Daily Bible Notes: January, 7th
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
For me to live is Christ.
Philippians 1:21
The believer did not always live to Christ. He began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, and when by grace he was brought to see the dying Saviour making a propitiation for his guilt. From the moment of the new and celestial birth the man begins to live to Christ. Jesus is to believers the one pearl of great price, for whom we are willing to part with all that we have. He has so completely won our love, that it beats alone for Him; to His glory we would live, and in defence of His gospel we would die; He is the pattern of our life, and the model after which we would sculpture our character. Paul’s words mean more than most men think; they imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ - nay, his life itself was Jesus. In the words of an ancient saint, he did eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life. Jesus was his very breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life. Can you say, as a professing Christian, that you live up to this idea? Can you honestly say that for you to live is Christ?
Your business - are you doing it for Christ ? Is it not done for self-aggrandizement and for family advantage? Do you ask, "Is that a mean reason?" For the Christian it is. He professes to live for Christ; how can he live for another object without committing a spiritual adultery? Many there are who carry out this principle in some measure; but who is there that dare say that he hath lived wholly for Christ as the apostle did?
Yet,this alone is the true life of a Christian - its source, its sustenance, its fashion, its end, all gathered up in one word - Christ Jesus. Lord, accept me; I here present myself, praying to live only in Thee and to Thee. Let me be as the bullock which stands between the plough and the altar, to work or to be sacrificed; and let my motto be, "Ready for either."
Evening
My sister, my spouse.
Song of Solomon 4:12
Observe the sweet titles with which the heavenly Solomon with intense affection addresses His bride the church. "My sister , one near to me by ties of nature, partaker of the same sympathies. My spouse , nearest and dearest, united to me by the tenderest bands of love; my sweet companion, part of my own self. My sister , by my Incarnation, which makes me bone of thy bone and flesh of thy flesh; my spouse , by heavenly betrothal, in which I have espoused thee unto myself in righteousness. My sister , whom I knew of old, and over whom I watched from her earliest infancy; my spouse , taken from among the daughters, embraced by arms of love, and affianced unto me for ever. See how true it is that our royal Kinsman is not ashamed of us, for He dwells with manifest delight upon this two-fold relationship. We have the word "my" twice in our version; as if Christ dwelt with rapture on His possession of His Church. "His delights were with the sons of men," because those sons of men were His own chosen ones. He, the Shepherd, sought the sheep, because they were His sheep; He has gone about "to seek and to save that which was lost," because that which was lost was His long before it was lost to itself or lost to Him. The church is the exclusive portion of her Lord; none else may claim a partnership, or pretend to share her love. Jesus, thy church delights to have it so! Let every believing soul drink solace out of these wells. Soul!
Christ is near to thee in ties of relationship; Christ is dear to thee in bonds of marriage union, and thou art dear to Him; behold He grasps both of thy hands with both His own, saying, "My sister, my spouse." Mark the two sacred holdfasts by which thy Lord gets such a double hold of thee that He neither can nor will ever let thee go. Be not, O beloved, slow to return the hallowed flame of His love.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Nehemiah 9:6-11
6 You are the LORD, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you.
7 You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, gave him the name of Abraham,
8 found his heart faithful before you, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give it to his offspring, and have performed your words; for you are righteous.
9 "You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red Sea,
10 and showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, and against all his servants, and against all the people of his land; for you knew that they dealt proudly against them, and made a name for yourself, as it is today.
11 You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the middle of the sea on the dry land; and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.
A JOURNAL OF MERCIES
"Thou hast performed Thy words: for Thou art righteous." Frances Ridley Havergal kept a journal of mercies. She had a record book, and she crowded it with her remembrances of God's goodness. She was always on the look-out for tokens of the Lord's grace and bounty, and she found them everywhere. Everywhere she had communion with a covenant-keeping God. The Bible became to her more and more the history of her own life and experience. Promise after promise told the story of her own triumphs. She appropriated the goodness of God, and she set her own seal to the testimony that God is true.
Many a complaining life would be changed into music and song by a journal of mercies. Many a fear can be dispersed by a ready remembrance. Memory can be made the handmaid of hope. Yesterday's blessing can kindle the courage of to-day. That is the purposed ministry of "the days that have been." We are to harness the strength of their experiences to the tasks and burdens of to-day; and in the remembrance of God's providences we shall march through our difficulties with singing.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
January 7th.
My Father, save me this day from the perils of the world, the passion of anger and malice and avarice,
and all forms of selfish greed.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Thou shalt see greater things than these.
John 1:50
This is spoken to a childlike believer, who was ready to accept Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel, upon one convincing piece of argument. Those who are willing to see shall see: it is because we shut our eyes that we become so sadly blind.
We have seen much already. Great things and unsearchable has the Lord showed unto us, for which we praise his name; but there are greater truths in his Word, greater depths of experience, greater heights of fellowship, greater works of usefulness, greater discoveries of power, and love, and wisdom. These we are yet to see if we are willing to believe our Lord. The faculty of inventing false doctrine is ruinous, but power to see the truth is a blessing. Heaven shall be opened to us, the way thither shall be made clear to us in the Son of man, and the angelic commerce which goes on between the upper and the lower kingdoms shall be made more manifest to us. Let us keep our eyes open towards spiritual objects, and expect to see more and more. Let us believe that our lives will not drivel down into nothing, but that we shall be always on the growing hand, seeing greater and still greater things, till we behold the Great God himself, and never again lose the sight of him.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
The movements of God must never be measured by the slowness of a human life, or by the inadequacy of an earthly almanac. Standing by that risen Man of Nazareth, each one putting trust in Him may say with reverence and holy fear, and yet with certainty and absolute boldness, "My heart is glad, my tongue rejoices, my flesh also shall dwell in hope."
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Founded upon the Rock.
Matthew 7:25
In the closing sentences of His ethical manifesto, our Lord claimed full and final authority for all He had said; and that superlatively, by thus declaring that to hear and to do, is to build upon a rock foundation, so securely that no storms can destroy the building. This figure of building may be applied in many ways. Indeed, in every way in which men are attempting to do constructive work, in individual character-building, in every phase of social realization, in national affairs, and in all international and racial matters, His words are fundamental and final. They result from His perfect understanding of all the deepest facts concerning humanity. To order one's own life according to His teaching is to realize all its meaning and strength, and so to make it proof against all destructive forces. To obey His law is to realize the true commonwealth of human lives, and so to ensure the order which abides, and in which righteousness issues in peace and in joy. All this, however, is only possible as we are brought into living relationship with Him by the way of the Cross. We may hear His words, and even admire them; but we cannot do them save in the power of the life He bestows when we trust Him first as our Saviour. The Mount of ethical enunciation reveals the need for the Mount of the Cross. Yet once more let it be said that the gift of life received through Grace must be wrought out to its full realization by obedience to the laws of life given in Truth. We are saved by Grace and Truth. Therefore all our building, if it is to abide, must be sure-founded on the rock of His teaching.
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.