Daily Bible Notes: June, 24th
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
A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But He said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
Luke 11:27,
It is fondly imagined by some that it must have involved very special privileges to have been the mother of our Lord, because they supposed that she had the benefit of looking into His very heart in a way in which we cannot hope to do. There may be an appearance of plausibility in the supposition, but not much. We do not know that Mary knew more than others; what she did know she did well to lay up in her heart; but she does not appear from anything we read in the Evangelists to have been a better-instructed believer than any other of Christ’s disciples. All that she knew we also may discover. Do you wonder that we should say so? Here is a text to prove it: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." Remember the Master’s words -"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." So blessedly does this Divine Revealer of secrets tell us His heart, that He keepeth back nothing which is profitable to us; His own assurance is, "If it were not so, I would have told you." Doth He not this day manifest Himself unto us as He doth not unto the world? It is even so; and therefore we will not ignorantly cry out, "Blessed is the womb that bare thee," but we will intelligently bless God that, having heard the Word and kept it, we have first of all as true a communion with the Saviour as the Virgin had, and in the second place as true an acquaintance with the secrets of His heart as she can be supposed to have obtained. Happy soul to be thus privileged!
Evening
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said... Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods.
Daniel 3:16,
The narrative of the manly courage and marvellous deliverance of the three holy children, or rather champions, is well calculated to excite in the minds of believers firmness and steadfastness in upholding the truth in the teeth of tyranny and in the very jaws of death. Let young Christians especially learn from their example, both in matters of faith in religion, and matters of uprightness in business, never to sacrifice their consciences. Lose all rather than lose your integrity, and when all else is gone, still hold fast a clear conscience as the rarest jewel which can adorn the bosom of a mortal. Be not guided by the will-o’-the-wisp of policy, but by the pole-star of divine authority. Follow the right at all hazards. When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight. Do God the honour to trust Him when it comes to matters of loss for the sake of principle. See whether He will be your debtor! See if He doth not even in this life prove His word that "Godliness, with contentment, is great gain," and that they who "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, shall have all these things added unto them." Should it happen that, in the providence of God, you are a loser by conscience, you shall find that if the Lord pays you not back in the silver of earthly prosperity, He will discharge His promise in the gold of spiritual joy. Remember that a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of that which he possesseth. To wear a guileless spirit, to have a heart void of offence, to have the favour and smile of God, is greater riches than the mines of Ophir could yield, or the traffic of Tyre could win. "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and inward contention therewith." An ounce of heart’s-ease is worth a ton of gold.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Amos 6:1-7
1 Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!
2 Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border?
3 Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
4 Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the middle of the stall;
5 who strum on the strings of a harp; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David;
6 who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
7 Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive; and the feasting and lounging will end.
AT EASE IN ZION
"Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!"
I would be delivered from the folly of confusing ease and rest. There is an infinite difference between comforts and comfort. It is one thing to lie down on a luxurious couch: it is a very different thing to "lie down in green pastures" under the gracious shepherdliness of the Lord. The ease which men covet is so often a fruit of stupefaction, the dull product of sinful drugs, the wretched sluggishness of carnal gratification and excess. The rest which God giveth is alive and wakeful, abounding in tireless and fruitful service. "Oh, rest in the Lord."
But is it not a strange thing that men can be "at ease in Zion"? That they can play the beast in the holy place? Zion was full of holy memory, and abounded with suggestions of the Divine Presence. And yet here they could carouse, and lose themselves in swinish indulgence! A little while ago I saw a beautiful old church which had been turned into a common eating-house!
My soul, be on thy guard. Be watchful and diligent, and busy thyself in the practice of "self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
June 24th.
Father of all spirits, wilt Thou deepen the spiritual fellowships among men? May the unseen kinships be stronger than
material bonds! May there be a union of hearts! In the sense of common need, and in the joy of a common Redeemer, may they all become one!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?
And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.
2 Chronicles 25:9
If you have made a mistake, bear the loss of it; but do not act contrary to the will of the Lord. The Lord can give you much more than you are likely to lose; and if he does not, will you begin bargaining and chaffering with God? The king of Judah had hired an army from idolatrous Israel, and he was commanded to send home the fighting men because the Lord was not with them. He was willing to send away the host, only he grudged paying the hundred talents for nothing. Oh for shame! If the Lord will give the victory without the hirelings, surely it was a good bargain to pay their wages and to be rid of them.
Be willing to lose money for conscience sake, for peace sake, for Christ's sake. Rest assured that losses for the Lord are not losses. Even in this life they are more than recompensed: in some cases the Lord prevents any loss from happening. As to our immortal life, what we lose for Jesus is invested in heaven. Fret not at apparent disaster, but listen to the whisper, "The Lord is able to give thee much more than this."
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
To be seen of men.
Matthew 23:5
Human opinion is the test of all their doing and speaking. Conventionality holds them in an iron grip. They will do, or refuse to do, anything according to the opinion of someone else. The habit of the crowd becomes the rule of life.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion.
Psalms 65:1
The song was evidently composed to be sung in connection with some gathering of the people in the Temple, and its special notes suggest that the occasion was that of thanksgiving for the co-operation of God with man in the production of the harvest. In any case, it was a song for a festival of praise. These introductory words have caused some difficulty to expositors. Briggs rendered the sentence "To Thee is recited a song of praise;" and Rotherham adopted this rendering. Kirkpatrick renders it: "Praise becometh Thee," and says that "though prayer may be silent, praise calls for vocal expression." I suggest that here translation is better than either of these attempted interpretations. The word translated "waiteth" comes from a root meaning to be dumb. The idea quite simply is exactly what Kirkpatrick declares to be impossible, viz. that praise is silent before God. This does not mean that there is no praise, but on the contrary that praise is so complete that at first it can find no utterance. Presently it becomes gloriously vocal, but even then fails to express the fullness which compelled the silence. I emphasize this because I am growingly convinced of the tremendous value of silence in the activity of public worship, whether in praise or prayer. In the assemblies of the saints, the sound of a human voice must in some degree tend to deflect attention from God. There must be speech, in prayer, in praise, in prophesying; but its ultimate value is that of preparation for those great silences where the soul is alone with God. The word of Habakkuk is of profound significance: "Let all the earth hush before Him." It was out of his own silence that at last there came the great song of praise.
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.