Daily Bible Notes: January, 1st
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
They did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
Joshua 5:12
Israel’s weary wanderings were all over, and the promised rest was attained. No more moving tents, fiery serpents, fierce Amalekites, and howling wildernesses: they came to the land which flowed with milk and honey, and they ate the old corn of the land. Perhaps this year, beloved Christian reader, this may be thy case or mine. Joyful is the prospect, and if faith be in active exercise, it will yield unalloyed delight. To be with Jesus in the rest which remaineth for the people of God, is a cheering hope indeed, and to expect this glory so soon is a double bliss. Unbelief shudders at the Jordan which still rolls between us and the goodly land, but let us rest assured that we have already experienced more ills than death at its worst can cause us. Let us banish every fearful thought, and rejoice with exceeding great joy, in the prospect that this year we shall begin to be "for ever with the Lord."
A part of the host will this year tarry on earth, to do service for their Lord.
If this should fall to our lot, there is no reason why the New Year’s text should not still be true. "We who have believed do enter into rest." The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance; He gives us "glory begun below." In heaven they are secure, and so are we preserve in Christ Jesus; there they triumph over their enemies, and we have victories too. Celestial spirits enjoy communion with their Lord, and this is not denied to us; they rest in His love, and we have perfect peace in Him: they hymn His praise, and it is our privilege to bless Him too. We will this year gather celestial fruits on earthly ground, where faith and hope have made the desert like the garden of the Lord. Man did eat angels’ food of old, and why not now?
O for grace to feed on Jesus, and so to eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan this year!
Evening
We will be glad and rejoice in Thee.
Song of Solomon 1:4
We will be glad and rejoice in Thee. We will not open the gates of the year to the dolorous notes of the sackbut, but to the sweet strains of the harp of joy, and the high sounding cymbals of gladness. "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation."
We, the called and faithful and chosen, we will drive away our griefs, and set up our banners of confidence in the name of God. Let others lament over their troubles, we who have the sweetening tree to cast into Marah’s bitter pool, with joy will magnify the Lord. Eternal Spirit, our effectual Comforter, we who are the temples in which Thou dwellest, will never cease from adoring and blessing the name of Jesus. We WILL, we are resolved about it, Jesus must have the crown of our heart’s delight; we will not dishonour our Bridegroom by mourning in His presence. We are ordained to be the minstrels of the skies, let us rehearse our everlasting anthem before we sing it in the halls of the New Jerusalem. We will BE GLAD AND REJOICE: two words with one sense, double joy, blessedness upon blessedness. Need there be any limit to our rejoicing in the Lord even now? Do not men of grace find their Lord to be camphire and spikenard, calamus and cinnamon even now, and what better fragrance have they in heaven itself? We will be glad and rejoice IN THEE. That last word is the meat in the dish, the kernel of the nut, the soul of the text.
What heavens are laid up in Jesus! What rivers of infinite bliss have their source, ay, and every drop of their fulness in Him! Since, O sweet Lord Jesus, Thou art the present portion of Thy people, favour us this year with such a sense of Thy preciousness, that from its first to its last day we may be glad and rejoice in Thee. Let January open with joy in the Lord, and December close with gladness in Jesus.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Hebrews 11:6-10
6 Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
7 By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
8 By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
9 By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
THE UNKNOWN JOURNEY
"He went out not knowing whither he went."
Abram began his journey without any knowledge of his ultimate destination. He obeyed a noble impulse without any discernment of its consequences. He took "one step," and he did not "ask to see the distant scene." And that is faith, to do God's will here and now, quietly leaving the results to Him. Faith is not concerned with the entire chain; its devoted attention is fixed upon the immediate link. Faith is not knowledge of a moral process; it is fidelity in a moral act. Faith leaves something to the Lord; it obeys His immediate commandment and leaves to Him direction and destiny.
And so faith is accompanied by serenity. "He that believeth shall not make haste" - or, more literally, "shall not get into a fuss." He shall not get into a panic, neither fetching fears from his yesterdays nor from his to-morrows. Concerning his yesterdays faith says, "Thou hast beset me behind." Concerning his to-morrows faith says, "Thou hast beset me before." Concerning his to-day faith says, "Thou hast laid Thine hand upon me." That is enough, just to feel the pressure of the guiding hand.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
January 1st.
(New Year's Day). My Father, may I experience the great renewal to-day! May old duties be new! May my sympathies be
new! May my aspirations be new! May I have a new heaven and a new earth!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:15
This is the first promise to fallen man. It contains the whole gospel, and the essence of the covenant of grace. It has been in great measure fulfilled. The seed of the woman, even our Lord Jesus, was bruised in his heel, and a terrible bruising it was. How terrible will be the final bruising of the serpent's head! This was virtually done when Jesus took away sin, vanquished death, and broke the power of Satan; but it awaits a still fuller accomplishment at our Lord's Second Advent, and in the day of Judgment. To us the promise stands as a prophecy that we shall be afflicted by the powers of evil in our lower nature, and thus bruised in our heel: but we shall triumph in Christ, who sets his foot on the old serpent's head. Throughout this year we may have to learn the first part of this promise by experience, through the temptations of the devil, and the unkindness of the ungodly who are his seed. They may so bruise us that we may limp with our sore heel; but let us grasp the second part of the text, and we shall not be dismayed. By faith let us rejoice that we shall still reign in Christ Jesus, the woman's seed.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Choose you this day whom ye will serve.
Joshua 24:15
Destiny is fixed by the choice of the human will, which selects for itself its heaven or hell. Thus each one of us is building character forever. Those who are yielding to the forces around that mar the life, do so absolutely of their own free choice.
Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, who have not seen Thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Believing where we cannot prove.
Thou seemest human and divine,
The highest, holiest manhood,
Thou; Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.
In Memoriam.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
It is He that shall save His people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21
The whole value of this statement is found by placing the emphasis upon the "HE." The name which the angel commanded Joseph to give to Mary's Child was one that was common at the time. It had a wonderful history. It had been made by Moses for his immediate successor, by the weaving together of his name, Hoshea, which meant Salvation, with some of the letters of the Divine name Jehovah, so that its full significance was "The Salvation of Jehovah." Thus the Name Jesus, is equivalent to the Jehovah of the Old Testament, combined with the revelation of the ultimate meaning of that name, that of Salvation, in all the completeness of the great fact. As Jehovah - or Yahweh - meant, "The Becoming One," or "The One Who becomes" - that is, the God of Grace, Who becomes to His people whatever they need, so, when in the fullness of time, He, in His Son, "became flesh," the Name given to Him signified the ultimate in this mighty, but condescending Grace. This is indeed, then, the Name which is above every name. The hope expressed in the Name was about to be fulfilled. Through the One Who was now to bear it, salvation from sin was to be made possible. This contrastive value abides. Still there is none other name which stands for that possibility. Infinite are the glories of Him Who received that Name anew when He was exalted to the right hand of God, but among them all, for us who are sinning men and women, this is central and supreme. This we should ever remember for our personal comfort, and in all our service. As we are perpetually engaged in the struggle against sin, it is for us to fight in the assurance that He is able to deliver us, not only from the penalties of wrongdoing, but from the power of evil in every form. That also must ever condition our service. However varied the claims of our Lord may be, and however wide the area over which it is our business to insist upon His Lordship, everything begins, continues, and ends, in this glorious fact that He deals with sin, forgiving its penalty, cleansing from its pollution, and destroying its power.
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.