Daily Bible Notes: March, 10th
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
In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved.
Psalm 30:6
"Moab settled on his lees, he hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel." Give a man wealth; let his ships bring home continually rich freights; let the winds and waves appear to be his servants to bear his vessels across the bosom of the mighty deep; let his lands yield abundantly: let the weather be propitious to his crops; let uninterrupted success attend him; let him stand among men as a successful merchant; let him enjoy continued health; allow him with braced nerve and brilliant eye to march through the world, and live happily; give him the buoyant spirit; let him have the song perpetually on his lips; let his eye be ever sparkling with joy - and the natural consequence of such an easy state to any man, let him be the best Christian who ever breathed, will be presumption ; even David said, "I shall never be moved;" and we are not better than David, nor half so good. Brother, beware of the smooth places of the way; if you are treading them, or if the way be rough, thank God for it. If God should always rock us in the cradle of prosperity; if we were always dandled on the knees of fortune; if we had not some stain on the alabaster pillar; if there were not a few clouds in the sky; if we had not some bitter drops in the wine of this life, we should become intoxicated with pleasure, we should dream "we stand;" and stand we should, but it would be upon a pinnacle; like the man asleep upon the mast, each moment we should be in jeopardy.
We bless God, then, for our afflictions; we thank Him for our changes; we extol His name for losses of property; for we feel that had He not chastened us thus, we might have become too secure. Continued worldly prosperity is a fiery trial. "Afflictions, though they seem severe, In mercy oft are sent."
Evening
Man... is of few days, and full of trouble.
Job 14:1
It may be of great service to us, before we fall asleep, to remember this mournful fact, for it may lead us to set loose by earthly things. There is nothing very pleasant in the recollection that we are not above the shafts of adversity, but it may humble us and prevent our boasting like the Psalmist in our morning’s portion. "My mountain standeth firm: I shall never be moved." It may stay us from taking too deep root in this soil from which we are so soon to be transplanted into the heavenly garden.
Let us recollect the frail tenure upon which we hold our temporal mercies .
If we would remember that all the trees of earth are marked for the woodman’s axe, we should not be so ready to build our nests in them. We should love, but we should love with the love which expects death, and which reckons upon separations. Our dear relations are but loaned to us, and the hour when we must return them to the lender’s hand may be even at the door. The like is certainly true of our worldly goods . Do not riches take to themselves wings and fly away? Our health is equally precarious.
Frail flowers of the field, we must not reckon upon blooming for ever.
There is a time appointed for weakness and sickness, when we shall have to glorify God by suffering, and not by earnest activity. There is no single point in which we can hope to escape from the sharp arrows of affliction; out of our few days there is not one secure from sorrow. Man’s life is a cask full of bitter wine; he who looks for joy in it had better seek for honey in an ocean of brine. Beloved reader, set not your affections upon things of earth: but seek those things which are above, for here the moth devoureth, and the thief breaketh through, but there all joys are perpetual and eternal. The path of trouble is the way home. Lord, make this thought a pillow for many a weary head!
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
2 Corinthians 6:11-18
11 Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians. Our heart is enlarged.
12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
13 Now in return, I speak as to my children: you also open your hearts.
14 Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
15 What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what portion does a believer have with an unbeliever?
16 What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they will be my people."
17 Therefore " 'Come out from amongst them, and be separate,' says the Lord. 'Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.
18 I will be to you a Father. You will be to me sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty."
EXALTATION BY SEPARATION
When we turn away from the world, and leave it, we ourselves are not left to desolation and orphanhood. When we "come out from among them" the Lord receives us! He is waiting for us. The new companionship is ours the moment the old companionship is ended. "I will not leave you comfortless." What we have lost is compensated by infinite and eternal gain. We have lost "the whole world" and gained "the unsearchable riches of Christ."
And therefore separation is exaltation. We leave the muddy pleasures of Sodom and we "drink of the river of His pleasures." We leave "the garish day," and all the feverish life of Vanity Fair, and He maketh us "to lie down in green pastures," "He leadeth us beside the still waters." We leave a transient sensation, we receive the bread of eternity. We forfeit fireworks, we gain the stars!
What fools we are, and blind! We prefer the scorched desert of Sodom to the garden of Eden. We prefer a loud reputation to noble character. We prefer delirium to joy. We prefer human applause to the praise of God. We prefer a fading garland to the crown of life. Lord, that we may receive our sight!
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
March 10th.
Holy Father, may I watch this day for Thine appearing! May I see Thy coming in my joys and sorrows, in the sunshine and in the
cloud, in my recreations and my toils!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
John 12:46
This world is dark as midnight; Jesus has come that by faith we may have light, and may no longer sit in the gloom which covers all the rest of mankind.
Whosoever is a very wide term: it means you and me. If we trust in Jesus we shall no more sit in the dark shadow of death, but shall enter into the warm light of a day which shall never end. Why do we not come out into the light at once?
A cloud may sometimes hover over us, but we shall not abide in darkness if we believe in Jesus. He has come to give us broad daylight. Shall he come in vain? If we have faith we have the privilege of sunlight: let us enjoy it. From the night of natural depravity, of ignorance, of doubt, of despair, of sin, of dread, Jesus has come to set us free; and all believers shall know that he no more comes in vain than the sun rises and fails to scatter his heat and light.
Shake off thy depression, dear brother. Abide not in the dark, but abide in the light. In Jesus is thy hope, thy joy, thy heaven. Look to him, to him only, and thou shalt rejoice as the birds rejoice at sunrise, and as the angels rejoice before the throne.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
I will come again, and receive you unto myself.
John 14:3
As surely as God is, the hidden Man Christ Jesus, the King Whom the heavens have received for a season, must come again, and the light and glory of this promise is the hope of the Church.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
The ... Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Mark 1:1
These words give us Mark's conception of the value of the story he was about to write. It was wholly good tidings, a story to cause gladness, news which would bring hope to those who should need it. That is a truth which should never be forgotten by those who are called to declare the story. Sometimes the dark and awful facts of human life are in danger of giving an almost gloomy note to the preaching of the Gospel. It never should be so. Sin is a terrible fact, and the more we understand our message the more will its terror be felt. But that message is first, and always, the good news of the possibility of complete deliverance therefrom. The preacher of that good news should always be confident, jubilant, a veritable optimist in all the richest senses of that often much-abused word. He is full of hope, and it is hope well founded. He hopes in God, on behalf of man, and his right to do so is that of the Crucified and Risen Christ. The secrets of the Gospel are suggested in the remaining words - "of Jesus Christ the Son of God." The good news is simply and wholly the story of that Person. His twofold being and relationship are set forth in the first and last of the words describing Him; and the meaning of His presence in the world in the central one. He is Jesus, Man of our humanity. He is the Son of God, and of His very essence He is the Anointed King-Priest, reigning over man, as God, and reconciling man to God as Man. This is indeed a glorious Gospel.
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.