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
Jun 3, 2025, 2:34 PM
Passage Read: Isaiah 23-26
Meditation Verses: 26:1-3
Thought
Verse 3 is a well-known verse of encouragement, reminding us to trust in the Lord and He will keep us at peace. But the context is more specific than that. The promise is that the Lord will save Israel and destroy all her enemies. He will protect her with His power and might, and the city will welcome all who do righteousness; the people who live there and those who visit will be righteous people.
Jun 2, 2025, 2:24 PM
Passage Read: Isaiah 19-22
Meditation Verses: 22:11-14
Thought
God brought the king of Assyria against Judah and Jerusalem, and they made all the preparations they knew how to make, but they didn't turn to the Lord and seek His mercy or favor. They saw that despite all their efforts, there was no hope, so they decided to live it up one last night, then die the next day when the enemy came against them. Yet God brought overwhelming odds against them so that they would humble themselves and seek Him!
Jun 1, 2025, 1:56 PM
Passage Read: Isaiah 15-18
Meditation Verse: 16:5
Thought
This is who God is and what He values. This is the Lord Jesus, and how He will operate. In love for all people, God will establish His Son on the throne of Israel and all the nations will submit to Him and seek Him and He will judge them. He will seek justice and speed the cause of righteousness. He will judge justly and fairly, according to the law of the Lord and His righteous character. Neither Jesus not God side with the lawless, with those who cast down or make up rules by themselves, for their own aggrandizement.
May 31, 2025, 6:41 PM
Passage Read: Isaiah 11-14
Meditation Verses: 14:1-2
Thought
No one can stop what the Lord has in mind. He will one day establish Israel as the chief of the nations, when Jesus comes to rule. In that day, there will be aliens who have joined themselves to the people of Israel, which likely refers to Gentiles who embrace the God of Jacob as their own. But there will also be nations of oppressors, unbelievers, who will be made Israel's servants.
May 30, 2025, 1:43 PM
Passage Read: Isaiah 7-10
Meditation Verses: 9:14-17
Thought
The elders and prominent men, the prophets who speak lies, they will all be cut off in a day. God hates them! They have led the people so far astray, that He will have pity on no one, not young man nor widow nor orphan. Everyone is wicked and ungodly. All their mouths speak vileness. There is no reason to show pity. Yet, even this punishment is not enough to satisfy the Lord's anger. He will bring even more disaster on them!
May 29, 2025, 1:53 PM
Passage Read: Isaiah 3-6
Meditation Verse: 5:8
Thought
What an interesting verse. There are those who are house to house and field to field, and they end up isolated, alone in the land. They build ever bigger houses, and the expand their fields, until they have driven off their neighbors and there is no land left for anyone else. This is how we farm in America today, but God says "Woe" to such people! It's like God never meant for a few people to acquire all the land in an area, and then dwell alone, far from others.
May 28, 2025, 1:44 PM
Passage Read: Song of Solomon 7 - Isaiah 2
Meditation Verses: Isaiah 2:2-3
Thought
This is surely a vision of Jesus' kingdom. The mountain of the house of the Lord, where Jesus is seated upon His throne, this mountain will be raised up above all other mountains, and all the nations will stream to it. They will bring their gifts and treasure, and they will learn the ways of the Lord. The law of God will be the law of all lands. The Lord will again establish not just a nation but an empire and require all nations to walk according to His ways, which He established for Israel long ago. The Law of the Lord will be the law for all nations.
Jun 6, 2024, 9:02 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 63-66
Meditation Verse: 66:24
Thought
One day, we will be able to look on all those people who rejected the Lord, as they suffer torment. Their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched. They will be visible to all the redeemed, and we will be able to look on them whenever we desire. And they will be an abhorrence to all who remain. We will see friends and neighbors and even relatives who rejected the Lord, who refused to believe and obey Him, and we will not feel pity but disgust.
Jun 5, 2024, 9:04 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 59-62
Meditation Verse: 59:4
Thought
How true this is, from the least of us to the greatest. No one is completely honest. We trust in confusion and misdirection, and even speak lies. We don't sue righteously or plead honestly. We present the side of truth that supports our want, rather than the whole truth that might show we aren't the oppressed one, or that our lack is our own making.
Jun 4, 2024, 9:05 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 55-58
Meditation Verses: 58:1-3
Thought
The Lord has a lot against Judah, even though they seek Him day by day and delight to know His ways. They believe they are a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the Lord's commands. They call out to Him for guidance and leadership, and delight in His nearness. But He is not pleased with them, because in all their spirituality, they have not learned to do good and right, but while they do the one, they also oppress the weak and pursue all their own desires.