Daily Bible Notes: May, 4th
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
Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods.
Jeremiah 16:20
One great besetting sin of ancient Israel was idolatry, and the spiritual Israel are vexed with a tendency to the same folly. Remphan’s star shines no longer, and the women weep no more for Tammuz, but Mammon still intrudes his golden calf, and the shrines of pride are not forsaken. Self in various forms struggles to subdue the chosen ones under its dominion, and the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find space for them. Favourite children are often the cause of much sin in believers; the Lord is grieved when He sees us doting upon them above measure; they will live to be as great a curse to us as Absalom was to David, or they will be taken from us to leave our homes desolate. If Christians desire to grow thorns to stuff their sleepless pillows, let them dote on their dear ones.
It is truly said that "they are no gods," for the objects of our foolish love are very doubtful blessings, the solace which they yield us now is dangerous, and the help which they can give us in the hour of trouble is little indeed. Why, then, are we so bewitched with vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore a God of stone, and yet worship a God of gold.
Where is the vast superiority between a God of flesh and one of wood?
The principle, the sin, the folly is the same in either case, only that in ours the crime is more aggravated because we have more light, and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false deity, but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils, inasmuch as we forsake the living God and turn unto idols. May the Lord purge us all from this grievous iniquity! "The dearest idol I have known, Whate’er that idol be; Help me to tear it from thy throne, And worship only thee."
Evening
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.
1 Peter 1:23
Peter most earnestly exhorted the scattered saints to love each other "with a pure heart fervently" and he wisely fetched his argument, not from the law, from nature, or from philosophy, but from that high and divine nature which God hath implanted in His people. Just as some judicious tutor of princes might labour to beget and foster in them a kingly spirit and dignified behaviour, finding arguments in their position and descent, so, looking upon God’s people as heirs of glory, princes of the blood royal, descendants of the King of kings, earth’s truest and oldest aristocracy, Peter saith to them, "See that ye love one another, because of your noble birth, being born of incorruptible seed; because of your pedigree, being descended from God, the Creator of all things; and because of your immortal destiny, for you shall never pass away, though the glory of the flesh shall fade, and even its existence shall cease." It would be well if, in the spirit of humility, we recognized the true dignity of our regenerated nature, and lived up to it. What is a Christian? If you compare him with a king, he adds priestly sanctity to royal dignity. The king’s royalty often lieth only in his crown, but with a Christian it is infused into his inmost nature. He is as much above his fellows through his new birth, as a man is above the beast that perisheth. Surely he ought to carry himself, in all his dealings, as one who is not of the multitude, but chosen out of the world, distinguished by sovereign grace, written among "the peculiar people" and who therefore cannot grovel in the dust as others, nor live after the manner of the world’s citizens. Let the dignity of your nature, and the brightness of your prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to cleave unto holiness, and to avoid the very appearance of evil.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 119:97-104
97 How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me.
99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged, because I have kept your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet from every evil way, that I might observe your word.
102 I have not turned away from your ordinances, for you have taught me.
103 How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!
104 Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
A HEALTHY PALATE
"How sweet are Thy words unto my taste."
Some people like one thing, and some another. Some people appreciate the bitter olive; others feel it to be nauseous. Some delight in the sweetest grapes; others feel the sweetness to be sickly. It is all a matter of palate. Some people love the Word of the Lord; to others the reading of it is a dreary task. To some the Bible is like a vineyard; to others it is like a dry and tasteless meal. One takes the word of the Master, and it is "as honey to the mouth"; to another the same word is as unwelcome as a bitter drug. It is all a matter of palate.
But what is a man to do who has got a perverted palate, and who calls sweet things bitter and bitter things sweet? He must get a new mouth! And where is he to get it? Not by any ministry of his own creation; his own endeavours will be impotent. A healthy moral palate depends upon the purity of the heart. Our spiritual discernments are all determined by the state of the soul. If the heart be pure, the mouth will be clean, and we shall love God's law. If the soul-appetite be healthy, God's words will be sweet unto our taste. And so does the good Lord give us new palates by giving us new hearts. "Create within us clean hearts, O God, and renew right spirits within us."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
May 4th.
Gracious Lord, reveal to me my secret faults. Deliver me from the sins of which I may be no longer conscious. Make me true
in the inward parts. Cleanse me from all uncleanness.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.
Micah 7:8
This may express the feeling of a man or woman down-trodden and oppressed. Our enemy may put out our light for a season. There is sure hope for us in the Lord; and if we are trusting in him, and holding fast our integrity, our season of downcasting and darkness will soon be over. The insults of the foe are only for a moment. The Lord will soon turn their laughter into lamentation, and our sighing into singing.
What if the great enemy of souls should for a while triumph over us, as he has triumphed over better men than we are, yet let us take heart, for we shall overcome him before long. We shall rise from our fall, for our God has not fallen, and he will lift us up. We shall not abide in darkness, although for the moment we sit in it; for our Lord is the fountain of light, and he will soon bring us a joyful day. Let us not despair, or even doubt. One turn of the wheel and the lowest will be at the top. Woe unto those who laugh now, for they shall mourn and weep when their boasting is turned into everlasting contempt. But blessed are all holy mourners, for they shall be divinely comforted.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
Psalm 51:2, R.V.
Abandonment to God is not merely the act of enlisting as soldiers to fight battles - that is a secondary matter. It is first abandonment of self to the Spirit of God, that He may purify and cleanse from everything that is unlike His own perfection of beauty.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.
Philippians 2:15, 16
That is a very beautiful figure of the mission in the world of those who are "blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish." The marginal reading substitutes the word "luminaries" for "lights." I do not think this helps us much, save as we remember that the word "luminaries" refers to the heavenly bodies, and mainly to the sun and moon. The idea is not that of the lampstand, but of the light itself. The Greek word only occurs twice in the New Testament, here and in Rev. 21:11, where, speaking of the holy city, the seer declared: "Her light was like unto a stone most precious." There the reference was not to the light the city diffused, save in a secondary sense. It was to the light she received, which is directly after described in the words: "The lamp thereof is the Lamb, and the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof" (verses 23, 24). What then, the Lamb is to be; in final glory, to the City of God, the children of God are to the world today. This function of shedding true light upon the darkness of the world will be fulfilled as the "Word of life" is held forth. To live by the Word, is to shine in such wise that those who are in darkness may have guidance and help. The conception fills us with a sense of our weakness, and that the more, when we ponder the conditions already quoted, viz. that we are to be "blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish." Yet, thank God, these words follow the glorious declaration that it is ours to "work out with fear and trembling" what God works within of His good pleasure.
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.