Daily Bible Notes: July, 3rd
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
The illfavoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven wellfavoured and fat kine.
Genesis 41:4
Pharaoh’s dream has too often been my waking experience. My days of sloth have ruinously destroyed all that I had achieved in times of zealous industry; my seasons of coldness have frozen all the genial glow of my periods of fervency and enthusiasm; and my fits of worldliness have thrown me back from my advances in the divine life. I had need to beware of lean prayers, lean praises, lean duties, and lean experiences, for these will eat up the fat of my comfort and peace. If I neglect prayer for never so short a time, I lose all the spirituality to which I had attained; if I draw no fresh supplies from heaven, the old corn in my granary is soon consumed by the famine which rages in my soul. When the caterpillars of indifference, the cankerworms of worldliness, and the palmerworms of self-indulgence, lay my heart completely desolate, and make my soul to languish, all my former fruitfulness and growth in grace avails me nothing whatever. How anxious should I be to have no lean-fleshed days, no ill-favoured hours! If every day I journeyed towards the goal of my desires I should soon reach it, but backsliding leaves me still far off from the prize of my high calling, and robs me of the advances which I had so laboriously made. The only way in which all my days can be as the "fat kine," is to feed them in the right meadow, to spend them with the Lord, in His service, in His company, in His fear, and in His way. Why should not every year be richer than the past, in love, and usefulness, and joy? - I am nearer the celestial hills, I have had more experience of my Lord, and should be more like Him. O Lord, keep far from me the curse of leanness of soul; let me not have to cry, "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me!" but may I be well-fed and nourished in Thy house, that I may praise Thy name.
Evening
If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.
2 Timothy 2:12
We must not imagine that we are suffering for Christ, and with Christ, if we are not in Christ . Beloved friend, are you trusting to Jesus only? If not, whatever you may have to mourn over on earth, you are not "suffering with Christ," land have no hope of reigning with Him in heaven. Neither are we to conclude that all a Christian’s sufferings are sufferings with Christ, for it is essential that he be called by God to suffer . If we are rash and imprudent, and run into positions for which neither providence nor grace has fitted us, we ought to question whether we are not rather sinning than communing with Jesus. If we let passion take the place of judgment, and self-will reign instead of Scriptural authority, we shall fight the Lord’s battles with the devil’s weapons, and if we cut our own fingers we must not be surprised. Again, in troubles which come upon us as the result of sin, we must not dream that we are suffering with Christ . When Miriam spoke evil of Moses, and the leprosy polluted her, she was not suffering for God. Moreover, suffering which God accepts must have God’s glory as its end . If I suffer that I may earn a name, or win applause, I shall get no other reward than that of the Pharisee. It is requisite also that love to Jesus, and love to His elect, be ever the mainspring of all our patience. We must manifest the Spirit of Christ in meekness, gentleness, and forgiveness. Let us search and see if we truly suffer with Jesus . And if we do thus suffer, what is our "light affliction" compared with reigning with Him ? Oh it is so blessed to be in the furnace with Christ, and such an honour to stand in the pillory with Him, that if there were no future reward, we might count ourselves happy in present honour; but when the recompense is so eternal, so infinitely more than we had any right to expect, shall we not take up the cross with alacrity, and go on our way rejoicing?
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Hebrews 2:9-18
9 But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for everyone.
10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11 For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
12 saying, "I will declare your name to my brothers. Amongst the congregation I will sing your praise."
13 Again, "I will put my trust in him." Again, "Behold, here I am with the children whom God has given me."
14 Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
16 For most certainly, he doesn't give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspring of Abraham.
17 Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
MY ELDER BROTHER
And doth my Lord call me one of His brethren? Let me leisurely think upon it, until my very soul moves amid my affairs in noble and hallowed dignity. If I steadily remember "who I am," it will assuredly transfigure "what I am." I lose the sense of my high kinship, and then I am quite content to be "sent into the fields to feed swine."
And my elder Brother came to "destroy the works of the devil." That is the entire ministry of destruction. Nothing beautiful does He destroy, nothing winsome: only the insidious presences which are the foes of these things. He will destroy only the pestiferous microbes which ravage the vital peace of the soul. Our Lord is the enemy of the deadly, and therefore of "him that had the power of death - that is, the devil!"
And in this holy ministry of destruction He can defend my soul as "one who knows," Himself "having been tempted." He knows the subtlety of the devil, and where the soul is most perilously exposed, and He is therefore "able to succour them that are tempted."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
July 3rd.
My Father, may my life be filled with praise! Make me more sensitive to Thy mercies. May the sound of holy joy ring
through the rooms of my soul! May there be a new song in my mouth every day!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
He will be our guide even unto death.
Psalms 48:14
We need a guide. Sometimes we would give all that we have to be told exactly what to do, and where to turn. We are willing to do right, but we do not know which out of two roads we are to follow. Oh, for a guide!
The Lord our God condescends to serve us as guide. He knows the way, and will pilot us along it till we reach our journey's end in peace. Surely we do not desire more infallible direction. Let us place ourselves absolutely under his guidance, and we shall never miss our way. Let us make him our God, and we shall find him our guide. If we follow his law we shall not miss the right road of life, provided we first learn to lean upon him in every step that we take.
Our comfort is, that as he is our God for ever and ever, he will never cease to be with us as our guide. "Even unto death" will he lead us, and then we shall dwell with him eternally, and go no more out for ever. This promise of divine guidance involves life-long security: salvation at once, guidance unto our last hour, and then endless blessedness. Should not each one seek this in youth, rejoice in it in middle life, and repose in it in old age? This day let us look up for guidance before we trust ourselves out of doors.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
John 7:37
The water which Christ gives is the living water of the Spirit, perpetually springing up in the soul of man unto eternal life.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
We received ... the Spirit which is of God, that we might know ...
1 Corinthians 2:12
This is really a very wonderful declaration, which we are in danger of failing to apprehend. Let it be noticed that it follows Paul's quotation of a passage from the prophecy of Isaiah; and then let us remember how constantly men quote that passage in order to prove that the things that God has prepared for them that love Him cannot yet be known. This use of the passage, moreover, is almost invariably with reference to the future blessedness of the people of God. Now as a matter of fact this use is entirely unwarranted. Isaiah was referring to God's method of working for those who wait for Him. Paul was referring to all the Divine wisdom, as manifested in redemption. These are the things which cannot be apprehended by the seeing eye and the hearing ear of human intelligence. They need Divine revelation and interpretation; they must be made known by the Spirit of God, Who alone knoweth the deep things of God. Here, then, is the wonder of the statement. We are not to live in ignorance of these things. "We received ... the Spirit which is of God, that we might know." Does not this fact rebuke an attitude of soul to which we are prone, and which may seem to be that of rest and humility? The child of God who has the Spirit of God has no right to be content not to understand the deep things of God. The Spirit is ours, that we may know. Therefore we should give all diligence to know, in dependence upon the teaching of that Spirit.
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.