Daily Bible Notes: November, 25th
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
To preach deliverance to the captives.
Luke 4.18
None but Jesus can give deliverance to captives. Real liberty cometh from Him only. It is a liberty righteously bestowed ; for the Son, who is Heir of all things, has a right to make men free. The saints honour the justice of God, which now secures their salvation. It is a liberty which has been dearly purchased . Christ speaks it by His power, but He bought it by His blood. He makes thee free, but it is by His own bonds. Thou goest clear, because He bare thy burden for thee: thou art set at liberty, because He has suffered in thy stead. But, though dearly purchased, He freely gives it .
Jesus asks nothing of us as a preparation for this liberty. He finds us sitting in sackcloth and ashes, and bids us put on the beautiful array of freedom; He saves us just as we are, and all without our help or merit.
When Jesus sets free, the liberty is perpetually entailed ; no chains can bind again. Let the Master say to me, "Captive, I have delivered thee," and it is done for ever. Satan may plot to enslave us, but if the Lord be on our side, whom shall we fear? The world, with its temptations, may seek to ensnare us, but mightier is He who is for us than all they who be against us. The machinations of our own deceitful hearts may harass and annoy us, but He who hath begun the good work in us will carry it on and perfect it to the end. The foes of God and the enemies of man may gather their hosts together, and come with concentrated fury against us, but if God acquitteth, who is he that condemneth? Not more free is the eagle which mounts to his rocky eyrie, and afterwards outsoars the clouds, than the soul which Christ hath delivered. If we are no more under the law, but free from its curse, let our liberty be practically exhibited in our serving God with gratitude and delight. "I am Thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds." "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"
Evening
For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Romans 9:15
In these words the Lord in the plainest manner claims the right to give or to withhold His mercy according to His own sovereign will. As the prerogative of life and death is vested in the monarch, so the Judge of all the earth has a right to spare or condemn the guilty, as may seem best in His sight. Men by their sins have forfeited all claim upon God; they deserve to perish for their sins - and if they all do so, they have no ground for complaint. If the Lord steps in to save any, He may do so if the ends of justice are not thwarted; but if He judges it best to leave the condemned to suffer the righteous sentence, none may arraign Him at their bar. Foolish and impudent are all those discourses about the rights of men to be all placed on the same footing; ignorant, if not worse, are those contentions against discriminating grace, which are but the rebellions of proud human nature against the crown and sceptre of Jehovah. When we are brought to see our own utter ruin and ill desert, and the justice of the divine verdict against sin, we no longer cavil at the truth that the Lord is not bound to save us; we do not murmur if He chooses to save others, as though He were doing us an injury, but feel that if He deigns to look upon us, it will be His own free act of undeserved goodness, for which we shall for ever bless His name.
How shall those who are the subjects of divine election sufficiently adore the grace of God? They have no room for boasting, for sovereignty most effectually excludes it. The Lord’s will alone is glorified, and the very notion of human merit is cast out to everlasting contempt. There is no more humbling doctrine in Scripture than that of election, none more promotive of gratitude, and, consequently, none more sanctifying.
Believers should not be afraid of it, but adoringly rejoice in it.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
2 Chronicles 7:1-11
1 Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the LORD's glory filled the house.
2 The priests could not enter into the LORD's house, because the LORD's glory filled the LORD's house.
3 All the children of Israel looked on, when the fire came down, and the LORD's glory was on the house. They bowed themselves with their faces to the ground on the pavement, worshipped, and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "For he is good; for his loving kindness endures forever."
4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD.
5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand head of cattle and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated God's house.
6 The priests stood, according to their positions; the Levites also with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to give thanks to the LORD, when David praised by their ministry, saying "For his loving kindness endures forever." The priests sounded trumpets before them; and all Israel stood.
7 Moreover Solomon made the middle of the court that was before the LORD's house holy; for there he offered the burnt offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the fat.
8 So Solomon held the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt.
9 On the eighth day, they held a solemn assembly; for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days.
10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that the LORD had shown to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.
