Daily Bible Notes: February, 26th
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
Salvation is of the Lord.
Jonah 2:9
Salvation is the work of God. It is He alone who quickens the soul "dead in trespasses and sins," and it is He also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both "Alpha and Omega." "Salvation is of the Lord." If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because He upholds me with His hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation, except what God Himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing but sin and misery. "He only is my rock and my salvation." Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it.
Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: "Salvation is of the Lord."
Evening
Behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague.
Leviticus 13:13
Strange enough this regulation appears, yet there was wisdom in it, for the throwing out of the disease proved that the constitution was sound. This evening it may be well for us to see the typical teaching of so singular a rule. We, too, are lepers, and may read the law of the leper as applicable to ourselves. When a man sees himself to be altogether lost and ruined, covered all over with the defilement of sin, and in no part free from pollution; when he disclaims all righteousness of his own, and pleads guilty before the Lord, then he is clean through the blood of Jesus, and the grace of God. Hidden, unfelt, unconfessed iniquity is the true leprosy; but when sin is seen and felt, it has received its deathblow, and the Lord looks with eyes of mercy upon the soul afflicted with it. Nothing is more deadly than self-righteousness, or more hopeful than contrition. We must confess that we are "nothing else but sin," for no confession short of this will be the whole truth; and if the Holy Spirit be at work with us, convincing us of sin, there will be no difficulty about making such an acknowledgment - it will spring spontaneously from our lips. What comfort does the text afford to truly awakened sinners: the very circumstance which so grievously discouraged them is here turned into a sign and symptom of a hopeful state! Stripping comes before clothing; digging out the foundation is the first thing in building - and a thorough sense of sin is one of the earliest works of grace in the heart. O thou poor leprous sinner, utterly destitute of a sound spot, take heart from the text, and come as thou art to Jesus - "For let our debts be what they may, however great or small, As soon as we have nought to pay, our Lord forgives us all. ‘Tis perfect poverty alone that sets the soul at large:
While we can call one mite our own, we have no full discharge."
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 34:9-22
9 Oh fear the LORD, you his saints, for there is no lack with those who fear him.
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.
11 Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12 Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.
14 Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.
15 The LORD's eyes are towards the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
16 The LORD's face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He protects all of his bones. Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall kill the wicked. Those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him shall be condemned.
THE CELLARS OF AFFLICTION
Samuel Rutherford used to say that whenever he found himself in the cellars of afflictions he used to look about for the King's wine. He would look for the wine-bottles of the promises and drink rich draughts of vitalizing grace. And surely that is the best deliverance in all affliction, to be made so spiritually exhilarant that we can rise above it. I might be taken out of affliction, and emerge a poor slave and weakling. I might remain in affliction, and yet be king in the seeming servitude, "more than conqueror" in Christ Jesus. It is a great thing to be led through green pastures and by still waters; I think it is a greater thing to have a "table prepared before me in the presence of mine enemies." It is good to be able to sing in the sunny noon; it is better still to be able to sing "songs in the night."
And this deliverance may always be ours in Christ Jesus. The Lord may not smooth out our circumstances, but we may have the regal right of peace. He may not save us from the sorrows of a newly-cut grave, but we may have the glorious strength of the immortal hope. God will enable us to be masters of all our circumstances, and none shall have a deadly hold upon us.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
February 26th.
Holy Father, endow me with true insight this day, that I may see Thee in the trivial round and commonplace, and find Thy will in
all the circumstances of life.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
Proverbs 12:19
Truth wears well. Time tests it, but it right well endures the trial. If, then, I have spoken the truth, and have for the present to suffer for it, I must be content to wait. If also I believe the truth of God, and endeavour to declare it, I may meet with much opposition, but I need not fear, for ultimately the truth must prevail.
What a poor thing is the temporary triumph of falsehood! "A lying lip is but for a moment"! It is a mere gourd, which comes up in a night, and perishes in a night; and the greater its development the more manifest its decay. On the other hand, how worthy of an immortal being is the avowal and defence of that truth which can never change; the everlasting gospel, which is established in the immutable truth of an unchanging God! An old proverb saith, "He that speaks truth shames the devil." Assuredly he that speaks the truth of God will put to shame all the devils in hell, and confound all the seed of the serpent which now hiss out their falsehoods.
O my heart, take care that thou be in all things on the side of truth, both in small things and great; but, specially, on the side of him by whom grace and truth have come among men!
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Christ pleased not himself.
Romans 15:3
The man who does as he likes is the greatest slave. The man who never does as he likes is God's free man.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
In His temple everything saith, Glory.
Psalms 29:9
This is in very deed a glorious Psalm It is an interpretation of a storm in application to life. We must carefully note its structure. Verses 3-9 describe the storm. The first two verses constitute a call to the Elim, the sons of the mighty - whether angels or men - to render praise to God. The last two verses give the reason for this call to praise. Jehovah has been seen sitting as King above the storm, and so revealing the fact of His Kingship over all the storms and upheavals of life. If verses 3-9 be read with the eye upon the map of Palestine, it will be seen that the storm gathered over the Great Sea, and burst upon the land in the north, striking Lebanon in its fury. Then it swept southward, shaking the wilderness of Kadesh. From beginning to end the noise of the storm is the Voice of the Lord, and the activity thereof the putting forth of His might. These particular words end the picture of the storm, and declare the conception of the tempest obtaining in the temple. There, "everything saith, Glory!" That song of the temple produces the triumph-song of those who dwell upon the earth where the tempests sweep. Their fury is not uncontrolled: "Jehovah sat as King at the Flood," and "Jehovah sitteth as King for ever." In this confidence we know that He will give us strength - that is, to endure the storm; and that He will bless us with peace - that is, following the storm, and as the outcome of it. How much this Psalm has to say to us about the tempest-tossed years through which we have lived! Let us "ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto His Name." Let us "worship Jehovah in holy array."
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.