Daily Bible Notes: December, 31st
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
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
John 7:37
Patience had her perfect work in the Lord Jesus, and until the last day of the feast He pleaded with the Jews, even as on this last day of the year He pleads with us, and waits to be gracious to us. Admirable indeed is the longsuffering of the Saviour in bearing with some of us year after year, notwithstanding our provocations, rebellions, and resistance of His Holy Spirit. Wonder of wonders that we are still in the land of mercy! Pity expressed herself most plainly , for Jesus cried , which implies not only the loudness of His voice, but the tenderness of His tones. He entreats us to be reconciled. "We pray you," says the Apostle, "as though God did beseech you by us." What earnest, pathetic terms are these! How deep must be the love which makes the Lord weep over sinners, and like a mother woo His children to His bosom! Surely at the call of such a cry our willing hearts will come. Provision is made most plenteously ; all is provided that man can need to quench his soul’s thirst. To his conscience the atonement brings peace; to his understanding the gospel brings the richest instruction; to his heart the person of Jesus is the noblest object of affection; to the whole man the truth as it is in Jesus supplies the purest nutriment. Thirst is terrible, but Jesus can remove it. Though the soul were utterly famished, Jesus could restore it. Proclamation is made most freely , that every thirsty one is welcome. No other distinction is made but that of thirst. Whether it be the thirst of avarice, ambition, pleasure, knowledge, or rest, he who suffers from it is invited. The thirst may be bad in itself, and be no sign of grace, but rather a mark of inordinate sin longing to be gratified with deeper draughts of lust; but it is not goodness in the creature which brings him the invitation, the Lord Jesus sends it freely, and without respect of persons. Personality is declared most fully . The sinner must come to Jesus, not to works, ordinances, or doctrines, but to a personal Redeemer, who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. The bleeding, dying, rising Saviour, is the only star of hope to a sinner. Oh for grace to come now and drink, ere the sun sets upon the year’s last day!
No waiting or preparation is so much as hinted at. Drinking represents a reception for which no fitness is required. A fool, a thief, a harlot can drink; and so sinfulness of character is no bar to the invitation to believe in Jesus. We want no golden cup, no bejewelled chalice, in which to convey the water to the thirsty; the mouth of poverty is welcome to stoop down and quaff the flowing flood. Blistered, leprous, filthy lips may touch the stream of divine love; they cannot pollute it, but shall themselves be purified. Jesus is the fount of hope. Dear reader, hear the dear Redeemer’s loving voice as He cries to each of us, "IF ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO ME AND DRINK."
Evening
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
Jeremiah 8:20
Not saved ! Dear reader, is this your mournful plight? Warned of the judgment to come, bidden to escape for your life, and yet at this moment not saved ! You know the way of salvation, you read it in the Bible, you hear it from the pulpit, it is explained to you by friends, and yet you neglect it, and therefore you are not saved . You will be without excuse when the Lord shall judge the quick and dead. The Holy Spirit has given more or less of blessing upon the word which has been preached in your hearing, and times of refreshing have come from the divine presence, and yet you are without Christ. All these hopeful seasons have come and gone - your summer and your harvest have past - and yet you are not saved .
Years have followed one another into eternity, and your last year will soon be here: youth has gone, manhood is going, and yet you are not saved . Let me ask you - will you ever be saved ? Is there any likelihood of it?
Already the most propitious seasons have left you unsaved; will other occasions alter your condition? Means have failed with you - the best of means, used perseveringly and with the utmost affection - what more can be done for you? Affliction and prosperity have alike failed to impress you; tears and prayers and sermons have been wasted on your barren heart. Are not the probabilities dead against your ever being saved? Is it not more than likely that you will abide as you are till death for ever bars the door of hope? Do you recoil from the supposition? Yet it is a most reasonable one: he who is not washed in so many waters will in all probability go filthy to his end. The convenient time never has come, why should it ever come? It is logical to fear that it never will arrive, and that Felix like, you will find no convenient season till you are in hell. O bethink you of what that hell is, and of the dread probability that you will soon be cast into it!
