Daily Bible Notes: August, 31st
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
On mine arm shall they trust.
Isaiah 51:5
In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God.
Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father’s arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles so pressing and so peculiar, that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more of his Lord then than at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see that thou puttest thy full confidence in Him.
Dishonour not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly, as surely as He built the heavens and the earth, glorify Himself in thy weakness, and magnify his might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you to rest in Jesus this closing day of the month.
Evening
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light.
John 1:7
As He is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as He is whom we call "Our Father," of whom it is written, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all"? Certainly, this is the model which it set before us, for the Saviour Himself said, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect"; and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist, as he grasps his early pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but still, if he did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to import likeness , but not degree . We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to His image.
That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, "We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality , but not for equality ." We are to have the same light, and are as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though, as for equality with God in His holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
1 Timothy 6:6-16
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly can't carry anything out.
8 But having food and clothing, we will be content with that.
9 But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
11 But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.
12 Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.
13 I command you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession,
14 that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15 which in its own times he will show, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.
16 He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and eternal power. Amen.
THE REAL GAINS AND LOSSES
"Godliness with contentment is great gain."
And so I must go into my heart if I would make a true estimate of my gains and losses. The calculation is not to be made in my bank-books, or as I stride over my broad acres, or inspect my well-filled barns. These are the mere outsides of things, and do not enter into the real balance-sheet of my life. We can no more estimate the success of a life by methods like these than we can adjudge an oil-painting by the sense of smell.
What is my stock of godliness? That is one of the test questions. What are my treasures of contentment? What about peace and joy, and hallowed and blessed carelessness? How much pure laughter rings in my life? How much bird-music is heard in the chambers of my heart? Is the note of praise to be found in the streets of my soul? Am I rich in these things or pathetically poor? "By these things men live," and therefore of these things will I make my balance-sheet and reckon up my gains.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
August 31st.
Saviour of the world, I pray for all ministries that are seeking the extension of Thy kingdom. For labourers among the
poor, among the outcasts, among the high-born, among little children, in this land, and in all lands, I ask Thy Fatherly blessing.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
1 Peter 1:25
All human teaching and, indeed, all human beings, shall pass away as the grass of the meadow; but we are here assured that the word of the Lord is of a very different character, for it shall endure for ever.
We have here a divine gospel; for what word can endure for ever but that which is spoken by the eternal God?
We have here an ever-living gospel, as full of vitality as when it first came from the lip of God; as strong to convince and convert, to regenerate and console, to sustain and sanctify, as ever it was in its first days of wonder-working.
We have an unchanging gospel, which is not to-day green grass, and to-morrow dry hay; but always the abiding truth of the immutable Jehovah. Opinions alter, but truth certified by God can no more change than the God who uttered it.
Here, then, we have a gospel to rejoice in, a word of the Lord upon which we may lean all our weight, "For ever" includes life, death, judgment, and eternity. Glory be to God in Christ Jesus for everlasting consolation. Feed on the word to-day, and all the days of thy life.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
There is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.
1 Timothy 2:5,6, R.V.
The interference of a human being between another and God is an impertinence and a blasphemy, whatever the name by which the interferer is called, whether it be priest, or teacher, or friend.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
James 5:7
These words follow a stern denunciation of those prosperous men who have gained their prosperity by wronging their fellows. The ultimate in all such action had been reached when such men had "killed the Righteous One." Thinking of the sufferings of many to whom he wrote, sufferings resulting from the oppression of such men as he had denounced - James first reminded them that this Righteous One did not resist, and then called them to be patient, that is, long-suffering, until the Coming of the Lord. In that word his outlook on life shines out. The day of redress, when all wrongs will be righted and all oppressions cease, will be the day when the Righteous One will come again. For that day His suffering ones are to wait, and in their waiting, to be long-suffering even towards those who oppress them. The word of exhortation he then enforces by declaring that this is the attitude of God Himself, and that the reason of His patience is that He is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. Is not this injunction to patience much needed? Too often we are inclined to become impatient as we wait. Sometimes, indeed, the very hope of the coming of the Lord has seemed to increase impatience rather than patience. To the true child of God, the Coming of the Lord is always at hand, and the glory of it sheds unceasing light upon the way. The true way of walking in that glorious light is ever that of thanking God at every morning's dawn, and evening's shadows, that He has not come, because He is still waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. Oh, to be patient in fellowship with God!
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.