Daily Bible Notes: October, 12th
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
I will meditate in Thy precepts.
Psalm 119:15
There are times when solitude is better than society, and silence is wiser than speech. We should be better Christians if we were more alone, waiting upon God, and gathering through meditation on His Word spiritual strength for labour in His service. We ought to muse upon the things of God, because we thus get the real nutriment out of them . Truth is something like the cluster of the vine: if we would have wine from it, we must bruise it; we must press and squeeze it many times. The bruiser’s feet must come down joyfully upon the bunches, or else the juice will not flow; and they must well tread the grapes, or else much of the precious liquid will be wasted. So we must, by meditation, tread the clusters of truth, if we would get the wine of consolation therefrom. Our bodies are not supported by merely taking food into the mouth, but the process which really supplies the muscle, and the nerve, and the sinew, and the bone, is the process of digestion. It is by digestion that the outward food becomes assimilated with the inner life. Our souls are not nourished merely by listening awhile to this, and then to that, and then to the other part of divine truth. Hearing, reading, marking, and learning, all require inwardly digesting to complete their usefulness, and the inward digesting of the truth lies for the most part in meditating upon it. Why is it that some Christians, although they hear many sermons, make but slow advances in the divine life? Because they neglect their closets, and do not thoughtfully meditate on God’s Word. They love the wheat, but they do not grind it; they would have the corn, but they will not go forth into the fields to gather it; the fruit hangs upon the tree, but they will not pluck it; the water flows at their feet, but they will not stoop to drink it. From such folly deliver us, O Lord, and be this our resolve this morning, "I will meditate in Thy precepts."
Evening
The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.
John 14:26
This age is peculiarly the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, in which Jesus cheers us, not by His personal presence, as He shall do by-and-by, but by the indwelling and constant abiding of the Holy Ghost, who is evermore the Comforter of the church. It is His office to console the hearts of God’s people. He convinces of sin; He illuminates and instructs; but still the main part of His work lies in making glad the hearts of the renewed, in confirming the weak, and lifting up all those that be bowed down. He does this by revealing Jesus to them. The Holy Spirit consoles, but Christ is the consolation . If we may use the figure, the Holy Spirit is the Physician, but Jesus is the medicine. He heals the wound, but it is by applying the holy ointment of Christ’s name and grace. He takes not of His own things, but of the things of Christ. So if we give to the Holy Spirit the Greek name of Paraclete , as we sometimes do, then our heart confers on our blessed Lord Jesus the title of Paraclesis . If the one be the Comforter, the other is the Comfort. Now, with such rich provision for his need, why should the Christian be sad and desponding? The Holy Spirit has graciously engaged to be thy Comforter: dost thou imagine, O thou weak and trembling believer, that He will be negligent of His sacred trust? Canst thou suppose that He has undertaken what He cannot or will not perform? If it be His especial work to strengthen thee, and to comfort thee, dost thou suppose He has forgotten His business, or that He will fail in the loving office which He sustains towards thee? Nay, think not so hardly of the tender and blessed Spirit whose name is "the Comforter." He delights to give the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Trust thou in Him, and He will surely comfort thee till the house of mourning is closed for ever, and the marriage feast has begun.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Acts 7:1-7
1 The high priest said, "Are these things so?"
2 He said, "Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and said to him, 'Get out of your land and away from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.'
4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living.
5 He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child.
6 God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.
7 'I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,' said God, 'and after that they will come out, and serve me in this place.'
ROUND-ABOUT WAYS
"Unto a land that I will show thee." But what mysterious windings there often are before that land is reached! But God's windings are never wasteful and purposeless. The apparent deviations are always gracious preparations. We are taken out of the way in order that we may the more richly reach our end. George Pilkington yearned to go to the foreign field, and God sent him to a dairy farm in Ireland. But the Irish dairy farm proved to be on the way to Uganda; and all the experience and knowledge which Pilkington picked up in this strange business proved invaluable when he reached his appointed field. "He bringeth the blind by a way that they know not."
So I will remember that the "short cut" is not always the finest road. God's round-about ways are filled with heavenly treasure. Every winding is purposed for the discovery of new wealth. What riches we gather on the way to God's goal!
- "The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets
Before we reach the heavenly fields
Or walk the golden streets."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
October 12th.
My Father in heaven, I pray that all the heavenly forces on earth may be greatly strengthened and enriched.
God bless all good men and women! Give purpose and definiteness to their work. May all their endeavours issue in glorified life!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with
all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Deuteronomy 30:6
Here we read of the true circumcision. Note the author of it: "The Lord thy God." He alone can deal effectually with our heart, and take away its carnality and pollution. To make us love God with all our heart and soul is a miracle of grace which only the Holy Ghost can work. We must look to the Lord alone for this, and never be satisfied with anything short of it.
Note where this circumcision is wrought. It is not of the flesh, but of the spirit. It is the essential mark of the covenant of grace. Love to God is the indelible token of the chosen seed; by this secret seal the election of grace is certified to the believer. We must see to it that we trust in no outward ritual, but are sealed in heart by the operation of the Holy Ghost.
Note what the result is - "that thou mayest live." To be carnally minded is death. In the over-coming of the flesh we find life and peace. If we mind the things of the Spirit, we shall live. Oh that Jehovah, our God, may complete his gracious work upon our inner natures, that in the fullest and highest sense we may live unto the Lord.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
James 1:15
Whoever may be inclined to judge sin by the superficial measurements of much so-called new thought, should be brought back to the Cross for a revelation of its true nature; and all those, moreover, who would confine the river of grace within small human channels, should stand again in the presence of the Cross for an understanding of the irresistible sweep and might of this river of life; flowing from the throne of God.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Let love be without hypocrisy.
Romans 12:9
This twelfth chapter begins the apostolic application of the doctrines of salvation to the actualities of life. After the statement of the great principles of true Christian life, Paul passed to some general illustrations in a series of injunctions. Of these, this is the first. It is very simple, but very searching. Everything in Christianity proceeds out of the love of God, and its ultimate and glorious fruitage is that of love mastering men. Hence there is always a danger lest love should be professed when it is not possessed; or, on the other hand, that love should be untrue to its central element of holiness. Hence the warning of these words. Love must be without acting, for that is what hypocrisy really is. The language of love, where love is not, is of no avail. Even the activities, which are properly those of love, practised in order to make it seem as though we loved, are of no value. That is what Paul meant when he wrote in another Epistle: "If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor ... but have not love, it profiteth me nothing." So also, to violate love by failing to abhor evil, even when the violation is that of actions of tenderness, is in itself evil. Love is hypocritical, it is acting, it is untrue to itself, when it condones evil in any form. Love must cleave to good, or be untrue to its very deepest nature.
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.