Daily Bible Notes: October, 7th
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
Wherefore hast Thou afflicted Thy servant?
Numbers 11:11
Our heavenly Father sends us frequent troubles to try our faith . If our faith be worth anything, it will stand the test. Gilt is afraid of fire, but gold is not: the paste gem dreads to be touched by the diamond, but the true jewel fears no test. It is a poor faith which can only trust God when friends are true, the body full of health, and the business profitable; but that is true faith which holds by the Lord’s faithfulness when friends are gone, when the body is sick, when spirits are depressed, and the light of our Father’s countenance is hidden. A faith which can say, in the direst trouble, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him," is heaven-born faith. The Lord afflicts His servants to glorify Himself , for He is greatly glorified in the graces of His people, which are His own handiwork. When "tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope," the Lord is honoured by these growing virtues. We should never know the music of the harp if the strings were left untouched; nor enjoy the juice of the grape if it were not trodden in the winepress; nor discover the sweet perfume of cinnamon if it were not pressed and beaten; nor feel the warmth of fire if the coals were not utterly consumed. The wisdom and power of the great Workman are discovered by the trials through which His vessels of mercy are permitted to pass. Present afflictions tend also to heighten future joy . There must be shades in the picture to bring out the beauty of the lights. Could we be so supremely blessed in heaven, if we had not known the curse of sin and the sorrow of earth? Will not peace be sweeter after conflict, and rest more welcome after toil? Will not the recollection of past sufferings enhance the bliss of the glorified? There are many other comfortable answers to the question with which we opened our brief meditation, let us muse upon it all day long.
Evening
Now on whom dost thou trust?
Isaiah 36:5
Reader, this is an important question. Listen to the Christian’s answer, and see if it is yours. "On whom dost thou trust?" "I trust," says the Christian, "in a triune God. I trust the Father , believing that He has chosen me from before the foundations of the world; I trust Him to provide for me in providence, to teach me, to guide me, to correct me if need be, and to bring me home to His own house where the many mansions are. I trust the Son . Very God of very God is He - the man Christ Jesus. I trust in Him to take away all my sins by His own sacrifice, and to adorn me with His perfect righteousness. I trust Him to be my Intercessor, to present my prayers and desires before His Father’s throne, and I trust Him to be my Advocate at the last great day, to plead my cause, and to justify me. I trust Him for what He is, for what He has done, and for what He has promised yet to do. And I trust the Holy Spirit - He has begun to save me from my inbred sins; I trust Him to drive them all out; I trust Him to curb my temper, to subdue my will, to enlighten my understanding, to check my passions, to comfort my despondency, to help my weakness, to illuminate my darkness; I trust Him to dwell in me as my life, to reign in me as my King, to sanctify me wholly, spirit, soul, and body, and then to take me up to dwell with the saints in light for ever."
Oh, blessed trust! To trust Him whose power will never be exhausted, whose love will never wane, whose kindness will never change, whose faithfulness will never fail, whose wisdom will never be nonplussed, and whose perfect goodness can never know a diminution! Happy art thou, reader, if this trust is thine! So trusting, thou shalt enjoy sweet peace now, and glory hereafter, and the foundation of thy trust shall never be removed.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Acts 17:22-31
22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, "You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.
23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription: 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' What therefore you worship in ignorance, I announce to you.
24 The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn't dwell in temples made with hands.
25 He isn't served by men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
26 He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
27 that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28 'For in him we live, move, and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.'
29 Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.
30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
31 because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead."
NEEDING AND WANTING
"As though He needed anything." "He may not need us; but does He want us?" Such is the question I heard Dr. Parker ask as he preached upon these words. And he took up a handful of flowers which he had upon the pulpit, and said: "These flowers were gathered for me by little hands in a Devonshire lane. Did I need them? No. Did I want them?... Your little girl kissed you before you left for business this morning. Did you need it?... Did you want it?"
And so Almightiness may not need our weakness, but the loving Father wants His children. "We are His offspring." Our Father delights in the love of His children. The Saviour said to a Samaritan woman, "Give Me to drink." And perhaps it is within the scope of our holy privilege to refresh the heart of our Lord. Perhaps we can give Him to drink of the well of our affections, and He will see of "the travail of His soul and be satisfied."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
October 7th.
My risen Lord, may I rise from the dead to-day! If there be any faculty lying dead within me wilt Thou graciously restore it
to life? If my affections are only partially alive, wilt Thou quicken them by Thy resurrection power! May I be alive unto God!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.
Mark 16:7
Where he appointed to meet his disciples, there he would be in due time. Jesus keeps his tryst. If he promises to meet us at the mercy-seat, or in public worship, or in the ordinances, we may depend upon it that he will be there. We may wickedly stay away from the appointed meeting-place, but he never does. He says, "Where two or three are met together in my name, there am I"; he says not "There will I be," but, "I am there already."
Jesus is always first in fellowship: "He goeth before you." His heart is with his people, his delight is in them, he is never slow to meet them. In all fellowship he goeth before us.
But he reveals himself to those who come after him: "There shall ye see him." Joyful sight! We care not to see the greatest of mere men, but to see HIM is to be filled with joy and peace. And we shall see him, for he promises to come to those who believe in him, and to manifest himself to them. Rest assured that it will be so, for he does everything according to his word of promise: "As he said unto you." Catch at those last words, and be assured that to the end he will do lor you "as he said unto you."
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount.
Deuteronomy 1:6
If God disturbs me tomorrow, in being disturbed is my chief rest, because I know that when He moves it is to higher reaches of life, to better positions beyond; and though the ultimate issue of this present disturbance may be far on, every mile of the journey He has chosen, and every place where I pitch my tent He has selected for me.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
The law is spiritual; but I am carnal.
Romans 7:14
That word of the Apostle reveals at once the supremacy and inadequacy of the law, and helps us to understand the difference between it and grace. The law is spiritual. That means, first, that it is not the result of human contrivance; it has the authority of revelation; it is not something thought out by man. It is the authentic revelation of the will of God. It also means that the law appeals first to the essential in man, which is spiritual; it can only be obeyed in material activities, as it is accepted and yielded to in spirit. But that is its limit. It is a revelation, not an enablement. It tells man what to do, but it does not help him to do it. And that would be sufficient for man, were he living under the power of his spiritual nature. But he is not. As Paul bluntly states it, every man has to say, "I am carnal." He is living under the power of his flesh and so, while consenting to the truth and beauty of the ideal revealed in the law, is unable to realize it. Thus the law has no final function other than that of revealing this very incompetence. It is a great function, for to understand my failure and incompetence is at least to leave me without excuse if I refuse the gift of grace. Grace does not lower the standard of law, but it does exactly what the law cannot do, it enables man to live according to that standard.
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.