11 Thus Solomon finished the LORD's house and the king's house; and he successfully completed all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the LORD's house and in his own house.
AFTER THE PRAYER THE FIRE!
"When Solomon had made an end of praying the fire came down from heaven."
And the fire is the symbol of the Holy God. Pure flame is our imperfect mode of expressing the Incorruptible. This burning flame is heat and light in one. And when Solomon had prayed, the holy Flame was in their midst.
But not only is the flame the symbol of the Holy; it also typifies the power which can make me holy. We have no cleansing minister to compare with fire. Where water fails fire succeeds. After an epidemic water is comparatively impotent. We commit the infested garments to the flames. It was the great fire of London which delivered London from the tyranny of the plague. And so it is with my soul. God, who is holy flame, will burn out the germs of my sin. He will "purify Jerusalem with the spirit of burning." "Our God is a consuming fire."
Come to my soul, O holy Flame! Place Thy "burning bliss" against my wickedness, and consume it utterly away!
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
November 25th.
My Father in heaven, teach me that heaven is very near, as near to me as my need. May I not conceive the home-land as
being far away, almost beyond the call of my weak voice! May I think that even my whispers are heard in the beautiful country!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings,
crying, Grace, grace unto it.
Zechariah 4:7
At this hour a mountain of difficulty, distress, or necessity, may be in our way, and natural reason sees no path over it, or through it, or round it. Let faith come in, and straightway the mountain disappears and becomes a plain. But faith must first hear the word of the Lord - "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." This grand truth is a prime necessity for meeting the insurmountable trials of life.
I see that I can do nothing, and that all reliance on man is vanity. "Not by might." I see that no visible means can be relied on, but the force is in the invisible Spirit. God alone must work, and men and means must be nothing accounted of. If it be so, that the Almighty God takes up the concerns of his people, then great mountains are nothing. He can remove worlds as boys toss balls about, or drive them with their foot. This power he can lend to me. If the Lord bids me move an Alp I can do it through his name. It may be a great mountain, but even before my feebleness it shall become a plain; for the Lord hath said it. What can I be afraid of with God on my side?
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Without God in the world.
Ephesians 2:12
The logical, irresistible, irrevocable issue of sin is to be God-forsaken. Sin in its genesis was rebellion against God. Sin in its harvest is to be God-abandoned. Man sinned when he dethroned God and enthroned himself. He reaps the utter harvest of his sin when he has lost God altogether. That is the issue of all sin.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Psalms 100:1
This is the wonderful song which, in metrical version, composed by William Kethe in days of Marian persecution, is known as the Old Hundredth. It is jubilant with confidence for the whole earth, as it contemplates the glory of that earth, when all its people are submitted to the reign of Jehovah. What a pity, by the way, that so many of our hymn-books render the phrase, "Him serve with mirth," as "Him serve with fear," and thus rob the song of one of its chief notes! The relation of this song to the eight preceding ones is unmistakable, and whenever it was composed, its placing here by the guided editor was surely intentional. The eight Psalms have been those of the City of God, of the Sanctuary within that City, of the people who are its citizens, and worshippers. Their worship is concluded, and now their witness begins. It is as though the gates of the City, the courts of the Sanctuary, were suddenly thrown open, and all lands are called to serve Jehovah, to know that He is God, to enter into relationship with Him. Observe that I have italicized the words which mark the movement of this world-wide appeal, serve, know, enter. The relation between these things is very suggestive. Worship is for God. Witness is for men. The strength of witness is created in worship. It is those who know communion in the Sanctuary who are able to call men to God prevailingly. It is equally true that the ultimate value of worship is witness. To praise God for all the wonders of His reign, and to fail to proclaim those wonders to such as dwell in darkness, is almost to blaspheme. The songs of the Sabbath sung with face lifted toward the throne, and catching the light therefrom, must be sung on all the other days in the highways and byways of human life, with faces irradiated, and so shining upon men.
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.