Daily Bible Notes: July, 21st
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 daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
Isaiah 37:22
Reassured by the Word of the Lord, the poor trembling citizens of Zion grew bold, and shook their heads at Sennacherib’s boastful threats. Strong faith enables the servants of God to look with calm contempt upon their most haughty foes. We know that our enemies are attempting impossibilities . They seek to destroy the eternal life, which cannot die while Jesus lives; to overthrow the citadel, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. They kick against the pricks to their own wounding, and rush upon the bosses of Jehovah’s buckler to their own hurt. We know their weakness . What are they but men? And what is man but a worm? They roar and swell like waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. When the Lord ariseth, they shall fly as chaff before the wind, and be consumed as crackling thorns. Their utter powerlessness to do damage to the cause of God and His truth, may make the weakest soldiers in Zion’s ranks laugh them to scorn.
Above all, we know that the Most High is with us , and when He dresses Himself in arms, where are His enemies? If He cometh forth from His place, the potsherds of the earth will not long contend with their Maker.
His rod of iron shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel, and their very remembrance shall perish from the earth. Away, then, all fears, the kingdom is safe in the King’s hands. Let us shout for joy, for the Lord reigneth, and His foes shall be as straw for the dunghill. "As true as God’s own word is true; Nor earth, nor hell, with all their crew, Against us shall prevail.
A jest, and by-word, are they grown; God is with us, we are his own, Our victory cannot fail."
Evening
Why go I mourning?
Psalm 42:9
Canst thou answer this, believer? Canst thou find any reason why thou art so often mourning instead of rejoicing? Why yield to gloomy anticipations? Who told thee that the night would never end in day? Who told thee that the sea of circumstances would ebb out till there should be nothing left but long leagues of the mud of horrible poverty? Who told thee that the winter of thy discontent would proceed from frost to frost, from snow, and ice, and hail, to deeper snow, and yet more heavy tempest of despair? Knowest thou not that day follows night, that flood comes after ebb, that spring and summer succeed winter? Hope thou then! Hope thou ever! For God fails thee not. Dost thou not know that thy God loves thee in the midst of all this? Mountains, when in darkness hidden, are as real as in day, and God’s love is as true to thee now as it was in thy brightest moments. No father chastens always: thy Lord hates the rod as much as thou dost; He only cares to use it for that reason which should make thee willing to receive it, namely, that it works thy lasting good. Thou shalt yet climb Jacob’s ladder with the angels, and behold Him who sits at the top of it - thy covenant God. Thou shalt yet, amidst the splendours of eternity, forget the trials of time, or only remember them to bless the God who led thee through them, and wrought thy lasting good by them. Come, sing in the midst of tribulation. Rejoice even while passing through the furnace. Make the wilderness to blossom like the rose! Cause the desert to ring with thine exulting joys, for these light afflictions will soon be over, and then "for ever with the Lord," thy bliss shall never wane. "Faint not nor fear, His arms are near, He changeth not, and thou art dear; Only believe and thou shalt see, That Christ is all in all to thee."
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
2 Chronicles 29:1-11, 29:15-19
1 Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2 He did that which was right in the LORD's eyes, according to all that David his father had done.
3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the LORD's house, and repaired them.
4 He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the wide place on the east,
5 and said to them, "Listen to me, you Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the LORD, the God of your fathers' house, and carry the filthiness out of the holy place.
6 For our fathers were unfaithful, and have done that which was evil in the LORD our God's sight, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs.
7 Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burnt incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.
8 Therefore the LORD's wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you see with your eyes.
9 For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.
11 My sons, don't be negligent now; for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him, to minister to him, and that you should be his ministers, and burn incense."
15 They gathered their brothers, sanctified themselves, and went in, according to the commandment of the king by the LORD's words, to cleanse the LORD's house.
16 The priests went into the inner part of the LORD's house to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the LORD's temple into the court of the LORD's house. The Levites took it from there to carry it out to the brook Kidron.
