Daily Bible Notes: December, 30th
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
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.
Ecclesiastes 7:8
Look at David’s Lord and Master; see His beginning. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at His Father’s right hand, expecting until His enemies be made his footstool. "As He is, so are we also in this world." You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden pavement. Cheer up, then, poor Christian. "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof."
See that creeping worm, how contemptible its appearance! It is the beginning of a thing. Mark that insect with gorgeous wings, playing in the sunbeams, sipping at the flower bells, full of happiness and life; that is the end thereof. That caterpillar is yourself, until you are wrapped up in the chrysalis of death; but when Christ shall appear you shall be like Him, for you shall see Him as He is. Be content to be like Him, a worm and no man, that like Him you may be satisfied when you wake up in His likeness.
That rough-looking diamond is put upon the wheel of the lapidary. He cuts it on all sides. It loses much - much that seemed costly to itself. The king is crowned; the diadem is put upon the monarch’s head with trumpet’s joyful sound. A glittering ray flashes from that coronet, and it beams from that very diamond which was just now so sorely vexed by the lapidary. You may venture to compare yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God’s people; and this is the time of the cutting process.
Let faith and patience have their perfect work, for in the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of the King, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, one ray of glory shall stream from you. "They shall be Mine," saith the Lord, "in the day when I make up My jewels." "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof."
Evening
Knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?
2 Samuel 2:26
If, O my reader! thou art merely a professor, and not a possessor of the faith that is in Christ Jesus, the following lines are a true ketch of thine end.
You are a respectable attendant at a place of worship; you go because others go, not because your heart is right with God. This is your beginning.
I will suppose that for the next twenty or thirty years you will be spared to go on as you do now, professing religion by an outward attendance upon the means of grace, but having no heart in the matter. Tread softly, for I must show you the deathbed of such a one as yourself. Let us gaze upon him gently. A clammy sweat is on his brow, and he wakes up crying, "O God, it is hard to die. Did you send for my minister?" "Yes, he is coming." The minister comes. "Sir, I fear that I am dying!" "Have you any hope?" "I cannot say that I have. I fear to stand before my God; oh! pray for me." The prayer is offered for him with sincere earnestness, and the way of salvation is for the ten-thousandth time put before him, but before he has grasped the rope, I see him sink. I may put my finger upon those cold eyelids, for they will never see anything here again. But where is the man, and where are the man’s true eyes? It is written, "In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." Ah! why did he not lift up his eyes before?
Because he was so accustomed to hear the gospel that his soul slept under it. Alas! if you should lift up your eyes there, how bitter will be your wailings. Let the Saviour’s own words reveal the woe: "Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." There is a frightful meaning in those words. May you never have to spell it out by the red light of Jehovah’s wrath!
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 32
1 Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD doesn't impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
5 I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn't hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
6 For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.
7 You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.
9 Don't be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding, who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.
10 Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in the LORD.
11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!
THE BLESSEDNESS OF FORGIVENESS
"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven."
It is the blessedness of emancipation. The boat which has been tethered to the weird, baleful shore is set free, and sails toward the glories of the morning. The man, long cramped in the dark, imprisoning pit, is brought out, and stretches his limbs in the sweet light and air of God's free world. Black servitude is ended; glorious liberty begins.
It is the blessedness of education. For when we are freed we are by no means perfected. We are liberated babes; and our Emancipator does not desert us in our spiritual infancy. The foundling is not abandoned. "Having loved His own He loved them unto the end." He begins with us in the spiritual nursery, and He will train and lead and feed us until we are "perfect in Christ Jesus."
Therefore is it the blessedness of exultation. The babe is resting on the bosom of the Lord, and "the joy of the Lord is his strength." It is not my emancipation that ensures my joy; it is the abiding Presence of the Emancipator.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
December 30th.
O God my Father, quicken my hunger for Thee. If I pray reluctantly, intensify my thirst. May my life be filled with
eager aspiration! May I always be longing for the things of God! Give me Thy peace. Give me Thy joy. May I share in Thy strength!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
John 13:1
This fact is essentially a promise; for what our Lord was he is, and what he was to those with whom he lived on earth, he will be to all his beloved so long as the moon endureth.
"Having loved:" here was the wonder! That he should ever have loved men at all is the marvel. What was there in his poor disciples that he should love them? What is there in me?
But when he has once begun to love, it is his nature to continue to do so. Love made the saints "his own" - what a choice title! He purchased them with blood and they became his treasure. Being his own, he will not lose them. Being his beloved, he will not cease to love them. My soul, he will not cease to love thee!
The text is well as it stands: "to the end," even till his death the ruling passion of love to his own reigned in his sacred bosom. It means also to the uttermost. He could not love them more: he gave himself for them. Some read it, to pefection. Truly he lavished upon them a perfect love, in which there was no flaw nor failure, no unwisdom, no unfaithfulness, and no reserve.
Such is the love of Jesus to each one of his people. Let us sing to our Well-beloved a song.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Master, I will follow thee.
Matthew 8:19
O Nazarene, Thou hast conquered by an infinitude of love; and if out of the wreckage of my life Thou canst create character that abides, I give myself to Thee, and I "will" to follow Thee.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
He hath remembered His covenant for ever.
Psalms 105:8
This song has close connection with the next, with which the fourth Book closes. In this, the theme is that of God's faithfullness; in the next, it is that of Israel's infidelity. The burden of this song is expressed in these words. This is the fact which inspired the praise. Whatever the story of His people may be, God has never forgotten His covenant; and with God, to remember is to act. The song is an illustration of this fact by selections from the history of the people, which prove it. The covenant was made with Abraham, ratified by oath to Isaac, and confirmed to Jacob, and so to Israel. He remembered it, and preserved them while they wandered among the nations, possessing no land, in the earlier days of their history. He remembered it in the days of famine, and prepared for their security through Joseph. He remembered it when they came to be oppressed in Egypt, and sent Moses to deliver them. He remembered it when they found themselves free, but in a wilderness, and guided them by cloud and fire, supplying all their wants. He remembered it amid the discipline of the years of wilderness wandering, and at last brought them out therefrom, and into the land promised. A review of history, personal or national, always becomes a revelation of the persistent faithfulness of God to His covenants with man.
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.