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 21, 2025, 6:59 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 22-25
Meditation Verse: 22:1
Thought
It is better to have a good reputation than to be rich. It is better to be held in high regard than to have much silver and gold. This is a good word, but also one that can easily lead someone astray. It has to be asked: A good name among what people? Esteemed by whom? The righteous man is not loved by those who delight in evil. Maybe a good man might be, but one who speaks up for God's standards will be hated by most men!
May 20, 2025, 6:47 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 18-21
Meditation Verse: 21:5
Thought
The plans of the diligent versus haste. It is better to take time to plan carefully and then operate by a solid plan than it is to hurry through a bunch of tasks and think you're doing amazing because of all you get accomplished. Careful planning and execution is better than many tasks done hastily. Diligence may seem slow, but it brings greater success than hurrying. Hurrying though tasks seems like a great idea, but it allows for many mistakes and ruin, and leads to poverty.
May 19, 2025, 8:09 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 14-17
Meditation Verse: 14:6
Thought
The mocker is wise in his own eyes. He disdains all those around him. He cannot find anyone wiser than him, so though he seeks wisdom, he finds none, none that measures up to his standards. None that satisfy his understanding of right and wrong. He seeks wisdom, but he's too busy justifying himself to find it. It is not hard to find, but he doesn't want true wisdom, because that would mean full submission to God.
May 18, 2025, 7:10 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 10-13
Meditation Verse: 10:17
Thought
My response to discipline and correction doesn't just affect me, but encourages others! If I listen to and learn from discipline, that shows others the way to life. If I reject correction, it leads others astray. Obedience isn't just for myself, but for the benefit of others, that they might be guided along a good path. Disobedience doesn't just affect me, but encourages others to go their own way. Is interesting that disobedience is more effective than obedience:
May 17, 2025, 10:23 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 6-9
Meditation Verses: 6:33-35
Thought
This is a warning to young men of what most men will do if they find you sleeping with their wife. There would be violence and no way to buy him off. But would the husband also execute vengeance on his wife or does his jealousy protect her? The Law God gave Israel required the death penalty for both the man who slept with his neighbor's wife and for the wife. There should be no need for the husband to take personal vengeance against the man or his wife, except to turn them in to the authorities for judgment and execution.
May 16, 2025, 6:39 AM
Passage Read: Proverbs 2-5
Meditation Verses: 2:16-19
Thought
This is a strong statement, that all who go to the adulteress never regain the paths of life! How can sin with an adulteress be so great as to keep a man from repentance? Solomon goes into greater detail in Chapter Five. There is something about giving in to the adulteress' enticement that breaks a man down to such extent that he wastes his strength and years on a false companion, and in the end sees that he has hated discipline and correction.
May 15, 2025, 6:43 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 148 - Proverbs 1
Meditation Verses: Psalm 149:6-9
Thought
It was Jesus' confidence in knowing where He came from and where He was returning to that allowed Him to humble Himself to serve us and endure all He did at the hands of godless men. That's what this passage shows us: This is our end: We will go forth praising the Lord with a double-edged sword in our hand, to carry out vengeance against all the nations that refused to believe our message, our pleading with them to be saved.
May 14, 2025, 6:38 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 144-147
Meditation Verses: 147:19-20
Thought
When the Lord reveals His laws and decrees, it is an incredible honor and privilege, and the people to whom He reveals them should be delighted! He has not done so to all nations. He has not done so to all peoples. But those He chooses to make known salvation, they are people He has chosen to live with Him forever. Everyone else will be cast into eternal torment. He chooses to save those whose eyes are opened to His wisdom and ways!
May 13, 2025, 7:06 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 140-143
Meditation Verses: 141:4-6
Thought
The psalmist recognizes the temptation of the wicked and prays to the Lord to keep him from being drawn into their ways. He doesn't even want to taste their delicacies, knowing that could lead him astray, and also encourage the wicked in their ways. He welcomes the rebuke of the righteous man, so as to keep himself from being drawn away. And he prays continually against the deeds of the wicked. He knows that one day they will all be destroyed, but in their last moments, they will know that all he said was right.
May 12, 2025, 7:54 AM
Passage Read: Psalm 136-139
Meditation Verses: 138:2-5
Thought
The psalmist praises the Lord for His love and faithfulness, out of which He has exalted His Name and His Word above all things. So He prays to the Lord for boldness and received it. Then he prays that all the kings of the earth would recognise how great is the Lord's Name and Word, so that they too would rejoice in them, singing the Lord's praises for His wisdom and ways. Why would he need boldness and stout-heartedness?
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