Daily Bible Notes: March, 19th
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
Strong in faith.
Romans 4:20
Christian, take good care of thy faith; for recollect faith is the only way whereby thou canst obtain blessings . If we want blessings from God, nothing can fetch them down but faith. Prayer cannot draw down answers, from God’s throne except it be the earnest prayer of the man who believes.
Faith is the angelic messenger between the soul and the Lord Jesus in glory. Let that angel be withdrawn, we can neither send up prayer, nor receive the answers. Faith is the telegraphic wire which links earth and heaven - on which God’s messages of love fly so fast, that before we call He answers, and while we are yet speaking He hears us. But if that telegraphic wire of faith be snapped, how can we receive the promise? Am I in trouble? - I can obtain help for trouble by faith. Am I beaten about by the enemy? - my soul on her dear Refuge leans by faith. But take faith away - in vain I call to God. There is no road betwixt my soul and heaven. In the deepest wintertime faith is a road on which the horses of prayer may travel - ay, and all the better for the biting frost; but blockade the road, and how can we communicate with the Great King? Faith links me with divinity. Faith clothes me with the power of God. Faith engages on my side the omnipotence of Jehovah. Faith ensures every attribute of God in my defence. It helps me to defy the hosts of hell. It makes me march triumphant over the necks of my enemies. But without faith how can I receive anything of the Lord? Let not him that wavereth - who is like a wave of the Sea - expect that he will receive anything of God! O, then, Christian, watch well thy faith; for with it thou canst win all things, however poor thou art, but without it thou canst obtain nothing. "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
Evening
And she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.
Ruth 2:14
Whenever we are privileged to eat of the bread which Jesus gives, we are, like Ruth, satisfied with the full and sweet repast. When Jesus is the host no guest goes empty from the table. Our head is satisfied with the precious truth which Christ reveals; our heart is content with Jesus, as the altogether lovely object of affection; our hope is satisfied, for whom have we in heaven but Jesus? and our desire is satiated, for what can we wish for more than "to know Christ and to be found in Him"? Jesus fills our conscience till it is at perfect peace; our judgment with persuasion of the certainty of His teachings; our memory with recollections of what He has done, and our imagination with the prospects of what He is yet to do. As Ruth was "sufficed, and left ," so is it with us. We have had deep draughts; we have thought that we could take in all of Christ; but when we have done our best we have had to leave a vast remainder. We have sat at the table of the Lord’s love, and said, "Nothing but the infinite can ever satisfy me; I am such a great sinner that I must have infinite merit to wash my sin away;" but we have had our sin removed, and found that there was merit to spare; we have had our hunger relieved at the feast of sacred love, and found that there was a redundance of spiritual meat remaining. There are certain sweet things in the Word of God which we have not enjoyed yet, and which we are obliged to leave for awhile; for we are like the disciples to whom Jesus said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." Yes, there are graces to which we have not attained; places of fellowship nearer to Christ which we have not reached; and heights of communion which our feet have not climbed. At every banquet of love there are many baskets of fragments left. Let us magnify the liberality of our glorious Boaz.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Revelation 20:1-6
1 I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.
2 He seized the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited earth, and bound him for a thousand years,
3 and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time.
4 I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgement was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as didn't worship the beast nor his image, and didn't receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
5 The rest of the dead didn't live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years.
DEATH AS MY SERVANT
Even now I would rise from the dead. Even now I would know "the power of His resurrection." Even now I would taste the rapture of the deathless life. And this is my glorious prerogative in grace. Yes, even now I can be "risen with Christ," and "death shall no more have dominion over me!"
And yet I must die! Yes, but the old enemy shall now be my friend. He will not be my master, but my servant. He shall just be the porter, to open the door into my Father's house, into the home of unspeakable blessedness and glory. Death shall not hurt me!
I have seen a little child fall asleep while out in the streets of the city, and the kind nurse has taken charge of the sleeper, and when the little one awaked she was at home, and she opened her eyes upon her mother's face.
So shall it be with all who are alive in Christ, and who have risen from a spiritual grave. They shall just fall into a brief sweet sleep, and gentle death shall usher them into the glory of the endless day.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
March 19th.
Heavenly Father, grant me grace, that I may hate all sin. There is sin that is still pleasant to me, and I turn to it with delight;
change my tastes, that I may loathe it.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
The Lord will give grace and glory.
Psalms 84:4
Grace is what we need just now, and it is to be had freely. What can be freer than a gift? To-day we shall receive sustaining, strengthening, sanctifying, satisfying grace. He has given daily grace until now, and as for the future, that grace is still sufficient. If we have but little grace, the fault must lie in ourselves; for the Lord is not straitened, neither is he slow to bestow it in abundance. We may ask for as much as we will and never fear a refusal. He giveth liberally and upbraideth not.
The Lord may not give gold, but he will give grace: he may not give gain, but he will give grace. He will certainly send us trial, but he will give grace in proportion thereto. We may be called to labour, and to suffer, but with the call there will come all the grace required.
What an AND is that in the text - "and glory"! We do not need glory yet, and we are not yet fit for it; but we shall have it in due order. After we have eaten the bread of grace, we shall drink the wine of glory. We must go through the holy - which is grace, to the holiest of all - which is glory. These words "and glory" are enough to make a man dance for joy. A little while - a little while, and then glory for ever!
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.
Psalm 90:2
Nothing is more restful to the heart of man than the sense of the eternity of God. The thought is utterly beyond our perfect comprehension, for the mind of man cannot grasp the thought of eternity. The very fact, however, of our inability to do so is the reason of the security we feel when we remember that God is Himself eternal.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Jesus ... was moved with indignation.
Mark 10:14
Mark alone of the Evangelists gives us this revealing touch in connection with this story of the reception and blessing of the children. When we recite His words spoken on that occasion, the tone of a great tenderness almost invariably finds its way into our voices. And that is natural, for the words are full of comfort for all those who love little children. It is nevertheless important, for our warning, that we should never forget that when our Lord uttered the words, He was angry. He was moved with indignation that any of His disciples should so misunderstand Him as to endeavour to prevent the children from getting to Him. There is no doubt whatever that these disciples meant well. They were on their way to Jerusalem, and His converse with them had been concerned with His coming sufferings. They were quite unable to understand Him in all this, but at least they knew that His mind was occupied with tremendous things, and they felt that He ought not to be disturbed by children. The story reminds us, then, that it is possible to mean well, and to do ill; and it gives us for evermore to understand the place which the children occupy in His heart. In any way to hinder them from getting to Him is to cause Him to be moved with indignation. Conversely - to help them to Him, is to give Him joy. The children are all about us, and so everywhere are opportunities for giving Him this joy.
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.