Daily Bible Notes: August, 3rd
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 Lamb is the light thereof.
Revelation 21:23
Quietly contemplate the Lamb as the light of heaven. Light in Scripture is the emblem of joy . The joy of the saints in heaven is comprised in this: Jesus chose us, loved us, bought us, cleansed us, robed us, kept us, glorified us: we are here entirely through the Lord Jesus. Each one of these thoughts shall be to them like a cluster of the grapes of Eshcol. Light is also the cause of beauty . Nought of beauty is left when light is gone.
Without light no radiance flashes from the sapphire, no peaceful ray proceedeth from the pearl; and thus all the beauty of the saints above comes from Jesus. As planets, they reflect the light of the Sun of Righteousness; they live as beams proceeding from the central orb. If He withdrew, they must die; if His glory were veiled, their glory must expire.
Light is also the emblem of knowledge . In heaven our knowledge will be perfect, but the Lord Jesus Himself will be the fountain of it. Dark providences, never understood before, will then be clearly seen, and all that puzzles us now will become plain to us in the light of the Lamb. Oh! what unfoldings there will be and what glorifying of the God of love! Light also means manifestation . Light manifests. In this world it doth not yet appear what we shall be. God’s people are a hidden people, but when Christ receives His people into heaven, He will touch them with the wand of His own love, and change them into the image of His manifested glory. They were poor and wretched, but what a transformation! They were stained with sin, but one touch of His finger, and they are bright as the sun, and clear as crystal. Oh! what a manifestation! All this proceeds from the exalted Lamb. Whatever there may be of effulgent splendour, Jesus shall be the centre and soul of it all. Oh! to be present and to see Him in His own light, the King of kings, and Lord of lords!
Evening
But as He went.
Luke 8:42
Jesus is passing through the throng to the house of Jairus, to raise the ruler’s dead daughter; but He is so profuse in goodness that He works another miracle while upon the road. While yet this rod of Aaron bears the blossom of an unaccomplished wonder, it yields the ripe almonds of a perfect work of mercy. It is enough for us, if we have some one purpose, straightway to go and accomplish it; it were imprudent to expend our energies by the way. Hastening to the rescue of a drowning friend, we cannot afford to exhaust our strength upon another in like danger. It is enough for a tree to yield one sort of fruit, and for a man to fulfil his own peculiar calling. But our Master knows no limit of power or boundary of mission. He is so prolific of grace, that like the sun which shines as it rolls onward in its orbit, His path is radiant with lovingkindness. He is a swift arrow of love, which not only reaches its ordained target, but perfumes the air through which it flies. Virtue is evermore going out of Jesus, as sweet odours exhale from flowers; and it always will be emanating from Him, as water from a sparkling fountain. What delightful encouragement this truth affords us! If our Lord is so ready to heal the sick and bless the needy, then, my soul, be not thou slow to put thyself in His way, that He may smile on thee. Be not slack in asking, if He be so abundant in bestowing.
Give earnest heed to His word now, and at all times, that Jesus may speak through it to thy heart. Where He is to be found there make thy resort, that thou mayst obtain His blessing. When He is present to heal, may He not heal thee? But surely He is present even now, for He always comes to hearts which need Him. And dost not thou need Him? Ah, He knows how much! Thou Son of David, turn Thine eye and look upon the distress which is now before Thee, and make Thy suppliant whole.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
John 4:16-30
16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
17 The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You said well, 'I have no husband,'
18 for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly."
19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."
21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father.
22 You worship that which you don't know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshippers.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
25 The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah comes, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things."
26 Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who speaks to you."
27 At this, his disciples came. They marvelled that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, "What are you looking for?" or, "Why do you speak with her?"
28 So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the people,
29 "Come, see a man who told me everything that I did. Can this be the Christ?"
30 They went out of the city, and were coming to him.
CHANGING ASKING INTO THIRSTING
"Go, call thy husband!"
I never supposed that the transformation would begin here. I thought that there were some words which would remain unspoken. But here our Master speaks a word which only deepens the weariness of the woman, and irritates the sore of her galling yoke. What is He doing?
He is seeking to change the sense of wretchedness into the sense of sin! He is seeking to change weariness into desire! He wants to make the woman thirst! And so He puts His finger upon her sin. He cannot give the heavenly water to lips that merely ask for it. "Sir, give me this water!" No, it cannot be had for the asking, only for the thirsting! And so the gracious Lord turns the woman's eyes upon her own sinful life, in order that in the heat of a fierce shame she might cry out, "I thirst for God, for the living God!" And sure I am that, before the Lord had done with her, this quiet, lone cry leapt from her lips, and in immediate response to the cry she was given a deep draught from the eternal well.
And, good Lord, arouse my sense of my sin that I, too, may thirst for Thy water! Now, make me thirst for it, and in the thirst receive it!
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
August 3rd.
My Lord God, give me the sense of Thy forgiveness. Help me to turn from the sin forgiven. May I hold no further intercourse
with it! May I hold it in stern repulsion!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
But if the priest buy any soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they shall eat of his meat.
Leviticus 22:11
Strangers, sojourners, and servants upon hire were not to eat of holy things. It is so in spiritual matters still. But two classes were free at the sacred table, those who were bought with the priest's money, and those who were born into the priest's house. Bought and born, these were the two indisputable proofs of a right to holy things.
Bought. Our great High Priest has bought with a price all those who put their trust in him. They are his absolute property - altogether the Lord's. Not for what they are in themselves, but for their owner's sake they are admitted into the same privileges which he himself enjoys, and "they shall eat of his meat." He has meat to eat which worldlings know not of. "Because ye belong to Christ," therefore shall ye share with your Lord.
Born. This is an equally sure way to privilege; if born in the priest's house we take our place with the rest of the family. Regeneration makes us fellow-heirs, and of the same body; and, therefore, the peace, the joy, the glory, which the Father has given to Christ, Christ has given to us. Redemption and regeneration have given us a double claim to the divine permit of this promise.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
For so is the will of God, that by well-doing ye should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
1 Peter 2:15, R.V.
God calls you, God calls me, God calls every child of His, to be His representative in the world, taking hold of the things that seem to be against the development of spiritual character and turning them into opportunities for prosecuting His work upon the earth.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
Galatians 4:19
Here suddenly, amid the anger, the satire, the severity of the letter, the deepest thing in the soul of the Apostle breaks through in a flash of revealing glory. It is that of his tenderness, his compassion, his love. He was angry, but why? Because the danger, threatening them, threatened the highest and best things in their lives. He was satirical, but why? Because by such a method he was likely to arouse them from the false lethargy which resulted from resting in rites and ceremonies, instead of exercising faith in Christ. He was severe, but why? Because the courses they were pursuing under false teachers were subversive of their very life in Christ. All the anger, the satire, the severity of the letter, resulted from his profound love for them. It was all the outcome of the care of the churches which he carried daily. How deep and strong that was, is revealed by the daring of this figure. It is the most sacred figure of motherhood. He was "in travail" for them! How searching is this gleam of light! How it rebukes us and instructs us! As we consider it, we are made ashamed of any bitterness which may at any time have entered into our defence of truth. Anger, satire, severity, yes, these are proper things, providing always that no element of personal bitterness enters our heart. The peril is so subtle that we need ever to watch and pray that we may be delivered from falling in this matter. It is only as our love of our fellow-disciples is kept alive, and our solicitude for their spiritual well-being is the one and only motive of our action, that we have the right or the ability to defend the truth.
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.