Daily Bible Notes: April, 16th
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
The precious blood of Christ.
1 Peter 1:19
Standing at the foot of the cross, we see hands, and feet, and side, all distilling crimson streams of precious blood. It is "precious" because of its redeeming and atoning efficacy . By it the sins of Christ’s people are atoned for; they are redeemed from under the law; they are reconciled to God, made one with Him. Christ’s blood is also "precious" in its cleansing power ; it "cleanseth from all sin." "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Through Jesus’ blood there is not a spot left upon any believer, no wrinkle nor any such thing remains. O precious blood, which makes us clean, removing the stains of abundant iniquity, and permitting us to stand accepted in the Beloved, notwithstanding the many ways in which we have rebelled against our God. The blood of Christ is likewise "precious" in its preserving power . We are safe from the destroying angel under the sprinkled blood. Remember it is God’s seeing the blood which is the true reason for our being spared. Here is comfort for us when the eye of faith is dim, for God’s eye is still the same. The blood of Christ is "precious" also in its sanctifying influence . The same blood which justifies by taking away sin, does in its after-action, quicken the new nature and lead it onward to subdue sin and to follow out the commands of God. There is no motive for holiness so great as that which streams from the veins of Jesus. And "precious," unspeakably precious, is this blood, because it has an overcoming power . It is written, "They overcame through the blood of the Lamb." How could they do otherwise?
He who fights with the precious blood of Jesus, fights with a weapon which cannot know defeat. The blood of Jesus! sin dies at its presence, death ceases to be death: heaven’s gates are opened. The blood of Jesus! we shall march on, conquering and to conquer, so long as we can trust its power!
Evening
And his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
Exodus 17:12
So mighty was the prayer of Moses, that all depended upon it. The petitions of Moses discomfited the enemy more than the fighting of Joshua. Yet both were needed. No, in the soul’s conflict, force and fervour, decision and devotion, valour and vehemence, must join their forces, and all will be well. You must wrestle with your sin, but the major part of the wrestling must be done alone in private with God. Prayer, like Moses’, holds up the token of the covenant before the Lord. The rod was the emblem of God’s working with Moses, the symbol of God’s government in Israel. Learn, O pleading saint, to hold up the promise and the oath of God before Him. The Lord cannot deny His own declarations. Hold up the rod of promise, and have what you will.
Moses grew weary, and then his friends assisted him. When at any time your prayer flags, let faith support one hand, and let holy hope uplift the other, and prayer seating itself upon the stone of Israel, the rock of our salvation, will persevere and prevail. Beware of faintness in devotion; if Moses felt it, who can escape? It is far easier to fight with sin in public, than to pray against it in private. It is remarked that Joshua never grew weary in the fighting, but Moses did grow weary in the praying; the more spiritual an exercise, the more difficult it is for flesh and blood to maintain it. Let us cry, then, for special strength, and may the Spirit of God, who helpeth our infirmities, as He allowed help to Moses, enable us like him to continue with our hands steady "until the going down of the sun ;" till the evening of life is over; till we shall come to the rising of a better sun in the land where prayer is swallowed up in praise.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
1 Chronicles 15:1-3, 15:11-15
1 David made himself houses in David's city; and he prepared a place for God's ark, and pitched a tent for it.
2 Then David said, "No one ought to carry God's ark but the Levites. For the LORD has chosen them to carry God's ark, and to minister to him forever."
3 David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the LORD's ark to its place, which he had prepared for it.
11 David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab,
12 and said to them, "You are the heads of the fathers' households of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, both you and your brothers, that you may bring the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, up to the place that I have prepared for it.
13 For because you didn't carry it at first, the LORD our God broke out in anger against us, because we didn't seek him according to the ordinance."
14 So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel.
15 The children of the Levites bore God's ark on their shoulders with its poles, as Moses commanded according to the LORD's word.
PRIESTS OF THE LORD
"None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites."
There are prepared people for prepared offices. The Lord will fit the man to the function, the anointed and consecrated priest for the consecrated and consecrating ministry.
But now, in the larger purpose of the Lord, and in "the exceeding riches of His grace," everybody may be a priest of the Lord. "He hath made us to be priests and kings unto God." And He will prepare us to carry our ark, and to "minister in holy things."
I can be His priest in the home. He will anoint me as one who is to engage in holy ministries, and I shall be serving at the altar even while engaged in the lowly duties of the house. The humble meal will be sacramental, and common work will be heavenly sacrifice.
I can be His priest in my class. The Lord will clothe me in "linen clean and white," and in my consecrated spirit my scholars shall discern the incense of sacrifice. And woe is me if I attempt to fill the godly office without my God.
And I can be His priest in my workshop. Yes, in the carpenter's shop I may wear the radiant robe of the sanctified. And I, too, as one of the priests of the Lord, can "bear the sin of many, and make intercession for the transgressor."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
April 16th.
Heavenly Father, give me a vivid sense of my sonship. May I in some measure realize what it means to be a child
of God! May I walk with dignity, never stooping to sin! May I walk as a King's son, and may nothing shameful be found about my garments!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.
Zechariah 14:20
Happy day when all things shall be consecrated, and the horses' bells shall ring out holiness to the Lord! That day has come to me. Do I not make all things holy to God? These garments, when I put them on or take them off, shall they not remind me of the righteousness of Christ Jesus, my Lord? Shall not my work be done as unto the Lord? Oh, that to-day my clothes may be vestments, my meals sacraments, my house a temple, my table an altar, my speech incense, and myself a priest! Lord, fulfil thy promise, and let nothing be to me common or unclean.
Let me in faith expect this. Believing it to be so, I shall be helped to make it so. As I myself am the property of Jesus, my Lord may take an inventory of all I have, for it is altogether his own; and I resolve to prove it to be so by the use to which I put it this day. From morning till evening I would order all things by a happy and holy rule. My bells shall ring - why should they not? Even my horses shall have bells - who has such a right to music as the saints have? But all my bells, my music, my mirth, shall be turned to holiness, and shall ring out the name of "The Happy God."
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve Him.
Deuteronomy 6:13
Whenever a man stops short of that face-to-face worship of the Eternal God, he is working ruin to his own character, because he is breaking the commandment of God.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Forbidden of the Holy Spirit ... The Spirit of Jesus suffered them not.
Acts 16:6, 7
Without note or comment Luke wrote these almost startling words. Two men, commended to the grace of God by the Church in order to speak the Word of God, were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to do so; and being sent forth by the Holy Spirit into all the world were not suffered by the Spirit of Jesus to enter into a certain region. Thus they were compelled to journey silently in directions other than they would have chosen. The sequel gives the explanation. The plan of the Spirit was that they should pass over into Macedonia. Thus they were guided by hindrance. Judging by our own experiences, we are compelled to the conclusion that for the moment the experience was a perplexing one. The lesson we are to learn is that of the importance of obedience to the guidance of the Spirit when we cannot understand the reason, and indeed when it seems to us that the way marked out, is preventing us from fulfilling the highest things of our most sacred calling. The experience is not rare. Over and over again in the path of true service we are brought to just such places. A great opportunity is open right before us, and we are not permitted to avail ourselves of it. Or we are in the midst of work which is full of real success, and we are called to abandon it. We should never hesitate. This wonderful page of apostolic history teaches us that God's outlook is greater and grander than our own. We may always leave the issue to Him, and presently we shall learn how wise His way, how strong His will.
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.