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
Jan 31, 2024, 10:05 AM
Passage Read: 1 Samuel 21-24
Meditation Verse: 22:8
Thought
Saul was speaking lies about David and later about the priests who helped David without knowing what was going on. Neither David nor the priests had a platform to defend themselves, though the priests tried. Yet it was to no avail. Though Saul's Israelite men refused to kill the priests, yet a foreigner in Saul's service was more than willing to do it.
Jan 29, 2024, 10:06 AM
Passage Read: 1 Samuel 17-20
Meditation Verses: 17:26-28
Thought
Speaking what is true about the Lord and about how we can and should trust Him can make others jealous, especially when they don't have the same faith. David knew God would be with the man who stood up to Goliath, who mocked the Lord and Israel. But no one else seemed to have that same confidence or faith.
Jan 28, 2024, 10:08 AM
Passage Read: 1 Samuel 13-16
Meditation Verse: 15:24
Thought
God's appointed leader is expected to lead according to God's commands. He is not supposed to listen to his people, but to lead them. He should consider their needs and weaknesses, rather than make rash curses as Saul did when he fought the Philistines, but he shouldn't take their counsel over the Lord's. When God gives clear instruction, there is no room for negotiation.
Jan 27, 2024, 10:09 AM
Passage Read: 1 Samuel 9-12
Meditation Verse: 12:14
Thought
It is interesting that Samuel places responsibility for walking in God's ways in the hands of the people, not the king. They chose to have a king, and the king would walk with God if they walked with God. It was not the case that the king would make them walk with God, though that seems to be the way of things.
Jan 26, 2024, 10:11 AM
Passage Read: 1 Samuel 5-8
Meditation Verse: 8:18
Thought
A formal government, a king and all he requires for ruling the people, judging them and fighting their battles, eventually becomes a heavy burden on the people. And invariably, the king becomes insensitive to the people and does whatever pleases himself and the rich who court him, without thought of the people who produce the materials that he needs for his wishes.
Jan 25, 2024, 10:16 AM
Passage Read: 1 Samuel 1-4
Meditation Verse: 2:30
Thought
God makes promises to people, but they must honor Him in order to see those promises fulfilled. He will not bless men who treat Him with contempt, even though He has promised to them, to their family or their people that they will be honored and blessed. God cannot reward unrighteousness and rebellion.
Jan 24, 2024, 7:53 AM
Passage Read: Ruth 1-4
Meditation Verse: 3:11
Thought
Ruth was a woman of excellence, because she was willing to give up the life she could have had in her own country to return to Israel with Naomi and care for her. She was a woman of excellence because she diligently gleaned in the fields to provide for herself and her mother-in-law. She was a woman of excellence because she was content with their lot, but obedient to her mother-in-law when she sent her to Boaz.
Jan 22, 2024, 7:54 AM
Passage Read: Judges 18-21
Meditation Verses: 19:29-30
Thought
There are so many problems with this story that no one in it seems aware of; it perfectly illustrates the moral lostness of the nation at this time. The Levite apparently had no normal wife, so he buys a slave to make her his concubine. She plays the harlot against him, which means she committed adultery, then flees back to her home in Bethlehem. Instead of seeking her death and the death of whomever she sinned with, in accordance with the law, he eventually goes to her home and tries to win her back. Noble, forgiving.
Jan 21, 2024, 7:56 AM
Passage Read: Judges 14-17
Meditation Verse: 14:4
Thought
Samson is no paragon of virtue, yet he is chosen by God to plague the Philistines, who rule over His people. He is no model of godliness. Instead, he is ruled by his passions. What were his parents thinking, to raise him to be so unruly? He was supposed to be a Nazirite, set apart to the Lord, but the only part he seemed to have was the hair and avoiding wine and grapes. There was nothing else about him that would mark him as dedicated to God.
Jan 19, 2024, 7:57 AM
Passage Read: Judges 10-13
Meditation Verses: 11:1-2
Thought
Jephthah was the son of Gilead by a prostitute, so Gilead was not a faithful believer in God, at least in his youth. He apparently married after that and had other sons by his wife. Those sons drove Jephthah out of his father's land when they grew up, as if it was Jephthah's fault his mother was a prostitute. His father had taken him in, accepted responsibility for raising him, and likely being the firstborn, he stood to inherit the double portion, so there may have been jealousy over that in the mix.