Daily Bible Notes: September, 13th
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
Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools.
Psalm 84:6
This teaches us that the comfort obtained by a one may often prove serviceable to another; just as wells would be used by the company who came after. We read some book full of consolation, which is like Jonathan’s rod, dropping with honey. Ah! we think our brother has been here before us, and digged this well for us as well as for himself. Many a "Night of Weeping," "Midnight Harmonies," an "Eternal Day," "A Crook in the Lot," a "Comfort for Mourners," has been a well digged by a pilgrim for himself, but has proved quite as useful to others. Specially we notice this in the Psalms, such as that beginning, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" Travellers have been delighted to see the footprint of man on a barren shore, and we love to see the waymarks of pilgrims while passing through the vale of tears.
The pilgrims dig the well, but, strange enough, it fills from the top instead of the bottom. We use the means, but the blessing does not spring from the means. We dig a well, but heaven fills it with rain. The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord. The means are connected with the end, but they do not of themselves produce it. See here the rain fills the pools, so that the wells become useful as reservoirs for the water; labour is not lost, but yet it does not supersede divine help.
Grace may well be compared to rain for its purity, for its refreshing and vivifying influence, for its coming alone from above, and for the sovereignty with which it is given or withheld. May our readers have showers of blessing, and may the wells they have digged be filled with water! Oh, what are means and ordinances without the smile of heaven!
They are as clouds without rain, and pools without water. O God of love, open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing!
Evening
This man receiveth sinners.
Luke 15:2
Observe the condescension of this fact. This Man, who towers above all other men, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners - this Man receiveth sinners. This Man, who is no other than the eternal God, before whom angels veil their faces - this Man receiveth sinners. It needs an angel’s tongue to describe such a mighty stoop of love. That any of us should be willing to seek after the lost is nothing wonderful - they are of our own race; but that He, the offended God, against whom the transgression has been committed, should take upon Himself the form of a servant, and bear the sin of many, and should then be willing to receive the vilest of the vile, this is marvellous. "This Man receiveth sinners"; not, however, that they may remain sinners, but He receives them that He may pardon their sins, justify their persons, cleanse their hearts by His purifying word, preserve their souls by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and enable them to serve Him, to show forth His praise, and to have communion with Him. Into His heart’s love He receives sinners, takes them from the dunghill, and wears them as jewels in His crown; plucks them as brands from the burning, and preserves them as costly monuments of His mercy. None are so precious in Jesus’ sight as the sinners for whom He died. When Jesus receives sinners, He has not some out-of-doors reception place, no casual ward where He charitably entertains them as men do passing beggars, but He opens the golden gates of His royal heart, and receives the sinner right into Himself - yea, He admits the humble penitent into personal union and makes Him a member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. There was never such a reception as this! This fact is still most sure this evening, He is still receiving sinners: would to God sinners would receive Him.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 51
1 Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.
4 Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.
5 Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.
6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.
11 Don't throw me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways. Sinners will be converted to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 Lord, open my lips. My mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you don't delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.
18 Do well in your good pleasure to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.
THE CLEAN HEART
What will the Lord do with my sin, if in true humility I come into His Presence? Let me hear the music of the evangel.
He will "blot out my transgression." He will so erase it that even His own holy eyes can see no stain or shame. He will blot it out, as I have seen a gloomy cloudlet blotted out, and there has been nothing left but radiant sky.
And He will "wash me throughly from mine iniquity." Yes, and that not like the washing of the hands, but like the washing of clothes, not like the washing of a surface, but the removal of uncleanness from a fabric, the ousting of every germ lurking in the innermost cells of the stuff. When the Lord washes a soul it is "throughly" done, and every strand is white in holiness.
So will He give me "a clean heart"; so will He "renew a right spirit within me." The very atmosphere of my life shall be as the air after deluges of cleansing rain. It shall be sweet, and clean, and clear! I shall walk in a new inspiration, and I shall "behold the land that is very far off."
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
September 13th.
Saviour of mankind, I pray for the lost! May some gracious influence arouse the indifferent! May the callous be softened!
May the weary turn their eyes to Thee! May the dead be touched with the glory of the resurrection morn!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
His heavens shall drop down dew.
Deuteronomy 33:28
What the dew in the East is to the world of nature, that is the influence of the Spirit in the realnm of grace. How greatly do I need it! Without the Spirit of God I am a dry and withered thing. I droop, I fade, I die. How sweetly does this dew refresh me! When once favoured with it I feel happy, lively, vigorous, elevated. I want nothing more. The Holy Spirit brings me life, and all that life requires. All else without the dew of the Spirit is less than nothing to me: I hear, I read, I pray, I sing, I go to the table of communion, and I find no blessing there until the Holy Ghost visits me. But when he bedews me, every means of grace is sweet and profitable.
What a promise is this for me! "His heavens shall drop down dew." I shall be visited with grace. I shall not be left to my natural drought, or to the world's burning heat, or to the sirocco of Satanic temptation. Oh, that I may at this very hour feel the gentle, silent, saturating dew of the Lord! Why should I not? He who has made me to live as the grass lives in the meadow, will treat me as he treats the grass: he will refresh me from above. Grass cannot call for dew as I do. Surely, the Lord who visits the unpraying plant will answer to his pleading child.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
As I thought to do unto them, so will I do unto you.
Numbers 33:56
To tolerate and allow to remain what God has ordered to be driven forth, is to retain that which in itself will be a source of continual difficulty and suffering.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Thou hast turned Thyself from the fierceness of Thine anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation.
Psalms 85:3, 4
Rotherham has given a suggestive descriptive title to this Psalm; he says: "Praise, prayer, and prophecy lead up to the reconciliation of earth and heaven." In these words, praise merges into prayer. The note of praise ends with the declaration that God has turned from His anger. The note of prayer begins with the petition that God will turn us, in order that His indignation may cease. This is very suggestive. So far as the will and work of God are concerned, He in grace has turned from His anger, because He has forgiven iniquity and covered sin. But in order to the full appropriation of this activity of Grace, there must be turning on our part, and this first petition in the prayer grows out of the praise inspired by His grace. The truth is further illuminated in the prophetic section of the song. When the Psalmist listens to what God Jehovah has to say, he declares that "He will speak peace unto His people and to His saints; but let them not turn again to folly." In grace God has turned from His anger. That we may appropriate His grace, we must be turned to Him: and then must not turn again to folly. This is the way into peace, into the dwelling of glory in the land, into the harmony of mercy and truth, of righteousness and peace, into the coming of the Kingdom 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.