Daily Bible Notes: June, 19th
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
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
Acts 2:4
Rich were the blessings of this day if all of us were filled with the Holy Ghost. The consequences of this sacred filling of the soul it would be impossible to overestimate. Life, comfort, light, purity, power, peace; and many other precious blessings are inseparable from the Spirit’s benign presence. As sacred oil , He anoints the head of the believer, sets him apart to the priesthood of saints, and gives him grace to execute his office aright.
As the only truly purifying water He cleanses us from the power of sin and sanctifies us unto holiness, working in us to will and to do of the Lord’s good pleasure. As the light , He manifested to us at first our lost estate, and now He reveals the Lord Jesus to us and in us, and guides us in the way of righteousness. Enlightened by His pure celestial ray, we are no more darkness but light in the Lord. As fire , He both purges us from dross, and sets our consecrated nature on a blaze. He is the sacrificial flame by which we are enabled to offer our whole souls as a living sacrifice unto God. As heavenly dew , He removes our barrenness and fertilizes our lives.
O that He would drop from above upon us at this early hour! Such morning dew would be a sweet commencement for the day. As the dove , with wings of peaceful love He broods over His Church and over the souls of believers, and as a Comforter He dispels the cares and doubts which mar the peace of His beloved. He descends upon the chosen as upon the Lord in Jordan, and bears witness to their sonship by working in them a filial spirit by which they cry Abba, Father. As the wind , He brings the breath of life to men; blowing where He listeth He performs the quickening operations by which the spiritual creation is animated and sustained.
Would to God, that we might feel His presence this day and every day.
Evening
My Beloved is mine, and I am His: He feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be Thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.
Song of Solomon 2:16,
Surely if there be a happy verse in the Bible it is this -"My Beloved is mine, and I am His." So peaceful, so full of assurance, so overrunning with happiness and contentment is it, that it might well have been written by the same hand which penned the twenty-third Psalm. Yet though the prospect is exceeding fair and lovely - earth cannot show its superior - it is not entirely a sunlit landscape. There is a cloud in the sky which casts a shadow over the scene. Listen, "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away."
There is a word, too, about the "mountains of Bether," or, "the mountains of division," and to our love, anything like division is bitterness. Beloved, this may be your present state of mind; you do not doubt your salvation; you know that Christ is yours, but you are not feasting with Him. You understand your vital interest in Him, so that you have no shadow of a doubt of your being His, and of His being yours, but still His left hand is not under your head, nor doth His right hand embrace you. A shade of sadness is cast over your heart, perhaps by affliction, certainly by the temporary absence of your Lord, so even while exclaiming, "I am His," you are forced to take to your knees, and to pray, "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved." "Where is He?" asks the soul. And the answer comes, "He feedeth among the lilies." If we would find Christ, we must get into communion with His people, we must come to the ordinances with His saints. Oh, for an evening glimpse of Him! Oh, to sup with Him to-night!
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 90:1-12
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
3 You turn man to destruction, saying, "Return, you children of men."
4 For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass.
6 In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.
7 For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.
10 The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labour and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.
11 Who knows the power of your anger, your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?
12 So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
RECKONING UP THINGS
Numbering things is one of the healthful exercises of the spiritual life. Unless we count, memory is apt to be very tricky and to snare us into strange forgetfulness. Unless we count what we have given away, we are very apt to exaggerate our bounty. We often think we have given when we have only listened to appeals; the mere audience has been mistaken for active beneficence. The remedy for all this is occasionally to count our benevolences and see how we stand in a balance-sheet which we could present to the Lord Himself.
And we must count our blessings. It is when our arithmetic fails in the task, and when counting God's blessings is like telling the number of the stars, that our souls bow low before the eternal goodness, and all murmuring dies away "like cloud-spots in the dawn."
And we must also "number our days." We are wasteful with them, and we throw them away as though they are ours in endless procession. And yet there are only seven days in a week! A day is of immeasurable preciousness, for what high accomplishment may it not witness? A day in health or in sickness, spent unto God, and applied unto wisdom, will gather treasures more precious than rubies and gold.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
June 19th.
Father of all, give me a profound fellowship with all men. May I stand aloof from none! May I be separate from sinners,
and yet be the sinner's friend! May my sympathy be full of healing and restoring power! May I be touched with the needs of all.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Let my heart be sound in thy statutes: that I be not ashamed.
Psalms 119:80
We may regard this inspired prayer as containing within itself the assurance that those who keep close to the Word of God shall never have cause to be ashamed of doing so.
See, the prayer is for soundness of heart. A sound creed is good, a sound judgment concerning it is better, but a sound heart towards the truth is best of all. We must love the truth, feel the truth, and obey the truth, otherwise we are not truly sound in God's statutes. Are there many in these evil days who are sound? Oh, that the writer and the reader may be two of this sort!
Many will be ashamed in the last great day, when all disputes will be decided. Then they will see the folly of their inventions, and be filled with remorse because of their proud infidelity and wilful defiance of the Lord; but he who believed what the Lord taught, and did what the Lord commanded, will stand forth justified in what he did. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun. Men much slandered and abused shall find their shame turned into glory in that day.
Let us pray the prayer of our text, and we may be sure that its promise will be fulfilled to us. If the Lord makes us sound, he will keep us safe.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Matthew 10:34
It is a very remarkable thing that the Church of Christ persecuted has been the Church of Christ pure. The Church of Christ patronised has always been the Church of Christ impure.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.
Psalms 60:4
This is the central light of a great song, revealing the singer's understanding of the true function of the nation. When Amalek fought against Israel in Rephidim, victory came to the people of God as Moses, supported by Aaron and Hur, prayed on the mount and Joshua went forth to battle. After the victory Moses built an altar, and called the name of it "Jehovah Nissi," that is, Jehovah our Banner. That was indeed the Banner of Israel. The nation existed to display the glory of Jehovah before the nations. When, in her appointed warfare against the forces of evil, she was victorious, that Banner was honoured. When she was defeated, it was disgraced. This song was written in a day when the hosts of Jehovah had been defeated. The conception of the meaning of the national life of Israel, revealed in these words, accounts for the anguish of the singer as he contemplated the discomfiture and defeat of the people of God. There was no self-centred pride in the song. The sorrow of the singer was caused by the disgrace to the Banner, by the dishonour done to the name of Jehovah. This conception accounts also for the change in the Psalm to the note of confidence as to the ultimate victory. This sense of responsibility for the truth about God, for the honour of the Holy Name, is the surest guarantee of victory. When the people of God are overcome by the enemies of God, the ultimate tragedy is not that they are disgraced, but that all they stand for is dishonoured. It is because we so often forget this, that we know defeat, and so wrong God. The Church of God is the pillar and ground of the Truth. When she fails, the Truth suffers.
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.