Daily Bible Notes: December, 27th
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
Can the rush grow up without mire?
Job 8:11
The rush is spongy and hollow, and even so is a hypocrite; there is no substance or stability in him. It is shaken to and fro in every wind just as formalists yield to every influence; for this reason the rush is not broken by the tempest, neither are hypocrites troubled with persecution. I would not willingly be a deceiver or be deceived; perhaps the text for this day may help me to try myself whether I be a hypocrite or no. The rush by nature lives in water, and owes its very existence to the mire and moisture wherein it has taken root; let the mire become dry, and the rush withers very quickly. Its greenness is absolutely dependent upon circumstances, a present abundance of water makes it flourish, and a drought destroys it at once. Is this my case? Do I only serve God when I am in good company, or when religion is profitable and respectable? Do I love the Lord only when temporal comforts are received from His hands? If so I am a base hypocrite, and like the withering rush, I shall perish when death deprives me of outward joys. But can I honestly assert that when bodily comforts have been few, and my surroundings have been rather adverse to grace than at all helpful to it, I have still held fast my integrity? then have I hope that there is genuine vital godliness in me. The rush cannot grow without mire, but plants of the Lord’s right hand planting can and do flourish even in the year of drought. A godly man often grows best when his worldly circumstances decay. He who follows Christ for his bag is a Judas; they who follow for loaves and fishes are children of the devil; but they who attend Him out of love to Himself are His own beloved ones. Lord, let me find my life in Thee , and not in the mire of this world’s favour or gain.
Evening
And the LORD shall guide thee continually.
Isaiah 58:11
"The Lord shall guide thee." Not an angel, but JEHOVAH shall guide thee.
He said He would not go through the wilderness before His people, an angel should go before them to lead them in the way; but Moses said, "If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." Christian, God has not left you in your earthly pilgrimage to an angel’s guidance: He Himself leads the van. You may not see the cloudy, fiery pillar, but Jehovah will never forsake you. Notice the word shall - "The Lord shall guide thee."
How certain this makes it! How sure it is that God will not forsake us! His precious "shalls" and "wills" are better than men’s oaths. "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Then observe the adverb continually . We are not merely to be guided sometimes, but we are to have a perpetual monitor; not occasionally to be left to our own understanding, and so to wander, but we are continually to hear the guiding voice of the Great Shepherd; and if we follow close at His heels, we shall not err, but be led by a right way to a city to dwell in. If you have to change your position in life; if you have to emigrate to distant shores; if it should happen that you are cast into poverty, or uplifted suddenly into a more responsible position than the one you now occupy; if you are thrown among strangers, or cast among foes, yet tremble not, for "the Lord shall guide thee continually." There are no dilemmas out of which you shall not be delivered if you live near to God, and your heart be kept warm with holy love. He goes not amiss who goes in the company of God. Like Enoch, walk with God, and you cannot mistake your road. You have infallible wisdom to direct you, immutable love to comfort you, and eternal power to defend you. "Jehovah" - mark the word - "Jehovah shall guide thee continually."
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
1 John 1:1-7
1 That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we saw, and our hands touched, concerning the Word of life
2 (and the life was revealed, and we have seen, and testify, and declare to you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was revealed to us);
3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
4 And we write these things to you, that our joy may be fulfilled.
5 This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness, we lie, and don't tell the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
THE SUNNY SIDE OF THINGS
I have just come out of a gloomy room into a sunny room to write these words. I had my choice. I could have stayed in the sombre room, but I choose to come into the sun-lit room and the warm, cheering beams are even now falling upon my page. "Walk in the light!" And I make my choice, and how often I choose to walk without Christ in the unfertilizing and unfruitful gloom of self-will! In the light of the Lord I could have a garden of Eden; how often I choose the dingy wilderness where I can grow neither flowers nor fruits.
"Walk in the light." The Lord's companionship always makes the sunny side of the street. It may be that the way is rough and stony and difficult, but in His company there is light that never fails, compared with which the world's noontide is only as the gloomiest night. And the souls that "walk in the light" gather "sacred sweets" all along the way. Heavenly fruits grow for the children of light, fruits of love and joy and peace, and the favoured pilgrim plucks them as he goes along. "All I find in Jesus." The way of light is the way of delight, and "the joy of the Lord is our strength."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
December 27th.
God of all grace, I would commend to Thee all who have had a disappointing year. Wherever the heart aches in the sense
of failure, wilt Thou send the needed balm? If holy vows have been broken, wilt Thou send the grace of repentance and
amendment? May we finish the year in the joys of reconciliation!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
Isaiah 54:10
One of the most delightful qualities of divine love is its abiding character. The pillars of the earth may be moved out of their places, but the kindness and the covenant of our merciful Jehovah never depart from his people. How happy my soul feels in a firm belief of this inspired declaration! The year is almost over, and the years of my life are growing few, but time does not change my Lord. New lamps are taking the place of the old, perpetual change is on all things; but our Lord is the same. Force overturns the hills, but no conceivable power can affect the eternal God. Nothing in the past, the present, or the future can cause Jehovah to be unkind to me.
My soul, rest in the eternal kindness of the Lord, who treats thee as one near of kin. Remember also the everlasting covenant. God is ever mindful of it - see that thou art mindful of it too. In Christ Jesus the glorious God has pledged himself to thee to be thy God, and to hold thee as one of his people. Kindness and covenant - dwell on these words as sure and lasting things which eternity itself shall not take from thee.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth.
John 16:13, R.V.
Protestants are perpetually being told that they have no centre of authority. This statement is due to the fact that those who make it forget that the one, the abiding, and the only centre of authority, in matters of faith and doctrine, is the Holy Spirit.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
But Thou, O Lord, shalt abide for ever.
Psalms 102:12
These are the words which to me blaze out from this Psalm as revealing its true value. It is one of the seven which we designate Penitential Psalms. (The others are 6, 32, 38, 51, 13o, and 143.) The title is peculiar. It is the song of one pouring out his complaint, but doing so before Jehovah. Now glance at its structure. It falls into three strophes: (a) verses 1-11; (b) verses 12-22; (c) verses 23-28. I draw attention to this carefully in order to make clear a distinction and a difference. The first and the last are pulsating with personal consciousness. Mark well the reiteration of the pronoun in the first person singular, "I," "my," "me." They speak of trouble, of suffering, of sorrow. They are full of the sense of limitation, "my days," "my days." Now I look at the central portion. All that is missing. There is not a single personal reference. It opens with these words which affirm the eternity of God, and proceeds to speak of Zion, the nations, the kings of the earth, the peoples. But now look again at the first and the last strophes. In the first the singer is overwhelmed with his own sorrowful experiences. In the second he has discovered a secret, and is confident of a result. What is the secret? It emerges in the first sentence: "He weakened my strength in the way." What is the conclusion? It is stated at the close: "The children of thy servants shall continue; and their seed shall be established before Thee." This, then, is the light which banishes darkness - the sense of the eternity of God. Then all life is seen as being under His control, and therefore conditioned in the wisdom and intention which include far more than the passing moment, taking into account all the ages. Once more we remember the words of our Lord - "This is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God."
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.