Daily Bible Notes: September, 16th
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
Partakers of the divine nature.
2 Peter 1:4
To be a partaker of the divine nature is not, of course, to become God.
That cannot be. The essence of Deity is not to be participated in by the creature. Between the creature and the Creator there must ever be a gulf fixed in respect of essence; but as the first man Adam was made in the image of God, so we, by the renewal of the Holy Spirit, are in a yet diviner sense made in the image of the Most High, and are partakers of the divine nature. We are, by grace, made like God. "God is love"; we become love - "He that loveth is born of God." God is truth; we become true, and we love that which is true: God is good, and He makes us good by His grace, so that we become the pure in heart who shall see God. Moreover, we become partakers of the divine nature in even a higher sense than this - in fact, in as lofty a sense as can be conceived, short of our being absolutely divine. Do we not become members of the body of the divine person of Christ? Yes, the same blood which flows in the head flows in the hand: and the same life which quickens Christ quickens His people, for "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Nay, as if this were not enough, we are married unto Christ. He hath betrothed us unto Himself in righteousness and in faithfulness, and he who is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Oh! marvellous mystery! we look into it, but who shall understand it? One with Jesus - so one with Him that the branch is not more one with the vine than we are a part of the Lord, our Saviour, and our Redeemer! While we rejoice in this, let us remember that those who are made partakers of the divine nature will manifest their high and holy relationship in their intercourse with others, and make it evident by their daily walk and conversation that they have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. O for more divine holiness of life!
Evening
Am I a sea, or a whale, that Thou settest a watch over me?
Job 7:12
This was a strange question for Job to ask of the Lord. He felt himself to be too insignificant to be so strictly watched and chastened, and he hoped that he was not so unruly as to need to be so restrained. The enquiry was natural from one surrounded with such insupportable miseries, but after all, it is capable of a very humbling answer. It is true man is not the sea, but he is even more troublesome and unruly. The sea obediently respects its boundary, and though it be but a belt of sand, it does not overleap the limit. Mighty as it is, it hears the divine hitherto , and when most raging with tempest it respects the word; but self-willed man defies heaven and oppresses earth, neither is there any end to this rebellious rage. The sea, obedient to the moon, ebbs and flows with ceaseless regularity, and thus renders an active as well as a passive obedience; but man, restless beyond his sphere, sleeps within the lines of duty, indolent where he should be active. He will neither come nor go at the divine command, but sullenly prefers to do what he should not, and to leave undone that which is required of him. Every drop in the ocean, every beaded bubble, and every yeasty foam-flake, every shell and pebble, feel the power of law, and yield or move at once. O that our nature were but one thousandth part as much conformed to the will of God! We call the sea fickle and false, but how constant it is! Since our fathers’ days, and the old time before them, the sea is where it was, beating on the same cliffs to the same tune; we know where to find it, it forsakes not its bed, and changes not in its ceaseless boom; but where is man-vain, fickle man? Can the wise man guess by what folly he will next be seduced from his obedience? We need more watching than the billowy sea, and are far more rebellious. Lord, rule us for Thine own glory. Amen.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Psalms 89:19-29
19 Then you spoke in vision to your saints, and said, "I have given strength to the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people.
20 I have found David, my servant. I have anointed him with my holy oil,
21 with whom my hand shall be established. My arm will also strengthen him.
22 No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him.
23 I will beat down his adversaries before him, and strike those who hate him.
24 But my faithfulness and my loving kindness will be with him. In my name, his horn will be exalted.
25 I will set his hand also on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers.
26 He will call to me, 'You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation!'
27 I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 I will keep my loving kindness for him forever more. My covenant will stand firm with him.
29 I will also make his offspring endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
THE STEADFASTNESS OF THE LORD
"My covenant shall stand fast."
Such a divine assurance ought to make me perfectly quiet in spirit. Restlessness in a Christian always spells disloyalty. The uncertainty is born of suspicion. There is a rift in the faith, and the disturbing breath of the devil blows through, and destroys my peace. If I am sure of my great Ally, my heart will not be troubled, neither will it be afraid.
And such a divine assurance ought to make me bold in will and majestic in labour. I ought to be inventive in chivalrous enterprise, and I ought to covet the hardest parts of the field. If the mighty Ally will never fail, I should never be afraid of the marshalled hosts of wickedness. "One with God is in a majority." "He always wins who sides with God." "The Lord is on my side, whom shall I fear?"
And such a divine assurance ought to give me a kingly demeanour. The members of the Court acquire a certain stateliness by their lofty fellowship. And, surely, one who walks with God should be characterized by something of the Divine glory, and men should know that his acquaintances are found in the courts of heaven.
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
September 16th.
Father of all, may the sense of Thy Fatherhood control my life to-day! May all selfishness be exiled from my life!
May I be a brother to my fellow men! Save me from all deceit. Deliver me from all unfairness. Make me pure and true.
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple,
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
Matthew 10:42
Well, I can do as much as that. I can do a kind act towards the Lord's servant. The Lord knows I love them all, and would count it an honour to wash their feet. For the sake of their Master I love the disciples.
How gracious of the Lord to mention so insignificant an action "to give to drink a cup of cold water only"! This I can do, however poor: this I may do, however lowly: this I will do right cheerfully. This, which seems so little, the Lord notices - notices when done to the least of his followers. Evidently it is not the cost, nor the skill, nor the quantity, that he looks at, but the motive: that which we do to a disciple, because he is a disciple, his Lord observes, and recompenses. He does not reward us for the merit of what we do, but according to the riches of his grace.
I give a cup of cold water, and he makes me to drink of living water. I give to one of his little ones, and he treats me as one of them. Jesus finds an apology for his liberality in that which his grace has led me to do, and he says, "He shall in no wise lose his reward."
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
Behold my servant.
Isaiah 42:1
Gentle and strong, trusted of the weakest, feared of all tyrants, He moved without strife of words, or lifting up the voice in- self-advertisement, through the Divinely marked programme of the waiting years, to the Cross of ultimate pain, which He made the centre and source of all healing for wounded and broken humanity.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
But unto Thee, O Lord, have I cried; and in the morning shall my prayer come before Thee.
Psalms 88:13
That is the secret of the attitude of soul revealed in this song. It is a very remarkable Psalm, and its chief value for us is its tone, its temper. Kirkpatrick says it is "the saddest Psalm in the whole Psalter"; and Rotherham, that it is the "gloomiest and the most touching." Certainly the circumstances of the singer as described are those of the most acute and appalling suffering; and these he sets forth with the vividness only possible to poignant experience. Yet from beginning to end there is no trace of bitterness, no desire for revenge on enemies, no angry reflections on the goodness of God. Rather, the references to God reveal a remarkable sense of His grace and goodness. He is addressed as the God of "salvation"; references are made to His "lovingkindness," His "faithfulness," His "wonders," His "righteousness." While the singer cannot understand the Divine method, and asks his troubled questions, "Why castest Thou off my soul?" "Why hidest Thou Thy face from me?" he nevertheless remains sure of God, and of His grace and justice. The secret of it is that with determination he keeps himself in touch with God, crying to Him, and going out to meet Him at the break of each new day. We thank God there is one such song as this, with its revelation of what results in the character when a soul, in the midst of the most appalling suffering, still maintains the activity of practised relationship with God. We also have met such souls, and their witness to the power of the Divine grace is more potent than any theoretical expositions.
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.