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
Dec 11, 2022, 11:26 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 23-26
Meditation Verses: 26:40-42
Thought
The Lord has been very good to Israel, allowing them back into the land He promised to their forefathers, even though they do not all love the Lord or have repented of their sins. Did they pay for their sin by what horrible things they suffered? Did they learn to walk in Your ways? Certainly some repented and sought to walk again according to Your law. But today it seems as though so many of them care little for Your commands.
Dec 10, 2022, 11:27 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 19-22
Meditation Verse: 22:9
Thought
The Lord says this multiple times in these few chapters, that He is the one who makes His people holy, therefore they are to do His commands and not defile themselves. Because God makes them holy, therefore they are to walk in His commands so as not to profane His holy name, nor defile themselves. It is the same as the New Testament. Jesus' death and resurrection makes the people holy, something we could never do on our own, not even under the Old Covenant.
Dec 9, 2022, 11:28 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 15-18
Meditation Verses: 18:26-27
Thought
Neither native nor alien living among the Israelites are to perform any of these perverse deeds. Because of these sins, the land was defiled. Our sins affect our environment. The land is made unclean and sickened by our evil deeds. Should we be surprised then that the American environment seems to be suffering? We can clean up all the external pollutants, but if we don't clean up our lives, things will continue to worsen.
Dec 8, 2022, 11:30 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 11-14
Meditation Verses: 13:43-46
Thought
It is interesting that the priests are given responsibilities beyond sacrifices and spiritual things. The priests have medical duties, specifically to determine whether a member of the community has an infectious skin disease, or if clothing or homes have destructive mildew. These are health and safety issues, and priests, not elders or civil officials, are made responsible. Any of these things can harm people, so they are matters of neighborly love.
Dec 7, 2022, 11:31 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 7-10
Meditation Verses: 8:33-34
Thought
Ordination was the process by which Arron and his sons were set apart from the rest of the people to serve the Lord. They were to represent the Lord to the people, so they needed an extra degree of cleansing, a special atonement to make them worthy to stand in the place of God on behalf of all the people. The ordination process was one of atonement, cleansing from sin and set apart as holy.
Dec 6, 2022, 11:32 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 3-6
Meditation Verse: 5:1
Thought
It is a sin to withhold testimony if someone has seen something or learned about some happening. It is not just a sin to give false testimony, it is sin to withhold testimony when you know something about a case. If authorities are seeking information and witnesses to a crime, the believer is obligated before God to share whatever he knows about it. If he doesn't offer his testimony, he is sinning against the Lord.
Dec 5, 2022, 11:30 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 39 - Leviticus 2
Meditation Verse: Leviticus 1:17
Thought
The burnt offerings are to be cut in pieces and burned on the altar, and that should be shocking, but it's not until the Lord mentions tearing the bird offerings open without completely severing it that the reality of what's happening hits me. The bull or sheep offerings seem clinical and neat compared to the bird offerings. But the reality is very sad, even cruel. Death is not supposed to be a neat and tidy thing, but a horrible thing.
Dec 4, 2022, 7:15 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 35-38
Meditation Verse: 36:2
Thought
Moses called every skilled person who was willing to help. God gives skill to many, but the willingness to help comes from us, with perhaps some prompting by the Spirit. God gives skill, but we need to train and practice to refine and improve what God has given. But we also need to be willing to help out, to serve the Lord. The Lord does not like anyone giving to Him under compulsion, but from a willing heart, whether that means money or time or anything else.
Dec 3, 2022, 7:16 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 31-34
Meditation Verse: 32:1
Thought
How easily they cast off the Lord and made a new god! They knew full well that their new god was nothing, because they had made it, yet they were willing to bow down and worship it! They had seen Moses and the Lord do incredible things; they had seen these things with their own eyes. They had been terrified when God spoke from the mountaintop, yet now they dared risk His wrath by violating the first and second commandments He'd just given them!
Dec 2, 2022, 7:17 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 27-30
Meditation Verses: 30:12,16
Thought
The Lord allowed for a census of the people from time to time, but whenever they were counted, they had to pay a half-shekel, to make atonement for themselves. If they didn't pay the ransom for their lives, they could be struck with a plague. When they were counted, they had to pay the Lord for their lives. Did David forget to have the people atone for their lives? Is that what angered the Lord when he counted the people?
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