Daily Bible Notes: October, 11th
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
Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
Lamentations 3:41
The act of prayer teaches us our unworthiness , which is a very salutary lesson for such proud beings as we are. If God gave us favours without constraining us to pray for them we should never know how poor we are, but a true prayer is an inventory of wants, a catalogue of necessities, a revelation of hidden poverty. While it is an application to divine wealth, it is a confession of human emptiness. The most healthy state of a Christian is to be always empty in self and constantly depending upon the Lord for supplies; to be always poor in self and rich in Jesus; weak as water personally, but mighty through God to do great exploits; and hence the use of prayer, because, while it adores God, it lays the creature where it should be, in the very dust. Prayer is in itself, apart from the answer which it brings, a great benefit to the Christian. As the runner gains strength for the race by daily exercise, so for the great race of life we acquire energy by the hallowed labour of prayer. Prayer plumes the wings of God’s young eaglets, that they may learn to mount above the clouds. Prayer girds the loins of God’s warriors, and sends them forth to combat with their sinews braced and their muscles firm. An earnest pleader cometh out of his closet, even as the sun ariseth from the chambers of the east, rejoicing like a strong man to run his race. Prayer is that uplifted hand of Moses which routs the Amalekites more than the sword of Joshua; it is the arrow shot from the chamber of the prophet foreboding defeat to the Syrians. Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God. We know not what prayer cannot do! We thank thee, great God, for the mercy-seat, a choice proof of thy marvellous lovingkindness. Help us to use it aright throughout this day!
Evening
Whom He did predestinate, them He also called.
Romans 8:30
In the second epistle to Timothy, first chapter, and ninth verse, are these words - "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling." Now, here is a touchstone by which we may try our calling. It is "an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace."
This calling forbids all trust in our own doings, and conducts us to Christ alone for salvation, but it afterwards purges us from dead works to serve the living and true God. As He that hath called you is holy, so must you be holy. If you are living in sin, you are not called, but if you are truly Christ’s, you can say, "Nothing pains me so much as sin; I desire to be rid of it; Lord, help me to be holy." Is this the panting of thy heart? Is this the tenor of thy life towards God, and His divine will? Again, in Philippians, 3:13, 14, we are told of "The high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Is then your calling a high calling? Has it ennobled your heart, and set it upon heavenly things? Has it elevated your hopes, your tastes, your desires?
Has it upraised the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend it with God and for God? Another test we find in Hebrews 3:1 - "Partakers of the heavenly calling." Heavenly calling means a call from heaven. If man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy calling of God? Is it a call to heaven as well as from heaven? Unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven thy home, thou hast not been called with a heavenly calling; for those who have been so called, declare that they look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and they themselves are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth. Is thy calling thus holy, high, heavenly? Then, beloved, thou hast been called of God, for such is the calling wherewith God doth call His people.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Genesis 12:1-9
1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you."
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
5 Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother's son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. They entered into the land of Canaan.
6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land.
7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "I will give this land to your offspring." He built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
8 He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the LORD's name.
9 Abram travelled, still going on towards the South.
THE OLD COMPANION ON THE NEW ROAD
"Get thee out ... and I will show thee."
"So Abram departed ... and the Lord appeared."
We must bring these separated passages together if we would appreciate the graciousness of the Lord's call. They are like the two sides of the same shield. They answer each other as voice and echo. When I move in obedience the Lord moves in inspiration. He never lets me go on my own charges. "All things are now ready." Before He makes me hunger the bread is prepared. Before I thirst the water is at hand. Before He calls me He has opened springs in difficult places and arbours of rest along the road. When Abram set out from his own country the Lord went before him.
And so I need not fear the arduous call. The very measure of its difficulty is also the measure of the riches of the divine provisions. "As thy day so shall thy strength be." At every turning of the winding way the Lord will appear unto us. At every new demand we shall discover new bounty, and everywhere in the unfamiliar road we shall gaze upon the familiar and friendly face of the Lord.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
October 11th.
Holy Father, may I remember that this day I have to do more than make a living: I have to make a life! May I not spoil
the one in seeking to gain the other! May the way in which I earn my daily bread also bring sustenance to my soul!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And I will strengthen them in the Lord: and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord.
Zechariah 10:12
A solace for sick saints. They have grown faint, and they fear that they shall never rise from the bed of doubt and fear; but the great Physician can both remove the disease, and take away the weakness which has come of it. He will strengthen the feeble. This he will do in the best possible way, for it shall be "in Jehovah." Our strength is far better in God than in self. In the Lord it causes fellowship, in ourselves it would create pride. In ourselves it would be sadly limited, but in God it knows no bound.
When strength is given, the believer uses it. He walks up and down in the name of the Lord. What an enjoyment it is to walk abroad after illness, and what a delight to be strong in the Lord after a season of prostration! The Lord gives his people liberty to walk up and down, and an inward leisure to exercise that liberty. He makes gentlemen of us: we are not slaves who know no rest, and see no sights, but we are free to travel at our ease throughout Immanuel's land.
Come, my heart, be thou no more sick and sorry. Jesus bids thee be strong, and walk with God in holy contemplation. Obey his word of love.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
The place which is called Calvary.
Luke 23:33
There sin manifested its prostitution of emotion in the brutality of an awful tragedy. There grace through the untold abyss of suffering smiled back with love ineffable, until the very murderers of Christ found the highway open to the heart of God.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
God is able to graft them in again.
Romans 11:23
Paul's great subject in all this section was that of the salvation of the ancient people of God, Israel. He saw "some of the branches ... broken off," whereas the root-purpose of God through them and for them was not destroyed. The breaking-off was very real, and it resulted from their unbelief. Now the Apostle declared that if they continued not in unbelief, they would be grafted in again, for "God is able to graft them in again." Beyond the immediate application to Israel, these words are full of significance, as they reveal principles of abiding importance. The mind almost inevitably recurs to our Lord's allegory of the vine, in which also we read of fruitless branches being cast out of the vine. In presence of all that is involved of solemnity in that idea, how amazing a revelation is here of the grace and power of God! He is able to graft in again branches that have been broken off. Even though, in the interest of the Vine, and because of our fruitlessness, we have been cast forth, He is able to graft us in again. But while we recognize that, we must not forget the condition. It is that we continue not in the unbelief which was the secret of our fruitlessness. God will never graft in branches broken off, merely out of pity for them. He will do so when, by return to the true principle of life, it becomes possible for them to fulfil their function in the Vine.
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.