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 20, 2023, 7:01 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 12 - Joel 1
Meditation Verses: Joel 1:13-15
Thought
The priests are the last to understand how desperate times have become. Only when the people are so impoverished that they no longer have money and crops to offer as sacrifices, only then do the priests realize how bad things are. Then they think to humble themselves and plead with God, which is correct. Only then do they think to call a sacred assembly, gathering even the leaders to humble themselves and pray.
Jun 19, 2023, 6:42 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 8-11
Meditation Verse: 11:9
Thought
The Lord is longsuffering indeed. He is frustrated to the point of destroying Israel, but He then is reminded of His compassion and can't follow through with it. Yet He does. But He also determines to bring them back in faithfulness. He will not completely destroy them, but He will scatter them among the nations, and then one day call them back to Himself. Men are quick to anger; God is slow to anger, but even He can be provoked to wrath, to turn the people He loves over to their enemies. But not forever, and not all of them.
Jun 18, 2023, 6:43 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 4-7
Meditation Verse: 7:14
Thought
God has many things against the Israelites; they sin against Him regularly. They are very good at it, very prolific in their evil. He longs to redeem them, but they lie to Him and lie against Him. Here He says they cry out to Him, but not from the heart. When they have need they seek Him, but they have no real intention to repent and no desire to seek Him when they have no desperate need. They gather together for grain and new wine, but have no time to meet with Him.
Jun 17, 2023, 6:44 AM
Passage Read: Daniel 12 - Hosea 3
Meditation Verse: Hosea 3:1
Thought
The Lord loves the Israelites, even though they pay no attention to Him, but lavish their affections on other gods. The Lord doesn't stop loving Israel, even though she doesn't deserve His love. How does that not break their hearts and bring them back to Him in humility, recognizing that they don't deserve in the least His mercy?
Jun 16, 2023, 6:46 AM
Passage Read: Daniel 8-11
Meditation Verse: 11:35
Thought
God allows hard things to come upon even the faithful servants of God, even on the wise. He allows them to be pressed and tempted and even fall, so that they can be refined, purified and made spotless. The great thing about the truly wise is that they know humility and are willing to repent when they discover their sin, when they recognize they gave way to temptation and chose sin. That is why the Lord loves them, and why there is no need to fear temptation and trial.
Jun 15, 2023, 6:47 AM
Passage Read: Daniel 4-7
Meditation Verses: 5:19-20
Thought
When God makes a man king, that man has complete authority over those entrusted to him. He can either use that authority for good or for evil, for his own selfish ends or for the good of his people. That man will have to give account to Him who gave him that authority, for how he used this God-given authority. Nevertheless, while he reigns, he has complete authority to carry out justice as he sees fit. So obviously, it is best to know the Lord and understand how He wants His authority used.
Jun 14, 2023, 6:48 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 48 - Daniel 3
Meditation Verse: Daniel 2:30
Thought
Daniel is trying to match Moses for title of most humble man on earth! Daniel understood that he was no great wise man, but merely a servant of the Lord and of the king. He was given the dream and its interpretation by God, because God wanted to reveal these things to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel benefited from being selected by God as His messenger, but Daniel didn't forget that he was just a messenger. He didn't let God's choosing to use him in this amazing way inflate his ego. What a powerful lesson.
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