Daily Bible Notes: November, 1st
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
The Church in thy house.
Philemon 2
Is there a Church in this house? Are parents, children, friends, servants, all members of it? or are some still unconverted? Let us pause here and let the question go round - Am I a member of the Church in this house ? How would father’s heart leap for joy, and mother’s eyes fill with holy tears if from the eldest to the youngest all were saved! Let us pray for this great mercy until the Lord shall grant it to us. Probably it had been the dearest object of Philemon’s desires to have all his household saved; but it was not at first granted him in its fulness. He had a wicked servant, Onesimus, who, having wronged him, ran away from his service. His master’s prayers followed him, and at last, as God would have it, Onesimus was led to hear Paul preach; his heart was touched, and he returned to Philemon, not only to be a faithful servant, but a brother beloved, adding another member to the Church in Philemon’s house. Is there an unconverted servant or child absent this morning? Make special supplication that such may, on their return to their home, gladden all hearts with good news of what grace has done! Is there one present? Let him partake in the same earnest entreaty.
If there be such a Church in our house, let us order it well, and let all act as in the sight of God. Let us move in the common affairs of life with studied holiness, diligence, kindness, and integrity. More is expected of a Church than of an ordinary household; family worship must, in such a case, be more devout and hearty; internal love must be more warm and unbroken, and external conduct must be more sanctified and Christlike. We need not fear that the smallness of our number will put us out of the list of Churches, for the Holy Spirit has here enrolled a family-church in the inspired book of remembrance. As a Church let us now draw nigh to the great head of the one Church universal, and let us beseech Him to give us grace to shine before men to the glory of His name.
Evening
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24:39
Universal was the doom, neither rich nor poor escaped: the learned and the illiterate, the admired and the abhorred, the religious and the profane, the old and the young, all sank in one common ruin. Some had doubtless ridiculed the patriarch - where now their merry jests? Others had threatened him for his zeal which they counted madness - where now their boastings and hard speeches? The critic who judged the old man’s work is drowned in the same sea which covers his sneering companions.
Those who spoke patronizingly of the good man’s fidelity to his convictions, but shared not in them, have sunk to rise no more, and the workers who for pay helped to build the wondrous ark, are all lost also.
The flood swept them all away, and made no single exception. Even so, out of Christ, final destruction is sure to every man of woman born; no rank, possession, or character, shall suffice to save a single soul who has not believed in the Lord Jesus. My soul, behold this wide-spread judgment and tremble at it.
How marvellous the general apathy! they were all eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till the awful morning dawned. There was not one wise man upon earth out of the ark. Folly duped the whole race, folly as to self-preservation - the most foolish of all follies. Folly in doubting the most true God - the most malignant of fooleries. Strange, my soul, is it not? All men are negligent of their souls till grace gives them reason, then they leave their madness and act like rational beings, but not till then. All , blessed be God, were safe in the ark, no ruin entered there. From the huge elephant down to the tiny mouse all were safe. The timid hare was equally secure with the courageous lion, the helpless cony as safe as the laborious ox. All are safe in Jesus. My soul, art thou in Him?
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Ecclesiastes 12:1-7
1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, "I have no pleasure in them;"
2 Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain;
3 in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look out of the windows are darkened,
4 and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;
5 yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets:
6 before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the spring, or the wheel broken at the cistern,
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
IN THE DAYS OF YOUTH
In my university days at Edinburgh there was a young medical student named Macfarlane. He was one of our finest athletes, and everybody liked him. One day he was stricken with typhoid, which proved fatal. Macfarlane in his days of boisterous health had neglected his Lord, and when one of his friends, visiting him in his sickness, led his thoughts to the Saviour, he turned and said, "But wouldn't it be a shabby thing to turn to Christ now?" "Yes," replied his friend, "it will be a shabby thing, but it will be shabbier not to turn to Him at all!" And I believe that poor Macfarlane turned his shame-filled soul to the Lord.
But it is shabby to offer our Lord the mere dregs in life's cup. It is shabby to offer Him the mere hull of the boat when the storms of passion have carried its serviceableness away. Let me offer Him my best, my finest equipment, my youth! Let me offer Him the best, and give Him the helm when I am just setting sail and life abounds in golden promise! "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
November 1st.
Gracious Spirit, dwell with me. Inspire my thought to-day. Make my mind incapable of ungodly thinking. May my mind be
the mind of Christ! May all manner of beautiful purposes find their home in me!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:24
What will he do? He will sanctify us wholly. See the previous verse. He will carry on the work of purification till we are perfect in every part. He will preserve our "whole spirit, and soul, and body, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." He will not allow us to fall from grace, nor come under the dominion of sin. What great favours are these! Well may we adore the giver of such unspeakable gifts.
Who will do this? The Lord who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light, out of death in sin into eternal life in Christ Jesus. Only he can do this: such perfection and preservation can only come from the God of all grace.
Why will he do it? Because he is "faithful" - faithful to his own promise which is pledged to save the believer; faithful to his Son, whose reward it is that his people shall be presented to him faultless; faithful to the work which he has commenced in us by our effectual calling. It is not their own faithfulness, but the Lord's own faithfulness, on which the saints rely.
Come, my soul, here is a grand feast to begin a dull month with. There may be fogs without, but there should be sunshine within.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
Psalm 72:8
I have every confidence in the victory of righteousness ... because I believe in God.
The fog's on the world today,
It will be on the world tomorrow,
Not all the strength of the sun
Can drive his bright spears thorough.
The cause of the peoples
I serve Today in impatience and sorrow,
Once more is defeated - but yet
'Twill be won - the day after tomorrow.
And for me with spirit elate
The mire and the fog I press thorough,
For heaven shines under the cloud
Of the day that is after tomorrow.
- W. J. Dawson.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Do ye now believe?
John 16:31
In these words Jesus, very tenderly but very definitely, challenged His disciples in the hour when they declared that their belief in the Divinity of His mission was confirmed. They were perfectly sincere. They felt that they had at last passed beyond the region where it would be possible to doubt. How much better He knew them than they knew themselves! He knew that presently they would find themselves in shattering circumstances, and that they would then doubt everything, and be scattered. Yet observe the reason of His question. He was preparing them for those very experiences, creating a foothold for their faith, even when the floods should sweep around them. The very fact that He had known and had foretold the course of events, would be something to hold on to, and the memory of it would help them back again to faith. Two lessons of great importance may be learned here. The first is that our faith is a poor foundation; indeed that it is no foundation. We do verily believe today, but tomorrow may bring storms which will for the moment strain faith to the breaking-point, and make it of no value. The other is that He is faithful, and that is the foundation. In the fiercest hour of upheaval, He it is Who creates some possibility for our failing faith to gather strength. So, as to our faith also, we ever have to say: "Not unto us, O Jehovah, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory."
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.