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 12, 2024, 9:06 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 21-24
Meditation Verses: 23:28-29
Thought
God is against all the prophets who speak out of their own ideas and dreams, who do not speak the Word of the Lord, but speak their own ideas and call them "the Word of the Lord." Yet neither is He afraid of their words. He tells them to carry on speaking, as much as they want, because their words are straw compared to the wheat of His Word.
Jun 11, 2024, 9:07 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 17-20
Meditation Verses: 20:7-8
Thought
This is the hard part of truly knowing the Lord and seeing as He sees. Every time Jeremiah opens his mouth, he speaks destruction and disaster and violence against his people. That's all he sees for his people, because they refuse to acknowledge and repent of their sin. That is what God has planned against them because they refuse to hear and obey His Word. They think they're safe because they have the temple and the priests and the Scriptures, but they ignore the Scriptures, the priests follow their own evil desires and lead the people astray, and the people love it so!
Jun 10, 2024, 9:13 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 13-16
Meditation Verses: 14:13-16
Thought
The Lord tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people because there is no hope for them; they will be cast out of the Lord's land. But Jeremiah sees the problem: Their prophets are telling them that everything will be all right; they will enjoy peace and prosperity, even though they sin terribly against the Lord. How can Jeremiah compete with all the false prophets? There are so many more of them and they all say the opposite of what God tells Jeremiah to proclaim!
Jun 9, 2024, 9:18 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 9-12
Meditation Verse: 11:6
Thought
Jeremiah was commanded to go through the cities of Judah and streets of Jerusalem proclaiming the Lord's covenant that the people had violated. City by city, town by town in Judah, and street by street in Jerusalem. There is no escaping it.
Jun 8, 2024, 9:21 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 5-8
Meditation Verse: 6:16
Thought
Ecclesiastes tells us not to ask why the former days were better than the present, for that doesn't come from wisdom. But God tells Jeremiah that we should be seeking out the former ways, the ancient paths, the good paths, for to walk in those ways is to know peace, peace with God.
Jun 7, 2024, 9:23 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 1-4
Meditation Verse: 1:17
Thought
Passage Read: Jeremiah 1-4
Meditation Verse: 1:17
Thought
Jeremiah is a youth, yet he is called by God to proclaim His message of judgment and warning. He is called to speak to rulers and nations and crowds of people, and God warns him not to be dismayed by them, not to fear them or be overwhelmed by them, otherwise the Lord would dismay him before them. He is not to fear the people or be intimidated by them, otherwise the Lord would confuse and confound him before all the people.
May 31, 2023, 2:11 PM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 49-52
Meditation Verse: 51:45
Thought
This sounds like the same call to flee Babylon in the future, before the return of Christ. Did they flee the city only or the whole country, because that would indicate what is needed in time to come. Surely it was just the city, the residence of the king, the seat of power.
May 30, 2023, 2:13 PM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 45-48
Meditation Verses: 45:4-5
Thought
The end of this age may be closer than anyone realizes, when the Lord overthrows everything men have built. So what will it matter if anyone seeks great things in this day? It will only be wasted effort, effort that could have been directed elsewhere. Because whether the end of this age is at hand or not, nothing built here will last. But everything built for the Lord will endure into eternity.
May 29, 2023, 2:14 PM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 41-44
Meditation Verses: 44:24-28
Thought
Why does God even bother talking to these people? They have rejected Him to His face; they have declared their intent and fulfilled it to go against whatever He says. They rejected Jeremiah when they asked Jeremiah to ask the Lord whether they should go to Egypt or not. They won't listen to Jeremiah. They rejected him as prophet, even when everything he previously prophesied came to pass!
May 28, 2023, 2:15 PM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 37-40
Meditation Verse: 38:17
Thought
Zedekiah could have saved Jerusalem, if he had only humbled himself and surrendered to the Babylonians. The city and the temple would have been preserved. But he refused to believe Jeremiah, and so all this disaster fell on them and the city. It is dreadful to ignore the Word of the Lord, costly to the one who leads the rebellion and to all who follow him. The one who really has the best interests of those he leads will make every effort to listen to, honor and obey the Lord.