Daily Bible Notes: October, 16th
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
Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.
John 21:12
In these words the believer is invited to a holy nearness to Jesus. "Come and dine," implies the same table, the same meat; ay, and sometimes it means to sit side by side, and lean our head upon the Saviour’s bosom. It is being brought into the banqueting-house, where waves the banner of redeeming love. "Come and dine," gives us a vision of union with Jesus , because the only food that we can feast upon when we dine with Jesus is Himself . Oh, what union is this! It is a depth which reason cannot fathom, that we thus feed upon Jesus. "He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him." It is also an invitation to enjoy fellowship with the saints . Christians may differ on a variety of points, but they have all one spiritual appetite; and if we cannot all feel alike, we can all feed alike on the bread of life sent down from heaven. At the table of fellowship with Jesus we are one bread and one cup. As the loving cup goes round we pledge one another heartily therein. Get nearer to Jesus, and you will find yourself linked more and more in spirit to all who are like yourself, supported by the same heavenly manna. If we were more near to Jesus we should be more near to one another. We likewise see in these words the source of strength for every Christian. To look at Christ is to live, but for strength to serve Him you must "come and dine." We labour under much unnecessary weakness on account of neglecting this percept of the Master. We none of us need to put ourselves on low diet; on the contrary, we should fatten on the marrow and fatness of the gospel that we may accumulate strength therein, and urge every power to its full tension in the Master’s service. Thus, then, if you would realize nearness to Jesus, union with Jesus, love to His people and strength from Jesus , "come and dine" with Him by faith.
Evening
With Thee is the fountain of life.
Psalm 36:9
There are times in our spiritual experience when human counsel or sympathy, or religious ordinances, fail to comfort or help us. Why does our gracious God permit this? Perhaps it is because we have been living too much without Him, and He therefore takes away everything upon which we have been in the habit of depending, that He may drive us to Himself. It is a blessed thing to live at the fountain head. While our skin-bottles are full, we are content, like Hagar and Ishmael, to go into the wilderness; but when those are dry, nothing will serve us but "Thou God seest me." We are like the prodigal, we love the swine-troughs and forget our Father’s house. Remember, we can make swine-troughs and husks even out of the forms of religion; they are blessed things, but we may put them in God’s place, and then they are of no value. Anything becomes an idol when it keeps us away from God: even the brazen serpent is to be despised as "Nehushtan," if we worship it instead of God. The prodigal was never safer than when he was driven to his father’s bosom, because he could find sustenance nowhere else. Our Lord favours us with a famine in the land that it may make us seek after Himself the more. The best position for a Christian is living wholly and directly on God’s grace - still abiding where he stood at first - "Having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Let us never for a moment think that our standing is in our sanctification, our mortification, our graces, or our feelings, but know that because Christ offered a full atonement, therefore we are saved; for we are complete in Him. Having nothing of our own to trust to, but resting upon the merits of Jesus - His passion and holy life furnish us with the only sure ground of confidence. Beloved, when we are brought to a thirsting condition, we are sure to turn to the fountain of life with eagerness.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Isaiah 51:1-6
1 "Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from.
2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many.
3 For the LORD has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in them, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4 "Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust my arm.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment. Its inhabitants will die in the same way, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished.
THE INSPIRATIONS OF THE PAST
Here is a sentence from Lord Morley: "If a man is despondent about his work the best remedy I can prescribe for him is to turn to a good biography." He counsels him to go into the yesterdays to find inspiration for the life of to-day. Other men's attainments are bugle-calls to me. "Look unto Abraham, your father." Look unto the blessings which waited upon his obedience! See how springs of refreshment broke out in the troubled way! God "called him and blessed him." Rekindle your hope at his radiant triumph. Strengthen your will in his glorious persistence.
Here do I see God's mercy in the gift of memory and in the witness of history. I can turn to the yesterdays for light and quickening. "Do ye not remember the miracle of the loaves?" Yes, I can recall the grace that met me in my need, the power that made the crooked straight and the rough places plain. And I am privileged to turn the pages of other men's testimonies and read the record of the Lord's dealings with them. And so do memory and history come as helpful angel-presences to my soul.
- "His love in time past
Forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last
In trouble to sink."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
October 16th.
Spirit of counsel, wilt Thou give me Thine own inspiring presence to-day? Illumine my thoughts. Drive out the darkness.
Make me a temple of light. May all my motives shine with Thy glory! May my very wishes be like white-robed angel bands!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Because I live, ye shall live also.
John 14:19
Jesus has made the life of believers in him as certain as his own. As sure as the head lives the members live also. If Jesus has not risen from the dead, then are we dead in our sins; but since he has risen, all believers are risen in him. His death has put away our transgressions, and loosed the bonds which held us under the death sentence. His resurrection proves our justification: we are absolved, and mercy saith, "The Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die."
Jesus has made the life of his people as eternal as his own. How can they die as long as he lives, seeing they are one with him? Because he dieth no more, and death hath no more dominion over him, so they shall no more return to the graves of their old sins, but shall live unto the Lord in newness of life. O believer, when, under great temptation, thou fearest that thou shalt one day fall by the hand of the enemy, let this re-assure thee. Thou shalt never lose thy spiritual life, for it is hid with Christ in God. Thou dost not doubt the immortality of thy Lord; therefore, do not think that he will let thee die, since thou art one with him. The argument for thy life is his life, and of that thou canst have no fear; wherefore rest in thy living Lord.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
The sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow them.
1 Peter 1:11, R.V.
Is the Cross anything but suffering? Yes, the Cross becomes something infinitely more than suffering. Suffering is its first experience; passionate delight is its final experience. Peter was afraid of the Cross when it was outside him, but when abandoning himself to Jesus Christ wholly, and being baptized by the Spirit into living union with Christ, I read even of Peter that he counted it all joy that he was worthy to suffer shame for the Name.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Wise unto that which is good, and simple unto that which is evil.
Romans 16:19
This is one of Paul's last expressed wishes in this letter for the saints in Rome, that little company of souls delivered from the kingdom of Satan, who yet lived in a city where was his seat of authority. That city, like every great city in human history, was full of the deep things of Satan. Evil lures men by its subtlety, its mystery, its darkling depths. The seduction of it is very powerful - men are desirous of knowing. Thousands of men, of real natural ability, have found destruction because, as they say, they desired to see life. What they saw was not life, but death. For these children of God, Paul desired that in all these things they might remain simple. There are things in the underworld, the very knowledge of which pollutes the soul. It is better not to know. The children of God are admitted to the mystery of good, which is the mystery of godliness, the mystery of light, of purity, of beauty. In this realm he desired that they might be wise. By their relation with God in Christ men are admitted into this wonderful realm. Herein they see life, and share it, the more abundant life, the life eternal. In this world of the upper things the soul is purified, ennobled, glorified. Here it is better to know. Let all such as are in this fellowship follow on to know. Let them come to full knowledge. This is the true wisdom. Let it be sought earnestly and persistently.
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.