Daily Bible Notes: January, 28th
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
Perfect in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:28
Do you not feel in your own soul that perfection is not in you? Does not every day teach you that? Every tear which trickles from your eye, weeps "imperfection"; every harsh word which proceeds from your lip, mutters "imperfection." You have too frequently had a view of your own heart to dream for a moment of any perfection in yourself. But amidst this sad consciousness of imperfection, here is comfort for you - you are "perfect in Christ Jesus."In God’s sight, you are "complete in Him;" even now you are "accepted in the Beloved." But there is a second perfection, yet to be realized, which is sure to all the seed. Is it not delightful to look forward to the time when every stain of sin shall be removed from the believer, and he shall be presented faultless before the throne, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing? The Church of Christ then will be so pure, that not even the eye of Omniscience will see a spot or blemish in her; so holy and so glorious, that Hart did not go beyond the truth when he said - "With my Saviour’s garments on, Holy as the Holy One."
Then shall we know, and taste, and feel the happiness of this vast but short sentence, "Complete in Christ." Not till then shall we fully comprehend the heights and depths of the salvation of Jesus. Doth not thy heart leap for joy at the thought of it? Black as thou art, thou shalt be white one day; filthy as thou art, thou shalt be clean. Oh, it is a marvellous salvation this! Christ takes a worm and transforms it into an angel; Christ takes a black and deformed thing and makes it clean and matchless in His glory, peerless in His beauty, and fit to be the companion of seraphs. O my soul, stand and admire this blessed truth of perfection in Christ.
Evening
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
Luke 2:20
What was the subject of their praise? They praised God for what they had heard - for the good tidings of great joy that a Saviour was born unto them. Let us copy them; let us also raise a song of thanksgiving that we have heard of Jesus and His salvation. They also praised God for what they had seen. There is the sweetest music - what we have experienced, what we have felt within, what we have made our own -"the things which we have made touching the King." It is not enough to hear about Jesus: mere hearing may tune the harp, but the fingers of living faith must create the music. If you have seen Jesus with the God-giving sight of faith, suffer no cobwebs to linger among the harpstrings, but loud to the praise of sovereign grace, awake your psaltery and harp. One point for which they praised God was the agreement between what they had heard and what they had seen. Observe the last sentence -"As it was told unto them." Have you not found the gospel to be in yourselves just what the Bible said it would be? Jesus said He would give you rest - have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in Him? He said you should have joy, and comfort, and life through believing in Him - have you not received all these? Are not His ways ways of pleasantness, and His paths paths of peace? Surely you can say with the queen of Sheba, "The half has not been told me." I have found Christ more sweet than His servants ever said He was. I looked upon His likeness as they painted it, but it was a mere daub compared with Himself; for the King in His beauty outshines all imaginable loveliness. Surely what we have "seen" keeps pace with, nay, far exceeds, what we have "heard." Let us, then, glorify and praise God for a Saviour so precious, and so satisfying.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Ephesians 4:25-32
25 Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbour. For we are members of one another.
26 "Be angry, and don't sin." Don't let the sun go down on your wrath,
27 and don't give place to the devil.
28 Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labour, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.
29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice.
32 And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.
CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANGER
"Let all anger be put away from you." And yet only a moment ago the Apostle had written the words, "Be ye angry and sin not." My power of anger is not to be destroyed, it is to be transformed and purified. Anger can be like an unclean bonfire; it can also be like "a sea of glass mingled with fire." There can be more smoke than light in it, more selfish passion than holy purpose. The fuel that feeds it may be envy, and jealousy, and spite, and not a big desire for the good of men and the glory of God. Worldly anger "is set on fire of hell"; holy anger borrows flame from the altar-fires of God.
Our anger reveals our character. What is the quality of our anger? What kindles it? Is it incited by our own wrongs or by the wrongs of another? Is it set on fire by self-indulgence or by a noble sympathy? Here is a sentence which describes the anger of the Apostle Paul: "Who is made to stumble and I burn not?" Paul's holy anger was made to burn by oppression, by the cruelty inflicted upon his fellow-men. His fire had nothing unclean in it; it was pure as the flame of oxygen.
This is the anger we must cherish. We cannot "work ourselves up" into it. We must seek to be "baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
January 28th.
Holy Spirit, Thou hast gifts for men. Thou hast the gift of peace. Thine is the gift of joy, and Thine the gift of rest.
I come to Thee in my poverty, without money and without strength. Graciously grant to me Thy gift! Make me rich for evermore!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Revelation 21:4
Yes, we shall come to this if we are believers. Sorrow shall cease, and tears shall be wiped away. This is the world of weeping, but it passes away. There shall be a new heaven, and a new earth, so says the first verse of this chapter; and therefore there will be nothing to weep over concerning the fall and its consequent miseries. Read the second verse, and note how it speaks of the bride and her marriage. The Lamb's wedding is a time for boundless pleasure, and tears would be out of place. The third verse says that God himself will dwell among men; and surely at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore, and tears can no longer flow.
What will our state be when there will be no more sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain? This will be more glorious than we can as yet imagine. O eyes that are red with weeping, cease your scalding flow, for In a little while ye shall know no more tears! None can wipe tears away like the God of love, but he is coming to do it. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Come, Lord, and tarry not; for now both men and women must weep!
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
Romans 12:1
The divine ideal for man is that he should be spiritual, and that his spirituality should be realised by the surcharging of his whole being with the Spirit of God.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Risen, even as He said.
Matthew 28:6
Thus the fact in history vindicated the word He had spoken. It should ever be remembered that our Lord is never recorded as speaking of His coming Cross without at the same time foretelling His resurrection. This is God's eternal answer to all the might of evil. Herod sought the young Child's life to destroy it. At last they put Him to death. His body they placed in a tomb, guarded by soldiers. They made it as sure as they could, remembering that He had "said while He was yet alive, After three days I rise again." And this is the issue: "Risen, even as He said!" That is the secret of our assurance in the darkest day. The forces of evil are mighty, but God is Almighty. The plotting of evil is full of cleverness, but the wisdom of God holds it all in perfect knowledge, and His plans move ever forward to realization with absolute and splendid certainty. But let us make no mistake about it, we have no certainty of His almightiness, nor of His absolute wisdom, apart from His Resurrection. We have no other sufficient evidence of the one or the other. Herod seeks still to destroy the young Child. Priests and politicians still crucify the Lord, and set guards over His grave, declaring Him to be dead. But by this sign, amid the ages, we know that it is Herod who must and will be destroyed, and that the men who crucify will find salvation by the Cross, or by it will be cast out into the nethermost darkness.
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.