Daily Bible Notes: March, 7th
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
Have faith in God.
Mark 11:22
Faith is the foot of the soul by which it can march along the road of the commandments. Love can make the feet move more swiftly; but faith is the foot which carries the soul. Faith is the oil enabling the wheels of holy devotion and of earnest piety to move well; and without faith the wheels are taken from the chariot, and we drag heavily. With faith I can do all things; without faith I shall neither have the inclination nor the power to do anything in the service of God. If you would find the men who serve God the best, you must look for the men of the most faith. Little faith will save a man, but little faith cannot do great things for God. Poor Little-faith could not have fought "Apollyon;" it needed "Christian" to do that. Poor Little-faith could not have slain "Giant Despair;" it required "Great-heart’s" arm to knock that monster down. Little faith will go to heaven most certainly, but it often has to hide itself in a nut-shell, and it frequently loses all but its jewels. Little-faith says, "It is a rough road, beset with sharp thorns, and full of dangers; I am afraid to go;" but Great-faith remembers the promise, "Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; as thy days, so shall thy strength be:" and so she boldly ventures. Little-faith stands desponding, mingling her tears with the flood; but Great-faith sings, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee:" and she fords the stream at once.
Would you be comfortable and happy? Would you enjoy religion? Would you have the religion of cheerfulness and not that of gloom? Then "have faith in God." If you love darkness, and are satisfied to dwell in gloom and misery, then be content with little faith; but if you love the sunshine, and would sing songs of rejoicing, covet earnestly this best gift, "great faith."
Evening
lt is better to trust in the Lord, than to put confidence in man.
Psalm 118:8
Doubtless the reader has been tried with the temptation to rely upon the things which are seen, instead of resting alone upon the invisible God.
Christians often look to man for help and counsel, and mar the noble simplicity of their reliance upon their God. Does this evening’s portion meet the eye of a child of God anxious about temporals, then would we reason with him awhile. You trust in Jesus, and only in Jesus, for your salvation, then why are you troubled? "Because of my great care ." Is it not written, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord"? "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication make known your wants unto God." Cannot you trust God for temporals? "Ah! I wish I could ." If you cannot trust God for temporals, how dare you trust Him for spirituals?
Can you trust Him for your soul’s redemption, and not rely upon Him for a few lesser mercies? Is not God enough for thy need, or is His all-sufficiency too narrow for thy wants? Dost thou want another eye beside that of Him who sees every secret thing? Is His heart faint? Is His arm weary? If so, seek another God; but if He be infinite, omnipotent, faithful, true, and all-wise, why gaddest thou abroad so much to seek another confidence? Why dost thou rake the earth to find another foundation, when this is strong enough to bear all the weight which thou canst ever build thereon? Christian, mix not only thy wine with water, do not alloy thy gold of faith with the dross of human confidence. Wait thou only upon God, and let thine expectation be from Him. Covet not Jonah’s gourd, but rest in Jonah’s God. Let the sandy foundations of terrestrial trust be the choice of fools, but do thou, like one who foresees the storm, build for thyself an abiding place upon the Rock of Ages.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Revelation 21:1-7
1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more.
2 I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3 I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, "Behold, God's dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away."
5 He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." He said, "Write, for these words of God are faithful and true."
6 He said to me, "I have become the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life.
7 He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.
THINGS MISSING IN HEAVEN
What a number of "conspicuous absences" there are to be in "the home-land!"
No more sea! John was in Patmos, and the sea rolled between him and his kinsmen. The sea was a minister of estrangement. But in the home-country every cause of separation is to be done away, and the family life is to be one of inconceivable intimacy. No more sea!
And no more pain! Its work is done, and therefore the worker is put away. When the building is completed the scaffolding may be removed. When the patient is in good health the medicine bottles can be dispensed with. And so shall it be with pain and all its attendants. "The inhabitant never says: 'I am sick!'"
And no more death! "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death." Yes, he, too, shall drop his scythe, and his lax hand shall destroy no more for ever. Death himself shall die! And all things that have shared his work shall die with him. "The former things have passed away." The wedding-peal which welcomes the Lamb's bride will ring the funeral knell of Death and all his sable company.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
March 7th.
My Father, may sinful hearts find peace to-day! May weary hearts find rest! May the sorrow-ladened enter into the fellowship
of Thy strength! And may I too share in the benediction!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
The Lord loveth the prisoners.
Psalms 146:7
He has done it. Remember Joseph, Israel in Egypt, Manasseh, Jeremiah, Peter, and many others. He can do it still. He breaks the bars of brass with a word, and snaps the fetters of iron with a look. He is doing it. In a thousand places troubled ones are coming forth to light and enlargement. Jesus still proclaims the opening of the prison to them that are bound. At this moment doors are flying back and fetters are dropping to the ground.
He will delight to set you free, dear friend, if at this time you are mourning because of sorrow, doubt, and fear. It will be a joy to Jesus to give you liberty. It will give him as great a pleasure to loose you as it will be a pleasure to you to be loosed. No, you have not to snap the iron band: the Lord himself will do it. Only trust him, and he will be your Emancipator. Believe in him in spite of the stone walls, or the manacles of iron. Satan cannot hold you, sin cannot enchain you, even despair cannot bind you, if you will now believe in the Lord Jesus, and in the freeness of his grace, and in the fulness of his power to save.
Defy the enemy, and let the word now before you be your song of deliverance: "Jehovah looseth the prisoners."
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Love ... seeketh not its own.
1 Corinthians 13:4,5
It is so easy to judge love by the partial realisation of it that has come within our consciousness. We love those who love us, those who please us, those who like us; and at the root of all this, in the last analysis, there is but a refined form of selfishness.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how frail I am.
Psalms 39:4
This was not a prayer inspired by a desire to know when life would end; it was not a request to be told the date of death. It was a prayer for an accurate apprehension of the fact that life quantitatively - that is, as to the number of its days - is as nothing. This is clearly seen in the sentences of meditation which follow (verses 5, 6). Then, however, a new note was introduced into the song: "And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee." Here is a revelation of the quality of life, as opposed to mere quantity. The attitude described is the one of ultimate strength and realization. It is that of hope in God. That is life, in which desire and expectation are centred in God. Such life is of an entirely different quality from that in which desire and expectation are centred in self, in circumstances, or in men. Such life is characterized by the approximation of effort, and so of character, to the things of God: holiness and righteousness; justice and truth; compassion and grace. If a man live in this qualitative consciousness, quantitative considerations as to life are conditioned thereby. They are entirely unimportant as a measure of life. The time element is cancelled very largely. But they are of great importance as preparatory to the stages which are yet to come. Every day lived in hope centred in God is rich and full. Every such day is contributing something to all the days yet to come.
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.