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
May 11, 2024, 5:52 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 10-13
Meditation Verse: 12:1
Thought
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. Those who desire to learn and understand more must love discipline and reproof and correction, but whoever loves their own way and their own wisdom hates reproof and correction and is stupid. Pretty blunt and pretty obvious. If I desire to understand things better, if I want knowledge and to be wise, then I must not merely accept reproof but love discipline and correction.
May 10, 2024, 5:54 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 6-9
Meditation Verses: 7:25-27
Thought
Nobody believes this, because they don't see the immediate consequences. They don't consider the consequences to be so severe. In fact, the consequences are the same for him who marries and for him who does not marry. People see little advantage to lifelong commitment over a continual trading of partners. They see freedom where there is actually death.
May 9, 2024, 5:55 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 2-5
Meditation Verses: 3:25-26
Thought
Those who trust in the Lord should not easily give way to fear, in whatever form it takes, including the onslaught of the wicked. That onslaught is coming, there is no question of that, if we live a godly life. But when it comes, those who trust in the Lord should not give way to fear, though tempted, because the Lord promises to guard us and deliver us. Indeed, men can take our life, but they can't destroy our soul.
May 8, 2024, 2:11 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 148 - Proverbs 1
Meditation Verse: Psalm 149:4
Thought
That's a twist! The Lord honors His afflicted people with salvation, so His godly ones can rejoice on their beds. Why on their beds? Does he mean morning and evening or are they crippled or utterly exhausted? But then it turns in an unexpected direction: Let the high praise of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hands, because they will get to execute judgment on the earth!
May 7, 2024, 2:21 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 144-147
Meditation Verses: 147:19-20
Thought
The Lord taught Israel about Himself. He chose Israel to teach of His ways. There was no other nation that received such a gift. And it should be seen as a privilege, one not to be wasted. God didn't speak to the Israelites in order that they would put His book in a glass case and marvel that He spoke to them. He spoke to them that they might diligently read and obey what He had revealed, so that they would know Him as He truly is, and learn to be His people, people who live and walk like He walks.
May 6, 2024, 2:22 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 140-143
Meditation Verse: 140:8
Thought
This is a good prayer, that the Lord keep the arrogant from succeeding, and so further inflate his ego. But it is the Lord's will that the wicked man, whom He has rejected, fill up the measure of their judgment. If the wicked did not grow in confidence and arrogance, he might become humbled enough so as to repent! God is willing for the rejected man to grow in his arrogance and rebellion, to think that he is so great and to have others praise him, so that God is proved right when He overthrows that man.
May 5, 2024, 2:23 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 136-139
Meditation Verses: 139:19-22
Thought
There are those who speak against God wickedly. There are those who take His name in vain. There are those who truly hate the Lord and rise up against Him. Not all hatred is the same: Some is active and outright, some is subtle but determined. Not all taking of the Lord's name is the same: Some is blatant disregard for His holiness, some is claiming to believe but living in disbelief. Without Christ, our natural state is to be at war with God, some outright and violent, some merely ignoring God and going their own way, but all are at enmity toward God.
May 4, 2024, 2:25 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 132-135
Meditation Verses: 135:5-10
Thought
Our God is greater than all gods. There is no one like the Lord. He rules over the affairs of men. He does whatever He pleases on the earth. The world and everything in it belongs to the Lord; they are all His to do with as He pleases; all of it owes Him honor, glory and obedience. So He will slay the wicked when He chooses. He will give one man's land to another because the former rejects Him but the latter He has chosen to bless.
May 3, 2024, 2:26 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 128-131
Meditation Verse: 131:1
Thought
It is pride that moves a man to think he knows best regarding matters that are out of his sphere. He doesn't have all the facts, only bits of information. He doesn't have the whole picture, but he thinks he's wise enough to judge. The humble sees things, has questions, but recognizes that the issue is out of his hands and out of his sphere, so he let's it go.
May 2, 2024, 2:27 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 124-127
Meditation Verses: 127:1-2
Thought
If the Lord has not determined beforehand to bless the building of a house, then those who build it will have to work harder at it and it likely will still collapse. If the Lord has not determined beforehand to guard a city, those who guard it will fail to protect it, even though they diligently keep watch. Those who labor to provide for themselves, painfully and with extra effort, will still come up short, unless they have been counted beloved by the Lord.
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