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
Mar 20, 2024, 7:56 AM
Passage Read: Job 1-4
Meditation Verses: 4:17-18
Thought
As a man who didn't stand in the presence of God, who doesn't know there Lord or see Him operate, it is understandable that Eliphaz wouldn't know if this were true or false, and so would have no way of knowing if this spirit who spoke to him was true or false. But as people privileged to see "behind the curtain," we can know that this spirit is not a truthful spirit. It is Satan or one of his horde.
Mar 19, 2024, 7:58 AM
Passage Read: Esther 7-10
Meditation Verse: 10:3
Thought
Even in this life, the Lord is willing to reward and exalt those who seek the good of their own people and of the nation that hosts them. Of course, the Lord defines what is good and good should include not just protecting their lives, but teaching them to walk in God's ways, so that God is free to bless them rather than leave them to their own devices and to the whims of their enemies.
Mar 18, 2024, 7:59 AM
Passage Read: Esther 3-6
Meditation Verse: 6:3
Thought
Mordecai didn't care about reward for himself, for he hadn't reported the plotted assassination in his own name, but had reported it to Esther, who credited Mordecai. He probably thought to make Esther even more valuable in the King's eyes, but she gave credit where credit was due. Nothing came of it until this key moment, when Haman sought to kill Mordecai.
Mar 17, 2024, 8:00 AM
Passage Read: Nehemiah 12 - Esther 2
Meditation Verses: Nehemiah 13:10-12
Thought
There is a natural bent in people to turn away from the Lord. Though they begin well, under the lead of a dedicated ruler, if he departs, they go back to their old ways. Nehemiah and Ezra had led the people to read the Law multiple times. Each time they read it, they discovered something new and determined to obey it. But once Nehemiah returned to Babylon, the people and the officials no longer considered the service of God and His temple to be so important.
Mar 16, 2024, 8:01 AM
Passage Read: Nehemiah 8-11
Meditation Verses: 9:30-31
Thought
God was committed to His people, but that doesn't mean He saved every last Israelite. The soul who sinned, died. And that surely means that he was lost to eternity. In the story of Lazarus the beggar, it is clear that there are many Jews in torment. The Lord is faithful to His people and refuses to let them all perish, but He disciplines the nation by killing those who forsake Him. He disciplines all by sending prophets to rebuke them, and those who refuse to repent are destroyed.
Mar 15, 2024, 8:04 AM
Passage Read: Nehemiah 4-7
Meditation Verses: 4:4-5
Thought
This, of course, flies in the face of "pray for those who persecute you," but Nehemiah didn't know about Jesus. Yet there is one God, one Lord; Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. So how does this jive with Matthew 5? God does send sun and rain on the evil and the good, but Jesus also said that anyone who would not listen to the Gospel should be left to themselves, with the dust of their town kicked off the feet as a testimony AGAINST them.
Mar 14, 2024, 8:41 AM
Passage Read: Ezra 10 - Nehemiah 3
Meditation Verses: Ezra 10:2-4
Thought
The law commanded the people not to intermarry with foreigners, whether giving their daughters in marriage to foreigners or bringing in their daughters in marriage to their sons. Yet the Jews who returned from exile either already had foreign wives or had married them after arriving back in Judah. So some recognized that God's anger had not completely subsided, though they had completed the temple. So almost all agreed that the right thing was to put away their foreign wives and children, which sadly would come up again under Nehemiah.
Mar 13, 2024, 8:42 AM
Passage Read: Ezra 6-9
Meditation Verses: 9:13-14
Thought
This is a right understanding of grace: After all we have suffered for our evil deeds and great guilt, because Jesus has taken the punishment we deserve on Himself for our sins, so God has repaid us less than our iniquities deserve. Should we then again break the Lord's commands? Should we treat God's word with contempt? Of course not! "If we continue to live in sin, there is no sacrifice for sin left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and raging fire that will consume the enemies of God" (Hebrews 10:26-27).
Mar 12, 2024, 8:44 AM
Passage Read: Ezra 2-5
Meditation Verses: 4:23-24
Thought
They rejoiced at the laying of the foundation, but when the governors of the land came by force to shut them down, they stopped. They didn't appeal the decision, they didn't remind the governors of Cyrus's decree, they just stopped. According to Zechariah and Haggai, they turned their attention to their farms and their own houses. Yet God didn't prosper them. In time, He sent Zechariah and Haggai to speak to them and they repented and restarted the work.
Mar 11, 2024, 7:55 AM
Passage Read: 2 Chronicles 34 - Ezra 1
Meditation Verses: 2 Chronicles 35:21-22
Thought
Josiah decided to tangle with the king of Egypt, evidently knowing it was wrong, such that he felt compelled to disguise himself. It was not a battle he needed to fight; it was not an attack on him. In fact, I believe the king of Egypt was truly going to fight Babylon, in which case it was to Judah's advantage to let Egypt do their thing.