Daily Bible Notes: April, 29th
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
Thou art my hope in the day of evil.
Jeremiah 17:17
The path of the Christian is not always bright with sunshine; he has his seasons of darkness and of storm. True, it is written in God’s Word, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace;" and it is a great truth, that religion is calculated to give a man happiness below as well as bliss above; but experience tells us that if the course of the just be "As the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," yet sometimes that light is eclipsed. At certain periods clouds cover the believer’s sun, and he walks in darkness and sees no light. There are many who have rejoiced in the presence of God for a season; they have basked in the sunshine in the earlier stages of their Christian career; they have walked along the "green pastures" by the side of the "still waters," but suddenly they find the glorious sky is clouded; instead of the Land of Goshen they have to tread the sandy desert; in the place of sweet waters, they find troubled streams, bitter to their taste, and they say, "Surely, if I were a child of God, this would not happen." Oh! say not so, thou who art walking in darkness. The best of God’s saints must drink the wormwood; the dearest of His children must bear the cross. No Christian has enjoyed perpetual prosperity; no believer can always keep his harp from the willows. Perhaps the Lord allotted you at first a smooth and unclouded path, because you were weak and timid. He tempered the wind to the shorn lamb, but now that you are stronger in the spiritual life, you must enter upon the riper and rougher experience of God’s full-grown children.
We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.
Evening
The Lord taketh pleasure in His people.
Psalm 149:4
How comprehensive is the love of Jesus! There is no part of His people’s interests which He does not consider, and there is nothing which concerns their welfare which is not important to Him. Not merely does He think of you, believer, as an immortal being, but as a mortal being too. Do not deny it or doubt it: "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in His way" It were a sad thing for us if this mantle of love did not cover all our concerns, for what mischief might be wrought to us in that part of our business which did not come under our gracious Lord’s inspection! Believer, rest assured that the heart of Jesus cares about your meaner affairs. The breadth of His tender love is such that you may resort to Him in all matters; for in all your afflictions He is afflicted, and like as a father pitieth his children, so doth He pity you. The meanest interests of all His saints are all borne upon the broad bosom of the Son of God. Oh, what a heart is His, that doth not merely comprehend the persons of His people, but comprehends also the diverse and innumerable concerns of all those persons! Dost thou think, O Christian, that thou canst measure the love of Christ? Think of what His love has brought thee - justification, adoption, sanctification, eternal life! The riches of His goodness are unsearchable; thou shalt never be able to tell them out or even conceive them. Oh, the breadth of the love of Christ! Shall such a love as this have half our hearts?
Shall it have a cold love in return? Shall Jesus’ marvellous lovingkindness and tender care meet with but faint response and tardy acknowledgment?
O my soul, tune thy harp to a glad song of thanksgiving! Go to thy rest rejoicing, for thou art no desolate wanderer, but a beloved child, watched over, cared for, supplied, and defended by thy Lord.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
1 Samuel 17:38-54
38 Saul dressed David with his clothing. He put a helmet of bronze on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail.
39 David strapped his sword on his clothing, and he tried to move; for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, "I can't go with these; for I have not tested them." Then David took them off.
40 He took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag which he had. His sling was in his hand; and he came near to the Philistine.
41 The Philistine walked and came near to David; and the man who bore the shield went before him.
42 When the Philistine looked around, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and had a good looking face.
43 The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" The Philistine cursed David by his gods.
44 The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field."
45 Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
46 Today, the LORD will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD doesn't save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand."
48 When the Philistine arose, and walked and came near to meet David, David hurried, and ran towards the army to meet the Philistine.
49 David put his hand in his bag, took a stone, and slung it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.
51 Then David ran, stood over the Philistine, took his sword, drew it out of its sheath, killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
52 The men of Israel and of Judah arose and shouted, and pursued the Philistines as far as Gai and to the gates of Ekron. The wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath and to Ekron.
53 The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines and they plundered their camp.
54 David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent.
THE MOOD OF TRIUMPH
"I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts."
The man who comes up to his foes with this assurance will fight and win. Reasonable confidence is one of the most important weapons in the warrior's armoury. Fear is always wasteful. The man who calmly expects to win has already begun to conquer. Our mood has so much to do with our might. And therefore does the Word of God counsel us to attend to our dispositions, lest, having carefully collected our material implements, we have no strength to use them.
And the man who comes up to his foes with holy assurance will fight with consummate skill. He will be quite "collected." All his powers will wait upon one another, and they will move together as one. He is as self-possessed upon the battlefield as upon parade, as undisturbed before Goliath as before a flock of sheep! And therefore do I say that, fighting with perfect composure, he fights with superlative skill. The right moment is seized, the right stone is chosen, the right aim is taken, and great Goliath is brought low.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
April 29th.
Holy God, may the glories of Thy spring-time awake my heart into beauty and song! May all the wintriness of my heart be broken!
May all the chill and coldness of my heart be banished by the incoming of Thy Spirit, and may I know the joy of the Lord!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee.
Proverbs 20:22
Be not in haste. Let anger cool down. Say nothing and do nothing to avenge yourself. You will be sure to act unwisely if you take up the cudgels and fight your own battles; and, certainly, you will not show the spirit of the Lord Jesus. It is nobler to forgive, and let the offence pass. To let an injury rankle in your bosom, and to meditate revenge, is to keep old wounds open, and to make new ones. Better forget and forgive.
Peradventure, you say that you must do something or be a great loser; then do what this morning's promise advises: "Wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee." This advice will not cost you six-and-eight pence, but it is worth far more. Be calm and quiet. Wait upon the Lord: tell him your grievance: spread Rab-shakeh's letter before the Lord, and this of itself will be an ease to your burdened mind. Besides, there is the promise, "He shall save thee." God will find a way of deliverance for you. How he will do it neither you nor I can guess, but do it he will. If the Lord save you, this will be a deal better than getting into petty quarrels, and covering yourself with filth by wrestling with the unclean. Be no more angry. Leave your suit with the Judge of all.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
1 Corinthians 15:55
Christ's resurrection promises the life that has no ending, it declares to all bereaved souls that "them also who are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him," and therefore the light of His resurrection falls in radiant beauty upon the graves where rest the dust of the holy dead.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
The might of His glory.
Colossians 1:11
That is a far more arresting translation than the old one. "His glorious power," and it is more accurate. The latter is a phrase in which the emphasis is laid on a quality of the power - it is glorious. The real thought of the phrase is that it lays an emphasis on a fact concerning His glory, and that is, that it is characterized by might. The Apostle was recording his prayer for the saints, that they might be filled with knowledge in order to walk worthily, bearing fruit. The condition for all this is that they should be strengthened with all power. Of this power he gives a description in this phrase, "The might of His glory." God is essentially the God of might. The first great name by which the Hebrew people knew Him was Elohim, which speaks of that might in all its greatness. Everything of God has in it this quality of strength. In no application is the fact more unusual than in this of His glory. Glory is splendour, all the qualities of beauty and brilliance, whether material or mental; and one of the most marked qualities of human glory is that of its weakness. Sic transit gloria mundi, is a proverb expressing this conviction. Glory fades, passes, and that because of its weakness. The glory of God knows no fading, no passing, no perishing. It abides undimmed because of its strength. When the glory of God is seen, when to realize it becomes the passion of a life, it is found that in the vision there is strength, in the effort there is energy. His glory not only captures the mind: it empowers all upon whom it shines. It not only lures - it lifts.
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.