Daily Bible Notes: October, 31st
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
Renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10
A backslider, if there be a spark of life left in him will groan after restoration. In this renewal the same exercise of grace is required as at our conversion. We needed repentance then; we certainly need it now. We wanted faith that we might come to Christ at first; only the like grace can bring us to Jesus now. We wanted a word from the Most High, a word from the lip of the loving One, to end our fears then; we shall soon discover, when under a sense of present sin, that we need it now. No man can be renewed without as real and true a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s energy as he felt at first, because the work is as great, and flesh and blood are as much in the way now as ever they were. Let thy personal weakness, O Christian, be an argument to make thee pray earnestly to thy God for help. Remember, David when he felt himself to be powerless, did not fold his arms or close his lips, but he hastened to the mercy-seat with "renew a right spirit within me." Let not the doctrine that you, unaided, can do nothing, make you sleep; but let it be a goad in your side to drive you with an awful earnestness to Israel’s strong Helper. O that you may have grace to plead with God, as though you pleaded for your very life - "Lord, renew a right spirit within me." He who sincerely prays to God to do this, will prove his honesty by using the means through which God works. Be much in prayer; live much upon the Word of God; kill the lusts which have driven your Lord from you; be careful to watch over the future uprisings of sin. The Lord has His own appointed ways; sit by the wayside and you will be ready when He passes by. Continue in all those blessed ordinances which will foster and nourish your dying graces; and, knowing that all the power must proceed from Him, cease not to cry, "Renew a right spirit within me."
Evening
I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
Hosea 13:5
Yes, Lord, Thou didst indeed know me in my fallen state , and Thou didst even then choose me for Thyself. When I was loathsome and self-abhorred, Thou didst receive me as Thy child, and Thou didst satisfy my craving wants. Blessed for ever be Thy name for this free, rich, abounding mercy. Since then, my inward experience has often been a wilderness; but Thou hast owned me still as Thy beloved, and poured streams of love and grace into me to gladden me, and make me fruitful. Yea, when my outward circumstances have been at the worst, and I have wandered in a land of drought, Thy sweet presence has solaced me. Men have not known me when scorn has awaited me, but Thou hast known my soul in adversities, for no affliction dims the lustre of Thy love. Most gracious Lord, I magnify Thee for all Thy faithfulness to me in trying circumstances, and I deplore that I should at any time have forgotten Thee and been exalted in heart, when I have owed all to Thy gentleness and love.
Have mercy upon Thy servant in this thing!
My soul, if Jesus thus acknowledged thee in thy low estate, be sure that thou own both Himself and His cause now that thou art in thy prosperity.
Be not lifted up by thy worldly successes so as to be ashamed of the truth or of the poor church with which thou hast been associated. Follow Jesus into the wilderness: bear the cross with Him when the heat of persecution grows hot. He owned thee, O my soul, in thy poverty and shame - never be so treacherous as to be ashamed of Him. O for more shame at the thought of being ashamed of my best Beloved! Jesus, my soul cleaveth to Thee. "I’ll turn to Thee in days of light, As well as nights of care, Thou brightest amid all that’s bright!
Thou fairest of the fair!"
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 81
1 Sing aloud to God, our strength! Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 He appointed it in Joseph for a covenant, when he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn't know.
6 "I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket.
7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah." Selah.
8 "Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god.
10 I am the LORD, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people didn't listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me.
12 So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.
16 But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock."
TWO GREAT MYSTERIES
This is an unutterable mystery, that a man can close his life against God. "Israel would have none of Me." We can shut out God as we can shut out the pure air. We can bar His entrance just as we can exclude the light from the chamber. And then the pity is, we can deceive ourselves into believing that the air is perfectly fresh and that the room is flooded with light. We lose our fine discernment, and we call evil good, and the darkness we call day. If we "refuse to have God" in our thoughts God gives us over to a "reprobate mind."
And it is an equally unutterable mystery that a man can open his life to the entertainment of Almighty God. "I will dwell with them!" That is my supreme honour, that the Lord will be my guest. I can "hearken" to Him, and "talk" to Him, and "walk" with Him. And He offers me protection. He will "subdue my enemies." And He offers me unfailing provision. The Guest becomes the Host! I put my little upon the table, and lo! I find that "the cruse of oil fails not, and the meal in the barrel is not consumed!"
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
October 31st.
My Father, wilt Thou heighten my thought by showing me what men and women may become in Christ Jesus? Save me
from small ideals. Set my mind upon things above. May I be humbly intent upon Thy likeness!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.
Psalms 118:17
A fair assurance this! It was no doubt based upon a promise, inwardly whispered in the Psalmist's heart, which he seized upon and enjoyed. Is my case like that of David? Am I depressed because the enemy insults over me? Are there multitudes against me, and few on my side? Does unbelief bid me lie down and die in despair - a defeated, dishonoured man? Do my enemies begin to dig my grave?
What then? Shall I yield to the whisper of fear, and give up the battle, and with it give up all hope? Far from it. There is life in me yet: "I shall not die." Vigour will return and remove my weakness: "I shall live." The Lord lives, and I shall live also. My mouth shall again be opened: "I shall declare the works of Jehovah." Yes, and I shall speak of the present trouble as another instance of the wonder-working faithfulness and love of the Lord my God. Those who would gladly measure me for my coffin had better wait a bit; for "the Lord hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death." Glory be to his name for ever! I am immortal till my work is done. Till the Lord wills it no vault can close upon me.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1 John 3:17
We are dead indeed if we lack compassion. If the love of Christ is shed abroad in the heart, and the Church is swept by that love, there is utter forgetfulness of all the things that are objectionable. Refinement that refuses to relieve is nothing more than cultured paganism.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Even as the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you.
John 15:9
This surely is Christ's superlative word concerning His love for His own. It leaves nothing more to be said. What the love of the Father is for the Son, who can tell? The very suggestion fills the soul with the sense of profound depths which cannot be fathomed, of heights that cannot be scaled, of breadths which cannot be encompassed, and of dimensions beyond our knowledge. And that love of God for the Son, is the measure and nature of the love of the Son for His own. And yet, how passing wonderful it is, when we remember that, however vast that love of God for His Son may be, that Son is worthy of it, while we are unworthy of love at all. Yet here is the glory of His love. He loves us in spite of our unworthiness, knowing that He is able to make us worthy. In very deed such love is:-
- "A deep where all our thoughts are drowned."
Two thoughts are immediately suggested. The first, by what He had said before: "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again"; and the second, by what He added now: "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." The perfection in us which He seeks, and which inspires His love, is that of the selflessness which suffers to serve. The law of abiding in love is that of obedience.
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.