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 27, 2025, 12:09 PM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 49-52
Meditation Verses: 51:5-7
Thought
Babylon was the instrument God used to overthrow Judah because of her sins. But that didn't mean God had given up His people! He remained jealous for them, as a people, though many individuals were given up for eternity. Yet now He would destroy Babylon so thoroughly that nothing would remain. So He warned His people, and really anyone who would listen, to flee from Babylon and not be caught up in her destruction.
Jun 26, 2025, 7:07 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 45-48
Meditation Verses: 45:4-5
Thought
Baruch lamented that his life had been overthrown by partnering with Jeremiah to be his scribe. Perhaps they were still in hiding after delivering the scroll to the officials. The king wanted to kill them, but the Lord hid them. There are those who enjoy such fruit and prosperity when they come to the Lord and begin to serve Him, like Abraham or David. But not all. Jacob had his share of trouble and grief, but remained faithful.
Jun 25, 2025, 8:15 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 41-44
Meditation Verses: 44:20-23
Thought
Jeremiah warned the people not to go to Egypt, but they called him a liar and went anyways. He warned them again and again, but they grew more stubborn and insisted that they were better off worshiping the Queen of Heaven instead of the Lord. Jeremiah answers that it was because of their rebellion that evil times came on them, and if they don't repent, they will be wiped out except for a few survivors.
Jun 24, 2025, 8:29 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 37-40
Meditation Verse: 38:15
Thought
Jeremiah sees little point in conversing with the king. He's had enough experience with him to know he won't listen, and maybe he'll even allow him to be killed! The Lord has protected Jeremiah up to this point, as He promised, but perhaps Jeremiah is tired of all the delays and is ready to be done. How discouraging it would be to prophesy for decades and watch the leaders refuse to listen. He didn't want to talk to Zedekiah. But when he did, he was still ignored.
Jun 23, 2025, 7:28 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 33-36
Meditation Verses: 33:4-9
Thought
There are two parts to God's message to Israel. One, that they will be destroyed and uprooted from their land because of all their sin against the Lord. And two, that the Lord will again have compassion on them and bring them back to their land and remove their sin from among them, then they will bring the Lord glory and honor as He intended at the first. There is both a message is doom and a message of hope.
Jun 22, 2025, 6:58 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 29-32
Meditation Verses: 32:20-23
Thought
God redeemed a people for Himself, to gain renown and to bring Himself renown by their changed lives. He provided for them everything they needed and did amazing things for them and to them. He taught them His Law so they would know how to live as His people and bring Him glory by their ways. But they took His kindness and gifts for granted. They didn't acknowledge their duty; they didn't recognize that they weren't people who deserved God's kindness and so respond in eager gratitude to learn God's righteous ways and submit to His guidance and instruction.
Jun 20, 2025, 7:48 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 25-28
Meditation Verses: 28:13-17
Thought
It is no light thing to speak lies in the name of the Lord. While many get away with their deception and live out their days, not so for Hananiah. Not only did God kill him in the seventh month, but he made things worse for all who remained in Jerusalem, by emboldening them to continue in their evil ways rather than repent and be saved. He destroyed countless lives along with his own.
Jun 19, 2025, 8:19 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 21-24
Meditation Verses: 23:28-29
Thought
The prophet who has a dream is free to share it, but he will be destroyed for his insolence and rebellion, for making things up in his own mind and teaching them as if they were the words of God. He will lead many astray and condemn them all to destruction. But the one who spends time in God's council and hears and learns the Words of God, he must speak those words, and trust that God's Word is like a fire that burns away chaff, that burns away lies, and like a hammer that shatters rock-hard hearts.
Jun 18, 2025, 8:14 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 17-20
Meditation Verse: 17:15
Thought
How bold and brazen men can be in their rebellion and confidence that God can do nothing either good or bad. "Where is the Word of the Lord? Let it be fulfilled now!" they say. Yet all that Jeremiah has been preaching is wrath and punishment, unless they repent. Because the Lord delays, because He displays patience and compassion, they think He is powerless. For Jeremiah's words to be fulfilled means the nation must be destroyed.
Jun 17, 2025, 7:31 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 13-16
Meditation Verses: 14:13-16
Thought
What's the use of speaking God's Truth when there are so many more false prophets and teachers spewing lies that overwhelm God's message? Those false teachers will be destroyed, but the real sad thing is when such a thing happens, when false teachers and false prophets far outnumber true, then the Lord has given up this people to destruction. Both false teacher and the people will be destroyed, because the people love those false teachers and refuse to believe the one messenger who is trying to warn them to turn from their evil ways.