this morning, and humbly adore the King of glory as having once been brought far lower, in mental distress and inward anguish, than any one among us; and mark His fitness to become a faithful High Priest, who can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Especially let those of us whose sadness springs directly from the withdrawal of a present sense of our Father’s love, enter into near and intimate communion with Jesus. Let us not give way to despair, since through this dark room the Master has passed before us. Our souls may sometimes long and faint, and thirst even to anguish, to behold the light of the Lord’s countenance: at such times let us stay ourselves with the sweet fact of the sympathy of our great High Priest. Our drops of sorrow may well be forgotten in the ocean of His griefs; but how high ought our love to rise! Come in, O strong and deep love of Jesus, like the sea at the flood in spring tides, cover all my powers, drown all my sins, wash out all my cares, lift up my earth-bound soul, and float it right up to my Lord’s feet, and there let me lie, a poor broken shell, washed up by His love, having no virtue or value; and only venturing to whisper to Him that if He will put His ear to me, He will hear within my heart faint echoes of the vast waves of His own love which have brought me where it is my delight to lie, even at His feet for ever.
Evening
The king’s garden.
Nehemiah 3:15
Mention of the king’s garden by Nehemiah brings to mind the paradise which the King of kings prepared for Adam. Sin has utterly ruined that fair abode of all delights, and driven forth the children of men to till the ground, which yields thorns and briers unto them. My soul, remember the fall, for it was thy fall. Weep much because the Lord of love was so shamefully ill-treated by the head of the human race, of which thou art a member, as undeserving as any. Behold how dragons and demons dwell on this fair earth, which once was a garden of delights.
See yonder another King’s garden, which the King waters with His bloody sweat - Gethsemane , whose bitter herbs are sweeter far to renewed souls than even Eden’s luscious fruits. There the mischief of the serpent in the first garden was undone: there the curse was lifted from earth, and borne by the woman’s promised seed. My soul, bethink thee much of the agony and the passion; resort to the garden of the olive-press, and view thy great Redeemer rescuing thee from thy lost estate. This is the garden of gardens indeed, wherein the soul may see the guilt of sin and the power of love, two sights which surpass all others.
Is there no other King’s garden? Yes, my heart , thou art, or shouldst be such. How do the flowers flourish? Do any choice fruits appear? Does the King walk within, and rest in the bowers of my spirit? Let me see that the plants are trimmed and watered, and the mischievous foxes hunted out.
Come, Lord, and let the heavenly wind blow at Thy coming, that the spices of Thy garden may flow abroad. Nor must I forget the King’s garden of the church . O Lord, send prosperity unto it. Rebuild her walls, nourish her plants, ripen her fruits, and from the huge wilderness, reclaim the barren waste, and make thereof "a King’s garden."
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Revelation 5:6-14
6 I saw in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
7 Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.
8 Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
9 They sang a new song, saying, "You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,
10 and made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign on the earth."
11 I saw, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. The number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands;
12 saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honour, glory, and blessing!"
13 I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honour, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!"
14 The four living creatures said, "Amen!" Then the elders fell down and worshipped.
THE LAMB ON THE THRONE
"In the midst of the throne stood a Lamb as it had been slain!"
How strange and unexpected is the figure! A lamb - the supreme type of gentleness! A throne, the supreme symbol of power! And the one is in the very midst of the other. The sacrificial has become the sovereign: the Cross is the principal part of the throne. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me."
Yes, this sovereign sacrificial Lord is to receive universal homage and worship. "Every creature which is in heaven and on the earth" is to pay tribute at His feet. And this, not by a terrible coercion, but by a gracious constraint. We are not to be driven, we are to be drawn; we are to move by love - compulsion: the Lamb in God is to win the wills of men.
And I, too, may take my harp and make melodious praise before my King. And I, too, may fill the "golden vials" with my grateful intercession, and heaven shall be the sweeter for the odour of my prayers. And I, too, may sound my loud "Amen," the note of gladsome resignation to the sovereign will of God. Yes, even now I may be one of "the multitude whom no man can number," who, in a new song, ascribe all worthiness to "the Lamb that was slain."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
April 12th.
Prince of peace, I pray that the strife that prevails among men may come to an end. Destroy our divisions! Put an end
to our jealousies. Help us to be patient with our misunderstandings. May we seek the things that make for peace!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah 31:34
When we know the Lord, we receive the forgiveness of sins. We know him as the God of Grace, passing by our transgressions. What a joyful discovery is this!
But how divinely is this promise worded: the Lord promises no more to remember our sins! Can God forget? He says he will, and he means what he says. He will regard us as though we had never sinned. The great atonement so effectually removed all sin, that it is to the mind of God no more in existence. The believer is now in Christ Jesus, as accepted as Adam in his innocence; yea, more so, for he wears a divine righteousness, and that of Adam was but human.
The Great Lord will not remember our sins so as to punish them, or so as to love us one atom the less because of them. As a debt when paid ceases to be a debt, even so doth the Lord make a complete obliteration of the iniquity of his people.
When we are mourning over our transgressions and shortcomings, and this is our duty as long as we live, let us at the same time rejoice that they will never be mentioned against us. This makes us hate sin. God's free pardon makes us anxious never again to grieve him by disobedience.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Blessed be the God ... Who ... begat us again unto a living hope.
1 Peter 1:3
Mists lie all along the valleys, but we may flash upon them glory from the upper heights until they become purple with hope, until they melt in the coming of morning.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
But the Word of God grew and multiplied.
Acts 12:24
The opening word "but" drives us back to the words immediately preceding, which are these: "And he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." The contrast is graphic. The chapter opens with the words: "'Now about that time Herod the king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the Church." Herod's opposition was that of political expediency. He desired to gain favour with the Jews, and this was the cause of his action. Luke mentioned certain other of his political matters, and briefly gave the story of his tragic end. Then he added: "But the Word of God grew and multiplied." It is an instance of that which has persistently taken place. Every force arrayed against Christianity expresses itself for a reason in such fashion as apparently to weaken and hinder them, and then works on its own lines, to its own undoing and destruction. The Word of God, in spite of all such opposition, and indeed oftentimes helped rather than hindered thereby, grows and multiplies. Once really to believe this is to be saved from all panic in days when outward appearances seem to suggest that the Word of God is in danger. It is not so, but all that oppose, however strong, however subtle, pass and perish inevitably in the onward movements of a world that is still in the hands of God.
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.