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 21, 2024, 12:22 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 27-30
Meditation Verse: 29:21
Thought
The priest's garments were to pass from father to son, and each time a new priest was anointed, he would inherit garments that belonged to his predecessor. So the garments would bear the blood and oil of the previous anointing, unless they were able to wash them completely clean.
Dec 20, 2024, 10:09 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 23-26
Meditation Verses: 23:24-26
Thought
There was to be no preservation of ancient artifacts, no protection of cultural artifacts. There was nothing of value in these sacred places or sacred stones; the Israelites were to demolish them and wipe them from memory. Today we want to preserve culture and heritage, even if it's articles of worship, idols.
Dec 19, 2024, 10:11 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 19-22
Meditation Verses: 19:5-6
Thought
God intended for the Israelites to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation among all the nations of the world. Though all the earth is the Lord's, Israel was to be His special people who knew Him well and represented Him to all other nations.
Dec 18, 2024, 10:12 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 15-18
Meditation Verses: 16:4-5
Thought
The Lord knows the heart, yet He wants to show what's in our hearts, whether we will follow His instructions or not. He wants us to display for all the world to see, whether we are those who trust and honor to Him or not.
Dec 17, 2024, 10:14 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 11-14
Meditation Verse: 14:31
Thought
How could there be any other response but to fear the Lord and believe in Him and in Moses? Who has ever seen the ocean open a pathway across it and walked through it? But somehow, it doesn't last. How can someone experience such a miraculous event and a few days later be complaining against the Lord?
Dec 16, 2024, 10:16 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 7-10
Meditation Verse: 8:19
Thought
Up until this point, the magicians could replicate God's miracles. God did this on purpose, so that Pharaoh would have confidence to resist the Lord, to harden his heart against fearing the Lord. But now Pharaoh had sufficient hardness that the Lord could go beyond the small miracles and start to show up the magicians.
Dec 15, 2024, 10:17 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 3-6
Meditation Verse: 5:17
Thought
How often do faith and trust in the Lord result in harder times rather than blessing? For the Israelites, this should have been a time of joy and celebration because the Lord had come to free them! And it was, for a moment, until Moses and Aaron went to speak to Pharaoh to have the Israelites released.
Dec 14, 2024, 10:19 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 49 - Exodus 2
Meditation Verse: Exodus 1:22
Thought
Pharaoh wanted the male babies of the Israelites killed, but the Hebrew midwives wouldn't do it. So he ordered all the Egyptians, that if they discovered a male child, they were to throw him in the Nile to die.
Dec 13, 2024, 1:18 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 44-48
Meditation Verses: 45:5-8
Thought
Joseph had already pieced together that he had been sent ahead of his family to Egypt for their preservation, so he wasn't bitter at all, despite more than twelve years of servitude and imprisonment. Most people today would have a hard time forgiving their family for causing such suffering, but not Joseph.
Dec 12, 2024, 1:20 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 41-44
Meditation Verse: 42:16
Thought
How have I never seen this? Joseph remembers his dreams as a youth and realizes how close he is to fulfilling the first dream, only Benjamin is missing. So this whole ruse is to see that first dream fulfilled. He needs Benjamin to come down with the rest of them and bow before him to fulfill the first dream.
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