Daily Bible Notes: February, 28th
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
My expectation is from Him.
Psalm 62:5
It is the believer’s privilege to use this language. If he is looking for aught from the world, it is a poor "expectation" indeed. But if he looks to God for the supply of his wants, whether in temporal or spiritual blessings, his expectation" will not be a vain one. Constantly he may draw from the bank of faith, and get his need supplied out of the riches of God’s lovingkindness. This I know, I had rather have God for my banker than all the Rothschilds. My Lord never fails to honour His promises; and when we bring them to His throne, He never sends them back unanswered.
Therefore I will wait only at His door, for He ever opens it with the hand of munificent grace. At this hour I will try Him anew. But we have "expectations" beyond this life. We shall die soon; and then our "expectation is from Him." Do we not expect that when we lie upon the bed of sickness He will send angels to carry us to His bosom? We believe that when the pulse is faint, and the heart heaves heavily, some angelic messenger shall stand and look with loving eyes upon us, and whisper, "Sister spirit, come away!" As we approach the heavenly gate, we expect to hear the welcome invitation, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." We are expecting harps of gold and crowns of glory; we are hoping soon to be amongst the multitude of shining ones before the throne; we are looking forward and longing for the time when we shall be like our glorious Lord - for "We shall see Him as He is." Then if these be thine "expectations," O my soul, live for God; live with the desire and resolve to glorify Him from whom cometh all thy supplies, and of whose grace in thy election, redemption, and calling, it is that thou hast any "expectation" of coming glory.
Evening
The barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which He spake by Elijah.
1 Kings 17:16
See the faithfulness of divine love. You observe that this woman had daily necessities. She had herself and her son to feed in a time of famine; and now, in addition, the prophet Elijah was to be fed too. But though the need was threefold, yet the supply of meal wasted not, for she had a constant supply . Each day she made calls upon the barrel, but yet each day it remained the same. You, dear reader, have daily necessities, and because they come so frequently, you are apt to fear that the barrel of meal will one day be empty, and the cruse of oil will fail you. Rest assured that, according to the Word of God, this shall not be the case. Each day, though it bring its trouble, shall bring its help; and though you should live to outnumber the years of Methuselah, and though your needs should be as many as the sands of the seashore, yet shall God’s grace and mercy last through all your necessities, and you shall never know a real lack. For three long years, in this widow’s days, the heavens never saw a cloud, and the stars never wept a holy tear of dew upon the wicked earth: famine, and desolation, and death, made the land a howling wilderness, but this woman never was hungry, but always joyful in abundance. So shall it be with you.
You shall see the sinner’s hope perish, for he trusts his native strength; you shall see the proud Pharisee’s confidence totter, for he builds his hope upon the sand; you shall see even your own schemes blasted and withered, but you yourself shall find that your place of defence shall be the munition of rocks: "Your bread shall be given you, and your water shall be sure."
Better have God for your guardian, than the Bank of England for your possession. You might spend the wealth of the Indies, but the infinite riches of God you can never exhaust.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Deuteronomy 8:1-10
1 You shall observe to do all the commandments which I command you today, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers.
2 You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
3 He humbled you, allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn't know, neither did your fathers know, that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the LORD's mouth.
4 Your clothing didn't grow old on you, neither did your foot swell, these forty years.
5 You shall consider in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
6 You shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.
7 For the LORD your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills;
8 a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey;
9 a land in which you shall eat bread without scarcity, you shall not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you may dig copper.
10 You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which he has given you.
THE TEST OF FULNESS
"And thou shalt eat and be full, and thou shalt bless the Lord thy God." Fulness is surely a more searching test than want. Fulness induces sleep and forgetfulness. Many a man fights a good fight with Apollyon in the narrow way, who lapses into sleepy indifference on the Enchanted Ground. Men often sit down to a full table without "grace." Pain cries out to God, while boisterous health strides along in heedlessness. Yes, it is our fulness that constitutes our direst peril. "This was the iniquity of Sodom, fulness of bread and abundance of idleness."
And so our tests may come on the sunny day. A nation's supreme tests may come in its prosperity. The sunshine may do more damage than the lightning. The soul may falter even in Beulah land, where "the sun shines night and day."
Prayer must not, therefore, tarry until sickness and adversity come. We must "pray without ceasing" in the cloudless noon, lest we are stricken with "the arrow that flieth by day." We must seek the eternal strength when no apparent enemy crouches at our gate, and when our easy road is lined with luxuriant flowers and fruit.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
February 28th.
Great God, teach me how to be gentle. May my successes not make me hard, and may my failures not make me bitter! In
all my varied conditions help me to be gentle and full of faith.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
Hebrews 10:34
This is well. Our substance here is very unsubstantial; there is no substance in it. But God has given us a promise of real estate in the glory-land, and that promise comes to our hearts with such full assurance of its certainty, that we know in ourselves that we have an enduring substance there. Yes, "we have" it even now. They say, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"; but we have our bird in the bush and in the hand too. Heaven is even now our own. We have the title-deeds of it, we have the earnest of it, we have the first-fruits of it. We have heaven in price, in promise, and in principle: this we know not only by the hearing of the ear, but "in ourselves."
Should not the thought of the better substance on the other side of Jordan reconcile us to present losses? Our spending-money we may lose, but our treasure is safe. We have lost the shadows, but the substance remains, for our Saviour lives, and the place which he has prepared for us abides. There is a better land, a better substance, a better promise; and all this comes to us by a better covenant; wherefore, let us be in better spirits, and say unto the Lord, "Every day will I bless thee; and praise thy name for ever and ever."
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Not my will, but thine be done.
Luke 22:42
God will not come and help men to do their work. He asks that they should give themselves to Him for the doing of His work.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
For Thy Name's sake, lead me and guide me.
Psalms 31:3
Rotherham has suggestively said: "This Psalm might very well be described as a mosaic of misery and mercy." It opens with an affirmation of confidence, and closes with praise and exhortation to the love of Jehovah. In its process, we find ourselves in the presence of varied and multiplied afflictions. Throughout, the sufferer is confident in God, and pours out his soul before Him in appeal for succour and deliverance. In these words we have the statement of the soul's argument with God, the revelation of the ground upon which the appeal is made. The activity of God is sought for the sake of His Name. It is a plea that God will be true to the revelation which He has made of Himself, in the Name by which He has made Himself known. Every name of God was suggestive, and spoke of His greatness in might and majesty and mercy. For the honour of that revelation the singer sought the help of this God. The words strike the very deepest notes in the secret of true life. It is that of desire for the honour of the Name, and that is desire for the glory of God. The appeal is constantly discovered in the Bible. It was for the honour of the Name of God that Moses was concerned in the memorable hour in which he prayed for mercy upon a people who had grievously sinned. Our Lord, in His intercessory prayer, spoke of the manifestation of the Name of His Father as the great work which He had accomplished in the case of the men whom He had gathered about Him. We are ever warranted in urging this plea in our praying; but in doing so we must remember that the revelation of God by His Name, and that superlatively when the Name is JESUS, is such as to make claims upon us. Those being recognized and yielded to, this plea is always the one which prevails.
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.