Daily Bible Notes: February, 8th
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
Thou shalt call his name Jesus.
Matthew 1:21
When a person is dear, everything connected with him becomes dear for his sake. Thus, so precious is the person of the Lord Jesus in the estimation of all true believers, that everything about Him they consider to be inestimable beyond all price. "All Thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia," said David, as if the very vestments of the Saviour were so sweetened by His person that he could not but love them. Certain it is, that there is not a spot where that hallowed foot hath trodden - there is not a word which those blessed lips have uttered - nor a thought which His loving Word has revealed - which is not to us precious beyond all price. And this is true of the names of Christ - they are all sweet in the believer’s ear. Whether He be called the Husband of the Church, her Bridegroom, her Friend; whether He be styled the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world - the King, the Prophet, or the Priest - every title of our Master - Shiloh, Emmanuel, Wonderful, the Mighty Counsellor - every name is like the honeycomb dropping with honey, and luscious are the drops that distil from it. But if there be one name sweeter than another in the believer’s ear, it is the name of Jesus . Jesus! it is the name which moves the harps of heaven to melody. Jesus! the life of all our joys. If there be one name more charming, more precious than another, it is this name. It is woven into the very warp and woof of our psalmody. Many of our hymns begin with it, and scarcely any, that are good for anything, end without it. It is the sum total of all delights. It is the music with which the bells of heaven ring; a song in a word; an ocean for comprehension, although a drop for brevity; a matchless oratorio in two syllables; a gathering up of the hallelujahs of eternity in five letters. "Jesus, I love Thy charming name, ‘Tis music to mine ear."
Evening
He shall save His people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21
Many persons, if they are asked what they understand by salvation, will reply, "Being saved from hell and taken to heaven." This is one result of salvation, but it is not one tithe of what is contained in that boon. It is true our Lord Jesus Christ does redeem all His people from the wrath to come; He saves them from the fearful condemnation which their sins had brought upon them; but His triumph is far more complete than this. He saves His people "from their sins." Oh! sweet deliverance from our worst foes.
Where Christ works a saving work, He casts Satan from his throne, and will not let him be master any longer. No man is a true Christian if sin reigns in his mortal body. Sin will be in us - it will never be utterly expelled till the spirit enters glory; but it will never have dominion . There will be a striving for dominion - a lusting against the new law and the new spirit which God has implanted - but sin will never get the upper hand so as to be absolute monarch of our nature. Christ will be Master of the heart, and sin must be mortified. The Lion of the tribe of Judah shall prevail, and the dragon shall be cast out. Professor! is sin subdued in you? If your life is unholy your heart is unchanged, and if your heart is unchanged you are an unsaved person. If the Saviour has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of sin and a love of holiness, He has done nothing in you of a saving character. The grace which does not make a man better than others is a worthless counterfeit. Christ saves His people, not in their sins, but from them. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." If not saved from sin, how shall we hope to be counted among His people. Lord, save me now from all evil, and enable me to honour my Saviour.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Genesis 35:1-7
1 God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother."
2 Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are amongst you, purify yourselves, change your garments.
3 Let's arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me on the way which I went."
4 They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
5 They travelled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn't pursue the sons of Jacob.
6 So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him.
7 He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
REVISITING OLD ALTARS
"I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress."
It is a blessed thing to revisit our early altars. It is good to return to the haunts of early vision. Places and things have their sanctifying influences, and can recall us to lost experiences. I know a man to whom the scent of a white, wild rose is always a call to prayer. I know another to whom Grasmere is always the window of holy vision. Sometimes a particular pew in a particular church can throw the heavens open, and we see the Son of God. The old Sunday-school has sometimes taken an old man back to his childhood and back to his God. So I do not wonder that God led Jacob back to Bethel, and that in the old place of blessing he reconsecrated himself to the Lord.
It is a revelation of the loving-kindness of God that we have all these helps to the recovery of past experiences. Let us use them with reverence. And in our early days let us make them. Let us build altars of communion which in later life we shall love to revisit. Let us make our early home "the house of God and the gate of heaven." Let us multiply deeds of service which will make countless places fragrant for all our after years.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
February 8th.
My Lord, help me to make a good beginning and a good ending of this day. Gather together its scattered and broken threads of
holy purpose, and may it end in gracious consecration.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." _ Isaiah 41:10
Fear of falling is wholesome. To be venture-some is no sign of wisdom. Times come to us when we feel that we must go down unless we have very special support. Here we have it. God's right hand is a grand thing to lean upon. Mind, it is not only his hand, though it keepeth heaven and earth in their places, but his right hand: his power united with skill, his power where it is most dexterous. Nay, this is not all, it is written, "I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." That hand which he uses to maintain his holiness, and to execute his royal sentences - this shall be stretched out to hold up his trusting ones. Fearful is our danger, but joyful is our security. The man whom God upholds, devils cannot throw down.
Weak may be our feet, but almighty is God's right hand. Rough may be the road, but Omnipotence is our upholding. We may boldly go forward. We shall not fall. Let us lean continually where all things lean. God will not withdraw his strength, for his righteousness is there as well: he will be faithful to his promise, and faithful to his Son, and therefore faithful to us. How happy we ought to be! Are we not so?
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:2
To deny Christ is to deny atonement and to deny sin, and the only voice that denies these has learned its language and caught its tone in the deep things of Satan.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Psalms 11:3
That is the final appeal of the man who lives by sight to the man who lives by faith. It has the ring of reasonableness, but it is utterly wrong. The idea is not open to question. If the foundations be destroyed, the righteous are helpless. But the question which the supposition makes imperative is: Are the foundations destroyed? The Psalm is the song of a man who was apparently in grave danger. His friends saw the danger, and urged him to flee. His enemies were all around him, and they were not giving him a fair chance. Their methods were those of subtlety and treachery. To these men of sight, the foundations were destroyed. The whole song is a protest against that misconception. The singer had another vision. To him the surrounding circumstances were not foundations. He saw God, enthroned, watching, acting. To him this was the one foundation. This foundation could not be destroyed. Therefore there was no need for flight. How constantly that which boasts itself as reason, is most unreasonable. True reason takes all quantities into account before it makes its calculations. To reckon with circumstances and to leave God out of count, is to omit the principal factor in any and every situation. What unutterable folly to confuse scaffolding with foundations! And yet that is exactly what men do when they imagine that because circumstances do not seem to be propitious, therefore flight is necessary. To see God is to know that the plastic dance of circumstance is as surely under His control as is the clay. That is the secret of courage.
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.