Daily Bible Notes: February, 12th
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
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:5
There is a blessed proportion. The Ruler of Providence bears a pair of scales - in this side He puts His people’s trials, and in that He puts their consolations. When the scale of trial is nearly empty, you will always find the scale of consolation in nearly the same condition; and when the scale of trials is full, you will find the scale of consolation just as heavy. When the black clouds gather most, the light is the more brightly revealed to us.
When the night lowers and the tempest is coming on, the Heavenly Captain is always closest to His crew. It is a blessed thing, that when we are most cast down, then it is that we are most lifted up by the consolations of the Spirit. One reason is, because trials make more room for consolation . Great hearts can only be made by great troubles. The spade of trouble digs the reservoir of comfort deeper, and makes more room for consolation. God comes into our heart - He finds it full - He begins to break our comforts and to make it empty; then there is more room for grace. The humbler a man lies, the more comfort he will always have, because he will be more fitted to receive it. Another reason why we are often most happy in our troubles, is this - then we have the closest dealings with God . When the barn is full, man can live without God: when the purse is bursting with gold, we try to do without so much prayer. But once take our gourds away, and we want our God ; once cleanse the idols out of the house, then we are compelled to honour Jehovah. "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. "There is no cry so good as that which comes from the bottom of the mountains; no prayer half so hearty as that which comes up from the depths of the soul, through deep trials and afflictions. Hence they bring us to God, and we are happier; for nearness to God is happiness. Come, troubled believer, fret not over your heavy troubles, for they are the heralds of weighty mercies.
Evening
He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever.
John 14:16
Great Father revealed Himself to believers of old before the coming of His Son, and was known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the God Almighty.
Then Jesus came, and the ever-blessed Son in His own proper person, was the delight of His people’s eyes. At the time of the Redeemer’s ascension, the Holy Spirit became the head of the present dispensation, and His power was gloriously manifested in and after Pentecost. He remains at this hour the present Immanuel - God with us, dwelling in and with His people, quickening, guiding, and ruling in their midst. Is His presence recognized as it ought to be? We cannot control His working; He is most sovereign in all His operations, but are we sufficiently anxious to obtain His help, or sufficiently watchful lest we provoke Him to withdraw His aid? Without Him we can do nothing, but by His almighty energy the most extraordinary results can be produced: everything depends upon his manifesting or concealing His power. Do we always look up to Him both for our inner life and our outward service with the respectful dependence which is fitting? Do we not too often run before His call and act independently of His aid? Let us humble ourselves this evening for past neglects, and now entreat the heavenly dew to rest upon us, the sacred oil to anoint us, the celestial flame to burn within us. The Holy Ghost is no temporary gift, He abides with the saints. We have but to seek Him aright, and He will be found of us. He is jealous, but He is pitiful; if He leaves in anger, He returns in mercy. Condescending and tender, He does not weary of us, but awaits to be gracious still.
Sin has been hammering my heart Unto a hardness, void of love, Let supplying grace to cross his art Drop from above.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
John 14:15-24
15 If you love me, keep my commandments.
16 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, that he may be with you forever:
17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world can't receive; for it doesn't see him and doesn't know him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 One who has my commandments and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him."
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?"
23 Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
24 He who doesn't love me doesn't keep my words. The word which you hear isn't mine, but the Father's who sent me.
THE BULB AND THE SOIL
"He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me."
Yes, but how can I keep them? Some one sent me a bulb which requires a certain kind of soil, but he also sent me the soil in which to grow it. He sent instructions, but he also sent power. And when I am bidden to keep a commandment I feel as though I have received the bulb but not the soil! But is this God's way of dealing with His people? I will read on if perchance I may find the gift of the soil.
"He that abideth in Me ... the same bringeth forth much fruit." That is the gift I seek. For the keeping of His commandments the Lord provides Himself. I am not called upon to raise fruits out of the soil of my own will, out of my own infirmity of aspiration or desire. I can rest everything in God! I can "abide in Him," and I may have the holy energies of the Godhead to produce in me the fruits of a holy and obedient life. The good Lord provides both the bulb and the soil.
It is the tragedy of life that we forget this, and seek to make a soil-bed of our own. And thus do we suffer the calamity of fruitless labour, the heavy drudgery of tasks beyond our strength. "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
February 12th.
My Father, teach me how to do Thy will. Help me not to spoil it by doing it in an unwise way May my righteousness be lovely
May I allure others to Thee by the beauty of my behaviour!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward,
and eastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Genesis 13:14, 15
A special blessing for a memorable occasion. Abram had settled a family dispute. He had said, "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between thee and me, for we be brethren"; and hence he received the blessing which belongs to peacemakers. The Lord and giver of peace delights to manifest his grace to those who seek peace and pursue it. If we desire closer communion with God, we must keep closer to the ways of peace.
Abram had behaved very generously to his kinsman, giving him his choice of the land. If we deny ourselves for peace sake, the Lord will more than make it up to us. As far as the patriarch can see, he can claim, and we may do the like by faith. Abram had to wait for the actual possession, but the Lord entailed the land upon him and his posterity. Boundless blessings belong to us by covenant gift. All things are ours. When we please the Lord, he makes us to look everywhere, and see all things our own, whether things present, or things to come, all are ours, and we are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
To me to live is Christ.
Philippians 1:21
Paul did not count that he had any life except the life which was named Christ.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
He that doeth these things shall never be moved.
Psalms 15:5
The Psalm opens with an inquiry addressed to Jehovah, as to who are worthy to be His guests, and to dwell in the place consecrated by His presence. It closes with this enlarged and emphatic statement that, given the fulfilment of conditions, a man may be not only a guest of Jehovah, but in such continued fellowship as to be in continued prosperity. Rotherham very literally and very beautifully renders this line. "He that doeth these things shall not be shaken to the ages." The conditions are carefully set out between the opening inquiry and the closing affirmation. The first is that of personal character in harmony with the character of God, righteousness in work, and truth in word. The second covers the ground of relative life. The man who is the guest of God must maintain right relationships with his neighbour. These are important considerations. While, through Christ, our right of access to God, God and of maintained fellowship with Him, is created by grace, and founded upon justification by faith, apart from any works of ours, it must ever be remembered that justification is unto righteousness, and grace is the inspiration of truth. Any thought of justification which approaches the idea that it means excuse of sin, or hiding of uncleanness, is utterly unwarranted and wholly pernicious. Through justification God has put righteousness at our disposal. We must not continue in sin, that grace may abound. Grace is entirely holy. It demands holiness. Our comfort is that it does more: it makes holy. That creates our responsibility. To continue in sin is to frustrate the very purpose of God in grace. To do that is to be excluded from His tent, to be shut out from the holy mountain.
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.