Daily Bible Notes: December, 17th
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
I remember thee.
Jeremiah 2:2
Let us note that Christ delights to think upon His Church, and to look upon her beauty. As the bird returneth often to its nest, and as the wayfarer hastens to his home, so doth the mind continually pursue the object of its choice. We cannot look too often upon that face which we love; we desire always to have our precious things in our sight. It is even so with our Lord Jesus. From all eternity "His delights were with the sons of men"; His thoughts rolled onward to the time when His elect should be born into the world; He viewed them in the mirror of His foreknowledge. "In Thy book," He says, "all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them" (Ps. 139:16). When the world was set upon its pillars, He was there, and He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. Many a time before His incarnation, He descended to this lower earth in the similitude of a man; on the plains of Mamre (Gen. 18), by the brook of Jabbok (Gen. 32:24-30), beneath the walls of Jericho (Josh. 5:13), and in the fiery furnace of Babylon (Dan. 3:19, 25), the Son of Man visited His people. Because His soul delighted in them, He could not rest away from them, for His heart longed after them. Never were they absent from His heart, for He had written their names upon His hands, and graven them upon His side. As the breastplate containing the names of the tribes of Israel was the most brilliant ornament worn by the high priest, so the names of Christ’s elect were His most precious jewels, and glittered on His heart. We may often forget to meditate upon the perfections of our Lord, but He never ceases to remember us. Let us chide ourselves for past forgetfulness, and pray for grace ever to bear Him in fondest remembrance.
Lord, paint upon the eyeballs of my soul the image of Thy Son.
Evening
I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
John 10:9
Jesus, the great I AM, is the entrance into the true church, and the way of access to God Himself. He gives to the man who comes to God by Him four choice privileges. 1. He shall be saved . The fugitive manslayer passed the gate of the city of refuge, and was safe. Noah entered the door of the ark, and was secure.
None can be lost who take Jesus as the door of faith to their souls.
Entrance through Jesus into peace is the guarantee of entrance by the same door into heaven. Jesus is the only door, an open door, a wide door, a safe door; and blessed is he who rests all his hope of admission to glory upon the crucified Redeemer. 2. He shall go in . He shall be privileged to go in among the divine family, sharing the children’s bread, and participating in all their honours and enjoyments. He shall go in to the chambers of communion, to the banquets of love, to the treasures of the covenant, to the storehouses of the promises. He shall go in unto the King of kings in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the secret of the Lord shall be with him. 3. He shall go out . This blessing is much forgotten. We go out into the world to labour and suffer, but what a mercy to go in the name and power of Jesus! We are called to bear witness to the truth, to cheer the disconsolate, to warn the careless, to win souls, and to glorify God; and as the angel said to Gideon, "Go in this thy might," even thus the Lord would have us proceed as His messengers in His name and strength. 4. He shall find pasture . He who knows Jesus shall never want. Going in and out shall be alike helpful to him: in fellowship with God he shall grow, and in watering others he shall be watered. Having made Jesus his all, he shall find all in Jesus. His soul shall be as a watered garden, and as a well of water whose waters fail not.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Exodus 15:11-18
11 Who is like you, LORD, amongst the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand. The earth swallowed them.
13 "You, in your loving kindness, have led the people that you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.
14 The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16 Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone, until your people pass over, LORD, until the people you have purchased pass over.
17 You will bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, LORD, which you have made for yourself to dwell in; the sanctuary, Lord, which your hands have established.
18 The LORD will reign forever and ever."
GOD'S PRESENCE OUR DEFENCE
When we invent little devices to protect us against the evil one, he laughs at our petty presumption. It is like unto a child erecting sand ramparts against an incoming sea. The only thing that makes the devil fear is the presence of God. Our money can do nothing. Our culture can do nothing. Our social status can do nothing. Only God can deal with devils. "By the greatness of Thine arm they shall be still as a stone." When Thou art with me "I will fear no evil"; the fear shall be with my foes.
It is, therefore, the divine in anything which endows it with a strong defence. If the holy God dwells in our culture, then our culture becomes like an invulnerable fort. If God abides in our recreations, then our very sports are armed against our foes. If "the joy of the Lord" is in our festivity, then our very merriment is proof against the invasion of the world. When the Lord is in us, fear dwells in the opposite camp. "Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be shaken in the heart of the seas."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
December 17th.
Holy Spirit, help me to believe that all needful things may become consecrated ministries. May nothing which is
essential for my life be regarded as unclean! May everything wear a white robe! May the spotless linen be found in every room of my life!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
So shall we ever be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:17
While we are here the Lord is with us, and when we are called away we are with him. There is no dividing the saint from his Saviour. They are one, and they always must be one: Jesus cannot be without his own people, for he would be a head without a body. Whether caught up into the air, or resting in Paradise, or sojourning here, we are with Jesus; and who shall separate us from him?
What a joy is this! Our supreme honour, rest, comfort, delight, is to be with the Lord. We cannot conceive of anything which can surpass or even equal this divine society. By holy fellowship we must be with him in his humiliation, rejection, and travail, and then we shall be with him in his glory. Before long we shall be with him in his rest and in his royalty, in his expectation and in his manifestation. We shall fare as he fares, and triumph as he triumphs.
O my Lord, if I am to be for ever with thee, I have a destiny incomparable. I will not envy an archangel. To be for ever with the Lord is my idea of heaven at its best. Not the harps of gold, nor the crowns unfading, nor the light unclouded, is glory to me; but Jesus, Jesus himself, and myself for ever with him in nearest and dearest fellowship.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
His servants shall serve him; and they shall see his face.
Revelation 22:3,4
We shall see Him, and want to serve. We shall be like Him, and be able to serve. We shall know, and be prepared to serve. Inspiration for service in vision; equipment for service in correspondence; preparation for service in knowledge! Thus Himself will be the reason of all the service of the new life, and therefore His Will will be the plane of heaven's activity.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on the Mount Zion.
Revelation 14:1
Having thus seen evil working itself out to its final manifestation on the earth, the attention of the seer is turned again to the heavenly order. The Lamb is seen on Mount Zion, associated with the elect remnant whose sealing had taken place before the opening of the seventh seal. Under His rule a threefold angel testimony is borne to the earth. The first declares the eternal Gospel, that is, the abiding truth of the Kingship of God. The second declares Babylon to be fallen, that is, the mystery of evil to be doomed. The third warns men against yielding to the beast, declaring that all who do, will drink of the wine of the wrath of God. Because during this period death will be the, portion of many who remain true to God, a voice declares all such to be blessed. The last of these preparatory and interpretative visions granted to John was that of the Son of Man, having on His head the golden crown of absolute monarchy, and in His hand the sharp sickle of retributive justice. The words, "And He that sat on the cloud cast in His sickle upon the earth; and the earth was reaped," constitute a tremendous declaration, the full force of which will be apprehended more perfectly in the descriptions which follow. Suffice it now to say that it is a declaration of the final and all-inclusive judgment. The vintage is not that of the vine of heaven, but that of the earth, of the terrible counterfeit which we have seen under the figure of the beasts. In the final description here, the figurative merges into fact. The wine is blood.
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.