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 9, 2024, 2:11 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 12 - Joel 1
Meditation Verses: Hosea 14:1-4
Thought
This is what repentance looks like: Turning away from our own wisdom and ways, and coming back to the Lord; coming to the Lord and asking for cleansing from sin and that He would receive us, so that we could bring to Him what He deserves, the fruit of our lips, not just words but actions consistent with what we say; confessing that it is the Lord alone that saves, that no other power that we once turned to can deliver us or show mercy to us like the Lord can.
Jul 8, 2024, 2:13 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 8-11
Meditation Verses: 11:1-5
Thought
This hits home. I am not the first father to experience this, nor will I be the last. Even God has endured the rejection of His sons. When they were young, He loved them and called them out of Egypt, out of the world. He taught them to walk, trained them, provided for them, carried them in His arms, healed them, but they didn't know it, they forgot it, it didn't register with them.
Jul 7, 2024, 2:14 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 4-7
Meditation Verses: 7:13-14
Thought
Ephraim is destroyed for lack of knowledge. When God desires to heal them, their sin is uncovered. To them, it is all like a game: Say the magic words when things get tough, offer the right sacrifices when trouble comes, and God will fix things, God will restore blessing. Ephraim would like God to bless them, but they speak lies against Him.
Jul 6, 2024, 2:16 AM
Passage Read: Daniel 12 - Hosea 3
Meditation Verses: Hosea 2:8-15
Thought
Those whom the Lord loves, He rebukes and disciplines. He loves Israel but Israel keeps going after other gods, ignoring His commands and His ways, and pursuing those who grant her every wish and fulfill her every want. She thinks it is her lovers who provide all her riches and wealth and comfort, but it is the Lord, her Husband and Maker.
Jun 19, 2023, 6:42 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 8-11
Meditation Verse: 11:9
Thought
The Lord is longsuffering indeed. He is frustrated to the point of destroying Israel, but He then is reminded of His compassion and can't follow through with it. Yet He does. But He also determines to bring them back in faithfulness. He will not completely destroy them, but He will scatter them among the nations, and then one day call them back to Himself. Men are quick to anger; God is slow to anger, but even He can be provoked to wrath, to turn the people He loves over to their enemies. But not forever, and not all of them.
Jun 18, 2023, 6:43 AM
Passage Read: Hosea 4-7
Meditation Verse: 7:14
Thought
God has many things against the Israelites; they sin against Him regularly. They are very good at it, very prolific in their evil. He longs to redeem them, but they lie to Him and lie against Him. Here He says they cry out to Him, but not from the heart. When they have need they seek Him, but they have no real intention to repent and no desire to seek Him when they have no desperate need. They gather together for grain and new wine, but have no time to meet with Him.
Jun 17, 2023, 6:44 AM
Passage Read: Daniel 12 - Hosea 3
Meditation Verse: Hosea 3:1
Thought
The Lord loves the Israelites, even though they pay no attention to Him, but lavish their affections on other gods. The Lord doesn't stop loving Israel, even though she doesn't deserve His love. How does that not break their hearts and bring them back to Him in humility, recognizing that they don't deserve in the least His mercy?