Daily Bible Notes: February, 22nd
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
His bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.
Genesis 49:24
That strength which God gives to His Josephs is real strength; it is not a boasted valour, a fiction, a thing of which men talk, but which ends in smoke; it is true - divine strength . Why does Joseph stand against temptation? Because God gives him aid. There is nought that we can do without the power of God. All true strength comes from "the mighty God of Jacob." Notice in what a blessedly familiar way God gives this strength to Joseph -"The arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." Thus God is represented as putting His hands on Joseph’s hands, placing His arms on Joseph’s arms. Like as a father teaches his children, so the Lord teaches them that fear Him. He puts His arms upon them. Marvellous condescension! God Almighty, Eternal, Omnipotent, stoops from His throne and lays His hand upon the child’s hand, stretching His arm upon the arm of Joseph, that he may be made strong! This strength was also covenant strength, for it is ascribed to "the mighty God of Jacob ." Now, wherever you read of the God of Jacob in the Bible, you should remember the covenant with Jacob. Christians love to think of God’s covenant. All the power, all the grace, all the blessings, all the mercies, all the comforts, all the things we have, flow to us from the well-head, through the covenant. If there were no covenant, then we should fail indeed; for all grace proceeds from it, as light and heat from the sun. No angels ascend or descend, save upon that ladder which Jacob saw, at the top of which stood a covenant God. Christian, it may be that the archers have sorely grieved you, and shot at you, and wounded you, but still your bow abides in strength; be sure, then, to ascribe all the glory to Jacob’s God.
Evening
The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power.
Nahum 1:3
Jehovah "is slow to anger ." When mercy cometh into the world she driveth winged steeds; the axles of her chariot-wheels are red hot with speed; but when wrath goeth forth, it toileth on with tardy footsteps, for God taketh no pleasure in the sinner’s death. God’s rod of mercy is ever in His hands outstretched; His sword of justice is in its scabbard, held down by that pierced hand of love which bled for the sins of men. "The Lord is slow to anger," because He is GREAT IN POWER. He is truly great in power who hath power over himself. When God’s power doth restrain Himself, then it is power indeed: the power that binds omnipotence is omnipotence surpassed. A man who has a strong mind can bear to be insulted long, and only resents the wrong when a sense of right demands his action. The weak mind is irritated at a little: the strong mind bears it like a rock which moveth not, though a thousand breakers dash upon it, and cast their pitiful malice in spray upon its summit. God marketh His enemies, and yet He bestirs not Himself, but holdeth in His anger. If He were less divine than He is, He would long ere this have sent forth the whole of His thunders, and emptied the magazines of heaven; He would long ere this have blasted the earth with the wondrous fires of its lower regions, and man would have been utterly destroyed; but the greatness of his power brings us mercy. Dear reader, what is your state this evening?
Can you by humble faith look to Jesus, and say, "My substitute, Thou art my rock, my trust"? Then, beloved, be not afraid of God’s power; for by faith you have fled to Christ for refuge, the power of God need no more terrify you, than the shield and sword of the warrior need terrify those whom he loves. Rather rejoice that He who is "great in power" is your Father and Friend.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Revelation 22:1-14
1 He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
2 in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
3 There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him.
4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
5 There will be no night, and they need no lamp light or sun light; for the Lord God will illuminate them. They will reign forever and ever.
6 He said to me, "These words are faithful and true. The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his bondservants the things which must happen soon."
7 "Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."
8 Now I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who had shown me these things.
9 He said to me, "See you don't do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."
10 He said to me, "Don't seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.
11 He who acts unjustly, let him act unjustly still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him do righteousness still. He who is holy, let him be holy still."
12 "Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14 Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
THE THREE GARDENS
The Bible opens with a garden. It closes with a garden. The first is the Paradise that was lost. The last is Paradise regained. And between the two there is a third garden, the garden of Gethsemane. And it is through the unspeakable bitterness and desolation of Gethsemane that we find again the glorious garden through which flows "the river of water of life." Without Gethsemane no New Jerusalem! Without its mysterious and unfathomable night no blessed sunrise of eternal hope! "We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son."
We are always in dire peril of regarding our redemption lightly. We hold it cheaply. Privileges easily come to be esteemed as rights. And even grace itself can lose the strength of heavenly favour and can be received and used as our due. "Gethsemane can I forget?" Yes, I can; and in the forgetfulness I lose the sacred awe of my redemption, and I miss the real glory of "Paradise regained." "Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price." That is the remembrance that keeps the spirit lowly, and that fills the heart with love for Him "whose I am," and whom I ought to serve.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
February 22nd.
My Father, purify my motives at the beginning of this day. If anything is unclean within me, take it away. Lift up mine eyes unto
the hills, and may my life be a continual ascent.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this
Pnilisline.
1 Samuel 17:37
This is not a promise if we consider only the words, but it is truly so as to its sense; for David spoke a word which the Lord endorsed by making it true. He argued from past deliverances that he should receive help in a new danger. In Jesus all the promises are Yea and Amen to the glory of God by us, and so the Lord's former dealings with his believing people will be repeated.
Come, then, let us recall the Lord's former loving-kindnesses. We could not have hoped to be delivered aforetime by our own strength; yet the Lord delivered us. Will he not again save us? We are sure he will. As David ran to meet his foe, so will we. The Lord has been with us, he is with us, and he has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Why do we tremble? Was the past a dream? Think of the dead bear and lion. Who is this Philistine? True, he is not quite the same, and is neither bear nor lion; but then God is the same, and his honour is as much concerned in the one case as in the other. He did not save us from the beasts of the forest to let a giant kill us. Let us be of good courage.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Never man spake like this man.
John 7:46
Whatever may be uncertain about Christ, it must at least be conceded that He has revealed to men the highest ideal of human life which the world has ever seen.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Yea, none that wait on Thee shall be ashamed.
Psalms 25:3
This is not a petition, as the King James' version rendered it, but an affirmation of confidence. It is the first of a series running through the song, and for that reason I have emphasized it. The whole song is the prayer of a soul burdened with a sense of need, and pouring out the tale of that need before God. Its atmosphere, however, is that of complete confidence and of assured faith. This affirmation, and those like it which follow, reveal this fact. The movement of the Psalm is that of alternation between petitions and expressions of complete certainty about God. Thus it becomes a pattern prayer for the children of God in all circumstances of need, whether that need is created by the opposition of foes, of by personal wrong-doing. In such case the soul may come to God, and in His presence speak of the burden which rests upon it. It may do so, however, with every assurance, on the basis of the faith which, after all, is the deepest thing in its experience. This exercise of the affirmation of faith is of the greatest value. How often, under stress of difficult circumstances, we are liable to superficial thoughts about God, and about ourselves, which tend to produce despair. In such hours it is good resolutely and persistently to turn in upon one's own deepest convictions about God, and positively to avow them. Such exercise will open the door of release from the gloom which ever comes from the contemplation of circumstances and from introspection; and lead us out into the light and hope which are always to be found in the presence of God, and remembrance of the truth about Him.
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.