Daily Bible Notes: January, 14th
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
Mighty to save.
Isaiah 63:1
By the words "to save" we understand the whole of the great work of salvation, from the first holy desire onward to complete sanctification. The words are multum in parro: indeed, here is all mercy in one word. Christ is not only "mighty to save" those who repent, but He is able to make men repent. He will carry those to heaven who believe; but He is, moreover, mighty to give men new hearts and to work faith in them. He is mighty to make the man who hates holiness love it, and to constrain the despiser of His name to bend the knee before Him. Nay, this is not all the meaning, for the divine power is equally seen in the after-work. The life of a believer is a series of miracles wrought by "the Mighty God." The bush burns, but is not consumed. He is mighty to keep His people holy after He has made them so, and to preserve them in his fear and love until he consummates their spiritual existence in heaven. Christ’s might doth not lie in making a believer and then leaving him to shift for himself; but He who begins the good work carries it on; He who imparts the first germ of life in the dead soul, prolongs the divine existence, and strengthens it until it bursts asunder every bond of sin, and the soul leaps from earth, perfected in glory. Believer, here is encouragement. Art thou praying for some beloved one? Oh, give not up thy prayers, for Christ is "mighty to save." You are powerless to reclaim the rebel, but your Lord is Almighty. Lay hold on that mighty arm, and rouse it to put forth its strength. Does your own case trouble you? Fear not, for His strength is sufficient for you. Whether to begin with others, or to carry on the work in you, Jesus is "mighty to save;" the best proof of which lies in the fact that He has saved you . What a thousand mercies that you have not found Him mighty to destroy!
Evening
Beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
Matthew 14:30
Sinking times are praying times with the Lord’s servants. Peter neglected prayer at starting upon his venturous journey, but when he began to sink his danger made him a suppliant, and his cry though late was not too late.
In our hours of bodily pain and mental anguish, we find ourselves as naturally driven to prayer as the wreck is driven upon the shore by the waves. The fox hies to its hole for protection; the bird flies to the wood for shelter; and even so the tried believer hastens to the mercy seat for safety.
Heaven’s great harbour of refuge is All-prayer; thousands of weather-beaten vessels have found a haven there, and the moment a storm comes on, it is wise for us to make for it with all sail. Short prayers are long enough . There were but three words in the petition which Peter gasped out, but they were sufficient for his purpose. Not length but strength is desirable. A sense of need is a mighty teacher of brevity. If our prayers had less of the tail feathers of pride and more wing they would be all the better. Verbiage is to devotion as chaff to the wheat.
Precious things lie in small compass, and all that is real prayer in many a long address might have been uttered in a petition as short as that of Peter. Our extremities are the Lord’s opportunities . Immediately a keen sense of danger forces an anxious cry from us the ear of Jesus hears, and with Him ear and heart go together, and the hand does not long linger. At the last moment we appeal to our Master, but His swift hand makes up for our delays by instant and effectual action. Are we nearly engulfed by the boisterous waters of affliction? Let us then lift up our souls unto our Saviour, and we may rest assured that He will not suffer us to perish.
When we can do nothing Jesus can do all things; let us enlist His powerful aid upon our side, and all will be well.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Deuteronomy 8:11-20
11 Beware lest you forget the LORD your God, in not keeping his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I command you today;
12 lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses and lived in them;
13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied;
14 then your heart might be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage;
15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with venomous snakes and scorpions, and thirsty ground where there was no water; who poured water for you out of the rock of flint;
16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers didn't know, that he might humble you, and that he might prove you, to do you good at your latter end;
17 and lest you say in your heart, "My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth."
18 But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as it is today.
19 It shall be, if you shall forget the LORD your God, and walk after other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you shall surely perish.
20 As the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish, because you wouldn't listen to the LORD your God's voice.
FORGETTING GOD
"Beware ... lest when thou hast eaten and art full ... thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God." I was in a little cottage near Warwick. I said to the good man who lived in it, "Can you see the castle?" and he replied, "We can see it best in the winter when the leaves are off the trees. In the summer time it is apt to be hid!" The summer bounty hid the castle; the winter barrenness revealed it! And so it is in life. In the season of fulness we are prone to be blind to "the house of many mansions," and we forget the Master of the house, the Lord our God. Our material wealth hides our eternal treasure.
What, then, shall we do in the days of our prosperity, when all our trees are in full leaf? We must pray that material things may never become opaque, that they may be always transparent, so that through the seen we may behold the unseen. This is a gift of the Spirit, and it may be ours. He will anoint our eyes with the eye-salve of grace, and everything will become to us a symbol of something better, so that even in the midst of material plenty our hearts will be with our treasure in heaven. Everything will be to us "as it were transparent glass."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
January 14th.
My Father in Heaven, teach me the value of little things. Show me how to consecrate the trifle. Show me how to make each
moment light with Thy presence. May I glorify the day by redeeming every minute! Take my moments.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
We who are saved find rest in Jesus. Those who are not saved will receive rest if they come to him, for here he promises to "give" it. Nothing can be freer than a gift; let us gladly accept what he gladly gives. You are not to buy it, nor to borrow it; but to receive it as a gift. You labour under the lash of ambition, covetousness, lust, or anxiety: he will set you free from this iron bondage, and give you rest. You are "laden" - yes, "heavy laden" with sin, fear, care, remorse, fear of death; but if you come to him, he will unload you. He carried the crushing mass of our sin, that we might no longer carry it. He made himself the great Burden-bearer, that every heavy laden one might cease from bowing down under the enormous pressure.
Jesus gives rest. It is so. Will you believe it? Will you put it to the test? Will you do so at once? Come to Jesus, by quitting every other hope, by thinking of him, believing God's testimony about him, and trusting everything with him. If you thus come to him, the rest which he will give you will be deep, safe, holy, and everlasting. He gives a rest which develops into heaven, and he gives it this day to all who come to him.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
Isaiah 60:1
No Church and no individual member of the Church can fling across the darkness one ray or gleam of light, save as that Church or that person lives in the sunshine created by the shining of His face.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
He went up into the mountain apart to pray.
Matthew 14:23
In nothing is the perfection of the humanity of our Lord more strikingly seen than in His constant resort to the practice of fellowship with His Father in prayer. Essential human nature needs that practice for its sustenance. Apart from it, it must falter and fail. This our Lord knew, and therefore constantly observed it. Thus the practice is the sign, not of the weakness of the human in Him, but of its full and perfect strength. Neglect of prayer is at once a source and sign of weakness. Surely we need to remind ourselves constantly of this fact as demonstrated in the life of our Lord. Having become our Saviour and Lord, He is our pattern. If then He found the necessity for such times of communion with His Father, apart, alone, how can we hope to live our lives, or render our service acceptable to Him, if we neglect them? There can be no question, moreover, that in His case these seasons were not merely occasions when He asked gifts from His Father. In all probability petition occupied a very important place in such seasons, but by no means the principal place. They were times of communion in which He poured out the joy of His Spirit in adoring praise; and in which He remained in silence, and heard the speech of God in His own soul. And so it must ever be with us, if our lives are to be strong in themselves, and victorious in their service.
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.