Daily Bible Notes: July, 6th
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
Whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Proverbs 1:33
Divine love is rendered conspicuous when it shines in the midst of judgments. Fair is that lone star which smiles through the rifts of the thunder clouds; bright is the oasis which blooms in the wilderness of sand; so fair and so bright is love in the midst of wrath. When the Israelites provoked the Most High by their continued idolatry, He punished them by withholding both dew and rain, so that their land was visited by a sore famine; but while He did this, He took care that His own chosen ones should be secure. If all other brooks are dry, yet shall there be one reserved for Elijah; and when that fails, God shall still preserve for him a place of sustenance; nay, not only so, the Lord had not simply one "Elijah," but He had a remnant according to the election of grace, who were hidden by fifties in a cave, and though the whole land was subject to famine, yet these fifties in the cave were fed, and fed from Ahab’s table too by His faithful, God-fearing steward, Obadiah. Let us from this draw the inference, that come what may, God’s people are safe. Let convulsions shake the solid earth, let the skies themselves be rent in twain, yet amid the wreck of worlds the believer shall be as secure as in the calmest hour of rest. If God cannot save His people under heaven, He will save them in heaven. If the world becomes too hot to hold them, then heaven shall be the place of their reception and their safety. Be ye then confident, when ye hear of wars, and rumours of wars. Let no agitation distress you, but be quiet from fear of evil. Whatsoever cometh upon the earth, you, beneath the broad wings of Jehovah, shall be secure. Stay yourself upon His promise; rest in His faithfulness, and bid defiance to the blackest future, for there is nothing in it direful for you. Your sole concern should be to show forth to the world the blessedness of hearkening to the voice of wisdom.
Evening
How many are mine iniquities and sins?
Job 13:23
Have you ever really weighed and considered how great the sin of God’s people is? Think how heinous is your own transgression, and you will find that not only does a sin here and there tower up like an alp, but that your iniquities are heaped upon each other, as in the old fable of the giants who piled Pelian upon Ossa, mountain upon mountain. What an aggregate of sin there is in the life of one of the most sanctified of God’s children! Attempt to multiply this, the sin of one only, by the multitude of the redeemed, "a number which no man can number," and you will have some conception of the great mass of the guilt of the people for whom Jesus shed His blood.
But we arrive at a more adequate idea of the magnitude of sin by the greatness of the remedy provided. It is the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s only and well-beloved Son. God’s Son! Angels cast their crowns before Him! All the choral symphonies of heaven surround His glorious throne. "God over all, blessed for ever. Amen." And yet He takes upon Himself the form of a servant, and is scourged and pierced, bruised and torn, and at last slain; since nothing but the blood of the incarnate Son of God could make atonement for our offences. No human mind can adequately estimate the infinite value of the divine sacrifice, for great as is the sin of God’s people, the atonement which takes it away is immeasurably greater.
Therefore, the believer, even when sin rolls like a black flood, and the remembrance of the past is bitter, can yet stand before the blazing throne of the great and holy God, and cry, "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea rather, that hath risen again." While the recollection of his sin fills him with shame and sorrow, he at the same time makes it a foil to show the brightness of mercy - guilt is the dark night in which the fair star of divine love shines with serene splendour.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
John 1:19-34
19 This is John's testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"
20 He declared, and didn't deny, but he declared, "I am not the Christ."
21 They asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No."
22 They said therefore to him, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
23 He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said."
24 The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees.
25 They asked him, "Why then do you baptise, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?"
26 John answered them, "I baptise in water, but amongst you stands one whom you don't know.
27 He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to loosen."
28 These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptising.
29 The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
30 This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.'
31 I didn't know him, but for this reason I came baptising in water: that he would be revealed to Israel."
32 John testified, saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending like a dove out of heaven, and it remained on him.
33 I didn't recognise him, but he who sent me to baptise in water said to me, 'On whomever you will see the Spirit descending and remaining on him is he who baptises in the Holy Spirit.'
34 I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God."
LIFE AS A VOICE
This man humbly desires to be "a voice." He has no ambition to receive popular homage. He does not covet the power of the lordly purple. He does not crave to be a great person; he only wants to be a great voice! He wants to articulate the thought and purpose of God. He is quite content to be hidden, like a bird in a thick bush, if only his song may be heard.
And in order that he may be a voice he retires into the silent solitudes of the desert. He will listen before he speaks. Come thou, my soul, into his secret! The air is clamorous with speech behind which there has been no hearing. Men speak, and in their words there is no pulse of the Infinite. In their consolations there is no balm. In their reproaches there is no sword. Their words are empty vessels, full of sound! Let my voice be hushed until I have heard the voice of the Highest. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
And when he spake, it was in clear and definite testimony, "Behold the Lamb of God!" The "voice" succeeded, for men began to look away from the herald to the herald's Lord. In forgetting John they found the King. They passed the signpost, and arrived at home!
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
July 6th.
Gracious Father, Thou knowest my sins. Help me to hate them. I bring to Thee the sins I love. Help me to cast them
out. May the pure become the alluring! May the good taste sweet!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
Of all the stars in the sky the pole-star is the most useful to the mariner. This text is a pole-star, for it has guided more souls to salvation than any other Scripture. It is among promises what the Great Bear is among constellations.
Several words in it shine with peculiar brilliance. Here we have God's love, with a "SO" to it, which marks its measureless greatness. Then we have God's gift in all its freeness and greatness. This also is God's Son, that unique and priceless gift of a love which could never fully show itself till heaven's Only-begotten had been sent to live and die for men. These three points are full of light.
Then there is the simple requirement of believing, which graciously points to a way of salvation suitable for guilty men. This is backed by a wide description - "whosoever believeth in him." Many have found room in "whosoever" who would have felt themselves shut out by a narrower word. Then comes the great promise, that believers in Jesus shall not perish, but have everlasting life. This is cheering to every man who feels that he is ready to perish, and that he cannot save himself. We believe in the Lord Jesus, and we have eternal life.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:30, R.V.
It is a very terrible thought that the grieving of the Spirit within the Church postpones the coming of the kingdom of God in the world. In proportion as men are obedient to the indwelling Spirit, and allow Him in the whole territory of their own lives to have His way, in that proportion are they hastening the coming of the Day of God, and bringing in the Kingdom of Peace.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.
1 Corinthians 5:13
This was the Apostle's final word in dealing with a specific case in the Corinthian Church. One of the members of that church had been guilty of the most flagrant wrongdoing, and no discipline had been exercised by the Church. Indeed incredible as it seems, it nevertheless appears that in some way they were glorying in the matter. It is incredible that they were glorying in the sin. It is more likely that they were glorying in the lack of discipline, probably thinking of it as toleration. It was against this attitude of the Church that Paul protested. Within its borders, no disintegrating leaven must be permitted to remain. The life of the Church is a perpetual Passover Feast, and it must be maintained in sincerity and truth. This is a subject of supreme importance. The Church of God is always weakened when it lacks the power to maintain its purity. Toleration of evil in any form within the fellowship of those whose one business it is, individually and collectively, to reveal the Lord to men, must be of the nature of treachery. Yet it should be remembered that discipline should ever be exercised in the spirit of love. Its purpose is not only the purity of the Church; it is also the saving of the one disciplined. If in his apostolic authority Paul charged them to exclude the sinning man from fellowship, it was in order that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. This harmonizes with the teaching of the Lord Himself, Who showed that the purpose of discipline was that of gaining our brother. (See Matthew 18.)
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.