17 Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the LORD's porch. They sanctified the LORD's house in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
18 Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said, "We have cleansed all the LORD's house, including the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the table of show bread with all its vessels.
19 Moreover have we prepared and sanctified all the vessels which king Ahaz threw away in his reign, when he was unfaithful. Behold, they are before the LORD's altar."
PURIFYING THE SANCTUARY
Worship has vital connections with work. There are nerve-relationships between the heart and the hand. The condition of the sanctuary is reflected in the state of the empire. If there is uncleanness in "the holy place," there will be blight and degeneracy among the people. The fatal seeds of national instability and decay are not found in economics; they are found in the sanctuary. "Until I went into the sanctuary ... then understood I!"
Hezekiah cleansed "the house of the Lord." He cast forth the filthiness out of the holy place. He ushered in his golden age with the reformation of worship. He recalled exiled and white-robed Piety to her appointed throne. He began the re-establishment of right by recognizing the rights of God. He gave the Lord His due! All our rights are born out of our "being right" with God! We begin to be rich when we cease to rob God!
"And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also." That is ever so. Our real songs begin with our sacrifices. We enter the realm of music when we enter the realm of self-surrender. A willing offering, on a clean altar, introduces the soul into "the joy of the Lord."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
July 21st.
My Father, help me to begin this day with a great expectancy. I too often drift into the day without any purpose. May I
go through this day with my eyes open, looking for Christ! May I see Him in everything that is lovely, and may I love
His appearing!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
Daniel 12:3
Here is something to wake me up. This is worth living for. To be wise is a noble thing in itself: in this place it refers to a divine wisdom which only the Lord himself can bestow. Oh to know myself, my God, my Saviour! May I be so divinely taught that I may carry into practice heavenly truth, and live in the light of it! Is my life a wise one? Am I seeking that which I ought to seek? Am I living as I shall wish I had lived when I come to die? Only such wisdom can secure for me eternal brightness as of yonder sunlit skies.
To be a winner of souls is a glorious attainment. I had need be wise if I am to turn even one to righteousness; much more if I am to turn many. Oh for the knowledge of God, of men, of the Word, and of Christ, which will enable me to convert my fellow-men, and to convert large numbers of them! I would give myself to this, and never rest till I accomplish it. This will be better than winning stars at court. This will make me a star, a shining star, a star shining for ever and ever; yea more, it will make me shine as many stars. My soul, arouse thyself! Lord, quicken me!
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
Acts 17:31
The value of the resurrection as a Divine act, is threefold: First, it is God's attestation of the perfection of the life of the Man Jesus; secondly, it is God's attestation of the perfection of the mediation of the Saviour Jesus; thirdly, it is God's attestation of the perfection of the victory of the King Jesus.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Our light affliction ... worketh for us.
2 Corinthians 4:17
The first impression made upon the mind as these words are read is that almost of amazement that Paul could speak of his afflictions as light. He had described them very clearly, as he spoke of himself and of those associated with him in ministry, as "pressed," "perplexed," "pursued," "smitten down," "always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus," "always delivered unto death." And these were no mere figures of speech. Very literally these things were true. And yet, summing them all up, he described them as "our light affliction." Moreover, he thought of them all, not as foes but as allies of the soul, for he declared that in their totality as affliction, it "worketh for us." This was the conviction which made him speak of it as light. That to which it tended was glory so wonderful that he could only describe it as "an eternal weight of glory." Still further let it be noted that this reference to glory was not merely to the glory of the life beyond. It was a present experience, and a growing one, for, said he, affliction "worketh for us more and more exceedingly." In the process of affliction glory was present, and it grew. That is the real burden of all this teaching. Over against every description of affliction is one of glory, "not straitened," "not unto despair," "not forsaken," "not destroyed," "the life of Jesus ... manifested in our body," "the life of Jesus ... manifested in our mortal flesh." These are things of glory, and all the affliction which accompanies service works these things. Thus it ever is. Fellowship with the suffering Saviour is fellowship in the glory of His triumphs.
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.