Daily Bible Notes: June, 12th
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
Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.
Daniel 5:27
It is well frequently to weigh ourselves in the scale of God’s Word. You will find it a holy exercise to read some psalm of David, and, as you meditate upon each verse, to ask yourself, "Can I say this? Have I felt as David felt? Has my heart ever been broken on account of sin, as his was when he penned his penitential psalms? Has my soul been full of true confidence in the hour of difficulty as his was when he sang of God’s mercies in the cave of Adullam, or in the holds of Engedi? Do I take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord?" Then turn to the life of Christ, and as you read, ask yourselves how far you are conformed to His likeness. Endeavour to discover whether you have the meekness, the humility, the lovely spirit which He constantly inculcated and displayed.
Take, then, the epistles, and see whether you can go with the apostle in what he said of his experience. Have you ever cried out as he did -"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death"? Have you ever felt his self-abasement? Have you seemed to yourself the chief of sinners, and less than the least of all saints? Have you known anything of his devotion? Could you join with him and say, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain"? If we thus read God’s Word as a test of our spiritual condition, we shall have good reason to stop many a time and say, "Lord, I feel I have never yet been here, O bring me here! give me true penitence, such as this I read of. Give me real faith; give me warmer zeal; inflame me with more fervent love; grant me the grace of meekness; make me more like Jesus. Let me no longer be ‘found wanting,’ when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, lest I be found wanting in the scales of judgment." "Judge yourselves that ye be not judged."
Evening
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling.
2 Timothy 1:9
The apostle uses the perfect tense and says, "Who hath saved us."
Believers in Christ Jesus are saved. They are not looked upon as persons who are in a hopeful state, and may ultimately be saved, but they are already saved. Salvation is not a blessing to be enjoyed upon the dying bed, and to be sung of in a future state above, but a matter to be obtained, received, promised, and enjoyed now. The Christian is perfectly saved in God’s purpose ; God has ordained him unto salvation, and that purpose is complete. He is saved also as to the price which has been paid for him : "It is finished" was the cry of the Saviour ere He died. The believer is also perfectly saved in His covenant head , for as he fell in Adam, so he lives in Christ. This complete salvation is accompanied by a holy calling . Those whom the Saviour saved upon the cross are in due time effectually called by the power of God the Holy Spirit unto holiness: they leave their sins; they endeavour to be like Christ; they choose holiness, not out of any compulsion, but from the stress of a new nature, which leads them to rejoice in holiness just as naturally as aforetime they delighted in sin. God neither chose them nor called them because they were holy, but He called them that they might be holy, and holiness is the beauty produced by His workmanship in them. The excellencies which we see in a believer are as much the work of God as the atonement itself. Thus is brought out very sweetly the fulness of the grace of God. Salvation must be of grace, because the Lord is the author of it: and what motive but grace could move Him to save the guilty? Salvation must be of grace, because the Lord works in such a manner that our righteousness is for ever excluded. Such is the believer’s privilege - a present salvation ; such is the evidence that he is called to it - a holy life .
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 106:1-12
1 Praise the LORD! Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.
2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD, or fully declare all his praise?
3 Blessed are those who keep justice. Blessed is one who does what is right at all times.
4 Remember me, LORD, with the favour that you show to your people. Visit me with your salvation,
5 that I may see the prosperity of your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly.
7 Our fathers didn't understand your wonders in Egypt. They didn't remember the multitude of your loving kindnesses, but were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea.
8 Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so he led them through the depths, as through a desert.
10 He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
11 The waters covered their adversaries. There was not one of them left.
12 Then they believed his words. They sang his praise.
WAITING FOR THE SPECTACULAR
"The waves covered their enemies.... Then believed they His words."
Their faith was born in a great emergency. A spectacular deliverance was needed to implant their trust in the Lord. They found no witness in the quiet daily providence; the unobtrusive miracle of daily mercy did not awake their song. They dwelt upon the "special" blessing, when all the time the really special blessing was to be found in the sleepless care which watched over them in their ordinary and commonplace ways.
It is the old story. We are wanting God to appear in imperial glory; and He comes among us as a humble carpenter. We want great miracles, and we have the daily Providence. We see His dread goings in the earthquake; we do not feel His presence in the lilies of the field. We watch Him in the smoke and flames of Vesuvius; we do not recognize His footprints in the little turf-clad hill that is only a few yards from our own door.
It is a great day when we discover our God in the common bush. That day is marked with glory when our daily bread becomes a sacrament. When we enjoy a closer walk with God, common things will wear the hues of heaven.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
June 12th.
My Father, renew my attachment to Thee. Save me from indifference. Deliver me from all formality. May the bonds that
bind me to Thee be quick and living! May I be constrained to love!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his
heavens shall drop down dew.
Deuteronomy 33:28
The more we dwell alone, the more safe shall we be. God would have his people separate from sinners. His call to them is, "Come ye out from among them." A Christian world is such a monstrosity as the Scriptures never contemplate. A worldly Christian is spiritually diseased. Those who compromise with Christ's enemies may be reckoned with them.
Our safety lies, not in making terms with the enemy, but in dwelling alone with our best Friend. If we do this, we shall dwell in safety, despite the sarcasms, the slanders, and the sneers of the world. We shall be safe from the baleful influence of its unbelief, its pride, its vanity, its filthiness.
God also will make us dwell in safety alone in that day when sin shall be visited on the nations by wars and famines.
The Lord brought Abram from Ur of the Chaldees, but he stopped half-way. He had no blessing till, having set out to go to the land of Canaan, to the land of Canaan he came. He was safe alone even in the midst of foes. Lot was not safe in Sodom though in a circle of friends. Our safety is in dwelling apart with God.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Christ is all and in all.
Colossians 3:11
Christ speaks to art, to music, to science, to literature, to all life, to each separately, and yet to each in its relation to all the rest. Many waters, many messengers, many messages, yet one voice, one word, one revelation.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
There were they in great fear, where, no fear was.
Psalms 53:5
We have found this song already in Book 1 (Psa. 14). Its repetition here is of great interest in the light it throws upon the editing of the collection. A comparison of the two will show how in this case Elohim has been substituted for Jehovah in harmony with the general usage in this second Book; The main theme of the songs is identical. Some slight alterations show how a great song may be adapted to meet the need of some special application of its truth. The words we have emphasized give us an illustration of this. In Psa. 14, the words are: "There were they in great fear." Here the addition of the words, "where no fear was," is explained at once if we see in this form of the song an application to the departure of Sennacherib's army (Isa. 37:7) and its ultimate annihilation (Isa. 37:26). There indeed were men filled with fear, where there was no natural cause for fear. The words are very suggestive. The fear of God is often thrust upon men suddenly and terrifically, when they have no apparent cause for fear. Such fear is nemesis, and is destructive. There is only one way in which man can be delivered from this fear. It is that of beginning with the fear of Jehovah, and ordering all conduct in the guidance thereof. The fear of God is either an impelling motive, leading in the ways of life; or it becomes a compelling terror, issuing in destruction. To fear God, is to be rightly related to the Ultimate fact of the universe. To say in the heart, "There is no God," is to neglect that fact, and sooner or later to discover it in a destructive fear.
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.