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
Jan 9, 2024, 8:02 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 28-31
Meditation Verse: 31:21
Thought
The people were already developing their plans for rebellion, before the Lord even brought them into the land. Yet the Lord still brought them in. He intended to do good to them and prosper them, and let them go astray, as a testimony to them and to the world. He couldn't keep delaying, He couldn't start all over again with a new people. They would go astray; He would turn away from them. He would eventually drive them out of the land; they would repent and return in a little more obedience.
Jan 8, 2024, 8:03 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 24-27
Meditation Verse: 26:17
Thought
So basically what it means to declare the Lord to be my God is that I walk in all His ways. I submit myself fully to His command and leadership. If I do not completely submit myself to all His commands, then I am not truly taking Him as my God, but only aligning myself with Him so that I can still retain control over what I choose to do; I retain autonomy to agree with the commands I choose and reject the ones I don't like. But to take the Lord as my God means giving up all autonomy and submitting myself fully to Him.
Jan 7, 2024, 8:04 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 20-23
Meditation Verses: 23:21-23
Thought
It is better not to vow than to vow and not fulfill it. In fact, a vow should be fulfilled as quickly as possible. It is sin to fail to fulfill a vow, but it is not sin to keep from making a vow! God is not one who takes promises lightly; if we promise Him something, He expects us to fulfill our promise as quickly as possible. We cannot say we didn't mean it, because God holds us accountable for every word that comes from our mouths, even the careless words.
Jan 6, 2024, 8:05 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 16-19
Meditation Verses: 17:19-20
Thought
The way to humility and fearing God is pretty simple: read and obey God's Word all the days of your life! Simple and complete obedience guards a heart from pride and teaches it to fear the Lord. That was the prescription given to any man who would be king over the Israelites: to write themselves a copy of the Law, read it all their days and carefully do all it says.
Jan 5, 2024, 8:06 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 12-15
Meditation Verses: 13:3-11
Thought
The Lord desires His people to love Him more than even other people, even members of their own family. So if even a son or daughter, a wife or husband should counsel rebellion against the Lord, encourage worship of another God, the faithful follower of God should make the matter known and be the first in casting a stone to execute them. We cannot love people more than we love God.
Jan 4, 2024, 8:08 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 8-11
Meditation Verse: 8:16
Thought
The people of Israel were stubborn and resistant to the Lord's word and will. He planned to give them the land of Canaan, not because they were a righteous people, but because the Canaanites had so sinned against the Lord that He was ready to wipe them from the face of the earth, and because He had promised to give the land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's descendants. But He didn't want to replace the Canaanites with another rebellious people, so He had to spend forty years training the Israelites to walk in His ways.
Jan 3, 2024, 8:09 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 4-7
Meditation Verse: 7:16
Thought
The Israelites were to have no pity on anyone or any people which the Lord singled out for destruction. The danger was that the Israelites would learn from those who should have been destroyed to follow other gods and learn their practices rather than walk in God's ways. The age we live in, the church does not go to war with people and has no power or authority to kill anyone. We are called to go to those who do not know Him and instruct them in the ways of God.
Jan 2, 2024, 8:10 AM
Passage Read: Numbers 36 - Deuteronomy 3
Meditation Verse: Deuteronomy 3:26
Thought
The Lord is gracious, and He does appear to change His mind on occasion. But not here. No amount of pleading would change His mind. He loved Moses and honored him, but He had declared that Moses would not enter the promised land because of his failure to show Him honor in the matter of water from the rock. What to us seems like a small matter, to God was sufficient that He would not change His mind to allow Moses to enter the land.
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