Daily Bible Notes: September, 1st
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
Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Psalm 73:24
The Psalmist felt his need of divine guidance. He had just been discovering the foolishness of his own heart, and lest he should be constantly led astray by it, he resolved that God’s counsel should henceforth guide him.
A sense of our own folly is a great step towards being wise, when it leads us to rely on the wisdom of the Lord. The blind man leans on his friend’s arm and reaches home in safety, and so would we give ourselves up implicitly to divine guidance, nothing doubting; assured that though we cannot see, it is always safe to trust the All-seeing God. "Thou shalt ," is a blessed expression of confidence. He was sure that the Lord would not decline the condescending task. There is a word for thee, O believer; rest thou in it. Be assured that thy God will be thy counsellor and friend; He shall guide thee; He will direct all thy ways. In His written Word thou hast this assurance in part fulfilled, for holy Scripture is His counsel to thee.
Happy are we to have God’s Word always to guide us! What were the mariner without his compass? And what were the Christian without the Bible? This is the unerring chart, the map in which every shoal is described, and all the channels from the quicksands of destruction to the haven of salvation mapped and marked by one who knows all the way.
Blessed be Thou, O God, that we may trust Thee to guide us now, and guide us even to the end! After this guidance through life, the Psalmist anticipates a divine reception at last - "and afterward receive me to glory ." What a thought for thee, believer! God Himself will receive thee to glory - thee ! Wandering, erring, straying, yet He will bring thee safe at last to glory! This is thy portion; live on it this day, and if perplexities should surround thee, go in the strength of this text straight to the throne.
Evening
Trust in Him at all times.
Psalm 62:8
Faith is as much the rule of temporal as of spiritual life; we ought to have faith in God for our earthly affairs as well as for our heavenly business. It is only as we learn to trust in God for the supply of all our daily need that we shall live above the world. We are not to be idle, that would show we did not trust in God, who worketh hitherto, but in the devil, who is the father of idleness. We are not to be imprudent or rash; that were to trust chance, and not the living God, who is a God of economy and order.
Acting in all prudence and uprightness, we are to rely simply and entirely upon the Lord at all times.
Let me commend to you a life of trust in God in temporal things. Trusting in God, you will not be compelled to mourn because you have used sinful means to grow rich. Serve God with integrity, and if you achieve no success, at least no sin will lie upon your conscience. Trusting God, you will not be guilty of self-contradiction. He who trusts in craft, sails this way to-day, and that way the next, like a vessel tossed about by the fickle wind; but he that trusteth in the Lord is like a vessel propelled by steam, she cuts through the waves, defies the wind, and makes one bright silvery straightforward track to her destined haven. Be you a man with living principles within; never bow to the varying customs of worldly wisdom.
Walk in your path of integrity with steadfast steps, and show that you are invincibly strong in the strength which confidence in God alone can confer.
Thus you will be delivered from carking care, you will not be troubled with evil tidings, your heart will be fixed, trusting in the Lord. How pleasant to float along the stream of providence! There is no more blessed way of living than a life of dependence upon a covenant-keeping God. We have no care, for He careth for us; we have no troubles, because we cast our burdens upon the Lord.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Matthew 6:25-34
25 Therefore I tell you, don't be anxious for your life: what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 See the birds of the sky, that they don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you of much more value than they?
27 "Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?
28 Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don't toil, neither do they spin,
29 yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won't he much more clothe you, you of little faith?
31 "Therefore don't be anxious, saying, 'What will we eat?', 'What will we drink?' or, 'With what will we be clothed?'
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day's own evil is sufficient.
THE VIRTUE OF PROPORTION
I must put first things first. The radical fault in much of my living is want of proportion. I think more of pretty window curtains than of fresh air, more of "nice" wallpaper than of the moving pageant of the skies. I magnify the immediate desire and minimize the ultimate goal. And so "things do not come right!" How can they when the apportionment is so perverse, when everything is topsy-turvy? If I want things to be firm and durable I must revere the Divine order, and must put first things first. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness."
