Daily Bible Notes: April, 13th
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
A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me.
Song of Solomon 1:13
Myrrh may well be chosen as the type of Jesus on account of its preciousness , its perfume , its pleasantness , its healing, preserving, disinfecting qualities, and its connection with sacrifice . But why is He compared to "a bundle of myrrh"? First, for plenty. He is not a drop of it, He is a casket full. He is not a sprig or flower of it, but a whole bundle.
There is enough in Christ for all my necessities; let me not be slow to avail myself of Him. Our well-beloved is compared to a "bundle" again, for variety : for there is in Christ not only the one thing needful, but in "Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," everything needful is in Him. Take Jesus in His different characters, and you will see a marvellous variety - Prophet, Priest, King, Husband, Friend, Shepherd. Consider Him in His life, death, resurrection, ascension, second advent; view Him in His virtue, gentleness, courage, self-denial, love, faithfulness, truth, righteousness - everywhere He is a bundle of preciousness. He is a "bundle of myrrh" for preservation - not loose myrrh tied up, myrrh to be stored in a casket. We must value Him as our best treasure; we must prize His words and His ordinances; and we must keep our thoughts of Him and knowledge of Him as under lock and key, lest the devil should steal anything from us. Moreover, Jesus is a "bundle of myrrh" for speciality . The emblem suggests the idea of distinguishing, discriminating grace. From before the foundation of the world, He was set apart for His people; and He gives forth His perfume only to those who understand how to enter into communion with Him, to have close dealings with Him.
Oh! blessed people whom the Lord hath admitted into His secrets, and for whom He sets Himself apart. Oh! choice and happy who are thus made to say, "A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me."
Evening
And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.
Leviticus 1:4 Our Lord’s being made "sin for us" is set forth here by the very significant transfer of sin to the bullock, which was made by the elders of the people.
The laying of the hand was not a mere touch of contact, for in some other places of Scripture the original word has the meaning of leaning heavily, as in the expression, "Thy wrath lieth hard upon me" (Psalm 88:7). Surely this is the very essence and nature of faith, which doth not only bring us into contact with the great Substitute, but teaches us to lean upon Him with all the burden of our guilt. Jehovah made to meet upon the head of the Substitute all the offences of His covenant people, but each one of the chosen is brought personally to ratify this solemn covenant act, when by grace he is enabled by faith to lay his hand upon the head of the "Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." Believer, do you remember that rapturous day when you first realized pardon through Jesus the sin-bearer? Can you not make glad confession, and join with the writer in saying, "My soul recalls her day of deliverance with delight. Laden with guilt and full of fears, I saw my Saviour as my Substitute, and I laid my hand upon Him; oh! how timidly at first, but courage grew and confidence was confirmed until I leaned my soul entirely upon Him; and now it is my unceasing joy to know that my sins are no longer imputed to me, but laid on Him, and like the debts of the wounded traveller, Jesus, like the good Samaritan, has said of all my future sinfulness, ‘Set that to My account.’" Blessed discovery! Eternal solace of a grateful heart! "My numerous sins transferr’d to Him, Shall never more be found, Lost in His blood’s atoning stream, Where every crime is drown’d!"
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Exodus 25:10-22
10 "They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its width a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height.
11 You shall overlay it with pure gold. You shall overlay it inside and outside, and you shall make a gold moulding around it.
12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.
13 You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
14 You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark.
15 The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it.
16 You shall put the covenant which I shall give you into the ark.
17 You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width.
18 You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19 Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat.
20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces towards one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be towards the mercy seat.
21 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I will give you.
22 There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the covenant, all that I command you for the children of Israel.
PURE GOLD
"Thou shalt overlay it with pure gold.... And there I will meet with thee."
I must put my best into my preparations, and then the Lord will honour my work. My part is to be of "pure gold" if my God is to dwell within it. I must not satisfy myself with cheap flimsy and then assume that the Lord will be satisfied with it. He demands my very best as a condition of His enriching Presence.
My prayers must be of "pure gold" if He is to meet me there. There must be nothing vulgar about them, nothing shoddy, nothing hastily constructed, nothing thrown up anyhow. They must be chaste and sincere, and overlaid with pure gold.
My home must be of "pure gold" if He is to meet me there. No unclean passion must dwell there, no carnal appetite, no defiling conversation, no immoderateness in eating and drinking. How can the Lord sit down at such a table, or make One at such a fireside?
Let me present to Him pure gold. Let me offer Him nothing cheap. Let me ever make the ark of my best, and the Lord will meet me there.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
April 13th.
My loving Lord, help me to meet the unwelcome and the unpalatable in the spirit of quietness and strength. May my
disappointments be turned into wealth, and my clouds drop fatness!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.
Philippians 3:21
Often when we are racked with pain, and unable to think or worship, we feel that this indeed is "the body of our humiliation"; and when we are tempted by the passions which rise from the flesh we do not think the word "vile" at all too vigorous a translation. Our bodies humble us; and that is about the best thing they do for us. Oh, that we were duly lowly, because our bodies ally us with animals, and even link us with the dust!
But our Saviour, the Lord Jesus, shall change all this. We shall be fashioned like his own body of glory. This will take place in all who believe in Jesus. By faith their souls have been transformed, and their bodies will undergo such a renewal as shall fit them for their regenerated spirits. How soon this grand transformation will happen we cannot tell; but the thought of it should help us to bear the trials of to-day, and all the woes of the flesh. In a little while we shall be as Jesus now is. No more aching brows, no more swollen limbs, no more dim eyes, no more fainting hearts. The old man shall be no more a bundle of infirmities, nor the sick man a mass of agony. "Like unto his glorious body." What an expression! Even our flesh shall rest in hope of such a resurrection!
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
My God shall supply all your need.
Philippians 4:19
There is no heart hunger but that He can satisfy, and no need but that He can meet most perfectly.
"Those who trust Him wholly
Find Him wholly true."
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
They sent them away. So they being sent forth by the Holy Spirit.
Acts 13:3, 4
Barnabas and Saul were sent away by the church at Antioch, and were sent forth by the Holy Spirit. Luke made the statement quite simply as revealing the natural order of procedure. It is a splendid revelation of the true method of activity in all missionary enterprise, and the whole story is of the utmost value in this regard. The Church is in existence, and it is occupied in the ministry to the Lord. To the Church under such conditions it is possible for the Spirit to make known the will of the Lord; and for the Church to apprehend it. Then the Church is able to act with order, and with full and final authority. The men thus chosen and separated, go out to their work with the consciousness that they are the instruments of the Church and the Spirit. They thus go as in the Name and with the full authority of Christ. What great things He is able to accomplish when such are the conditions, the sequel will show. The story gives us pause, and makes us wonder how much of our failure may not be the result of our departure from these fundamental principles. At least we should remember that no cleverness of our own will ever take the place of close fellowship with Christ by the 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.