Daily Bible Notes: June, 18th
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
Thy Redeemer.
Isaiah 54:5
Jesus, the Redeemer, is altogether ours and ours for ever. All the offices of Christ are held on our behalf. He is king for us, priest for us, and prophet for us. Whenever we read a new title of the Redeemer, let us appropriate Him as ours under that name as much as under any other. The shepherd’s staff, the father’s rod, the captain’s sword, the priest’s mitre, theprince’s sceptre, the prophet’s mantle, all are ours. Jesus hath no dignity which He will not employ for our exaltation, and no prerogative which He will not exercise for our defence. His fulness of Godhead is our unfailing, inexhaustible treasure-house.
His manhood also, which he took upon him for us, is ours in all its perfection. To us our gracious Lord communicates the spotless virtue of a stainless character; to us he gives the meritorious efficacy of a devoted life; on us he bestows the reward procured by obedient submission and incessant service. He makes the unsullied garment of his life our covering beauty; the glittering virtues of his character our ornaments and jewels; and the superhuman meekness of his death our boast and glory. He bequeaths us his manger, from which to learn how God came down to man; and his Cross to teach us how man may go up to God. All His thoughts, emotions, actions, utterances, miracles, and intercessions, were for us. He trod the road of sorrow on our behalf, and hath made over to us as his heavenly legacy the full results of all the labours of his life. He is now as much ours as heretofore; and he blushes not to acknowledge himself "our Lord Jesus Christ," though he is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Christ everywhere and every way is our Christ, for ever and ever most richly to enjoy. O my soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit! call him this morning, "thy Redeemer."
Evening
I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse.
Song of Solomon 5:1
The heart of the believer is Christ’s garden. He bought it with His precious blood, and He enters it and claims it as His own. A garden implies separation . It is not the open common; it is not a wilderness; it is walled around, or hedged in. Would that we could see the wall of separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger. It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, "Well, there is no harm in this; there is no harm in that," thus getting as near to the world as possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the question of how far it may go in worldly conformity. A garden is a place of beauty , it far surpasses the wild uncultivated lands. The genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life than the best moralist, because Christ’s garden ought to produce the best flowers in all the world. Even the best is poor compared with Christ’s deservings; let us not put Him off with withering and dwarf plants. The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place which Jesus calls His own. The garden is a place of growth . The saints are not to remain undeveloped, always mere buds and blossoms. We should grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the Husbandman, and the Holy Spirit the dew from above. A garden is a place of retirement . So the Lord Jesus Christ would have us reserve our souls as a place in which He can manifest Himself, as He doth not unto the world. O that Christians were more retired, that they kept their hearts more closely shut up for Christ! We often worry and trouble ourselves, like Martha, with much serving, so that we have not the room for Christ that Mary had, and do not sit at His feet as we should. The Lord grant the sweet showers of His grace to water His garden this day.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.
6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
7 Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so you are also of the comfort.
THE BENEFITTED AS BENEFACTORS
"Who comforteth us ... that we may be able to comfort."
And how does the Lord comfort us? He has a thousand different ways, and no one can ever tell by what way the comfort will come to his soul. Sometimes it comes by the door of memory, and sometimes by the door of hope. Sometimes it is borne to us through the ministry of nature, and at other times through the ministry of human speech and kindness. But always, I think, it brings us the sense of a Presence, as though we had a great Friend in the room, and the troubled heart gains quietness and peace. The mist clears a little, and we have a restful assurance of our God.
Now comforted souls are to be comforters. They who have received benefits of grace are to be benefactors. They who have heard the sweet music of God's abiding love are to sing it again to others. They who have seen the glory are to become evangelists. We must not seek to hoard spiritual treasure. As soon as we lock it up we begin to lose it. A mysterious moth and rust take it away. If we do not comfort others, our own comfort will turn again to bitterness; the clouds will lower and we shall be imprisoned in the old woe. But the comfort which makes a comforter grows deeper and richer every day.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
June 18th.
My Father, may I see my sins in the light of Thy countenance! May I not estimate them by the dimness of the world's
ideals! In Thy light shall I see light. Help me set them in the light that I may recoil from them with intense disgust.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Now will I rise, saith the Lord; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
Isaiah 33:10
When the spoilers had made the land as waste as if devoured by locusts, and the warriors who had defended the country sat down and wept like women, then the Lord came to the rescue. When travellers ceased from the roads to Zion, and Bashan and Carmel were as vineyards from which the fruit has failed, then the Lord arose. God is exalted in the midst of an afflicted people, for they seek his face and trust him. He is still more exalted when in answer to their cries he lifts up himself to deliver them and overthrow their enemies.
Is it a day of sorrow with us? Let us now expect to see the Lord glorified in our deliverance. Are we drawn out in fervent prayer? Do we cry day and night unto him? Then the set time for his grace is near. God will lift up himself at the right season. He will arise when it will be most for the display of his glory. We wish for his glory more than we long for our own deliverance. Let the Lord be exalted, and our chief desire is obtained.
Lord, help us in such a way that we may see that thou thyself art working. May we magnify thee in our inmost souls. Make all around us to see how good and great a God thou art.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Our citizenship is in heaven.
Philippians 3:20, R.V.
I belong to the heavens, and when I touch the earth I must touch it with the equity of the heavens ... I must bring into all transactions the principles of righteousness upon which God is building His city, and accomplishing His work.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
O my strength, I will wait upon Thee: for God is my high Tower.
Psalms 59:9
This is the refrain with which the first part of the Psalm closes. The second part closes with the same refrain, with slight variations. It runs thus: Unto Thee, 0 my Strength, will I sing praises: For God is my high Tower, the God of my mercy. In each case the thought of God in the mind of the singer is that of His strength, and of the fact that He is a high tower or place of refuge and retreat to the soul in trouble and danger. In the first refrain, the singer declares his determination, in view of these facts, to give heed to God. In the second, in view of the same facts, he offers the sacrifice of praise, because this God of strength is the God of mercy. Our reading of the whole Psalm reveals the mercy of God which caused the praise of this soul. It was that of His destruction of workers of iniquity, bloodthirsty men. The circumstances of the singer, as suggested by the title, are revealed in 1 Sam. 19. It was a day when Saul was determined to destroy David. His intentions and his methods were of the basest. The men who were his agents were utterly unscrupulous. Their evil character is carefully described in this song. While such men are at large and unrestrained, there can be no security for godly men. The character of God demands that such should be severely judged, and indeed destroyed. In such retributive government the mercy of God is seen.
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.