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
Feb 14, 2025, 1:12 AM
Passage Read: 2 Samuel 22 - 1 Kings 1
Meditation Verses: 1 Kings 1:7-10
Thought
Solomon's appointment as next in line for the throne was public knowledge, at least among the leaders of Israel. Adonijah knew it too, and so he didn't invite Solomon or Nathan the prophet or Zadok the priest or Benaiah and his guard.
Feb 15, 2024, 12:49 AM
Passage Read: 1 Kings 18-21
Meditation Verse: 21:29
Thought
It is hard to tell whether Ahab himself is so evil or is it all his wife? He seems like such a child at times, vexed and sullen, pouting on his bed. Every now and then he seems like a king, but so often he doesn't. His wife, however, is very decisive and quick to action, though very cruel. She doesn't hesitate to condemn innocent men and kill them. Then here, Ahab humbles himself and the Lord decides to delay His condemnation of Ahab and his family.
Feb 14, 2024, 12:50 AM
Passage Read: 1 Kings 14-17
Meditation Verses: 14:15-16
Thought
The Lord ends up casting Israel out of their land because of the sins of Jeroboam. He led the people to worship images of a golden calf, hearkening back to Israel's exodus from Egypt and Aaron's golden calf. They made this image to worship in place of God. Jeroboam did the same thing, and reopened the door to worshiping other gods. So the Lord rejected Israel for a time, because there was no one to bring Israel back to the Lord.
Feb 12, 2024, 12:52 AM
Passage Read: 1 Kings 10-13
Meditation Verses: 11:6-10
Thought
The Law of God for Israel did not allow for freedom of religion in the sense that people could worship any god they desired. God commanded that Israel as a nation and a people worship only the Lord. Any foreigner who chose to dwell among them was also required to worship the Lord only. There was one law, for native and alien who dwelt in Israel. The Lord is the only true God, so He did not permit His people to worship any other god.
Feb 11, 2024, 12:53 AM
Passage Read: 1 Kings 6-9
Meditation Verses: 9:4-7
Thought
The obedience of Solomon and his sons allows the Lord to keep His promise to David, and allows Him to bless the nation. But if he or his sons disobey, the Lord will bring trouble on them and on the nation, even casting the nation out of their land. God honors obedience and curses disobedience. We may receive extra grace because of the obedience of our fathers or leaders, but if we will not walk in the Lord's ways, we cannot expect blessing and favor, but trial and tribulation.
Feb 9, 2024, 12:55 AM
Passage Read: 1 Kings 2-5
Meditation Verses: 2:40-43
Thought
After the years of living in Jerusalem, knowing he wasn't to leave under penalty of death, Shimei left the city in pursuit of two runaway slaves. Solomon's men knew when he had gone and knew when he returned. Was it gate guards who recognized him or were there regular patrols that checked in on him? Somehow Solomon knew that he had left the city. No one reminded Shimei before he left that he would violate the terms of his parole, not his friends and not the men who might have seen him packing for a journey.
Jan 29, 2023, 6:45 AM
Passage Read: 1 Kings 18-21
Meditation Verse: 20:28
Thought
Elijah succeeds against the prophets of Baal, then twice the Lord gives Israel success over the Arameans, all to show Ahab that the Lord is God. Yet Ahab makes no changes. Three significant miracles and Ahab continues in his sin. Miracles won't necessarily convince a man that the Lord is God. God must open their heart to believe, and he can do that without miraculous signs. So the signs serve as much as a testimony against all those who refuse to believe.
Jan 28, 2023, 6:47 AM
Passage Read: 1 Kings 14-17
Meditation Verses: 15:3-4
Thought
The Lord is gracious even to sinners, but it is usually not because of them, but because of a promise He made to a previous generation. Indeed, His loyalty to Israel is not so much because of Israel's faithfulness, but because of God's promise to Abraham. The only reason they survive despite their sin is because of God's loyalty to Abraham and the promise He gave him. Yet because of that, future generations who are less than faithful don't understand that the good they enjoy, like the strength of Jerusalem, is not because of them, but because of their forefather.
Jan 27, 2023, 6:48 AM
Passage Read: 1 Kings 10-13
Meditation Verses: 13:16-18
Thought
How easy it is to doubt a word of God, especially when it makes my life a little inconvenient or uncomfortable. Scripture doesn't say how long the journey was for this prophet from Judah, but he was commanded not to eat in Israel, to prophesy against the Jeroboam's altar, then return without food or drink. He was on foot and didn't make it very far on his way home before the second prophet caught up with him.
Jan 26, 2023, 6:49 AM
Passage Read: 1 Kings 6-9
Meditation Verses: 8:38-42
Thought
Whenever trouble comes and people pray to the Lord for deliverance, each man knowing his own heart and his own afflictions, then may the Lord forgive and deal with each one according to his deeds, that each man may fear the Lord all the time. Then foreigners will hear and come and pray to the Lord as well, so that all the peoples of the earth may know the Lord and fear Him.