Daily Bible Notes: December, 15th
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
Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her.
Ruth 1:14
Both of them had an affection for Naomi, and therefore set out with her upon her return to the land of Judah. But the hour of test came; Naomi most unselfishly set before each of them the trials which awaited them, and bade them if they cared for ease and comfort to return to their Moabitish friends. At first both of them declared that they would cast in their lot with the Lord’s people; but upon still further consideration Orpah with much grief and a respectful kiss left her mother in law, and her people, and her God, and went back to her idolatrous friends, while Ruth with all her heart gave herself up to the God of her mother in law. It is one thing to love the ways of the Lord when all is fair, and quite another to cleave to them under all discouragements and difficulties. The kiss of outward profession is very cheap and easy, but the practical cleaving to the Lord, which must show itself in holy decision for truth and holiness, is not so small a matter. How stands the case with us, is our heart fixed upon Jesus, is the sacrifice bound with cords to the horns of the altar? Have we counted the cost, and are we solemnly ready to suffer all worldly loss for the Master’s sake? The after gain will be an abundant recompense, for Egypt’s treasures are not to be compared with the glory to be revealed.
Orpah is heard of no more; in glorious ease and idolatrous pleasure her life melts into the gloom of death; but Ruth lives in history and in heaven, for grace has placed her in the noble line whence sprung the King of kings.
Blessed among women shall those be who for Christ’s sake can renounce all; but forgotten and worse than forgotten shall those be who in the hour of temptation do violence to conscience and turn back unto the world. O that this morning we may not be content with the form of devotion, which may be no better than Orpah’s kiss, but may the Holy Spirit work in us a cleaving of our whole heart to our Lord Jesus.
Evening
And lay thy foundations with sapphires.
Isaiah 54:11
Not only that which is seen of the church of God, but that which is unseen, is fair and precious. Foundations are out of sight, and so long as they are firm it is not expected that they should be valuable; but in Jehovah’s work everything is of a piece, nothing slurred, nothing mean.
The deep foundations of the work of grace are as sapphires for preciousness, no human mind is able to measure their glory. We build upon the covenant of grace , which is firmer than adamant, and as enduring as jewels upon which age spends itself in vain. Sapphire foundations are eternal, and the covenant abides throughout the lifetime of the Almighty.
Another foundation is the person of the Lord Jesus , which is clear and spotless, everlasting and beautiful as the sapphire; blending in one the deep blue of earth’s ever rolling ocean and the azure of its all embracing sky.
Once might our Lord have been likened to the ruby as He stood covered with His own blood, but now we see Him radiant with the soft blue of love, love abounding, deep, eternal. Our eternal hopes are built upon the justice and the faithfulness of God , which are clear and cloudless as the sapphire. We are not saved by a compromise, by mercy defeating justice, or law suspending its operations; no, we defy the eagle’s eye to detect a flaw in the groundwork of our confidence - our foundation is of sapphire, and will endure the fire.
The Lord Himself has laid the foundation of His people’s hopes. It is matter for grave enquiry whether our hopes are built upon such a basis.
Good works and ceremonies are not a foundation of sapphires, but of wood, hay, and stubble; neither are they laid by God, but by our own conceit. Foundations will all be tried ere long: woe unto him whose lofty tower shall come down with a crash, because based on a quicksand. He who is built on sapphires may await storm or fire with equanimity, for he shall abide the test.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Romans 14:7-21
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord's.
9 For to this end Christ died, rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgement seat of Christ.
11 For it is written, " 'As I live,' says the Lord, 'to me every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess to God.' "
12 So then each one of us will give account of himself to God.
13 Therefore let's not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother's way, or an occasion for falling.
14 I know, and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean of itself; except that to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
15 Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don't destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
16 Then don't let your good be slandered,
17 for God's Kingdom is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
18 For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.
19 So then, let's follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up.
20 Don't overthrow God's work for food's sake. All things indeed are clean, however it is evil for that man who creates a stumbling block by eating.
21 It is good to not eat meat, drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles, is offended, or is made weak.
WHAT IS MY TENDENCY?
"Whether we live, we live unto...."
Unto what? In what direction are we living? Whither are we going? How do we complete the sentence? "We live unto money!" That is how many would be compelled to finish the record. Money is their goal, and their goal determines their tendency. "We live unto pleasure!" Such would be another popular company. "We live unto fame!" That would be the banner of another regiment. "We live unto ease!" Thus would men and women describe their quests. "Unto" what? That is the searching question which probes life to its innermost desire.
"For whether we live, we live unto the Lord." That was the apostle's unfailing tendency, increasing in its momentum every day. He crashed through obstacles in his glorious quest. He sought the Lord through everything and in everything. When new circumstances confronted him, his first question was this - "Where is Christ in all this?" He found the right way across every trackless moor by simply seeking Christ.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
December 15th.
Heavenly Father, may the revelation of Thy glory make a heaven on earth to-day! May we feel round about us the atmosphere
that prevails in Thy Kingdom! May the grace of Thy presence make our sunshine! May we have one of the days of the Son of Man!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:4
Oh, that these happy times were come! At present the nations are heavily armed, and are inventing weapons more and more terrible, as if the chief end of man could only be answered by destroying myriads of his fellows. Yet peace will prevail one day; yes, and so prevail that the instruments of destruction shall be beaten into other shapes and used for better purposes.
How will this come about? By trade? By civilization? By arbitration? We do not believe it. Past experience forbids our trusting to means so feeble. Peace will be established only by the reign of the Prince of Peace. He must teach the people by his Spirit, renew their hearts by his grace, and reign over them by his supreme power, and then will they cease to wound and kill. Man is a monster when once his blood is up, and only the Lord Jesus can turn this lion into a lamb. By changing man's heart, his blood-thirsty passions are removed. Let every reader of this book of promises offer special prayer to-day to the Lord and Giver of Peace, that he would speedily put an end to war, and establish concord over the whole world.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Surely I come quickly. Amen.
Revelation 22:20
Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices
Call to the saints, and, to the deaf, are dumb;
Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices,
Glad in His coming, Who hath sworn, 'I come.'
This hath He done, and shall we not adore Him?
This shall He do, and shall we yet despair?
Come, let us quickly fling ourselves before Him;
Cast at His feet the burden of our care.
- F. W. H. Myers.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
And there was war in heaven.
Revelation 12:7
In these three chapters, 12, 13, and 14, we certainly have an interlude upon the account of the actual procedure. A series of visions were granted to the seer, setting forth the fact and conditions leading up to the things actually following the soundings of the trumpet. There is no doubt that here we reach the section of this book about which it is least possible to be dogmatic. I believe that the first section of this chapter looks back to the birth of the Man-child Jesus of ideal Israel. He is caught up unto God and to His Throne, while she is driven into the wilderness. For the purpose of this vision her time is dated as from the moment when that Man-child takes the book from the right hand of God, and begins to open its seals. At the end of 1,260 days, or three and a half years, there is war in heaven. Our only conception of war is material, and therefore we cannot visualize this conflict. Enough for us to know that it is an actual conflict between principalities and powers, fallen and unfallen, and that the result is that the whole of the fallen ones are cast out of the heavenly places to which they have had access, and now exercise all their awful power on the earth. But terrible as is the manifestation of the power of evil thus centralized on earth, it is that of foes already defeated in the heavenlies, and everything proceeds under the government of the Lamb.
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.