Daily Bible Notes: July, 2nd
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
Our heart shall rejoice in Him.
Psalm 33:21
Blessed is the fact that Christians can rejoice even in the deepest distress; although trouble may surround them, they still sing; and, like many birds, they sing best in their cages. The waves may roll over them, but their souls soon rise to the surface and see the light of God’s countenance; they have a buoyancy about them which keeps their head always above the water, and helps them to sing amid the tempest, "God is with me still." To whom shall the glory be given? Oh! to Jesus - it is all by Jesus. Trouble does not necessarily bring consolation with it to the believer, but the presence of the Son of God in the fiery furnace with him fills his heart with joy. He is sick and suffering, but Jesus visits him and makes his bed for him. He is dying, and the cold chilly waters of Jordan are gathering about him up to the neck, but Jesus puts His arms around him, and cries, "Fear not, beloved; to die is to be blessed; the waters of death have their fountain-head in heaven; they are not bitter, they are sweet as nectar, for they flow from the throne of God." As the departing saint wades through the stream, and the billows gather around him, and heart and flesh fail him, the same voice sounds in his ears, "Fear not; I am with thee; be not dismayed; I am thy God." As he nears the borders of the infinite unknown, and is almost affrighted to enter the realm of shades, Jesus says, "Fear not, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Thus strengthened and consoled, the believer is not afraid to die; nay, he is even willing to depart, for since he has seen Jesus as the morning star, he longs to gaze upon Him as the sun in his strength. Truly, the presence of Jesus is all the heaven we desire. He is at once "The glory of our brightest days; The comfort of our nights."
Evening
Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
Psalm 28:1
A cry is the natural expression of sorrow, and a suitable utterance when all other modes of appeal fail us; but the cry must be alone directed to the Lord, for to cry to man is to waste our entreaties upon the air. When we consider the readiness of the Lord to hear, and His ability to aid, we shall see good reason for directing all our appeals at once to the God of our salvation. It will be in vain to call to the rocks in the day of judgment, but our Rock attends to our cries. "Be not silent to me ." Mere formalists may be content without answers to their prayers, but genuine suppliants cannot; they are not satisfied with the results of prayer itself in calming the mind and subduing the will - they must go further, and obtain actual replies from heaven, or they cannot rest; and those replies they long to receive at once, they dread even a little of God’s silence. God’s voice is often so terrible that it shakes the wilderness; but His silence is equally full of awe to an eager suppliant.
When God seems to close His ear, we must not therefore close our mouths, but rather cry with more earnestness; for when our note grows shrill with eagerness and grief, He will not long deny us a hearing. What a dreadful case should we be in if the Lord should become for ever silent to our prayers? "Lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit ." Deprived of the God who answers prayer, we should be in a more pitiable plight than the dead in the grave, and should soon sink to the same level as the lost in hell. We must have answers to prayer: ours is an urgent case of dire necessity; surely the Lord will speak peace to our agitated minds, for He never can find it in His heart to permit His own elect to perish.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Isaiah 11:1-10
1 A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
2 The LORD's Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
3 His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears;
4 but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
5 Righteousness will be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his waist.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child will play near a cobra's hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.
9 They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
10 It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.
LIGHT AND LIGHTNING
"And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him."
And the spirit is one of light! All the doors and windows are open. His correspondences are perfect and unbroken. He is of "quick understanding," keen-scented to discern the essences of things, alert to perceive the reality behind the semblance, to "see things as they are." All the great primary senses are awake, and He has knowledge of every "secret place."
"He shall smite ... with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay." The spirit of light follows a crusade of holiness. The light becomes lightning! The "breathing," which cools the fever-stricken, can also become a hot breath, which wastes and destroys every plant of evil desire. It is an awful thing, and yet a gracious thing, that "our God is a consuming fire." It was foretold of our Lord that He should baptize "with fire."
And this crusade of holiness is in the ministry of peace. He will burn away all that defileth, in order that He may create a profound and permanent fellowship. When His work is done, there will be a mingling of apparent opposites, and antagonisms will melt into a gracious union. "The sucking child will play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
July 2nd.
My Saviour, wilt Thou teach me the ministry of salvation? Show me how to work with Thee in saving the world from sin.
Control my lips. Direct my steps. Make my life a minister of redemption.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
So he giveth his beloved sleep.
Psalms 127:2
Ours is not a life of anxious care, but of happy faith. Our heavenly Father will supply the wants of his own children, and he knoweth what we have need of before we ask him. We may therefore go to our beds at the proper hour, and not wear ourselves out by sitting up late to plot, and plan, and contrive. If we have learned to rely upon our God we shall not lie awake with fear gnawing at our hearts; but we shall leave our care with the Lord, our meditation of him shall be sweet, and he will give us refreshing sleep.
To be the Lord's beloved is the highest possible honour, and he who has it may feel that ambition itself could desire no more, and therefore every selfish wish may go to sleep. What more is there even in heaven than the love of God? Rest, then, O soul, for thou hast all things.
Yet we toss to and fro unless the Lord himself gives us not only the reasons for rest, but rest itself. Yea, he doth this. Jesus himself is our peace, our rest, our all. On his bosom we sleep in perfect security, both in life and in death.
- "Sprinkled afresh with pardoning blood,
I lay me down to rest,
As in the embraces of my God,
Or on my Saviour's breast."
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.
2 Corinthians 5:17, R.V.
Admiration of the Person and character of Christ, together with patronage of His teaching, are insufficient, and indeed do but insult the purpose of Christianity, whose mission it is, not so much to captivate the admiration, as to remake and beautify the character.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:9
The purpose of saint-ship is fully described in these words. That is the meaning of the Church in any city. Its members are "called" and "saints," because they "call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ," and so they are "called into the fellowship of His Son." This word fellowship is rich in suggestiveness. We touch its deepest note when we recognize its first meaning. The simple idea is that of having all things in common. It is the word which marks the most perfect realization of unity in every way: in possessions, in purpose, and in effort. Perhaps the ground may be covered by saying that it means that those who are in fellowship have resources and responsibilities in common. Here, then, is the truth about the relationship existing between all Christian souls and the Lord. All His resources are at their disposal. All their resources are at His disposal. They are committed to His responsibilities. He is committed to their responsibilities. That covers the whole fact of Christian life and service. It is because of that we may truthfully sing:-
- I nothing lack if I am His,
And He is mine for ever.
The searching thought is that, if there be any failure in this relationship of resource and responsibility, it is in us, and not in Him. Are our resources all at His disposal? Are we availing ourselves of His resources? Are we facing His responsibilities? Are we trusting Him to undertake our responsibilities? Thus may we question our souls when we are alone with the Lord.
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.