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
Jul 8, 2025, 7:17 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 32-35
Meditation Verses: 33:30-33
Thought
There are many who think all they have to do to please God is show up and listen to the message preached. But God makes clear here that it is putting into practice what is preached that honors God. We only deceive ourselves if we hear the Word of God but do not put it into practice. Those people will find out one day that the Word of God was true and they were wrong. They'll find out the hard way, when the Word of God judges and condemns them.
Jul 7, 2025, 7:33 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 28-31
Meditation Verses: 28:4-5
Thought
Wisdom and skill resulting in wealth tempts anyone to pride, excessive pride that thinks too highly of himself and too little of the Lord our Maker. Beauty and glory from wealth leads to arrogance and self-aggrandizement. It is a dangerous thing to be so wise, so clever as to make yourself rich, and to spend your riches on treasures for yourself. Because you start to think you really are pretty amazing. You can do whatever you want.
Jul 6, 2025, 6:51 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 24-27
Meditation Verses: 25:15-17
Thought
All of Judah's neighbors rejoiced at their destruction. They took vengeance or made plans to plunder what remained. So the Lord promised to send enemies against them to destroy them. Though the Lord punishes Israel and Judah, He has not abandoned them. He has promised to restore them to their land. So for any nation or people to think that they can then have the land or pile on the punishment, that is a huge mistake and the Lord will turn and take vengeance on them on behalf of His people.
Jul 5, 2025, 8:34 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 20-23
Meditation Verses: 23:46-49
Thought
The destruction of Israel and Judah is a warning to all nations, to all those who will claim the Lord as their own God. They must not turn away from Him or worship other gods as Israel and Judah did. They must not look to other nations, mightier than them, and trust them for deliverance. If you believe in the Lord, then believe who He is and what He stands for, and trust Him with your life. If you claim to believe in Him but live by the world's wisdom, you are a false believer!
Jul 4, 2025, 7:30 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 16-19
Meditation Verse: 16:63
Thought
God exalted and honored Israel and Judah, not because of their greatness, but because He had pity on them. When they were first born, no one cared about them; they were left to die. But the Lord had compassion on them and provided for them and blessed them beyond anything they deserved. But then they came to think they were so great and they forgot their youth, that they were completely despised by all the nations, and that it was God who exalted them.
Jul 3, 2025, 8:31 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 12-15
Meditation Verses: 13:4-7
Thought
The Lord is rightly furious with the false prophets. They have made up their own prophecies, but spoken them in the name of the Lord. They have lied to the people and made them believe the Lord said it. They have flattered the people and told them they were just fine, when in fact, the Lord was furious with them. So they didn't turn them from their evil ways, but strengthened them in their wickedness.
Jul 2, 2025, 8:40 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 8-11
Meditation Verses: 9:9-10
Thought
They spoke as if the Lord had abandoned them, so they had no choice but to turn to other gods for help and deliverance. But the Lord had not yet abandoned them; He saw everything they were doing and it grieved Him. So He did abandon them to the consequences of rejecting Him. They had abandoned Him first and chased after other gods until the Lord was so offended that He gave them up.
Jul 1, 2025, 7:15 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 4-7
Meditation Verses: 5:6-7
Thought
It is better to have never known the Lord than to know His righteous decrees and turn away from them. To know the Lord and His ways, to have waited on them, then to cast them behind your back and walk away from them, this is far more offensive to God than to have walked in wickedness because you never knew anything else! The end of both is the same: eternal damnation. But to know the truth, then deliberately turn away after lies and false gods, this is incredibly insulting to God, and He will be insulted.
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