Daily Bible Notes: November, 15th
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 Lord’s portion is His people.
Deuteronomy 32:9
How are they His? By His own sovereign choice . He chose them, and set His love upon them. This He did altogether apart from any goodness in them at the time, or any goodness which He foresaw in them. He had mercy on whom He would have mercy, and ordained a chosen company unto eternal life; thus, therefore, are they His by His unconstrained election.
They are not only His by choice, but by purchase . He has bought and paid for them to the utmost farthing, hence about His title there can be no dispute. Not with corruptible things, as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord’s portion has been fully redeemed. There is no mortgage on His estate; no suits can be raised by opposing claimants, the price was paid in open court, and the Church is the Lord’s freehold for ever. See the blood-mark upon all the chosen, invisible to human eye, but known to Christ, for "the Lord knoweth them that are His"; He forgetteth none of those whom He has redeemed from among men; He counts the sheep for whom He laid down His life, and remembers well the Church for which He gave Himself.
They are also His by conquest . What a battle He had in us before we would be won! How long He laid siege to our hearts! How often He sent us terms of capitulation! but we barred our gates, and fenced our walls against Him. Do we not remember that glorious hour when He carried our hearts by storm? When He placed His cross against the wall, and scaled our ramparts, planting on our strongholds the blood-red flag of His omnipotent mercy? Yes, we are, indeed, the conquered captives of His omnipotent love. Thus chosen, purchased, and subdued, the rights of our divine possessor are inalienable: we rejoice that we never can be our own; and we desire, day by day, to do His will, and to show forth His glory.
Evening
Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us.
Psalm 68:28
It is our wisdom, as well as our necessity, to beseech God continually to strengthen that which He has wrought in us. It is because of their neglect in this, that many Christians may blame themselves for those trials and afflictions of spirit which arise from unbelief. It is true that Satan seeks to flood the fair garden of the heart and make it a scene of desolation, but it is also true that many Christians leave open the sluice-gates themselves, and let in the dreadful deluge through carelessness and want of prayer to their strong Helper. We often forget that the Author of our faith must be the Preserver of it also. The lamp which was burning in the temple was never allowed to go out, but it had to be daily replenished with fresh oil; in like manner, our faith can only live by being sustained with the oil of grace, and we can only obtain this from God Himself. Foolish virgins we shall prove, if we do not secure the needed sustenance for our lamps. He who built the world upholds it, or it would fall in one tremendous crash; He who made us Christians must maintain us by His Spirit, or our ruin will be speedy and final. Let us, then, evening by evening, go to our Lord for the grace and strength we need. We have a strong argument to plead, for it is His own work of grace which we ask Him to strengthen - "that which Thou hast wrought for us ." Think you He will fail to protect and sustain that? Only let your faith take hold of His strength, and all the powers of darkness, led on by the master fiend of hell, cannot cast a cloud or shadow over your joy and peace. Why faint when you may be strong? Why suffer defeat when you may conquer? Oh! take your wavering faith and drooping graces to Him who can revive and replenish them, and earnestly pray, "Strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us."
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 85
1 LORD, you have been favourable to your land. You have restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. Selah.
3 You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger.
4 Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation towards us to cease.
5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations?
6 Won't you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your loving kindness, LORD. Grant us your salvation.
8 I will hear what God, the LORD, will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, his saints; but let them not turn again to folly.
9 Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
11 Truth springs out of the earth. Righteousness has looked down from heaven.
12 Yes, the LORD will give that which is good. Our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness goes before him, And prepares the way for his steps.
THE MUSIC OF RECONCILIATION
Let me listen to this psalm of reconciliation, as it makes music for my soul to-day.
It tells me of the Divine favour. "Lord, Thou hast been favourable to Thy land." As I write these words, the sun has just slipped out from behind the cloud. It has been there all the time, but the ministry of the cloud was needed, and so it appeared as though there would be sun and spring no more. "Behind a frowning Providence He hides a smiling face."
And it tells me of the Divine forgiveness. "Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of Thy people." Yes, when the sun appears, He loosens the frozen earth and streams, and turns the bondage into liberty. The soul that was imprisoned in freezing guilt attains a joyous freedom.
And it tells me of revival. "Wilt Thou not revive us again?" It is the next step in the returning spring. The sleeping, benumbed things will all awake! "The flowers appear on the earth." Where grace reigns, graces spring! Forgiveness is attended by renewal, and the wilderness begins to "blossom like the rose."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
November 15th.
God of all grace, teach me the way of continual penitence and holy trust. May there be no gaps in my consecration!
May my life be all of one piece! May sin make no rent! May my devotion be complete, including even the things that are least!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19
Paul's God is our God, and will supply all our need. Paul felt sure of this in reference to the Philippians, and we feel sure of it as to ourselves. God will do it, for it is like him: he loves us, he delights to bless us, and it will glorify him to do so. His pity, his power, his love, his faithfulness, all work together that we be not famished.
What a measure doth the Lord go by: "According to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." The riches of his grace are large, but what shall we say of the riches of his glory? His "riches of glory by Christ Jesus," who shall form an estimate of this? According to this immeasurable measure will God fill up the immense abyss of our necessities. He makes the Lord Jesus the receptacle and the channel of his fulness, and then he imparts to us his wealth of love in its highest form. Hallelujah!
The writer knows what it is to be tried in the work of the Lord. Fidelity has been recompensed with anger, and liberal givers have stopped their subscriptions; but he whom they sought to oppress has not been one penny the poorer, nay, rather he has been the richer; for this promise has been true, "My God shall supply all your need." God's supplies are surer than the Bank of England.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Psalm 90:12
Destiny is being created by the choice you are making now. We act as though moments came to us to be smiled or sobbed away, as the case may be, and then to be done with forever. It is not so. Montgomery sang truly when he sang: -
Tis a mistake: time flies not,
He only hovers on the wing:
Once born, the moment dies not,
'Tis an immortal thing.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.
Psalms 90:1
This great song, so familiar to us all, is a protest against the dominion of death. As it proceeds it becomes dolorous in its contemplation of the transitoriness of human life. But those who find in it only the dolorous note have surely missed its true thought. The protest against the dominion of death is well founded, in that it begins with this great affirmation concerning the relation of man to God. Addressing Him, not as Elohim the Mighty One, nor as Jehovah, the Helper, but as Adonai, the Sovereign Lord, the singer declares that He has been the dwelling-place, the habitation, the home of man in all generations. He then proceeded to celebrate the timelessness of God. From everlasting to everlasting He is God. A thousand years in His sight are but as yesterday. When the soul has that consciousness of God, and of Him as the home of man, it may contemplate the brevity and trouble of human years with complacency. It will do so in expectation of the morning when His mercy will satisfy, when the work of the hands, even in the troubled years, will be established, as the beauty of the Lord rests upon the workers. When all the lodging-places which man builds for himself are destroyed by the sweeping of the storms; when in themselves the years of life are few and evil - if the soul dwell in God, it has a home of strength, of beauty, of satisfaction. Therein dwelling, it triumphs over all the things which otherwise would bring despair; and moves on, in conscious power, to face the ages.
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.