Daily Bible Notes: January, 9th
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
I will be their God.
Jeremiah 31:33
Christian! here is all thou canst require. To make thee happy thou wantest something that shall satisfy thee; and is not this enough? If thou canst pour this promise into thy cup, wilt thou not say, with David, "My cup runneth over; I have more than heart can wish"? When this is fulfilled, "I am thy God ," art thou not possessor of all things? Desire is insatiable as death, but He who filleth all in all can fill it. The capacity of our wishes who can measure? but the immeasurable wealth of God can more than overflow it. I ask thee if thou art not complete when God is thine? Dost thou want anything but God? Is not His all-sufficiency enough to satisfy thee if all else should fail? But thou wantest more than quiet satisfaction; thou desirest rapturous delight. Come, soul, here is music fit for heaven in this thy portion, for God is the Maker of Heaven. Not all the music blown from sweet instruments, or drawn from living strings, can yield such melody as this sweet promise, "I will be their God." Here is a deep sea of bliss, a shoreless ocean of delight; come, bathe thy spirit in it; swim an age, and thou shalt find no shore; dive throughout eternity, and thou shalt find no bottom. "I will be their God." If this do not make thine eyes sparkle, and thy heart beat high with bliss, then assuredly thy soul is not in a healthy state. But thou wantest more than present delights - thou cravest something concerning which thou mayest exercise hope; and what more canst thou hope for than the fulfillment of this great promise, "I will be their God"? This is the masterpiece of all the promises; its enjoyment makes a heaven below, and will make a heaven above. Dwell in the light of thy Lord, and let thy soul be always ravished with His love. Get out the marrow and fatness which this portion yields thee. Live up to thy privileges, and rejoice with unspeakable joy.
Evening
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Psalm 100:2
Delight in divine service is a token of acceptance. Those who serve God with a sad countenance, because they do what is unpleasant to them, are not serving Him at all; they bring the form of homage, but the life is absent.
Our God requires no slaves to grace His throne; He is the Lord of the empire of love, and would have His servants dressed in the livery of joy.
The angels of God serve Him with songs, not with groans; a murmur or a sigh would be a mutiny in their ranks. That obedience which is not voluntary is disobedience, for the Lord looketh at the heart, and if He seeth that we serve Him from force, and not because we love Him, He will reject our offering. Service coupled with cheerfulness is heart-service, and therefore true. Take away joyful willingness from the Christian, and you have removed the test of his sincerity. If a man be driven to battle, he is no patriot; but he who marches into the fray with flashing eye and beaming face, singing, "It is sweet for one’s country to die," proves himself to be sincere in his patriotism. Cheerfulness is the support of our strength; in the joy of the Lord are we strong. It acts as the remover of difficulties. It is to our service what oil is to the wheels of a railway carriage. Without oil the axle soon grows hot, and accidents occur; and if there be not a holy cheerfulness to oil our wheels, our spirits will be clogged with weariness.
The man who is cheerful in his service of God, proves that obedience is his element; he can sing, "Make me to walk in Thy commands, ‘Tis a delightful road."
Reader, let us put this question - do you serve the Lord with gladness ?
Let us show to the people of the world, who think our religion to be slavery, that it is to us a delight and a joy! Let our gladness proclaim that we serve a good Master.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Genesis 13:1-9
1 Abram went up out of Egypt-he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him-into the South.
2 Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
3 He went on his journeys from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
4 to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on the LORD's name.
5 Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, herds, and tents.
6 The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together; for their possessions were so great that they couldn't live together.
7 There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land at that time.
8 Abram said to Lot, "Please, let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen; for we are relatives.
9 Isn't the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left."
THE PERILS OF POSSESSIONS
There is nothing more divisive than wealth. As families grow rich their members frequently become alienated. It is rarely, indeed, that love increases with the increase of riches. Luxurious possessions appear to be a forcing-bed in which the seeds of sleeping vices waken into strength. For one thing, selfishness is often quickened with success. Plenty, as well as penury, can "freeze the genial currents of the soul." And with selfishness comes a whole brood of mean and petty dispositions. Envy comes with it, and jealousy, and a morbid sensitiveness which readily leaps into strife.
So do our possessions multiply our temptations. So does the bright day "bring forth the adder." So do we need extra defences when "fortune smiles upon us." But our God can make us proof against "the fiery darts" of success. Abram remained unscathed in "the garish day." The Lord delivered him from "the destruction that wasteth at noonday." His wealth increased, but it was not allowed to force itself between his soul and God. In the midst of all his prosperity, he dwelt in "the secret place of the Most High," and he abode in "the shadow of the Almighty."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
January 9th.
Almighty God, wilt Thou give me the entrance into the Heavenly places? May I walk in the light of Heaven! May I breathe its
atmosphere and engage in its services! May I taste of its joys and be a sharer in its peace! May my citizenship be in Heaven!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
The liberal soul shall be made fat.
Proverbs 11:25
If I desire to flourish in soul, I must not hoard up my stores, but must distribute to the poor. To be close and niggardly is the world's way to prosperity, but it is not God's way, for he saith. "There is that scattereth, and yet, increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." Faith's way of gaining is giving. I must try this again and again; and I may expect that as much of prosperity as will be good for me will come to me as a gracious reward for a liberal course of action.
Of course, I may not be sure of growing rich. I shall be fat, but not too fat. Too great riches might make me as unwieldy as corpulent persons usually are, and cause me the dyspepsia of worldliness, and perhaps bring on a fatty degeneration of the heart. No, if I am fat enough to be healthy, I may well be satisfied; and if the Lord grants me a competence, I may be thoroughly content.
But there is a mental and spiritual fatness which I would greatly covet; and these come as the result of generous thoughts towards my God, his church, and my fellow-men. Let me not stint, lest I starve my heart. Let me be bountiful, and liberal; for so shall I be like my Lord. He gave himself for me: shall I grudge him anything?
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Isaiah 43:2
The river, the darkly flowing river - how men dread it; and yet there is something more fearsome than the darkly flowing river. It is the mist that, rising from the river, wraps men round in its chill embrace until they do not know where they stand or where the river is. There is no agony for the human soul like that of silence.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Go ye and learn.
Matthew 9:13
These words are the more arresting when we remember that they were addressed to the teachers of men. The Pharisees were amazed when they saw the Lord eating with publicans and sinners. Their astonishment was due to their conception of God. They thought of Him as aloof and distant in His holiness from men who neglected the ceremonial observances of religion, and so considered that all teachers of religion should observe the same attitude. The rebuke of Christ showed that they did not know God, and He bade them go and learn the meaning of their own Scriptures. Herein is revealed a constant peril. It is terribly possible to be zealous for a wrong conception of God, and of Truth, and so to fail to co-operate with Him in the very enterprise which is dearest to His heart. Nothing is more important, especially in the case of those who are in any way called upon to represent God to men, than that we should go and learn for ourselves the truth about Him. For us there need be no difficulty in this matter, for He has revealed Himself completely in the Son of His love. The hard morality of pharisaism is impossible to those who have learned the truth as it is in Jesus. It follows necessarily that there is nothing of greater importance to all who are called to the service of God in the service of men than that they should go and learn. Time and strength of mind and heart and will must be given to the cultivation of that fellowship in which we ever grow to fuller knowledge.
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.