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 16, 2026, 9:01 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 63-66
Meditation Verses: 66:3-5
Thought
It is amazing to think that there are people who think they worship the Lord, but who have no fear of Him! They don't care what He thinks; they do whatever they want. They offer sacrifices--why?--but then live however they please. They don't fear God, they don't fear what God's Word says, instead they do whatever they think is good and right, even when it is exactly opposite from what God has commanded!
Jun 15, 2026, 8:19 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 59-62
Meditation Verses: 59:3-4
Thought
God's people are separated from Him because of their sins: bloodshed and lies. Yet God emphasizes the lies and doesn't mention how their hands are covered with blood, unless it's by their deception. "No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies."
Jun 14, 2026, 7:27 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 55-58
Meditation Verses: 58:1-3
Thought
The people seek the Lord every day and delight to hear His Word taught. They do righteousness, at least some form of it, and they diligently follow certain rules and regulations, at least those pertaining to the treatment of God. They pray to God for just decisions and rejoice that their God is so near. But they're confused as to why they pray but receive no answer.
Jun 13, 2026, 9:09 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 51-54
Meditation Verse: 54:17
Thought
Today there are weapons formed against those who faithfully seek and serve the Lord. Those weapons may kill us, but they and those who wield them will not last. They may gain power for a time, but they will be forever overthrown. Those who are cut off by them, on the other hand, will rise again to rule the earth forever.
Jun 12, 2026, 7:56 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 47-50
Meditation Verses: 49:13-16
Thought
The Lord has struck Israel and devastated her. She was cast out and her children scattered from her. She thought she was forever rejected and her children forever gone. But the Lord is far more powerful than that. Though He slay us, yet shall we live. He must discipline His people for their foolishness, and though their folly is so great that it seems there is no hope of restoration, yet all God does is for discipline and repentance and cleansing and purification.
Jun 11, 2026, 9:29 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 43-46
Meditation Verses: 44:18-21
Thought
How blind are men? They are so blind they cannot see that what they worship is only wood or clay or stone or porcelain. No matter how they carve it and fashion it and dress it up, it is dirt and dust and ashes! But they cannot see it! They cannot see because the Lord has smeared over their eyes.
Jun 10, 2026, 9:37 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 39-42
Meditation Verses: 42:18-22
Thought
There are two kinds of deaf and blind: those who are deaf and blind to the things of God and those who are deaf and blind to all but the things of God. There are those who trust in idols and human imagination instead of in the Lord, who see and hear the Law but don't recognize its greatness and glory so they refuse to obey and walk in it. They think they see; they think they understand.
Jun 9, 2026, 7:00 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 35-38
Meditation Verse: 38:3
Thought
Death is the ultimate test of faith. Do I fear it or welcome it? Hezekiah, in his prayer recorded in later verses, is grieved that his life is being cut short, that he will enter Sheol and no longer see the Lord or men on the earth. He didn't think he could praise the Lord in the grave; he didn't have a complete understanding of death and what follows.
Jun 8, 2026, 7:19 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 31-34
Meditation Verses: 31:1-3
Thought
Even God's people, especially God's people, when they look to men--princes, kings, mighty men, wise men--but not to the Lord, why would they do that? Why would they think of the help of men before they think of the help of God? Men are but flesh, and God can make the helper stumble; it's so easy for Him!
Jun 7, 2026, 8:02 AM
Passage Read: Isaiah 27-30
Meditation Verse: 27:11
Thought
The whole of God's Word has been given to us not just to teach us the bare core of the Gospel, in hope that we might be saved. The whole counsel of God has been given to us to teach us truth and justice and righteousness, so that believing the Gospel can bring us back into a right relationship with God, where He teaches and guides and we follow and learn and obey.