Daily Bible Notes: December, 8th
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 hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
Revelation 3:4
We may understand this to refer to justification . "They shall walk in white"; that is, they shall enjoy a constant sense of their own justification by faith; they shall understand that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them, that they have all been washed and made whiter than the newly-fallen snow.
Again, it refers to joy and gladness : for white robes were holiday dresses among the Jews. They who have not defiled their garments shall have their faces always bright; they shall understand what Solomon meant when he said "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. Let thy garments be always white, for God hath accepted thy works." He who is accepted of God shall wear white garments of joy and gladness, while he walks in sweet communion with the Lord Jesus.
Whence so many doubts, so much misery, and mourning? It is because so many believers defile their garments with sin and error, and hence they lose the joy of their salvation, and the comfortable fellowship of the Lord Jesus, they do not here below walk in white.
The promise also refers to walking in white before the throne of God .
Those who have not defiled their garments here shall most certainly walk in white up yonder, where the white-robed hosts sing perpetual hallelujahs to the Most High. They shall possess joys inconceivable, happiness beyond a dream, bliss which imagination knoweth not, blessedness which even the stretch of desire hath not reached. The "undefiled in the way" shall have all this - not of merit, nor of works, but of grace. They shall walk with Christ in white, for He has made them "worthy." In His sweet company they shall drink of the living fountains of waters.
Evening
Thou, O God, hast prepared of Thy goodness for the poor.
Psalm 68:10
All God’s gifts are prepared gifts laid up in store for wants foreseen. He anticipates our needs; and out of the fulness which He has treasured up in Christ Jesus, He provides of His goodness for the poor. You may trust Him for all the necessities that can occur, for He has infallibly foreknown every one of them. He can say of us in all conditions, "I knew that thou wouldst be this and that." A man goes a journey across the desert, and when he has made a day’s advance, and pitched his tent, he discovers that he wants many comforts and necessaries which he has not brought in his baggage. "Ah!" says he, "I did not foresee this: if I had this journey to go again, I should bring these things with me, so necessary to my comfort."
But God has marked with prescient eye all the requirements of His poor wandering children, and when those needs occur, supplies are ready. It is goodness which He has prepared for the poor in heart, goodness and goodness only. "My grace is sufficient for thee." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."
Reader, is your heart heavy this evening? God knew it would be; the comfort which your heart wants is treasured in the sweet assurance of the text. You are poor and needy, but He has thought upon you, and has the exact blessing which you require in store for you. Plead the promise, believe it and obtain its fulfillment. Do you feel that you never were so consciously vile as you are now? Behold, the crimson fountain is open still, with all its former efficacy, to wash your sin away. Never shall you come into such a position that Christ cannot aid you. No pinch shall ever arrive in your spiritual affairs in which Jesus Christ shall not be equal to the emergency, for your history has all been foreknown and provided for in Jesus.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
2 Chronicles 6:1-15
1 Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.
2 But I have built you a house and home, a place for you to dwell in forever."
3 The king turned his face, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood.
4 He said, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David my father, and has with his hands fulfilled it, saying,
5 'Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there and I chose no man to be prince over my people Israel;
6 but now I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.'
7 Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
8 But the LORD said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart;
9 nevertheless you shall not build the house; but your son who will come out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.'
10 "The LORD has performed his word that he spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.
11 There I have set the ark, in which is the LORD's covenant, which he made with the children of Israel."
12 He stood before the LORD's altar in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands
13 (for Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, and five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the middle of the court; and he stood on it, and knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands towards heaven)
14 and he said, "LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth; you who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants who walk before you with all their heart;
15 who have kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today.
JUDGED BY OUR ASPIRATIONS
"Thou didst well, it was in thine heart."
And this was a purpose which the man was not permitted to realize. It was a temple built in the substance of dreams, but never established in wood and stone. And God took the shadowy structure and esteemed it as a perfected pile. The sacred intention was regarded as a finished work. The will to build a temple was regarded as a temple built. And hence I discern the preciousness of all hallowed purpose and desire, even though it never receive actual accomplishment. "Thou didst well, it was in thine heart."
And so the will to be, and the will to do, is acceptable sacrifice unto the Lord! "I wish I could be a missionary to the foreign field," but the duties of home forbid. But as a missionary she is accepted of our God, even though she never land on distant shore. Our purposes work, as well as the work itself. Desire is full of holy energy as well as fruition. The wish to do good is good itself; the very longing is a minister in the kingdom of our God. If, therefore, we are to be judged by our aspirations, there are multitudes of apparent failures who will one day be revealed as clothed in the radiance of spiritual victory.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
December 8th.
My Father in Heaven, my life is Thine. May I never regard it as my own. May everything bear Thy name, and may I acknowledge
the ownership! May for me to live be Christ! May I seek first His rights and His glory! May I crown Him Lord of all!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
John 12:26
The highest service is imitation. If I would be Christ's servant I must be his follower. To do as Jesus did is the surest way of bringing honour to his name. Let me mind this every day.
If I imitate Jesus I shall have his company: if I am like him I shall be with him. In due time he will take me up to dwell with him above, if, meanwhile, I have striven to follow him here below. After his suffering our Lord came to his throne, and even so, after we have suffered a while with him here below, we also shall arrive in glory. The issue of our Lord's life shall be the issue of ours: if we are with him in his humiliation we shall be with him in his glory. Come, my soul, pluck up courage, and put down thy feet in the blood-marked foot-prints which thy Lord has left thee.
Let me not fail to note that the Father will honour those who follow his Son. If he sees me true to Jesus he will put marks of favour and honour upon me for his Son's sake. No honour can be like this. Princes and emperors bestow the mere shadows of honour; the substance of glory comes from the Father. Wherefore, my soul, cling thou to thy Lord Jesus more closely than ever.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
James 4:10
Self renders it impossible to know Christ when other loves and interests intervene, and breeds dissatisfaction with all else, and makes that very self sad and weak. Christ absolute, lights the whole being with His love and joy and beauty, and shines on other loves to their sanctification, and so the abnegation of self is self s highest development.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof.
Revelation 5:9
Still dealing with the established order, this chapter takes us a step further than the former one. There we saw the Throne, and were made conscious of the One Who occupied it. In this chapter the first vision is of that same Throne, and that same One; but of that One holding in His right hand a Book, sealed with seven seals. As events prove, that Book is the Divine programme for dealing with evil and establishing the Kingdom of God. But more than a programme is needed. There must be One Who is qualified to carry it out; One Who will be able to administer the affairs of the Throne; and accomplish the purposes of the One Who sitteth thereupon. And none is found "in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth." There are those "in the heaven", fitted for government - "dominions, thrones, principalities" suggest that; but they cannot deal with this complex condition of good and evil in conflict. There may be those "on the earth" capable of governing; but they are themselves involved in evil, and cannot cope with it. There are those "under the earth," who are "rulers of the darkness," but they are in rebellion against the One Throne. Therefore none is "able to open the Book, or to look thereon." But there is One Who is able. He has overcome in order to do it. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, a Lamb as though it had been slain. He is in His nature of the heaven, and of the earth; and by conquest He is over the underworld. He now takes the Book out of the right hand of Him that sitteth upon the Throne, in order to carry out the Divine programme, to administer the affairs of the Throne, and to accomplish the purpose of the One that sitteth thereupon.
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.