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
Aug 21, 2023, 9:32 AM
Passage Read: Acts 8-9
Meditation Verses: 9:20,22
Thought
Paul immediately begins preaching to his fellow Jews that Jesus is the Son of God and proving that Jesus is the Messiah! This is what Luke records about Paul's message. Paul was convinced that Jesus was the Son of God and the Messiah, so now he had to tell all his fellow Jews. But Luke doesn't record him preaching about forgiveness, but about who Jesus is. That is surprising to me.
Aug 20, 2023, 9:33 AM
Passage Read: Acts 6-7
Meditation Verse: 7:51
Thought
Disobedience is resisting the Holy Spirit. Refusing to believe and obey the Lord is resisting the Holy Spirit. Hating those who call one to repentance is resisting the Holy Spirit. And Stephen says this of those who represented the Lord to the people, these were the priests and elders, the Sanhedrin. They were supposed to be the experts in the Bible, but they like their forefathers refused to believe and obey it.
Aug 19, 2023, 9:36 AM
Passage Read: Acts 4-5
Meditation Verse: 5:42
Thought
Interesting that Luke records this in this way: the good news is that Jesus is the Christ. Not forgiveness of sins through Jesus' death and resurrection, but Jesus is the Messiah. Forgiveness of sins is preached in His name, but it's only possible because He is the Messiah, He is the Son of God, and He perfectly obeyed His Father. The good news is that the Messiah has come and He is Jesus. And in time He will set up His kingdom.
Aug 18, 2023, 9:37 AM
Passage Read: Acts 2-3
Meditation Verse: 3:16
Thought
The man was made well by Peter's faith in Jesus. The man knew nothing about what Peter was going to do, but Peter knew what he was going to do. Faith for healing doesn't have to be in the one healed, but usually does have to be in the one through whom healing comes.
Aug 17, 2023, 9:38 AM
Passage Read: John 21 - Acts 1
Meditation Verses: Acts 1:6-8
Thought
His disciples want to know when He will restore the kingdom of Israel, but Jesus tells them they're not going to know the plan of the Father. Their responsibility and duty will be to witness for Christ. Their mission wasn't to just wait for Him to set up His kingdom, but to tell others who He is and that He is coming again to restore the kingdom. As much as I might think to the contrary, I don't need to know the when in order to tell people that it will happen.
Aug 16, 2023, 7:11 AM
Passage Read: John 19-20
Meditation Verses: 20:28-29
Thought
Believing in Jesus means recognizing Him as Lord and God. His resurrection doesn't merely mean that our sins are paid for, but that Jesus has authority over life and death, that He is greater than any human being, that He is indeed God, and therefore also Lord of every man and all creation. He has all power and all authority. If He can conquer death, then He has power we cannot fathom, and authority to match. He is Lord and God.
Aug 15, 2023, 7:13 AM
Passage Read: John 17-18
Meditation Verses: 17:22-23
Thought
Jesus' prayer for His disciples and all of us who believe in Him through them is for our unity, that we would be completely united with each other and more importantly with Christ. The goal He has in mind is that we all know Him and His Father well, and that be what unites us. It is not supposed to be that we all claim to believe in the same God, but that our understanding of God brings us together as one.
Aug 14, 2023, 7:15 AM
Passage Read: John 15-16
Meditation Verse: 15:6
Thought
It's either remain in Jesus or perish. There is no other option. To remain in Jesus requires obedience to His commands and holding fast to them. His number one command is to love other believers as Jesus loved His disciples. He's speaking specifically to the Eleven, and He loved them by teaching them the truth about Himself and His Father before dying for them. He modeled compete obedience to His Father, which is love for God and results in love for people.
Aug 13, 2023, 7:17 AM
Passage Read: John 13-14
Meditation Verse: 14:31
Thought
The world must learn that Jesus does exactly what the Father commands. Except the lesson the world took away was that Jesus was a nobody. He was easy to capture, condemn and kill. And then they were done with Him. They didn't understand that He was doing everything His Father desired. They will eventually understand those things, especially when Jesus returns to reign in power. But the Lord God is teaching His lessons even if no one understands, even if no one will understand until He comes in power.
Aug 12, 2023, 7:18 AM
Passage Read: John 11-12
Meditation Verses: 12:49-50
Thought
The Father's command leads to eternal life, so Jesus faithfully repeated what the Father told Him to say. He didn't change it or add His spin to it, knowing that to do so could distort its meaning and sap it of power. The words of Jesus are deliberately spoken, just as are all the words of Scripture, carefully repeated and recorded from the Father. To change them is to distort the meaning and change the message and threaten the power they contain, which is disastrous for those who hear it.
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