Daily Bible Notes: September, 20th
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
The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.
Judges 7:20
Gideon ordered his men to do two things: covering up a torch in an earthen pitcher, he bade them, at an appointed signal, break the pitcher and let the light shine, and then sound with the trumpet, crying, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon! the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" This is precisely what all Christians must do. First, you must shine ; break the pitcher which conceals your light; throw aside the bushel which has been hiding your candle, and shine. Let your light shine before men; let your good works be such, that when men look upon you, they shall know that you have been with Jesus. Then there must be the sound , the blowing of the trumpet. There must be active exertions for the ingathering of sinners by proclaiming Christ crucified. Take the gospel to them; carry it to their door; put it in their way; do not suffer them to escape it; blow the trumpet right against their ears. Remember that the true war-cry of the Church is Gideon’s watchword, "The sword of the Lord , and of Gideon!" God must do it, it is His own work. But we are not to be idle; instrumentality is to be used - "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon !" If we only cry, "The sword of the Lord!" we shall be guilty of an idle presumption; and if we shout, "The sword of Gideon!" alone, we shall manifest idolatrous reliance on an arm of flesh: we must blend the two in practical harmony, "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!" We can do nothing of ourselves, but we can do everything by the help of our God; let us, therefore, in His name determine to go out personally and serve with our flaming torch of holy example, and with our trumpet tones of earnest declaration and testimony, and God shall be with us, and Midian shall be put to confusion, and the Lord of hosts shall reign for ever and ever.
Evening
In the evening withhold not thy hand.
Ecclesiastes 11:6
In the evening of the day opportunities are plentiful: men return from their labour, and the zealous soul-winner finds time to tell abroad the love of Jesus. Have I no evening work for Jesus? If I have not, let me no longer withhold my hand from a service which requires abundant labour. Sinners are perishing for lack of knowledge; he who loiters may find his skirts crimson with the blood of souls. Jesus gave both His hands to the nails, how can I keep back one of mine from His blessed work? Night and day He toiled and prayed for me, how can I give a single hour to the pampering of my flesh with luxurious ease? Up, idle heart; stretch out thy hand to work, or uplift it to pray; heaven and hell are in earnest, let me be so, and this evening sow good seed for the Lord my God. The evening of life has also its calls. Life is so short that a morning of manhood’s vigour, and an evening of decay, make the whole of it. To some it seems long, but a four-pence is a great sum of money to a poor man. Life is so brief that no man can afford to lose a day. It has been well said that if a great king should bring us a great heap of gold, and bid us take as much as we could count in a day, we should make a long day of it; we should begin early in the morning, and in the evening we should not withhold our hand; but to win souls is far nobler work, how is it that we so soon withdraw from it? Some are spared to a long evening of green old age; if such be my case, let me use such talents as I still retain, and to the last hour serve my blessed and faithful Lord. By His grace I will die in harness, and lay down my charge only when I lay down my body. Age may instruct the young, cheer the faint, and encourage the desponding; if eventide has less of vigorous heat, it should have more of calm wisdom, therefore in the evening I will not withhold my hand.
2. "My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year" by J.H.Jowett
Mark 8:1-9
1 In those days, when there was a very great multitude, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to himself, and said to them,
2 "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have stayed with me now three days, and have nothing to eat.
3 If I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come a long way."
4 His disciples answered him, "From where could one satisfy these people with bread here in a deserted place?"
5 He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven."
6 He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves. Having given thanks, he broke them, and gave them to his disciples to serve, and they served the multitude.
7 They had a few small fish. Having blessed them, he said to serve these also.
8 They ate, and were filled. They took up seven baskets of broken pieces that were left over.
9 Those who had eaten were about four thousand. Then he sent them away.
THE PATHETIC MULTITUDE
My Lord has "compassion upon the multitude." And (shall I reverently say it?) His compassion was part of His passion. His pity was always costly. It culminated upon Calvary, but it was bleeding all along the road! It was a fellow-feeling with all the pangs and sorrows of the race. And a pity that bleeds is a pity that heals. "In His love and in His pity He redeemed us."
And the multitude is round about us still, and the people are in peril of fainting by the way. There is the multitude of misfortune, the children of disadvantage, who never seem to have come to their own. And there is the multitude of outcasts, the vast army of publicans and sinners. And there are the bewildering multitudes of Africa, and India, and China, and they have "nothing to eat"!
How do I regard them? Do I share the compassion of the Lord? Do I exercise a sensitive and sanctified imagination, and enter somewhat into the pangs of their cravings? My Lord calls for my help. "How many loaves have ye?" "Bring out all you have! Consecrate your entire resources! Put your all upon the altar of sacrifice!" And in reply to the call can I humbly and trustfully say, "O, Lamb of God, I come!"
3. "Yet Another Day - A Prayer for Every Day of the Year" by John H.Jowett
September 20th.
My Father God, may the light of resurrection mornings break upon my soul to-day! May I see the new light as I have
never seen it before! May the life in Christ shine before me with most alluring beauty! May I be wooed nearer to Him!
4. "The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith" by C.H.Spurgeon.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.
Psalms 110:3
Blessed be the God of grace that it is so! He has a people whom he has chosen from of old to be his peculiar portion. These by nature have wills as stubborn as the rest of the froward sons of Adam; but when the day of his power comes, and grace displays its omnipotence, they become willing to repent, and to believe in Jesus. None are saved unwillingly, but the will is made sweetly to yield itself. What a wondrous power is this, which never violates the will, and yet rules it! God does not break the lock, but he opens it by a master-key which he alone can handle.
Now are we willing to be, to do, or to suffer as the Lord wills. If at any time we grow rebellious he has but to come to us with power, and straightway we run in the way of his commands with all our hearts. May this be a day of power with me as to some noble effort for the glory of God and the good of my fellow-men! Lord, I am willing; may I not hope that this is a day of thy power? I am wholly at thy disposal; willing, yea, eager, to be used of thee for thy holy purposes. O Lord, let me not have to cry, "To will is present with me, but how to perform that which I would, I find not"; but give me power as thou givest me will.
5. "The Morning Message" by G.Campbell Morgan.
I have created him for my glory.
Isaiah 43:7
We all profess to believe that God has given us our being, and in a deep conviction of that truth lies the reason why we should yield ourselves wholly to His government in order that we may attain perfection of being.
6. "An Evening Meditation" taken from "Searchlights from the Word" by G.Campbell Morgan.
If a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?
1 Timothy 3:5
These words were used by the Apostle when he was giving Timothy instructions as to the orderly government of the Church; and their first application was to those who were to exercise oversight, that is, to be bishops or overseers. They contain a principle which applies to the whole field of Christian service. It may be said that every Christian witness is a centre around whom concentric circles are drawn in which his or her witness will operate. We may illustrate by saying that in the ordinary life of every Christian believer, the circles are those of home, church, city, nation, race. While the influence of a life may not seem to affect all these, it certainly does so in a measure. Necessarily it is more evident in the first circles. Now the principle involved in this statement is that we are only able to exert the true influence in the wider circles as we do so in the first. The question of the Apostle has a self-evident answer. If a man is not able to regulate the affairs of his own household, if his own children are unruly, he cannot guide and guard the Church of God so as to ensure its orderliness and power. That is so for two reasons. First, that he lacks the power to rule. If he possessed it, he could rule his own house. Second, that his failure in his own house must negative any attempt he may make in the Church, for men will only obey an authority which is evidenced by results. We may pass back to the central fact, and say that fitness for the guidance of others, in home or Church, or anywhere, is created by the control of one's own life as it is wholly under the sway of the Lord.
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.