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 25, 2022, 7:38 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 17-20
Meditation Verses: 19:14-15
Thought
Except in a few cases, prophets spoke to groups of people, not to individuals. The next chapter starts with a prophecy directed at the priest who imprisoned Jeremiah, an exception, but most of Jeremiah's messages are spoken to the people, to crowds or groups of people. The prophet was sent to reach as many as possible, that enough people might repent so that the Lord could relent of the disaster He planned.
May 24, 2022, 7:39 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 13-16
Meditation Verse: 15:10
Thought
It is hard to be a prophet. When God sends a prophet, it is usually to a people He cares for but who have turned from His ways. They need correction because they have turned away from following the Lord, but the more hostile to God they are, the more rebuke they need and the less they welcome it. The prophet is almost always caught between a rock and a hard place, sent to a people who need him but don't want him.
May 23, 2022, 7:38 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 9-12
Meditation Verses: 12:14-17
Thought
The Lord will cast out His people from their land because they did not obey Him. But afterwards, He promises to have pity on them and bring them back to their land, to restore their inheritance to them. If they then do not learn to walk in His ways after being so disciplined, then He will again tear them out of the land and destroy them as a nation. The point of discipline is to bring about change and obedience. God sent them into exile in Babylon, then brought them back.
May 22, 2022, 7:41 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 5-8
Meditation Verses: 7:2-4
Thought
This warning is for people coming to worship the Lord. They think that because the Temple is there, because they worship the Lord in His Temple, they think everything will be all right. They don't understand what it means to worship the Lord: They think it means praying in His Temple, maybe giving some money, offering a sacrifice, listening to or singing songs. The Lord didn't require any of that; He required obedience to His Law.
May 21, 2022, 7:42 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 1-4
Meditation Verses: 3:11-15
Thought
Apostasy is when people who should know God turn to other gods, while still claiming to follow the Lord. They claim to belong to the Lord, but they also seek the help of other gods, worshiping gods more interesting and fun than the Lord. They do not walk in obedience to the Lord, but do whatever they think is right. A great apostasy must come before the Antichrist can show himself. And that apostasy is already greatly under way.