Daily Bible Notes: December, 19th
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
The lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.
Proverbs 16:33
If the disposal of the lot is the Lord’s whose is the arrangement of our whole life? If the a simple casting of a lot is guided by Him, how much more the events of our entire life - especially when we are told by our blessed Saviour: "The very hairs of your head are all numbered: not a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father." It would bring a holy calm over your mind, dear friend, if you were always to remember this. It would so relieve your mind from anxiety, that you would be the better able to walk in patience, quiet, and cheerfulness as a Christian should. When a man is anxious he cannot pray with faith; when he is troubled about the world, he cannot serve his Master, his thoughts are serving himself. If you would "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," all things would then be added unto you. You are meddling with Christ’s business, and neglecting your own when you fret about your lot and circumstances.
You have been trying "providing" work and forgetting that it is yours to obey. Be wise and attend to the obeying, and let Christ manage the providing. Come and survey your Father’s storehouse, and ask whether He will let you starve while He has laid up so great an abundance in His garner? Look at His heart of mercy; see if that can ever prove unkind!
Look at His inscrutable wisdom; see if that will ever be at fault. Above all, look up to Jesus Christ your Intercessor, and ask yourself, while He pleads, can your Father deal ungraciously with you? If He remembers even sparrows, will He forget one of the least of His poor children? "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved."
My soul, rest happy in thy low estate, Nor hope nor wish to be esteem’d or great; To take the impress of the Will Divine, Be that thy glory, and those riches thine.
Evening
And there was no more sea.
Revelation 21:1
Scarcely could we rejoice at the thought of losing the glorious old ocean: the new heavens and the new earth are none the fairer to our imagination, if, indeed, literally there is to be no great and wide sea, with its gleaming waves and shelly shores. Is not the text to be read as a metaphor, tinged with the prejudice with which the Oriental mind universally regarded the sea in the olden times? A real physical world without a sea it is mournful to imagine, it would be an iron ring without the sapphire which made it precious. There must be a spiritual meaning here. In the new dispensation there will be no division - the sea separates nations and sunders peoples from each other. To John in Patmos the deep waters were like prison walls, shutting him out from his brethren and his work: there shall be no such barriers in the world to come. Leagues of rolling billows lie between us and many a kinsman whom to-night we prayerfully remember, but in the bright world to which we go there shall be unbroken fellowship for all the redeemed family. In this sense there shall be no more sea. The sea is the emblem of change; with its ebbs and flows, its glassy smoothness and its mountainous billows, its gentle murmurs and its tumultuous roarings, it is never long the same. Slave of the fickle winds and the changeful moon, its instability is proverbial. In this mortal state we have too much of this; earth is constant only in her inconstancy, but in the heavenly state all mournful change shall be unknown, and with it all fear of storm to wreck our hopes and drown our joys. The sea of glass glows with a glory unbroken by a wave. No tempest howls along the peaceful shores of paradise. Soon shall we reach that happy land where partings, and changes, and storms shall be ended! Jesus will waft us there. Are we in Him or not?
This is the grand question.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Luke 2:25-40
25 Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.
26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
27 He came in the Spirit into the temple. When the parents brought in the child, Jesus, that they might do concerning him according to the custom of the law,
28 then he received him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 "Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;
32 a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel."
33 Joseph and his mother were marvelling at the things which were spoken concerning him,
34 and Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary, his mother, "Behold, this child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which is spoken against.
35 Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
36 There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having lived with a husband seven years from her virginity,
37 and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn't depart from the temple, worshipping with fastings and petitions night and day.
38 Coming up at that very hour, she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem.
39 When they had accomplished all things that were according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth.
40 The child was growing, and was becoming strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
"A light to lighten the Gentiles."
That was the wonder of wonders. Hitherto the light had been supposed to be for Israel alone; and now a heavenly splendour was to fall upon the Gentiles. Hitherto the light had been thought of as a lamp, illuming a single place; now it was to be a sun, shedding its glory upon a world. The "people that sat in darkness" are now to see "a great light." New regions are to be occupied; there is to be daybreak everywhere! "The Sun of Righteousness is arisen, with healing in His wings."
"To lighten the Gentiles!" And thus the heavenly beams have come to thee and me, to Europe and America, and to all the nations of the earth. The amazing privilege is our personal inheritance. We are born to glorious rights in Christ Jesus. But a wealthy heir may neglect this inheritance. We may have the light and neglect our garden. We may have all the favours of a blessed clime, and yet our life may be like a wilderness. The Gentiles may have the light, and may yet be children of the darkness. It is ours to believe in the light that our lives may become "light in the Lord."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
December 19th.
Saviour of the world, help me to share in Thy travail and Thy sacrifice. Save me when I am tempted to shirk my cross, and
evade my duties. Help me when I am prone to turn my back upon the steep hill, and choose the fruitless way of the plain. Help me to follow Thee.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.
Psalms 34:20
This promise by the context is referred to the much afflicted righteous man: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all," He may suffer skin-wounds and flesh-wounds, but no great harm shall be done, "not a bone of him shall be broken."
This is great comfort to a tried child of God, and comfort which I dare accept; for up to this hour I have suffered no real damage from my many afflictions. I have neither lost faith, nor hope, nor love. Nay, so far from losing these bones of character, they have gained in strength and energy. I have more knowledge, more experience, more patience, more stability than I had before the trials came. Not even my joy has been destroyed. Many a bruise have I had by sickness, bereavement, depression, slander, and opposition; but the bruise has healed, and there has been no compound fracture of a bone, nor even a simple one. The reason is not far to seek. If we trust in the Lord, he keeps all our bones; and if he keeps them, we may be sure that not one of them is broken.
Come, my heart, do not sorrow. Thou art smarting, but there are no bones broken. Endure hardness, and bid defiance to fear.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Matthew 5:17
The severity of the law of God is the necessary sequence of His infinite love. The Eternal Heart purposes and seeks the ultimate perfection of every human being. To condone sin in any way, or excuse it, would be to make impossible the realisation of that purpose.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
Revelation 16:19
In this chapter we have the account of the last activity of the Divine wrath in the pouring out of the seven bowls. Evil has wrought itself out to its most terrible expression. As men have made material things supreme, the first movements of the judgment are in the realm of the physical. The depth of the depravity of man is revealed in the fact that out of the experiences of pain, they still blaspheme and refuse to repent. After the sixth bowl, John heard a word of Christ, which he inserts parenthetically. It is a word announcing His coming, and proclaiming a blessing upon those who watch. When the seventh bowl is emptied, the voice out of the Temple declares: It is done. Then the interpreting word is written which we have selected. It declares the reason of all this method of wrath. God has never been unmindful of Babylon. She has ever been in His sight, and He has purposed always that she should drink the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Let us never forget this. In what seem to us to be the long ages of the conflict, Babylon has seemed to be in the ascendant, she has acted as though there were no God, and in her appalling power has seemed to escape retribution; and more, she has trampled upon those who have believed in God and wrought for the building of His City. But God has never forgotten; He has never allowed Babylon to escape, and at last she must drink the wine of His wrath, which will be the vintage of her own wickedness.
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.