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 13, 2025, 7:46 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 63-66
Meditation Verses: 66:5-6
Thought
The more a man seeks and believes the Lord and walks in His ways, the more men are divided for and against him. Even those among his brothers are revealed as loving or disdaining the Lord. Some who claim to love the Lord will be offended by the one who gives up control of his life to the Lord, and of course all those who hate the Lord will reject him. They will mock him and call for the Lord to show His mighty power, but it is His grace that He has not yet done so.
Jun 12, 2025, 6:34 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 59-62
Meditation Verse: 59:20
Thought
These final chapters of Isaiah are filled with wonderful promises of the return of Israel to her land, the exaltation of the nation of Israel and the restoration of righteousness to Israel. All the world will see and marvel and worship the Lord in Jerusalem, and Israel will enjoy the treasures of all nations.
Jun 11, 2025, 6:35 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 55-58
Meditation Verses: 56:10-12
Thought
Israel's watchmen, her shepherds, are blind and mute. They cannot see what is done wrong and they cannot speak out about it. Instead, they just love themselves, they just love to lie around and sleep and dream. They have mighty appetites and all they care about is getting food and drink and enjoying their days. They do not want to lead the people, but to live off their labor. They are greedy for gain, and so they scheme to skim all they can from the people.
Jun 10, 2025, 6:32 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 51-54
Meditation Verses: 51:12-13
Thought
When God asks this question--to those who seek righteousness--He's not talking about typical bad people, whom we're already inclined to fear, but He's talking about oppressors who are bent on our destruction! Who are we who seek righteousness that we fear the wrath of man more than the glorious might of the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth?
Jun 9, 2025, 6:32 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 47-50
Meditation Verses: 48:17-19
Thought
"If only you had paid attention to My commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea." It seems we are so rich and so blessed in America, but I wonder if we're not missing an even greater blessing because we seems only marginally concerned with what the Lord has called us to be and do.
Jun 8, 2025, 6:48 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 43-46
Meditation Verses: 45:9-10
Thought
"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker!" Who are we compared with the Lord? Oh, if only we could prove that the Lord is nothing, that He is just an idol, a block of wood carved by men, gold fashioned by a craftsman. Then we could make Him say whatever we want. Then we could disregard anything He said that didn't line up with our wants.
Jun 7, 2025, 6:49 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 39-42
Meditation Verses: 40:9-10
Thought
This is only good news to those who have suffered unjustly, or suffered justly and come to recognize their wrong. They have been punished and are ready to do right, but they have not yet been released from prison or from their punishment. To those who think everything is going well, things are not so bad, or who are enjoying what this life and this world has to offer, to them, this is not good news, that the Lord has appeared with reward and recompense.
Jun 6, 2025, 6:38 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 35-38
Meditation Verses: 38:10-12
Thought
What is the point of life, if not to serve the Lord and lay up glory and honor in His presence forever? Hezekiah speaks of no longer seeing the Lord in the land of the living, yes, but what about seeing Him in the land of the dead? While the Lord may not visit Hades, he will meet all his ancestors who worshiped and served the Lord, and they will be able to speak to one another about the great things God did in their day.
Jun 5, 2025, 6:41 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 31-34
Meditation Verses: 33:14-16
Thought
It is sinners who say, "Who can dwell with this consuming fire?" It is those who refuse to submit to the Lord that see Him and fear Him as a frightful burning. In answer to their question, the Lord declares that it is those who do what is right and love righteousness who will dwell forever with the Lord.
Jun 4, 2025, 7:06 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 27-30
Meditation Verses: 30:9-11
Thought
The people are unwilling to hear the word of the Lord. They have gone their own way and they want to keep going their own way. They don't want to be confronted with the Holy One of Israel. They don't want to hear His commands and His righteousness and the righteousness He expects of them. So they command the seers and prophets to be silent or only speak happy things, illusions and lies that make them feel good about themselves.