Daily Bible Notes: December, 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
There is no spot in thee.
Song of Solomon 4:7
Having pronounced His Church positively full of beauty, our Lord confirms His praise by a precious negative, "There is no spot in I thee."
As if the thought occurred to the Bridegroom that the carping world would insinuate that He had only mentioned her comely parts, and had purposely omitted those features which were deformed or defiled, He sums up all by declaring her universally and entirely fair, and utterly devoid of stain. A spot may soon be removed, and is the very least thing that can disfigure beauty, but even from this little blemish the believer is delivered in his Lord’s sight. If He had said there is no hideous scar, no horrible deformity, no deadly ulcer, we might even then have marvelled; but when He testifies that she is free from the slightest spot, all these other forms of defilement are included, and the depth of wonder is increased. If He had but promised to remove all spots by-and-by, we should have had eternal reason for joy; but when He speaks of it as already done, who can restrain the most intense emotions of satisfaction and delight? O my soul, here is marrow and fatness for thee; eat thy full, and be satisfied with royal dainties.
Christ Jesus has no quarrel with His spouse. She often wanders from Him, and grieves His Holy Spirit, but He does not allow her faults to affect His love. He sometimes chides, but it is always in the tenderest manner, with the kindest intentions: it is "my love" even then. There is no remembrance of our follies, He does not cherish ill thoughts of us, but He pardons and loves as well after the offence as before it. It is well for us it is so, for if Jesus were as mindful of injuries as we are, how could He commune with us? Many a time a believer will put himself out of humour with the Lord for some slight turn in providence, but our precious Husband knows our silly hearts too well to take any offence at our ill manners.
Evening
The Lord mighty in battle.
Psalm 24:8
Well may our God be glorious in the eyes of His people, seeing that He has wrought such wonders for them, in them, and by them. For them , the Lord Jesus upon Calvary routed every foe, breaking all the weapons of the enemy in pieces by His finished work of satisfactory obedience; by His triumphant resurrection and ascension He completely overturned the hopes of hell, leading captivity captive, making a show of our enemies openly, triumphing over them by His cross. Every arrow of guilt which Satan might have shot at us is broken, for who can lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? Vain are the sharp swords of infernal malice, and the perpetual battles of the serpent’s seed, for in the midst of the church the lame take the prey, and the feeblest warriors are crowned.
The saved may well adore their Lord for His conquests in them , since the arrows of their natural hatred are snapped, and the weapons of their rebellion broken. What victories has grace won in our evil hearts! How glorious is Jesus when the will is subdued, and sin dethroned! As for our remaining corruptions, they shall sustain an equally sure defeat, and every temptation, and doubt, and fear, shall be utterly destroyed. In the Salem of our peaceful hearts, the name of Jesus is great beyond compare: He has won our love, and He shall wear it. Even thus securely may we look for victories by us . We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
We shall cast down the powers of darkness which are in the world, by our faith, and zeal, and holiness; we shall win sinners to Jesus, we shall overturn false systems, we shall convert nations, for God is with us, and none shall stand before us. This evening let the Christian warrior chant the war song, and prepare for to-morrow’s fight. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
1 Thessalonians 5:4-10
4 But you, brothers, aren't in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief.
5 You are all children of light and children of the day. We don't belong to the night, nor to darkness,
6 so then let's not sleep, as the rest do, but let's watch and be sober.
7 For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night.
8 But since we belong to the day, let's be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.
9 For God didn't appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
ARMS AND THE MAN!
What wonderful armour is offered to me in which to meet the insidious assaults of the devil!
There is "the armour of light." Sunlight is the most sanative energy we know. It is the foe of many a deadly microbe which seeks a lodging in our bodies. Light is a splendid armour, even in the realm of the flesh. And so it is in the soul. If the soul is a home of light, the eternal light, evil germs will die as soon as they approach us. They will find nothing to breed on. "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me."
And there is the armour of "faith and love." The opposite to faith is uncertainty, and the opposite to love is cynicism, and who does not know that uncertainty and cynicism are the very hotbeds for the machinations of the evil one? When faith is enthroned the soul is open to the reception of grace, and when love shares the throne the sovereignty is invincible.
And there is the armour of "hope." Even in a physical ailment a man has a mighty ally who wrestles in hope. And when a man's hope is in the Lord his God all the powers in the heavenly places are his allies, and by his hope he shall be saved.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
December 3rd.
O Christ, my King, help me to bow to Thy lordship in all the doings of my life. May my obedience begin in my thought!
May every thought be brought into captivity to Thy will! May the soul bend in reverent and ceaseless homage!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they
shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.
Ezekiel 34:25
It is the height of grace that Jehovah should be in covenant with man, a feeble, sinful and dying creature. Yet the Lord has solemnly entered into a faithful compact with us, and from that covenant he will never turn aside. In virtue of this covenant we are safe. As lions and wolves are driven off by shepherds, so shall all noxious influences be chased away. The Lord will give us rest from disturbers and destroyers; the evil beasts shall cease out of the land. O Lord, make this thy promise good even now!
The Lord's people are to enjoy security in places of the greatest exposure: wildernesses and woods are to be as pastures and folds to the flock of Christ. If the Lord does not change the place for the better, he will make us the better in the place. The wilderness is not a place to dwell in, but the Lord can make it so; in the woods one feels bound to watch rather than to sleep, and yet the Lord giveth his beloved sleep even there. Nothing without or within should cause any fear to the child of God. By faith the wilderness can become the suburbs of heaven, and the woods the vestibule of glory.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
I am well pleased.
Matthew 17:5
Satisfied with the private life in Nazareth, with the honest toil of the carpenter's shop, with the years of public ministry, with the deeds of love that had been scattered over all the pathway, the whole life of Jesus from beginning to end had given satisfaction to the heart of God.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
2 Peter 3:8
Thus the Apostle charges all Christian souls in their thinking of the ways and works of God to cancel the time element. Time is as nothing either way to God. We become hurried and flustered because we have only a day in which to do something. God has no such unrest, for in our small one day He is able to accomplish the things which men could only hope to do in a thousand years. On the other hand, we look on down the vista of the coming years, and the long time that must elapse before things can happen which we earnestly desire oppresses us. God has no such depression, for the thousand years are in His sight but as a day. The application of the truth which is of greatest importance to us is that of its bearings on the activities of God. Men either declare that the promise of the coming of the Lord is false because nigh two thousand years have passed since it was made; or they are tempted to think that He Who made the promise is in some way slack, that He is not acting as speedily as He might. It is only to state these things thus, to see how false the views are. It is well, then, thus to be charged not to forget this great truth. The purposes of God are so vast and so wonderful, that their working out in human experience must take, what for lack of a better term, we call time. On the other hand, His power is such that if and when He will, things can be done in a "twinkling of an eye," which will revolutionize all life, and bring in the final order.
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.