Personal Devotions
Notes from Mark's personal Bible reading and meditation
With a goal to apply one truth from each day's reading to my life that day
Jun 30, 2022, 8:41 AM
Passage Read: Habakkuk 3 - Zephaniah 3
Meditation Verses: Zephaniah 3:11-12
Thought
In order to redeem His people, the Lord must remove the proud ones out of their midst, and leave behind the weak and poor, who need the Lord and will call on Him and trust in Him. The problem with Israel is the same problem with the Church and with the individual: They are filled will pride, with arrogant people who think they're so smart, so clever, who think they know better than God Himself. So they hear His Word and think it's foolish, they cast it aside for their own ways.
Jun 29, 2022, 8:42 AM
Passage Read: Nahum 2 - Habakkuk 2
Meditation Verse: Nahum 3:7
Thought
The problem with being powerful enough to do whatever you want and treat people however you desire is that you make more enemies than friends. Indeed, no one is truly your friend. Those who act the part of the friend do so only to gain an advantage, to share in your wealth and power. They are not true friends. As soon as it becomes apparent that you cannot maintain your position and power, all friends will abandon you.
Jun 28, 2022, 8:44 AM
Passage Read: Micah 5 - Nahum 1
Meditation Verse: Nahum 1:3
Thought
The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in love and kindness, yet He will not leave the guilty unpunished. He will not acquit the guilty. Indeed, He either pays for the sin Himself through the sacrifice of His Son, or He remembers and calls to account the one who has not sought forgiveness. The guilty and unrepentant will be cast into Hell, eternally tormented. But those who confess and renounce their sin will be forgiven and saved.
Jun 27, 2022, 8:45 AM
Passage Read: Micah 1-4
Meditation Verses: 4:6-7
Thought
The Lord promises to set the lame and the one cast off into a strong nation, never to be abandoned, never to be oppressed again, not as long as He reigns. He will establish justice throughout the earth, no nation shall practice evil. The weak will no longer have anything to fear. Though now we are weak and anyone can do whatever they want with us, then we will be safe and be able to enjoy our own home and land with nothing to make us afraid.
Jun 26, 2022, 8:46 AM
Passage Read: Jonah 1-4
Meditation Verse: 4:11
Thought
The Lord has pity on Nineveh, even though He knows they will soon execute His anger against Israel, and they will exceed His intent and become liable to His wrath. Still He has pity on them and grants that at least one generation can hear and know of Him, repent and possibly be saved. They will stand in the judgment and condemn the generation of Jesus for failing to repent at Jesus's preaching. Will they actually be saved, that is unknown, but it may be that some did seek the Lord after this and will be found in heaven.
Jun 25, 2022, 7:31 AM
Passage Read: Amos 7 - Obadiah 1
Meditation Verse: Amos 8:4
Thought
To be humble is to be vulnerable to those who are not. The prideful think nothing of taking advantage of the poor and humble, even to the point of driving them out of the land. They don't care about the poor, they just want to get rich, and the poor and the humble are easy targets. The poor have no power to fight back, and the humble refuse to defend themselves. But God sees and detests the behavior of the proud and arrogant.
Jun 24, 2022, 7:32 AM
Passage Read: Amos 3-6
Meditation Verses: 5:18-20
Thought
The day of the Lord is a day of contradictions. For the believer it means salvation is at hand. For the unbeliever, it is a day of doom. And for those who think they are safe but yet hate the Lord and His ways, it again is a day of doom, but they don't recognize it. They're in for a terrible surprise. Yet even for the believer, it will be a day of unparalleled distress. Judgment begins with the house of God, and if it goes hard for God's people, how much worse it will be for the unbeliever.
Jun 23, 2022, 7:34 AM
Passage Read: Joel 2 - Amos 2
Meditation Verses: Joel 2:16-18
Thought
Joel calls for all the people to be gathered, for everyone, even bride and bridegroom who should be rejoicing over their wedding day. He calls them to gather and weep before the Lord and plead for the land and the people, that the Lord have pity on them. Because the Lord can be moved to pity, to have mercy on His people. There is hope that the Lord will have compassion and turn away His anger. But it would take everyone coming together to confess their sin and plead for mercy.
Jun 22, 2022, 7:35 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 12 - Joel 1
Meditation Verse: Hosea 14:9
Thought
The righteous shall walk in the ways of Jehovah, but transgressors will stumble in them. Those who truly believe the Lord will have little trouble walking in His ways. They will recognize what ways are the Lord's and will do them. But the wicked, the sinners, will have trouble walking in God's ways. They will continually trip up and fall. They won't know them all, but even what they know will be hard for them to walk in.
Jun 21, 2022, 7:36 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 8-11
Meditation Verses: 11:7-9
Thought
As bad as Israel has become and as much as the Lord is compelled to discipline them, He cannot bring Himself to completely abandon them. He is moved with compassion for them and will bring them back, and they will return to Him in truth and faithfulness. But for now, He must cast them out of His good land, yet not for good. His goal is restoration not complete rejection.