Daily Bible Notes: September, 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
God is jealous.
Nahum 1:2
Your Lord is very jealous of your love , O believer. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another. Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think that you are your own, or that you belong to this world. He loved you with such a love that He would not stop in heaven without you; He would sooner die than you should perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart’s love and Himself. He is very jealous of your trust . He will not permit you to trust in an arm of flesh. He cannot bear that you should hew out broken cisterns, when the overflowing fountain is always free to you.
When we lean upon Him, He is glad, but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom, or the wisdom of a friend - worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own, He is displeased, and will chasten us that He may bring us to Himself. He is also very jealous of our company . There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus. To abide in Him only, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient solace in our carnal comforts, to prefer even the society of our fellow Christians to secret intercourse with Him, this is grievous to our jealous Lord. He would fain have us abide in Him, and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials which He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from the creature, and fixing them more closely upon Himself. Let this jealousy which would keep us near to Christ be also a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care thus about our love we may be sure that He will suffer nothing to harm us, and will protect us from all our enemies. Oh that we may have grace this day to keep our hearts in sacred chastity for our Beloved alone, with sacred jealousy shutting our eyes to all the fascinations of the world!
Evening
I will sing of mercy and judgment.
Psalm 101:1
Faith triumphs in trial. When reason is thrust into the inner prison, with her feet made fast in the stocks, faith makes the dungeon walls ring with her merry notes as she I cries, "I will sing of mercy and of judgment. Unto thee, O Lord, will I sing." Faith pulls the black mask from the face of trouble, and discovers the angel beneath. Faith looks up at the cloud, and sees that ‘Tis big with mercy and shall break In blessings on her head."
There is a subject for song even in the judgments of God towards us. For, first, the trial is not so heavy as it might have been ; next, the trouble is not so severe as we deserved to have borne ; and our affliction is not so crushing as the burden which others have to carry . Faith sees that in her worst sorrow there is nothing penal; there is not a drop of God’s wrath in it; it is all sent in love. Faith discerns love gleaming like a jewel on the breast of an angry God. Faith says of her grief, "This is a badge of honour, for the child must feel the rod"; and then she sings of the sweet result of her sorrows, because they work her spiritual good. Nay, more, says Faith, "These light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." So Faith rides forth on the black horse, conquering and to conquer, trampling down carnal reason and fleshly sense, and chanting notes of victory amid the thickest of the fray. "All I meet I find assists me In my path to heavenly joy:
Where, though trials now attend me, Trials never more annoy. "Blest there with a weight of glory, Still the path I’ll ne’er forget, But, exulting, cry, it led me To my blessed Saviour’s seat."
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Joel 2:12-19
12 "Yet even now," says the LORD, "turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning."
13 Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to the LORD, your God.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.
16 Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her room.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, "Spare your people, LORD, and don't give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say amongst the peoples, 'Where is their God?' "
18 Then the LORD was jealous for his land, And had pity on his people.
19 The LORD answered his people, "Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach amongst the nations.
THE GARMENTS OF THE SOUL
I am so apt to think that the rending of an outer garment is a token of true penitence and amendment of life. But it is the inner garments I must deal with, the raiments and habits of the soul. Some of these robes - such as vanity and pride - are as gay and showy as a peacock; others are dirty and leprous, and we should not dare to bring them to the door, and display them in the light. But all need severe treatment; they must be torn, fibre from fibre, and reduced to rags.
But "rending" must be accompanied by "turning." "Turn unto the Lord your God." For the Lord our God is gracious, and His love will not only provide a new wardrobe, but a swift furnace in which to burn the remnants of the old. Yes, His "great kindness" will burn away the filth of my alienation, and will "bring forth the best robe" and put it on me. The good Lord will give me new habits. He will "cover me with the robe of righteousness, and the garment of salvation."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
September 12th.
My Father, may I hear the home call whenever Thou dost speak to me! May it always be as a welcome voice! May I love
the sound of Thy summons! If it be to hard duty, may I rise with willingness! May I take up my cross and follow Thee!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Acts 16:31
This gospel for a man with a sword at his throat, is the gospel for me. This would suit me if I were dying, and it is all that I need while I am living. I look away from self, and sin, and all idea of personal merit, and I trust the Lord Jesus as the Saviour whom God has given. I believe in him, I rest on him, I accept him to be my all in all. Lord, I am saved, and I shall be saved to all eternity, for I believe in Jesus. Blessed be thy name for this. May I daily prove by my life that I am saved from selfishness, and worldliness, and every form of evil.
But those last words about my "house": Lord, I would not run away with half a promise when thou dost give a whole one. I beseech thee, save all my family. Save the nearest and dearest. Convert the children, and the grandchildren, if I have any. Be gracious to my servants, and all who dwell under my roof, or work for me. Thou makest this promise to me personally if I believe in the Lord Jesus; I beseech thee to do as thou hast said.
I would go over in my prayer every day the names of all my brothers and sisters, parents, children, friends, relatives, servants, and give thee no rest till that word is fulfilled, "and thy house."
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Psalm 23:3
It is good that the heart should remember that even though He chastise, He continues to conduct; and when through our own unbelief it is necessary for us to pass through the paths of the wilderness, He never forsakes.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
Psalms 84:10
But of course! We sometimes read this as though there were something heroic about the choice, some touch of sacrifice in the decision. There is nothing of the kind. The singer was a man of profound common-sense. He was choosing the highest, the best. The tents of wickedness have nothing to offer to the man who has a place of any kind in the House of God, certainly nothing to the man who was privileged to have such definite relationship of responsibility as that of a door-keeper in that House. Let us not forget that this was the song of a Levite. Mark the inscription, "A Psalm of the sons of Korah." The Levites were those who had no possession in the land, because they had special possessions in the service of Jehovah. The writer of this Psalm had peculiar familiarity with the Temple. He had watched it with loving eyes, and seen the birds finding rest and refuge there. He had known the blessedness of dwelling within its precincts. He had also known the bitterness of absence from it. He had experienced the longing for it, the almost fainting for its courts. Restored to it after a long journey through difficult paths, he broke out into this great song in celebration of the glory of that House. In the period of his absence, he had probably been a dweller in the tents of wickedness. There he had found poverty, restlessness, pain. Now, restored to his high and holy service of keeping the door, rendering his service as of the Kohathites in regard to the veils, he affirmed his wealth, his rest, his joy, as he said: "I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness." The true wealth and rest and joy of life are found in the service 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.