Daily Bible Notes: June, 30th
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 the glory which Thou gavest me I have given them.
John 17:22
Behold the superlative liberality of the Lord Jesus, for He hath given us His all. Although a tithe of His possessions would have made a universe of angels rich beyond all thought, yet was He not content until He had given us all that He had. It would have been surprising grace if He had allowed us to eat the crumbs of His bounty beneath the table of His mercy; but He will do nothing by halves, He makes us sit with Him and share the feast.
Had He given us some small pension from His royal coffers, we should have had cause to love Him eternally; but no, He will have His bride as rich as Himself, and He will not have a glory or a grace in which she shall not share. He has not been content with less than making us joint-heirs with Himself, so that we might have equal possessions. He has emptied all His estate into the coffers of the Church, and hath all things common with His redeemed. There is not one room in His house the key of which He will withhold from His people. He gives them full liberty to take all that He hath to be their own; He loves them to make free with His treasure, and appropriate as much as they can possibly carry. The boundless fulness of His all-sufficiency is as free to the believer as the air he breathes. Christ hath put the flagon of His love and grace to the believer’s lip, and bidden him drink on for ever; for could he drain it, he is welcome to do so, and as he cannot exhaust it, he is bidden to drink abundantly, for it is all his own.
What truer proof of fellowship can heaven or earth afford? "When I stand before the throne Dressed in beauty not my own; When I see Thee as Thou art, Love Thee with unsinning heart; Then, Lord, shall I fully know - Not till then - how much I owe."
Evening
Ah Lord God, behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee.
Jeremiah 32:17
At the very time when the Chaldeans surrounded Jerusalem, and when the sword, famine and pestilence had desolated the land, Jeremiah was commanded by God to purchase a field, and have the deed of transfer legally sealed and witnessed. This was a strange purchase for a rational man to make. Prudence could not justify it, for it was buying with scarcely a probability that the person purchasing could ever enjoy the possession.
But it was enough for Jeremiah that his God had bidden him, for well he knew that God will be justified of all His children. He reasoned thus: "Ah, Lord God! Thou canst make this plot of ground of use to me; Thou canst rid this land of these oppressors; Thou canst make me yet sit under my vine and my fig-tree in the heritage which I have bought; for Thou didst make the heavens and the earth, and there is nothing too hard for Thee."
This gave a majesty to the early saints, that they dared to do at God’s command things which carnal reason would condemn. Whether it be a Noah who is to build a ship on dry land, an Abraham who is to offer up his only son, or a Moses who is to despise the treasures of Egypt, or a Joshua who is to besiege Jericho seven days, using no weapons but the blasts of rams’ horns, they all act upon God’s command, contrary to the dictates of carnal reason; and the Lord gives them a rich reward as the result of their obedient faith. Would to God we had in the religion of these modern times a more potent infusion of this heroic faith in God. If we would venture more upon the naked promise of God, we should enter a world of wonders to which as yet we are strangers. Let Jeremiah’s place of confidence be ours - nothing is too hard for the God that created the heavens and the earth.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 118:14-21
14 The LORD is my strength and song. He has become my salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. "The right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
16 The right hand of the LORD is exalted! The right hand of the LORD does valiantly!"
17 I will not die, but live, and declare the LORD's works.
18 The LORD has punished me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will enter into them. I will give thanks to the LORD.
20 This is the gate of the LORD; the righteous will enter into it.
21 I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me, and have become my salvation.
GOD MY STRENGTH AND SONG
"The Lord is my strength and my song."
Yes, first of all "my strength" and then "my song"! For what song can there be where there is languor and fainting? What brave music can be born in an organ which is short of breath? There must first be strength if we would have fine harmonies. And so the good Lord comes to the songless, and with holy power He brings the gift of "saving health."
"And my song"! For when life is healthy it instinctively breaks into song. The happy, contented soul goes about the ways of life humming its satisfactions to itself, and is now and again heard by the passer-by. The Lord fills the life with instinctive music. When life is holy it becomes musical with His praise.
So here I see the appointed order in Christian service. It is futile to try to make people joyful unless we do it by seeking first to make them strong. First the good, and then the truly happy! First the holy, and then the musical. First God, and then the breath of His Holy Spirit, and then "the new song."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
June 30th.
My Lord, give me Thy rest. I am easily panic-stricken. The crisis alarms me. The unexpected disturbs me. I would be quiet in
the storm. I would be at rest in the sudden disappointment. I would trust and not be afraid.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
Ezekiel 16:60
Notwithstanding our sins the Lord is still faithful in his love to us.
He looks back. See how he remembers those early days of ours when he took us into covenant with himself, and we gave ourselves over to him. Happy days those! The Lord does not twit us with them, and charge us with being insincere. No, he looks rather to his covenant with us than to our covenant with him. There was no hypocrisy in that sacred compact, on his part, at any rate. How gracious is the Lord thus to look back in love!
He looks forward also. He is resolved that the covenant shall not fail. If we do not stand to it, he does. He solemnly declares, "I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant." He has no mind to draw back from his promises. Blessed be his name, he sees the sacred seal, "the blood of the everlasting covenant," and he remembers our Surety, in whom he ratified that covenant, even his own dear Son; and therefore he rests in his covenant engagements. "He abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself."
O Lord, lay this precious word upon my heart, and help me to feed upon it all this day!
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner.
Acts 1:11
Once take firm hold of this great truth of the coming of the King, and it affords a bright outlook along every avenue of life, and brings gladness to the weary heart.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
When I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not, until I have declared Thy strength unto the next generation.
Psalms 71:18
This is pre-eminently the song of an old man, and moreover he was still in circumstances of trouble when he wrote it. It is a plea at first for deliverance, and in the course of it the same appeal is made to God to "Make haste." Its dominant note, however, is that of the triumph of faith. He looks back over life, and recognizes the care of God from his birth and through all the vicissitudes of life. That recognition is the inspiration of the prayer for help; and the secret of the note of confidence with which the song closes. The particular words which we have emphasized reveal the true desire of old age. It is that of being allowed to minister to youth. The man who, through long years, has proved God, has a message for those who are facing life. They see but half - as Browning says. It is a glorious half, but it needs the illumination of the whole, lest it should fail. Moreover, there is nothing more calculated to keep the heart of age young, than to stand by the young, sympathizing with their ambitions, heartening their endeavours, and stiffening their courage, by recounting the stories of the strength of God, the experiences of His might. When one is old and grey-headed, there is inevitably a tendency to seek release and rest. Let that last phase of selfishness be guarded against, by the cultivation of comradeship with the young; and then the higher desire will be created, that, namely, of this singer, for continued fellowship with God, in order that service may be rendered to them. There is nothing more pitiful, or else more beautiful than old age. It is pitiful when its pessimism cools the ardours of youth. It is beautiful when its witness stimulated the visions and inspires the heroisms of the young.
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.