Reader, suppose you should die unsaved, your doom no words can picture. Write out your dread estate in tears and blood, talk of it with groans and gnashing of teeth: you will be punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. A brother’s voice would fain startle you into earnestness. O be wise, be wise in time, and ere another year begins, believe in Jesus, who is able to save to the uttermost. Consecrate these last hours to lonely thought, and if deep repentance be bred in you, it will be well; and if it lead to a humble faith in Jesus, it will be best of all. O see to it that this year pass not away, and you an unforgiven spirit. Let not the new year’s midnight peals sound upon a joyless spirit! Now, NOW, NOW believe, and live. "ESCAPE FOR THY LIFE; LOOK NOT BEHIND THEE, NEITHER STAY THOU IN ALL THE PLAIN; ESCAPE TO THE MOUNTAIN, LEST THOU BE CONSUMED."
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the LORD's house forever.
THE REAR-GUARD
"Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."
But why "follow" me? Why not "go before"? Because some of my enemies are in the rear; they attack me from behind. There are foes in my yesterdays which can give me fatal wounds. They can stab me in the back! If I could only get away from the past! Its guilt dogs my steps. Its sins are ever at my heels. I have turned my face toward the Lord, but my yesterdays pursue me like a relentless hound! So I have an enemy in the rear.
But, blessed be His name, my mighty God is in the rear as well as my foe. "Goodness and mercy shall follow me!" No hound can break through that defence. Between me and my guilt there is the infinite love of the Lord. The loving Lord will not permit my past to destroy my soul. I may sorrow for my past, but my very sorrow shall be a minister of moral and spiritual health. My Lord is Lord of the past as well as of the morrow, and so to-day "I will trust and not be afraid."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
December 31st.
My risen Lord, may I know the power of Thy resurrection! May it lift me up into loftiness of thought and feeling!
May it draw me like a mystic gravitation! May I every moment feel the upward calling in Thee! May my spirit be upon the heights!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Psalms 73:24
From day to day and from year to year my faith believes in the wisdom and love of God, and I know that I shall not believe in vain. No good word of his has ever failed, and I am sure that none shall ever fall to the ground.
I put myself into his hand for guidance. I know not the way that I should choose: the Lord shall choose mine inheritance for me. I need counsel and advice; for my duties are intricate, and my condition is involved. I seek to the Lord, as the High Priest of old looked to his Urim and Thummim. The counsel of the infallible God I seek in preference to my own judgment or the advice of friends. Glorious Jehovah, thou shalt guide me!
Soon the end will come: a few more years, and I must depart out of this world unto the Father. My Lord will be near my bed. He will meet me at heaven's gate: he will welcome me to the glory-land. I shall not be a stranger in heaven: my own God and Father will receive me to its endless bliss.
GLORY BE TO HIM WHO WILL GUIDE ME HERE, AND RECEIVE ME HEREAFTER. AMEN.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithful Creator.
1 Peter 4:19, R.V.
Let the end be as the beginning. There is but one thing that matters. It is that God's Will should be done ... The ultimate issue will be perfect compensation for all the toil of the pathway that leads thereto.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord.
Psalms 106:48
This is the Doxology with which Book 4 closes. The central theme of this collection has been that of Jehovah as the King of His people. The dominant title has been Jehovah. The worship, in all the songs, has been submissive, that of souls yielded to this authority of grace and power. Observe how in this Doxology, for the first time, adoration is followed by admonition. At the close of the second Book - the burden of which was the wonder-working God - the desire was expressed in the Doxology that the whole earth might be filled with His glory. Here the appeal is to the people. "Let all the people say, Amen!" Throughout this collection, the failure of the people to respond has been recognized. It forms the subject of the last song. Listen to some of its phrases, or sentences of confession: "Our fathers ... remembered not"; "they soon forgat"; "they forgat God their Saviour." These stand in sharp contrast to the statement which was the theme of the previous Psalm: "He hath remembered His covenant for ever." Thus, at the close of the Book, there finds its way into the Doxology this haunting memory of failure, producing the appeal to the people to respond, to say Amen. There is no need to argue that a merely intellectual Amen - that is, the consent of the reason to truth about the kingship of God - is of no value. The Amen for which He seeks is that of the agreement of the will, and of the acquiescence of conduct. Adoration, to be acceptable to God, must have in it the element of response to the glory which calls it forth. Approbation is futile, admiration is impertinent, unless they produce obedience.
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.