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 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.
Dec 29, 2022, 7:08 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 32 - Joshua 1
Meditation Verses: Deuteronomy 34:10-12
Thought
There is no one in all the Old Testament who did the miraculous deeds that Moses did. No other prophet did as many or as mighty works as Moses. Yet, his deeds are all done by God; he didn't actually do anything but obey the Lord and do what He commanded. Elijah did a few miracles, Elisha did a few more. Isaiah did one or two? Jeremiah and Ezekiel did nothing. None of the minor prophets did miracles.
Dec 28, 2022, 7:10 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 28-31
Meditation Verse: 31:27
Thought
Moses knows how rebellious the Israelites have been, and he knows they will continue to be rebellious. If they have rebelled in his presence, how much more will they rebel in his absence. What a discouraging thing to say! What a discouraging thing to think! What a discouraging thing to know! It's like his whole life and mission is a failure. Sure, he got them to the promised land, but he had to wrestle with the Lord to do it--not because the Lord was wrong, but because He was right!
Dec 27, 2022, 7:11 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 24-27
Meditation Verses: 25:5-9
Thought
The wife of a man who dies leaving no son is to become his advocate, ensuring that his line does not die out. The man's brother is supposed to marry her and raise up a son to carry on his brother's line. If he won't, his sister-in-law is supposed to plead with him and enlist the aid of the elders to press him to do this. She has this obligation to her husband even after he is dead. She doesn't live for her own purposes, but for her husband's line.
Dec 26, 2022, 7:14 AM
Passage Read: Deuteronomy 20-23
Meditation Verse: 23:7
Thought
The Lord said that He loved Jacob but hated Esau, such that he would destroy their land and nation. But He did not allow the Israelites to hate them, and in fact made provision for their descendants to be added to Israel from the third generation onward. They and the Egyptians could be included as Israel from the third generation, but Moabites and Ammonites were unwelcome for at least ten generations.