Daily Bible Notes: February, 16th
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
I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content.
Philippians 4:11
These words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of man. "Ill weeds grow apace." Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth: and so, we need not teach men to complain; they complain fast enough without any education. But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the gardener’s care. Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated; it will not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in us. Paul says, "I have learned ... to be content;" as much as to say, he did not know how at one time. It cost him some pains to attain to the mystery of that great truth. No doubt he sometimes thought he had learned, and then broke down. And when at last he had attained unto it, and could say, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," he was an old, grey-headed man, upon the borders of the grave - a poor prisoner shut up in Nero’s dungeon at Rome. We might well be willing to endure Paul’s infirmities, and share the cold dungeon with him, if we too might by any means attain unto his good degree. Do not indulge the notion that you can be contented with learning , or learn without discipline. It is not a power that may be exercised naturally, but a science to be acquired gradually. We know this from experience. Brother, hush that murmur, natural though it be, and continue a diligent pupil in the College of Content.
Evening
Thy good Spirit.
Nehemiah 9:20
Common, too common is the sin of forgetting the Holy Spirit. This is folly and ingratitude. He deserves well at our hands, for He is good, supremely good. As God, He is good essentially. He shares in the threefold ascription of Holy, holy, holy, which ascends to the Triune Jehovah. Unmixed purity and truth, and grace is He. He is good benevolently , tenderly bearing with our waywardness, striving with our rebellious wills; quickening us from our death in sin, and then training us for the skies as a loving nurse fosters her child. How generous, forgiving, and tender is this patient Spirit of God.
He is good operatively . All His works are good in the most eminent degree:
He suggests good thoughts, prompts good actions, reveals good truths, applies good promises, assists in good attainments, and leads to good results. There is no spiritual good in all the world of which He is not the author and sustainer, and heaven itself will owe the perfect character of its redeemed inhabitants to His work. He is good officially ; whether as Comforter, Instructor, Guide, Sanctifier, Quickener, or Intercessor, He fulfils His office well, and each work is fraught with the highest good to the church of God. They who yield to His influences become good, they who obey His impulses do good, they who live under His power receive good. Let us then act towards so good a person according to the dictates of gratitude. Let us revere His person, and adore Him as God over all, blessed for ever; let us own His power, and our need of Him by waiting upon Him in all our holy enterprises; let us hourly seek His aid, and never grieve Him; and let us speak to His praise whenever occasion occurs. The church will never prosper until more reverently it believes in the Holy Ghost. He is so good and kind, that it is sad indeed that He should be grieved by slights and negligences.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Deuteronomy 4:5-13
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do so in the middle of the land where you go in to possess it.
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who shall hear all these statutes and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."
7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to them as the LORD our God is whenever we call on him?
8 What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you today?
9 Only be careful, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your children and your children's children-
10 the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, "Assemble the people to me, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children."
11 You came near and stood under the mountain. The mountain burnt with fire to the heart of the sky, with darkness, cloud, and thick darkness.
12 The LORD spoke to you out of the middle of the fire: you heard the voice of words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice.
13 He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets.
CROWDING OUT GOD
"Lest thou forget."
That is surely the worst affront we can put upon anybody. We may oppose a man and hinder him in his work, or we may directly injure him, or we may ignore him, and treat him as nothing. Or we may forget him! Opposition, injury, contempt, neglect, forgetfulness! Surely this is a descending scale, and the last is the worst. And yet we can forget the Lord God. We can forget all His benefits. We can easily put Him out of mind. We can live as though He were dead. "My children have forgotten Me."
What shall we do to escape this great disaster? "Take heed to thyself!" To take heed is to be at the helm and not asleep in the cabin. It is to steer and not to drift. It is to keep our eyes on the compass and our hands on the wheel. It is to know where we are going. We never deliberately forget our Lord; we carelessly drift into it. "Take heed."
"And keep thy soul diligently." Gardens run to seed, and ill weeds grow apace. The fair things are crowded out, and the weed reigns everywhere. It is ever so with my soul. If I neglect it, the flowers of holy desire and devotion will be choked by weeds of worldliness. God will be crowded out, and the garden of the soul will become a wilderness of neglect and sin.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
February 16th.
My Lord, lift me to-day into Thy fellowship. Make me I partner in Thy power, Thy joy Thy rest, Thy peace.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man.
Hosea 11:9
The Lord thus makes known his sparing mercies. It may be that the reader is now under heavy displeasure, and everything threatens his speedy doom. Let the text hold him up from despair. The Lord now invites you to consider your ways, and confess your sins. If he had been man, he would long ago have cut you off. If he were now to act after the manner of men, it would be a word and a blow, and then there would be an end of you: but it is not so, for "as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are his ways above your ways."
You rightly judge that he is angry, but he keepeth not his anger forever: if you turn from sin to Jesus, God will turn from wrath. Because God is God, and not man, there is still forgiveness for you, even though you may be steeped up to your throat in iniquity. You have a God to deal with, and not a hard man, nor even a merely just man. No human being could have patience with you: you would have wearied out an angel, as you have wearied your sorrowing father; but God is longsuffering. Come and try him at once. Confess, believe, and turn from your evil way, and you shall be saved.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us.
Romans 12:6
The varieties create harmonies. Harmony is a concord of differences.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Psalms 19:14
The last verse of this Psalm is dedicatory. It may have applied, and probably did to the song itself, but also without any doubt to the whole life of the singer, in view of the facts celebrated in the song. This final description of God is in harmony with the facts celebrated in the Psalm. The first movement had to do with the glory of God, as revealed in the order of nature. The second was concerned with the grace of Jehovah as expressed in His revelation of Himself in His Law. In the first, God is seen as Ei - the mighty One. In the second, He is seen as Jehovah - the One becoming to man what he needs for recovery and renewal. In the first, His essential Deity is recognized. He is the Rock. In the second, His attitude and activity in Love is discovered - He is the Redeemer. The singer realized the merging of these two facts in the One Whom he worshipped. The mighty One Whose glories are seen in the day and in the night is the One full of grace. Therefore the glories of His power comfort the soul. The God of grace, full of compassion, is this very Mighty One. Therefore the trusting soul is full of courage. If our Rock were not our Redeemer, we should be without hope. If our Redeemer were not our Rock, still might we be afraid. It is good that we never forget the mutual interpretation of these two revelations of God. We live amid the things which talk to us day and night of the might of God. Let us ever remember that this is the God Who towards us is full of gentleness and most tender compassion. We live in the unveiling of that compassion in redemption. Let us never forget that this redemption has in it all the strength, the ability of the Mighty One. He is our Rock, and our Redeemer.
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.