Daily Bible Notes: October, 23rd
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
Will ye also go away?
John 6:67
Many have forsaken Christ, and have walked no more with Him; but what reason have YOU to make a change ? Has there been any reason for it in the past ? Has not Jesus proved Himself all-sufficient? He appeals to you this morning - "Have I been a wilderness unto you?" When your soul has simply trusted Jesus, have you ever been confounded? Have you not up till now found your Lord to be a compassionate and generous friend to you, and has not simple faith in Him given you all the peace your spirit could desire? Can you so much as dream of a better friend than He has been to you? Then change not the old and tried for new and false. As for the present , can that compel you to leave Christ? When we are hard beset with this world, or with the severer trials within the Church, we find it a most blessed thing to pillow our head upon the bosom of our Saviour. This is the joy we have to-day that we are saved in Him; and if this joy be satisfying, wherefore should we think of changing? Who barters gold for dross? We will not forswear the sun till we find a better light, nor leave our Lord until a brighter lover shall appear; and, since this can never be, we will hold Him with a grasp immortal, and bind His name as a seal upon our arm. As for the future , can you suggest anything which can arise that shall render it necessary for you to mutiny, or desert the old flag to serve under another captain? We think not. If life be long - He changes not. If we are poor, what better than to have Christ who can make us rich? When we are sick, what more do we want than Jesus to make our bed in our sickness?
When we die, is it not written that "neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!" We say with Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go?"
Evening
Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.
Luke 22:46
When is the Christian most liable to sleep? Is it not when his temporal circumstances are prosperous ? Have you not found it so? When you had daily troubles to take to the throne of grace, were you not more wakeful than you are now? Easy roads make sleepy travellers. Another dangerous time is when all goes pleasantly in spiritual matters . Christian went not to sleep when lions were in the way, or when he was wading through the river, or when fighting with Apollyon, but when he had climbed half way up the Hill Difficulty, and came to a delightful arbour, he sat down, and forthwith fell asleep, to his great sorrow and loss. The enchanted ground is a place of balmy breezes, laden with fragrant odours and soft influences, all tending to lull pilgrims to sleep. Remember Bunyan’s description: "Then they came to an arbour, warm, and promising much refreshing to the weary pilgrims; for it was finely wrought above head, beautified with greens, and furnished with benches and settles. It had also in it a soft couch, where the weary might lean." "The arbour was called the Slothful’s Friend, and was made on purpose to allure, if it might be, some of the pilgrims to take up their rest there when weary." Depend upon it, it is in easy places that men shut their eyes and wander into the dreamy land of forgetfulness. Old Erskine wisely remarked, "I like a roaring devil better than a sleeping devil." There is no temptation half so dangerous as not being tempted. The distressed soul does not sleep; it is after we enter into peaceful confidence and full assurance that we are in danger of slumbering. The disciples fell asleep after they had seen Jesus transfigured on the mountain top. Take heed, joyous Christian, good frames are near neighbours to temptations: be as happy as you will, only be watchful.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Matthew 20:20-28
20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, kneeling and asking a certain thing of him.
21 He said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Command that these, my two sons, may sit, one on your right hand, and one on your left hand, in your Kingdom."
22 But Jesus answered, "You don't know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?" They said to him, "We are able."
23 He said to them, "You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it is for whom it has been prepared by my Father."
24 When the ten heard it, they were indignant with the two brothers.
25 But Jesus summoned them, and said, "You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
26 It shall not be so amongst you, but whoever desires to become great amongst you shall be your servant.
27 Whoever desires to be first amongst you shall be your bondservant,
28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
MASTERS AND SERVANTS
It is always our peril that we hunger for place more than for character, for position more than for disposition, for a temporal sceptre more than for a majestic self-control.
These disciples coveted places on the right and left of the Lord, and they had little or no concern about their worthiness for the posts. Temporalities eclipsed spiritualities, fleeting fireworks hid the quiet stars. They wanted to be great and prominent, the Lord wanted them to be pure and good. They longed to be Prime Ministers, the Lord purposed that they should be glad to be ministers, working contentedly in an obscure place.
Now mark our Lord's response. "Are ye able to drink of the cup that I drink of?" They wanted to be the King's cup-bearers; He offers them to drink of His cup. They call for sovereignty: He asks for sacrifice. They crave sweetness: He offers them bitterness. They seek a life of "getting": He demands a life of "giving." Who has a cup of bitterness to drink? Go and share it with him! Where are the morally and spiritually anæmic? Go and give them thy blood! "Whoever shall lose his life shall find it." Through self-sacrifice we pass to our throne.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
October 23rd.
Father of mercies, I thank Thee for the providences of the month. Open my eyes that I may discern them.
May I have keen vision for Thy goodness! May the sense of Thy care never die out of my life! May I see Thy Handiwork everywhere!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
Psalms 97:11
Righteousness is often costly to the man who keeps to it at all hazards, but in the end it will bear its own expenses, and return an infinite profit. A holy life is like sowing seed: much is going out, and apparently it is buried in the soil, never to be gathered up again. We are mistaken when we look for an immediate harvest; but the error is very natural, for it seems impossible to bury light. Yet light is "sown," says the text. It lies latent: none can see it, it is sown. We are quite sure that it must one day manifest itself.
Full sure are we that the Lord has set a harvest for the sowers of light, and they shall reap it, each man for himself. Then shall come their gladness. Sheaves of joy for seeds of light. Their heart was upright before the Lord, though men gave them no credit for it, but even censured them: they were righteous, though those about them denounced them as censorious. They had to wait, as husbandmen wait for the precious fruits of the earth: but the light was sown for them, and gladness was being prepared on their behalf by the Lord of the harvest.
Courage, brothers! we need not be in a hurry. Let us in patience possess our souls, for soon shall our souls possess light and gladness.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.
Luke 16:10
The Carpenter's shop made Calvary not a battlefield merely, but a day of triumph that lit heaven and earth with hope, and if you and I would triumph when our Calvary comes, we must triumph in the little things of the common hours.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
John 7:24
And does not that necessarily mean that in some senses we are not to judge at all? After all, what can we know of any man beyond "appearance"? The secret things of the soul are hidden from all save God. In His ethical manifesto our Lord distinctly said, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." All of which means that our judgments of our fellow-men must always be reserved. We should ever bear in mind that "appearance" may be deceitful, and therefore with the love that hopeth all things, we should be ready to give men the benefit of any doubt or uncertainty that is in our minds. All that being granted, it remains that within limits we are compelled to use the faculty of judgment, and our Lord uttered the positive word, "Judge righteous judgment," as well as the negative. What then is righteous judgment? It is judgment which is free from prejudice, and which, considering things as they are, draws true conclusions. The context is illuminative. Wrath prevented these men from true thinking about the wonder Jesus had wrought in healing the man in Bethesda's porches. How perpetually wrath prevents righteous judgment. To form true conclusions we need a mind free from all bias, and mastered by love. Even then our judgments are only valuable as guides to our personal conduct. We never have any right to make them the basis of decisions concerning our fellow-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.