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
May 20, 2023, 7:25 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 5-8
Meditation Verses: 7:22-23
Thought
The Law is all about how to walk in God's ways, how to do what is right and avoid what is evil. There were many commands, all of which teach what it means to love the Lord with all the heart and to love a neighbor as oneself. The sacrificial system was established and prescribed for the occasional breaking of a command; it was never meant as a means to ignore the commands and get away with it by killing some animals!
May 19, 2023, 7:26 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 1-4
Meditation Verses: 4:1-2
Thought
If God's people repent and return to the Lord, if they swear in truth and righteousness, "As the Lord loves," if they believe it and walk in His ways because they know He is true and real and living, then all nations will be blessed by Him and glory in Him. If God's people honor and revere Him in word and deed, then all nations will enjoy His favor and glorify Him. The repentance and belief of the nations is tied to, even dependent on the faith and faithfulness of those who are called His own.
Jun 2, 2022, 6:52 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 49-52
Meditation Verse: 51:6
Thought
This same thing is said of the future Babylon, that the Lord's people should flee from it. This Babylon will never be rebuilt because the destruction of it was so complete, and God promised it would never rise again. But it is used as a symbol of another Babylon rising in the future at the end of days, and believers are once again called to flee from it. It will be overthrown as completely as this Babylon of old, no one will survive its destruction, so God's people being warned shouldn't remain in it.
Jun 1, 2022, 6:53 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 45-48
Meditation Verse: 46:28
Thought
Because God's people do not walk faithfully in His ways, He must discipline them. He will scatter them among the nations, sending them into exile, so it will not be a light discipline. He will discipline them with justice. Many will not survive, but a remnant will, and He will bring them back to their land. It will not be a painless discipline. But for all that, He will make a full end of the nations among which He scatters His people.
May 31, 2022, 7:29 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 41-44
Meditation Verses: 44:17-18
Thought
They remember it wrong or analyze it incorrectly because they don't understand the compassion of the Lord. While they sinned against Him, they enjoyed His mercy while He sent prophets to rebuke them and turn them from their sinful ways. When they refused to repent, God brought suffering into their lives, and if they did leave off their sinful ways, it was not in truth and only until God brought relief, as when they proclaimed freedom for their Hebrew slaves, then when Babylon withdrew, they claimed them all back as slaves again.
May 30, 2022, 7:31 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 37-40
Meditation Verses: 39:16-18
Thought
In the midst of great disaster, God is able to promise to a foreign slave in the king's house that he will not die, but be given his life as a ransom because of his faith in the Lord. It seems impossible that the Lord could deliver him out of the wrath and confusion of the overthrow of Jerusalem, but the Lord still makes this promise to him. Jeremiah was known even to the king of Babylon, who gave instructions concerning him by name.
May 29, 2022, 7:32 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 33-36
Meditation Verse: 33:3
Thought
This is a well known promise, God's invitation to come and ask Him to reveal great and mighty things, mysteries and future events. But in its immediate context, it begins with bad news, that the Lord will destroy Jerusalem for its sin. However, it ends with a promise to again restore Jerusalem and make her the praise of the whole earth. God wants to do good to His people, but they must acknowledge their sin and repent of it.
May 28, 2022, 7:33 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 29-32
Meditation Verse: 32:33
Thought
Lord, You said You would make a new covenant with Your people, a covenant to write Your Law on their hearts and on their inward parts. Why then does it seem that "believers" today still seem so clueless about You? Why do they commit this same sin, turning their back to You and not their face, not listening to receive instruction even though You teach them daily by Your Spirit and by Your servants? Who really wants to know You and walk in Your ways?
May 27, 2022, 7:34 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 25-28
Meditation Verse: 25:29
Thought
Judgment begins with the people of God, and if God finds fault with His own people, what will He do to those who do not follow Him at all? Of course He will find even greater fault! At least those who were called by His name had some faith in Him, they did speak of Him and had some recollection of His ways. But those who reject Him have nothing but contempt for Him and His ways! For whom will it go better?
May 26, 2022, 7:36 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 21-24
Meditation Verses: 23:21-22
Thought
A good prophet is one who stands in the Lord's counsel, listens to His voice and tells the people what he hears. They don't need a special message, just the Words that have already been written! All anyone needs to do is read His Word to the people, and they will turn from their evil ways.