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 6, 2026, 8:02 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 20-23
Meditation Verse: 22:30
Thought
How can God say this when He Himself had appointed and sent Jeremiah to call the people to repentance and righteousness? Ezekiel was among the exiles in Babylon, but Jeremiah was still in Jerusalem at this time. Wasn't he standing before the Lord on behalf of the land? But the Lord forewarned Jeremiah that no one would listen to him.
Jul 5, 2026, 7:47 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 16-19
Meditation Verse: 18:2
Thought
The sense of this proverb is that the fathers do wrong and get away with it, but their sons must endure the consequences. With it, the latter generation blames the former generation for their trials and difficulties. Their fathers sinned against the Lord but lived out their days in prosperity and safety, but their sons live under the oppression of a foreign king, no freedom, humiliated, starving.
Jul 4, 2026, 9:05 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 12-15
Meditation Verses: 13:6-7
Thought
There were prophets who maybe thought they were doing good by giving the people words of encouragement, promising them peace (though there was no word from God assuring peace). But their words of encouragement didn't move the people to change their ways but to remain in them.
Jul 3, 2026, 9:11 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 8-11
Meditation Verse: 11:13
Thought
Ezekiel thought the Israelites still remaining in Jerusalem were the remnant of Israel, but they weren't. It's the Jews who went into exile who will be preserved, at least those who recognize their sin and repent. The Lord will protect them and be a sanctuary to them until He brings them back to the land of Israel. When they return, they will cleanse the land of the abominations that led to their exile.
Jul 2, 2026, 6:36 AM
Passage Read: Ezekiel 4-7
Meditation Verses: 5:7-8
Thought
The Lord chose Israel and established them as a nation, so that they might walk in His decrees and regulations, so that He could bless them so richly that all the surrounding nations would marvel at their God and come to learn about Him. Instead, they became worse than all the nations around them.
Jul 1, 2026, 8:15 AM
Passage Read: Lamentations 5 - Ezekiel 3
Meditation Verses: Ezekiel 3:5-7
Thought
Ezekiel wasn't sent to the Babylonians, among whom he was exiled, but to his own people, with whom he was exiled. He didn't have to learn a foreign language or compete with a foreign culture or religion. He was sent to people "who should listen to you," to his own people, to people who should believe in the Lord.