Daily Bible Notes: August, 30th
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
Wait on the Lord.
Psalm 27:14
It may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God’s warriors than standing still. There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption? No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer , however. Call upon God, and spread the case before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead His promise of aid. In dilemmas between one duty and another, it is sweet to be humble as a child, and wait with simplicity of soul upon the Lord. It is sure to be well with us when we feel and know our own folly, and are heartily willing to be guided by the will of God. But wait in faith . Express your unstaggering confidence in Him; for unfaithful, untrusting waiting, is but an insult to the Lord. Believe that if He keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come and shall not tarry. Wait in quiet patience , not rebelling because you are under the affliction, but blessing your God for it. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses; never wish you could go back to the world again, but accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, "Now, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities, but I will wait until Thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if Thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon Thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for Thee in the full conviction that Thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower."
Evening
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.
Jeremiah 17:14
"I have seen His ways, and will heal him .
Isaiah 57:18 It is the sole prerogative of God to remove spiritual disease. Natural disease may be instrumentally healed by men, but even then the honour is to be given to God who giveth virtue unto medicine, and bestoweth power unto the human frame to cast off disease. As for spiritual sicknesses, these remain with the great Physician alone; He claims it as His prerogative, "I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal"; and one of the Lord’s choice titles is Jehovah-Rophi, the Lord that healeth thee. "I will heal thee of thy wounds," is a promise which could not come from the lip of man, but only from the mouth of the eternal God. On this account the psalmist cried unto the Lord, "O Lord, heal me, for my bones are sore vexed," and again, "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee." For this, also, the godly praise the name of the Lord, saying, "He healeth all our diseases." He who made man can restore man; He who was at first the creator of our nature can new create it. What a transcendent comfort it is that in the person of Jesus "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily!" My soul, whatever thy disease may be, this great Physician can heal thee. If He be God, there can be no limit to His power. Come then with the blind eye of darkened understanding, come with the limping foot of wasted energy, come with the maimed hand of weak faith, the fever of an angry temper, or the ague of shivering despondency, come just as thou art, for He who is God can certainly restore thee of thy plague. None shall restrain the healing virtue which proceeds from Jesus our Lord. Legions of devils have been made to own the power of the beloved Physician, and never once has He been baffled. All His patients have been cured in the past and shall be in the future, and thou shalt be one among them, my friend, if thou wilt but rest thyself in Him this night.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 119:97-104
97 How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged, because I have kept your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil way, that I might observe your word.
102 I have not turned away from your ordinances, for you have taught me.
103 How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!
104 Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
HOW TO DELIGHT IN THE WORD
A man may measure his growth in grace by his growing delight in the speech of the Lord. When His words are unwelcome in my ears, when they are an intrusion which mars my pleasures, it is clear I am still in the far country of revolt. But if His words make "music in my ears," if the Lord's conversation is the very marrow of the feast, then I have entered into the circle of His intimate friends. When His words taste sweet, even with a bare board, I am "in heavenly places with Christ."
And how can I attain unto this spiritual delight? Well, first of all I must make "His testimonies my meditations." Our doctors tell us that the only way to taste the real savour of food is to masticate it well. Bolted food never unlocks its essences. And meditation is just mental mastication. To "turn the word over" in my mind will help to disburden its treasure.
And then I must diligently put the word into practice. "I have not departed from Thy judgments." There is nothing like obedience for setting free a spiritual essence. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
August 30th.
Father of glory, I pray that Thy Spirit may pervade all the affairs of men. May all governments and rulerships be under Thy most
gracious sovereignty! God save the King. May all who hold authority be animated by pure and lofty ambition!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlastmg covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation,
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.
2 Samuel 23:5
This is not so much one promise as an aggregate of promises - a box of pearls. The covenant is the ark which contains all things.
These are the last words of David, but they maybe mine to-day. Here is a sigh: things are not with me and mine as I could wish; there are trials, cares, and sins. These make the pillow hard.
Here is a solace - "He hath made with me an everlasting covenant." Jehovah has pledged himself to me, and sealed the compact with the blood of Jesus. I am bound to my God, and my God to me.
This brings into prominence a security, since this covenant is everlasting, well ordered and sure. There is nothing to fear from the lapse of time, the failure of some forgotten point, or the natural uncertainty of things. The covenant is a rocky foundation to build on for life or for death.
David feels satisfaction: he wants no more for salvation or delectation. He is delivered, and he is delighted. The covenant is all a man can desire.
O my soul, turn thou this day to thy Lord Jesus, whom the great Lord has given to be a covenant to the people. Take him to be thine all in all.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Owe no man anything, save to love one another.
Romans 13:8, R.V.
To love is to discharge all obligations except that of loving. It is impossible to finish paying the debt of love. In the moment in which a man ceases to owe his neighbour love, he will begin to be in his debt in some other direction.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
One only is the Lawgiver and Judge, even He Who is able to save and to destroy.
James 4:12
These words were written in connection with a warning against speaking against or judging a brother. They are clear and sharp and incisive, as they show the wrong of all such action. It is impossible for any man to find a final verdict against his brother. One only is able to do that, and that is the One Who makes the laws for the government of human lives. This is so because He alone knows those whom He governs, and because His laws are the result of that perfect knowledge. Therefore His laws are just, and so will His judgments be also. He only, therefore, can pass sentence of salvation or destruction. If these words thus warn us off from all judgment of our brother, what a glorious truth they reveal as to the rights of the individual soul! Every man is to be governed and judged by God. Every man has the right of final appeal from all the findings of men to the just judgment of God. To recognize that fact in all things, is to be lifted to the highest realm of life. If my judgment is to come from the Lord, then with what care I should live! But it is also true that I shall be judged with the strictest justice. Not by the seeing of the eyes, nor by the hearing of the ears, does He judge, but with righteous judgment. If that fact fills the soul with a perpetual sense of awe, it also gives it much comfort and courage; for righteous judgment passes beyond all the actions, to the underlying motives and aspirations. These can only be known to God, Who is the Lawgiver, and the Creator of that which He governs.
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.