And, therefore, I must seek holiness before success. I am to esteem holiness with apparent failure as infinitely better than success with stain and shame.
I must seek character before reputation. The applause of the world must be as nothing compared with the approbation of God. The favouring "voice from heaven" must be sweeter to my ears than the noisy cheers of the crowd.
And I must seek righteousness before quietness. The way of disturbance is sometimes the way to peace. I must not be so concerned for a quiet life as for a life that is "right with God."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
September 1st.
My Saviour, help me to pray for all whom I do not like. Help me while I pray to see the beautiful in them. If I am blinded, take
the scales from my eyes. May I see the lovable in my enemy!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.
John 15:10
These things cannot be parted - abiding in obedience, and abiding in the love of Jesus. A life under the rule of Christ can alone prove that we are the objects of our Lord's delight. We must keep our Lord's command if we would bask in his love. If we live in sin we cannot live in the love of Christ. Without the holiness which pleases God, we cannot please Jesus. He who cares nothing for holiness knows nothing of the love of Jesus.
Conscious enjoyment of our Lord's love is a delicate thing. It is far more sensitive to sin and holiness than mercury is to cold and heat. When we are tender of heart, and careful in thought, lip, and life to honour our Lord Jesus, then we receive tokens of his love without number. If we desire to perpetuate such bliss we must perpetuate holiness. The Lord Jesus will not hide his face from us unless we hide our face from him. Sin makes the cloud which darkens our Sun: if we will be watchfully obedient and completely consecrated, we may walk in the light, as God is in the light, and have as sure an abiding in the love of Jesus as Jesus has in the love of the Father. Here is a sweet promise with a solemn "if" Lord, let me have this "if" in my hand; for as a key it opens this casket.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
It is finished.
John 19:30
As He passes out of death, He comes into a new life which He may now communicate.
As the load
Immense, intolerable, of the world's sin,
Casting its dreadful shadow high as heaven,
Deep as Gehenna, nearer and more near
Grounded at last upon that Sinless Soul
With all its crushing weight and killing curse,
Then first, from all eternity then first,
From His beloved Son the Father's face
Was slowly averted, and its light eclipsed;
And through the midnight broke the Sufferer's groan,
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
But now
Once more the agonising Victim moan'd,
Uttering His anguish in one dreadful plaint,
I thirst; His last: for, when the cooling sponge
Had touch'd His lips, a loud and different cry,
As if of triumph, It is finish'd, rang
Upon our startled ears; and with a child's
Confiding tender trustfulness, that breathed
Father, to Thy hands I commend My spirit,
He bow'd His head, and yielded up the ghost.
- E. H. Blckersteth "Yesterday, today and Forever."
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Until I went into the sanctuary of God, and considered their latter end.
Psalms 73:17
That is palpably an incomplete quotation, but the method draws attention to the central value of the song. Its first movement is a confession on the part of the singer of how the prosperity of the wicked created a temptation to doubt the goodness of God in government, and consequently, to question the utility of goodness in men. Its second movement sets forth the perfection of the Divine government, re-affirms the faith of the singer, confesses the folly of his suggested breakdown in faith, and declares his determination still to make the Lord Jehovah his refuge. The change in his outlook was created by his going into the sanctuary of God. There, retired from the confusion of circumstances, he was given a corrected view of everything. The one note which these words reveal is; that from the Temple of God, long views of life are obtained. Looking at circumstances only, man necessarily has limited views, he sees only the near. In the Temple, man gains God's view, it is the complete outlook. From thence, he sees the latter end of those who, today, are seen as prosperous in wickedness. Their latter end is not one 'of prosperity, but one of adversity. To be far from God is ultimately to perish: to depart from Him is to be destroyed. For us, necessarily, all this is made superlative through Christ. In Him we have access to the Holiest of All, the inner sanctuary of the holiness and mystery of the ways of God. To enter therein is to be delivered from the folly of interpreting any day by its hours, or any age by itself. There, all is seen in the light of the consummations, and these must harmonize with the character of God.
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.