Daily Bible Notes: December, 29th
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
Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.
1 Samuel 7:12
The word "hitherto" seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past .
Twenty years or seventy, and yet, "hitherto the Lord hath helped!"
Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through health, at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea, in honour, in dishonour, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in temptation, "hitherto hath the Lord helped us!" We delight to look down a long avenue of trees.
It is delightful to gaze from end to end of the long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves; even so look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys. Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received "hitherto."
But the word also points forward . For when a man gets up to a certain mark and writes "hitherto," he is not yet at the end, there is still a distance to be traversed. More trials, more joys; more temptations, more triumphs; more prayers, more answers; more toils, more strength; more fights, more victories; and then come sickness, old age, disease, death. Is it over now?
No! there is more yet-awakening in Jesu’s likeness, thrones, harps, songs, psalms, white raiment, the face of Jesus, the society of saints, the glory of God, the fulness of eternity, the infinity of bliss. O be of good courage, believer, and with grateful confidence raise thy "Ebenezer," for - He who hath helped thee hitherto Will help thee all thy journey through.
When read in heaven’s light how glorious and marvellous a prospect will thy "hitherto" unfold to thy grateful eye!
Evening
What think ye of Christ?
Matthew 22:42
The great test of your soul’s health is, What think you of Christ ? Is He to you "fairer than the children of men" - "the chief among ten thousand" - the "altogether lovely"? Wherever Christ is thus esteemed, all the faculties of the spiritual man exercise themselves with energy. I will judge of your piety by this barometer: does Christ stand high or low with you?
If you have thought little of Christ, if you have been content to live without His presence, if you have cared little for His honour, if you have been neglectful of His laws, then I know that your soul is sick - God grant that it may not be sick unto death! But if the first thought of your spirit has been, How can I honour Jesus? If the daily desire of your soul has been, "O that I knew where I might find Him!" I tell you that you may have a thousand infirmities, and even scarcely know whether you are a child of God at all, and yet I am persuaded, beyond a doubt, that you are safe, since Jesus is great in your esteem. I care not for thy rags, what thinkest thou of His royal apparel? I care not for thy wounds, though they bleed in torrents, what thinkest thou of His wounds? are they like glittering rubies in thine esteem? I think none the less of thee, though thou liest like Lazarus on the dunghill, and the dogs do lick thee - I judge thee not by thy poverty: what thinkest thou of the King in His beauty? Has He a glorious high throne in thy heart? Wouldst thou set Him higher if thou couldst? Wouldst thou be willing to die if thou couldst but add another trumpet to the strain which proclaims His praise? Ah! then it is well with thee. Whatever thou mayst think of thyself, if Christ be great to thee, thou shalt be with Him ere long. "Though all the world my choice deride, Yet Jesus shall my portion be; For I am pleased with none beside, The fairest of the fair is He"
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
1 John 4:7-14
7 Beloved, let's love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
8 He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love.
9 By this God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we remain in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Saviour of the world.
THE LOVE OF GOD
Let me more assiduously think of God's love. Let me sit down to it. In the National Gallery can be seen two sorts of people. There are the mere vagrants, who are always "on the move," passing from picture to picture, without seeing any. And there are the students, who sit down, and contemplate, and meditate, and appropriate, and saturate. And there are vagrants in respect to the love of the Lord. They have a passing glimpse, but the impression is not vital and vitalizing, and there are the students, who are always gazing, and who are continually crying, "O the depth of the riches of the love of God in Christ!" "His riches are unsearchable!"
And God's love is the creator of my love. "While I muse the fire burns." I am kindled into the same holy passion. That is to say, contemplation determines character. We acquire the hues of the things to which we cling. To hold fellowship with love is to become loveful and lovely. "We love because He first loved us."
And then, in the third place, it is through my love that I know my Lord. "Everyone that loveth knoweth God." Love is the lens through which I discern the secret things of God.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
December 29th.
Lord Christ my Saviour, help me to glory in Thy Cross. May I make my boast in the merits of my Saviour!
May I find my glory in Thy redemption! Save me from exalting my own service. Deliver me from all self-conceit. May I hide myself in Thee!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Isaiah 46:4
The year is very old, and here is a promise for our aged friends; yes, and for us all, as age creeps over us. Let us live long enough, and we shall all have hoar hairs; therefore we may as well enjoy this promise by the foresight of faith.
When we grow old our God will still be the I AM, abiding evermore the same. Hoar hairs tell of our decay, but he decayeth not. When we cannot carry a burden, and can hardly carry ourselves, the Lord will carry us. Even as in our young days he carried us like lambs in his bosom, so will he in our years of infirmity.
He made us, and he will care for us. When we become a burden to our friends, and a burden to ourselves, the Lord will not shake us off, but the rather he will take us up and carry and deliver us more fully than ever. In many cases the Lord gives his servants a long and calm evening. They worked hard all day and wore themselves out in their Master's service, and so he said to them, "Now rest in anticipation of that eternal Sabbath which I have prepared for you." Let us not dread old age. Let us grow old graciously, since the Lord himself is with us in fulness of grace.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.
John 14:26, R.V.
The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Day of Pentecost as a gift of God. Man had no claim upon God for that great gift; He was not poured out in answer to any prayer of man, nor on account of any merit in man: He was, as was the gift of Jesus, a gift of Grace which all received as from God.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Let the Lord rejoice in His works.
Psalms 104:31
This is perhaps the highest and most daring note in all this wonderful song of praise. So impressed with the glory and wonder and beauty of creation was the singer, that he positively called upon God to rejoice in what He had wrought. There is nothing irreverent in this. It is rather an expression of the soul's profound understanding of what God actually feels in view of His own mighty and marvellous works. This song may be read anywhere, and on its poetic pinions of interpretation it will carry us out from the littleness of trivial things, and the pollutions resulting from human sin, to the vastness of Nature, and its essential purity. Perhaps the best conditions under which to read it are found away from human habitations, either among the mountains from which the valleys, with the rivers, can be seen; or out on the splendid solitudes of the sea. Such surroundings interpret the Psalm, and the Psalm interprets them. All these things of beauty and order are seen as proceeding from God; and He is seen, moreover, as present among them, and revealed in all the majesty of His wisdom, glory, and power. This singer saw and understood, and was so overwhelmed with the joy of creation, that in exultant ecstasy he called upon Jehovah to rejoice. And may we not say that the joy of soul which prompted the prayer was also the answer to the cry? The joy of the singer was the joy of God. Through every soul who finds God in His works and rejoices therein, God, in a mystery of communion, is indeed rejoicing; and that means that our joy in creation is fellowship with God in His joy.
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.