Daily Bible Notes: January, 18th
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
There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Hebrews 4:9
How different will be the state of the believer in heaven from what it is here! Here he is born to toil and suffer weariness, but in the land of the immortal, fatigue is never known. Anxious to serve his Master, he finds his strength unequal to his zeal: his constant cry is, "Help me to serve Thee, O my God." If he be thoroughly active, he will have much labour; not too much for his will, but more than enough for his power, so that he will cry out, "I am not wearied of the labour, but I am wearied in it. " Ah!
Christian, the hot day of weariness lasts not for ever; the sun is nearing the horizon; it shall rise again with a brighter day than thou hast ever seen upon a land where they serve God day and night, and yet rest from their labours. Here, rest is but partial, there, it is perfect. Here, the Christian is always unsettled; he feels that he has not yet attained. There, all are at rest; they have attained the summit of the mountain; they have ascended to the bosom of their God. Higher they cannot go. Ah, toil-worn labourer, only think when thou shalt rest for ever! Canst thou conceive it? It is a rest eternal ; a rest that "remaineth." Here, my best joys bear "mortal" on their brow; my fair flowers fade; my dainty cups are drained to dregs; my sweetest birds fall before Death’s arrows; my most pleasant days are shadowed into nights; and the flood-tides of my bliss subside into ebbs of sorrow; but there, everything is immortal; the harp abides unrusted, the crown unwithered, the eye undimmed, the voice unfaltering, the heart unwavering, and the immortal being is wholly absorbed in infinite delight.
Happy day! happy! when mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and the Eternal Sabbath shall begin.
Evening
He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:27
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had a most profitable journey.
Their companion and teacher was the best of tutors; the interpreter one of a thousand, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The Lord Jesus condescended to become a preacher of the gospel, and He was not ashamed to exercise His calling before an audience of two persons, neither does He now refuse to become the teacher of even one. Let us court the company of so excellent an Instructor, for till He is made unto us wisdom we shall never be wise unto salvation.
This unrivalled tutor used as His class-book the best of books. Although able to reveal fresh truth, He preferred to expound the old. He knew by His omniscience what was the most instructive way of teaching, and by turning at once to Moses and the prophets, He showed us that the surest road to wisdom is not speculation, reasoning, or reading human books, but meditation upon the Word of God. The readiest way to be spiritually rich in heavenly knowledge is to dig in this mine of diamonds, to gather pearls from this heavenly sea. When Jesus Himself sought to enrich others, He wrought in the quarry of Holy Scripture.
The favoured pair were led to consider the best of subjects, for Jesus spake of Jesus, and expounded the things concerning Himself. Here the diamond cut the diamond, and what could be more admirable? The Master of the House unlocked His own doors, conducted the guests to His table, and placed His own dainties upon it. He who hid the treasure in the field Himself guided the searchers to it. Our Lord would naturally discourse upon the sweetest of topics, and He could find none sweeter than His own person and work: with an eye to these we should always search the Word.
O for grace to study the Bible with Jesus as both our teacher and our lesson!
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Ezekiel 34:1-10
1 The LORD's word came to me, saying,
2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and tell them, even the shepherds, 'The Lord GOD says: "Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn't the shepherds feed the sheep?
3 You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fatlings, but you don't feed the sheep.
4 You haven't strengthened the diseased. You haven't healed that which was sick. You haven't bound up that which was broken. You haven't brought back that which was driven away. You haven't sought that which was lost, but you have ruled over them with force and with rigor.
5 They were scattered, because there was no shepherd. They became food to all the animals of the field, and were scattered.
6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill. Yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth. There was no one who searched or sought."
7 " 'Therefore, you shepherds, hear the LORD's word:
8 "As I live," says the Lord GOD, "surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd. My shepherds didn't search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn't feed my sheep."
9 Therefore, you shepherds, hear the LORD's word:
10 The Lord GOD says: "Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep. The shepherds won't feed themselves any more. I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them."
FALSE SHEPHERDS
This word of the Lord puts before me the unlovely lineaments of the false shepherds.
They are self-seeking. They "feed themselves," but they "feed not the flock." They take up religion for what they can make out of it! It is a carnal ambition, not a holy service. It is used for getting, not for giving, for self-glorification and not for self-sacrifice. It is selfishness masquerading as holiness, the thief in the garb of the shepherd.
And, therefore, the false shepherds are devoid of sympathy. "The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick." Selfishness always tends to benumbment. Humaneness is fostered by sacrifice. Our sympathetic chords are kept refined by chivalrous deeds. Drop the deeds and all our refinements begin to coarsen, and we make no response to our brother's cries of need and pain.
And because there is no sympathy there is no quest. "My sheep wandered ... and none did seek after them." How can we seek them if we have never missed them, if we have no sense that they are lost? Our Lord came in travail of soul to "seek that which was lost." And I must share His travail if I would share in the search.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
January 18th.
Gracious Lord, wilt Thou lead me into finer sympathy with all things that are noble and good?
Take away all the scales from mine eyes. Help me to see all things even as Thou dost see them. May I have the mind of Christ!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.
Isaiah 53:10
Our Lord Jesus has not died in vain. His death was sacrificial: he died as our substitute, because death was the penalty of our sins; and because his substitution was accepted of God, he has saved those for whom he made his soul a sacrifice. By death he became like the corn of wheat which bringeth forth much fruit. There must be a succession of children unto Jesus; he is, "the Father of the everlasting age." He shall say, "Behold, I and the children whom thou hast given me."
A man is honoured in his sons, and Jesus hath his quiver full of these arrows of the mighty. A man is represented in his children, and so is the Christ in Christians. In his seed a man's life seems to be prolonged and extended; and so is the life of Jesus continued in believers.
Jesus lives, for he sees his seed. He fixes his eye on us, he delights in us, he recognizes us as the fruit of his soul travail. Let us be glad that our Lord does not fail to enjoy the result of his dread sacrifice, and that he will never cease to feast his eyes upon the harvest of his death. Those eyes which once wept for us, are now viewing us with pleasure. Yes, he looks upon those who are looking unto him. Our eyes meet! What a joy is this!
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer ... be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Revelation 2:10
The life is the crown. What a wondrous light this flings back upon the process! This pressure of tribulation is not accidental and capricious. Out of the tribulation we shall have our triumph. Out of darkness we shall come to light. That is the whole philosophy of suffering.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
How think ye?
Matthew 18:12
In this question we have an instance of a method which our Lord often adopted in His teachings, which is arresting, and most suggestive. It was that of appealing to men to test Divine actions by their own. In doing this, He was assuming man's capacity for understanding God, and His assumption was based upon His knowledge of human nature. He knew its depravity, and once, in making use of this very method of appeal, He declared it as He said, "If ye then, being evil." Nevertheless, He also knew that if man could be brought to true thinking, to reasoning with God, he could understand God. In some senses this was a superlative instance, for here He was interpreting God's attitude toward the lost; and He appealed to that instinct in man - "any man," as He said - which would send him out to the mountains to seek the one sheep which had gone astray. Is there not something here which we should do well to remember and imitate in our dealing with men, when we desire to explain and justify the ways of God to them? It must be done with carefulness. We cannot argue the ways of God from the ways of men, but we may be perfectly sure that the ways of God may be illustrated to men by what they will understand of themselves, if they will think simply and truly.
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.