Daily Bible Notes: June, 29th
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
Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.
1 Thessalonians 4:14
Let us not imagine that the soul sleeps in insensibility. "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise," is the whisper of Christ to every dying saint.
They "sleep in Jesus," but their souls are before the throne of God, praising Him day and night in His temple, singing hallelujahs to Him who washed them from their sins in His blood. The body sleeps in its lonely bed of earth, beneath the coverlet of grass. But what is this sleep? The idea connected with sleep is "rest ," and that is the thought which the Spirit of God would convey to us. Sleep makes each night a Sabbath for the day.
Sleep shuts fast the door of the soul, and bids all intruders tarry for a while, that the life within may enter its summer garden of ease. The toil-worn believer quietly sleeps, as does the weary child when it slumbers on its mother’s breast. Oh! happy they who die in the Lord; they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. Their quiet repose shall never be broken until God shall rouse them to give them their full reward. Guarded by angel watchers, curtained by eternal mysteries, they sleep on, the heritors of glory, till the fulness of time shall bring the fulness of redemption. What an awaking shall be theirs! They were laid in their last resting place, weary and worn, but such they shall not rise. They went to their rest with the furrowed brow, and the wasted features, but they wake up in beauty and glory. The shrivelled seed, so destitute of form and comeliness, rises from the dust a beauteous flower. The winter of the grave gives way to the spring of redemption and the summer of glory. Blessed is death, since it, through the divine power, disrobes us of this work-day garment, to clothe us with the wedding garment of incorruption. Blessed are those who "sleep in Jesus."
Evening
Howbeit, in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that He might know all that was in his heart.
2 Chronicles 32:31
Hezekiah was growing so inwardly great, and priding himself so much upon the favour of God, that self-righteousness crept in, and through his carnal security, the grace of God was for a time, in its more active operations, withdrawn. Here is quite enough to account with the Babylonians; for if the grace of God should leave the best Christian, there is enough of sin in his heart to make him the worst of transgressors. If left to yourselves, you who are warmest for Christ would cool down like Laodicea into sickening lukewarmness: you who are sound in the faith would be white with the leprosy of false doctrine; you who now walk before the Lord in excellency and integrity would reel to and fro, and stagger with a drunkenness of evil passion. Like the moon, we borrow our light; bright as we are when grace shines on us, we are darkness itself when the Sun of Righteousness withdraws Himself. Therefore let us cry to God never to leave us . "Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from us! Withdraw not from us Thine indwelling grace! Hast Thou not said, ‘I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day’?
Lord, keep us everywhere. Keep us when in the valley, that we murmur not against Thy humbling hand; keep us when on the mountain, that we wax not giddy through being lifted up; keep us in youth, when our passions are strong; keep us in old age, when becoming conceited of our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools than the young and giddy; keep us when we come to die, lest, at the very last, we should deny Thee!
Keep us living, keep us dying, keep us labouring, keep us suffering, keep us fighting, keep us resting, keep us everywhere, for everywhere we need Thee, O our God!"
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
James 5:13-20
13 Is any amongst you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.
14 Is any amongst you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord,
15 and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Confess your offences to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months.
18 He prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
19 Brothers, if any amongst you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back,
20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
EFFECTUAL PRAYERS
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
Or, as Weymouth translates it, "The heartfelt supplication of a righteous man exerts a mighty influence." Prayer may be empty words, with no more power than those empty shells which have been foisted upon the Turks in their war with the Balkan States. Firing empty shells! That is what many professed prayers really are; they have nothing in them, and they accomplish nothing. They are just forged upon the lips, and they drop to the earth as soon as they are spoken. Effectual prayers are born in the heart; they are stocked with heart-treasure, with faith, and hope, and desire, and holy urgency, and they go forth with power to shake the world.
What are my prayers like? If I were God, could I listen to them? Are they mere pretences at prayer, full of nothing but sound? Is there any reasonable ground for assuming that they can accomplish anything? Or are my prayers weighted with sincere desire? Do they comprehend my brother's good as well as my own? Are they spoken in faith? Do they go forth in great expectancy? Then do they surely "exert a mighty influence," and they become fellow-labourers with all God's ministries of grace. The greatest thing I can do is greatly to pray.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
June 29th.
Heavenly Father, wilt Thou remember all Thy people to-day? May they have insight into truth and visions of Thy glory! Have
pity on all who are not inclined to acknowledge Thee. Turn their thoughts towards holiness, and set their feet in the way of truth.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Jeremiah 33:3
God encourages us to pray. They tell us that prayer is a pious exercise which has no influence except upon the mind engaged in it. We know better. Our experience gives the lie a thousand times over to this infidel assertion. Here Jehovah, the living God, distinctly promises to answer the prayer of his servant. Let us call upon him again, and admit no doubt upon the question of his hearing us and answering us. He that made the ear, shall he not hear? He that gave parents a love to their children, will he not listen to the cries of his own sons and daughters?
God will answer his pleading people in their anguish. He has wonders in store for them. What they have never seen, heard of, or dreamed of, he will do for them. He will invent new blessings if needful. He will ransack sea and land to feed them: he will send every angel out of heaven to succour them, if their distress requires it. He will astound us with his grace, and make us feel that it was never before done in this fashion. All he asks of us is that we will call upon him. He cannot ask less of us. Let us cheerfully render him our prayers at once.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
Revelation 21:1
Not until Christ shall have banished evil, brought in the new heavens and the new earth, and given the City of God to the earth, will our Lord's work be complete and His glory at the highest.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Make haste.
Psalms 70:1
These words reveal the mental mood of the singer of this Psalm. They have been supplied by the translators as an introduction, and these must be omitted. They occur, however, immediately; and are repeated in our last verse, and there reinforced by the words, "Make no tarrying." The circumstances were those of suffering, and of that made more poignant by the gloating gladness of enemies, as revealed in their exclamations, "Aha, Aha." The troubled soul knew that help was only to be found in God. His difficulty was that God did not seem to be acting with sufficient speed. He was at least leisurely, when the need seemed pressing; He was not hastening, in spite of the urgency. So it appeared to this troubled heart, and so it has constantly appeared to those who have suffered. One of the supreme glories of the Psalter is that it gives us a song like this, expressing a common human experience, even though it reveals a mistaken conception of God. God never needs to be called upon to hasten. He is never tarrying uselessly or carelessly. Indeed, we may say that often: "Through the thick darkness He is hastening," that is, through the very darkness which makes us imagine He is inactive, or unduly delaying His help. Nevertheless, He understands our cry. We may use any terms in our prayers, if they are directed to Him, knowing that He will understand, and in His understanding, interpret our faulty terms by His own perfect knowledge, and give us His best answers to our deepest need.
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.