Daily Bible Notes: February, 18th
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
Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
Job 10:2
Perhaps, O tried soul, the Lord is doing this to develop thy graces. There are some of thy graces which would never be discovered if it were not for thy trials. Dost thou not know that thy faith never looks so grand in summer weather as it does in winter? Love is too often like a glow-worm, showing but little light except it be in the midst of surrounding darkness.
Hope itself is like a star - not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. Afflictions are often the black foils in which God doth set the jewels of His children’s graces, to make them shine the better. It was but a little while ago that on thy knees thou wast saying, "Lord, I fear I have no faith: let me know that I have faith." Was not this really, though perhaps unconsciously, praying for trials? - for how canst thou know that thou hast faith until thy faith is exercised? Depend upon it, God often sends us trials that our graces may be discovered, and that we may be certified of their existence. Besides, it is not merely discovery, real growth in grace is the result of sanctified trials.
God often takes away our comforts and our privileges in order to make us better Christians. He trains His soldiers, not in tents of ease and luxury, but by turning them out and using them to forced marches and hard service. He makes them ford through streams, and swim through rivers, and climb mountains, and walk many a long mile with heavy knapsacks of sorrow on their backs. Well, Christian, may not this account for the troubles through which thou art passing? Is not the Lord bringing out your graces, and making them grow? Is not this the reason why He is contending with you? "Trials make the promise sweet; Trials give new life to prayer; Trials bring me to His feet, Lay me low, and keep me there."
Evening
Father, I have sinned.
Luke 15:18
It is quite certain that those whom Christ has washed in His precious blood need not make a confession of sin, as culprits or criminals, before God the Judge, for Christ has for ever taken away all their sins in a legal sense, so that they no longer stand where they can be condemned, but are once for all accepted in the Beloved; but having become children, and offending as children, ought they not every day to go before their heavenly Father and confess their sin, and acknowledge their iniquity in that character? Nature teaches that it is the duty of erring children to make a confession to their earthly father, and the grace of God in the heart teaches us that we, as Christians, owe the same duty to our heavenly father. We daily offend, and ought not to rest without daily pardon. For, supposing that my trespasses against my Father are not at once taken to Him to be washed away by the cleansing power of the Lord Jesus, what will be the consequence? If I have not sought forgiveness and been washed from these offences against my Father, I shall feel at a distance from Him; I shall doubt His love to me; I shall tremble at Him; I shall be afraid to pray to Him: I shall grow like the prodigal, who, although still a child, was yet far off from his father. But if, with a child’s sorrow at offending so gracious and loving a Parent, I go to Him and tell Him all, and rest not till I realize that I am forgiven, then I shall feel a holy love to my Father, and shall go through my Christian career, not only as saved, but as one enjoying present peace in God through Jesus Christ my Lord. There is a wide distinction between confessing sin as a culprit , and confessing sin as a child . The Father’s bosom is the place for penitent confessions. We have been cleansed once for all, but our feet still need to be washed from the defilement of our daily walk as children of God.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
James 1:12-20
12 Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God can't be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed.
15 Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death.
16 Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
18 Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;
20 for the anger of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God.
THE SUBTLETY OF TEMPTATION
Evil enticements always come to us in borrowed attire. In the Boer War ammunition was carried out in piano cases, and military advices were transmitted in the skins of melons. And that is the way of the enemy of our souls. He makes us think we are receiving music when he is sending explosives; he promises life, but his gift is laden with the seeds of death. He offers us liberty, and he hides his chains in dazzling flowers. "Things are not what they seem."
And so our enemy uses mirages, and will-o'-the-wisps and tinselled crowns. He lights friendly fires on perilous coasts to snare us to our ruin. And therefore we need clear, sure eyes. We need a refined moral sense which can discriminate between the true and the false, and which can discern the enemy even when he comes as "an angel of light." And we may have this wisdom from "the God of all wisdom." By His grace we may be kept morally sensitive, and we shall know our foe even when he is a long way off.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
February 18th.
My Father, I would pray for the outcasts and the neglected May my sympathies and the sympathies of others be widened, that
the lost and the unremembered may be reclaimed! Help me so to live that they may be brought back home.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
Psalms 145:19
His own Spirit has wrought this desire in us, and therefore he will answer it. It is his own life within which prompts the cry, and therefore he will hear it. Those who fear him are men under the holiest influence, and, therefore, their desire is to glorify God, and enjoy him for ever. Like Daniel, they are men of desires, and the Lord will cause them to realize their aspirations.
Holy desires are grace in the blade, and the heavenly Husbandman will cultivate them till they come to the full corn in the ear. God-fearing men desire to be holy, to be useful, to be a blessing to others, and so to honour their Lord. They desire supplies for their need, help under burdens, guidance in perplexity, deliverance in distress; and sometimes this desire is so strong, and their case so pressing, that they cry out in agony, like little children in pain, and then the Lord works most comprehensively, and does all that is needful, according to this word - "and will save them."
Yes, if we fear God, we have nothing else to fear; if we cry to the Lord, our salvation is certain.
Let the reader lay this text on his tongue, and keep it in his mouth all the day, and it will be to him as "a wafer made with honey."
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Rise, and enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Acts 9:6
It does not necessarily follow that when the light falls upon the spirit of man, he understands the source of the light. The light is the first fact; the understanding of the source follows.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Be thou exalted, O Lord, in Thy strength; so will we sing and praise Thy power.
Psalms 21:13
By common consent this Psalm is the companion to the preceding one. It is its sequel. There, the people prayed for the king as he was about to go forth to battle, and affirmed their faith in the coming victory. Here, they celebrate the victory won, and offer their praises to Jehovah. In this closing stanza, two things are set in relation to each other, those namely of the exultation of Jehovah in His strength, and of the songs of His people. The strength of man is ever found in the joy of Jehovah, that is, in the ways of life which are pleasing to Him. It follows that the songs of men which come out of pure joy are ever created by the victories of the strength of God. Test the songs of men by this standard. Songs have been written in celebration of unworthy and even of positively evil things. They all fail in the ultimate quality of pure joy and perfect poetry, however finished their art may appear to be. The songs which celebrate the victories of the pure, peaceable, pitiful strength of God, are the true poetry, even when their art is crude, for they give expression to the real and final joy of life. The strength of God is ever active towards the realization of all the best and most beautiful in life. It is for ever opposed to the things which blast, and produce ugliness. Therefore it creates the true joy of life, which must ever be the inspiration of poetry, the source of true songs:-
- "Then let our songs abound,
And every tear be dry;
We're marching through Immanuel's ground,
To fairer worlds on high."
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.