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 11, 2023, 7:19 AM
Passage Read: John 9-10
Meditation Verses: 10:25-26
Thought
Jesus' miracles were enough to convince anyone to believe that He was the Son of God and the Messiah. They should have been enough to convince anyone. But not everyone has been chosen to believe, not everyone is a sheep of God's choosing. Those who have not been given to Jesus cannot believe, and even some who claim to believe are not His sheep. His sheep listen to His voice, they do what He says. And they are not put off by anything He says.
Aug 10, 2023, 7:20 AM
Passage Read: John 7-8
Meditation Verse: 7:4
Thought
Jesus is doing things and gathering crowds, so that it seems obvious to everyone that He wants to be a public figure, to be famous. But He also keeps telling people He heals not to tell about Him. Jesus is surrounded by crowds almost every time He heals someone, what's the use of telling people not to tell who He is? But Jesus isn't trying to be a public figure, He's not seeking attention for Himself for the sake of seeking attention. He lives to do His Father's will.
Aug 9, 2023, 7:21 AM
Passage Read: John 5-6
Meditation Verse: 5:3
Thought
There were a great number of disabled people lying by the pool, yet Jesus singled out one guy who would not believe or honor Him. When confronted by the Pharisees, the man panicked and claimed not to know who Jesus was. When Jesus found him later and warned him not to sin anymore, the man sought out the Pharisees who rebuked him and told them it was Jesus. Because of this, the Pharisees began to persecute Jesus.
Aug 8, 2023, 7:23 AM
Passage Read: John 3-4
Meditation Verse: 4:50
Thought
This is what Jesus desires of everyone, to take Him at His Word, to believe whatever He says without doubting. That's the kind of faith I want to have. But I'm too full of my own knowledge and wisdom that keep me from the simple faith of a child. It's my own intellect that makes me question and doubt the simple truth of Jesus' words, of God's words. Even Paul writes and calls believers to become fools for God, to abandon the wisdom of this world for the wisdom of God.
Aug 7, 2023, 7:24 AM
Passage Read: John 1-2
Meditation Verse: 1:23
Thought
This is a good description of the work all of us should be doing, calling people to prepare for the return of the Lord and be ready for Him. Like John we should be preparing a people for the Lord, so that when He comes, there would be many ready to receive Him. It takes calling people to repentance and training them to walk in the ways of the Lord.
Aug 6, 2023, 8:00 AM
Passage Read: Luke 23-24
Meditation Verses: 24:46-47
Thought
Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be preached to all nations. All people have gone astray and live by their own standards of righteousness, but now that Jesus has suffered and risen from the dead, He has been appointed Lord and Christ, and has inherited God's kingdom that will soon come to claim the whole earth. He desires that all men be saved, so all men must repent of their self-will and self-righteousness, humble themselves before the Lord and accept His standard of righteousness and right to rule.
Aug 5, 2023, 8:01 AM
Passage Read: Luke 21-22
Meditation Verses: 22:67-71
Thought
Jesus said they wouldn't believe Him, and He was right, but He answered anyway. If there was any question from His first answer, there was none from His second. And they did not believe Him. He was testifying against them, allowing them to condemn themselves. We don't necessarily tell the truth about God, Jesus and the world to bring about repentance, but we are called to testify against it, to let the world display its refusal to believe.
Aug 4, 2023, 8:03 AM
Passage Read: Luke 19-20
Meditation Verse: 20:19
Thought
They understood that parable was said against them, so instead of distancing themselves from Jesus and leaving Him be, they decide to do that which would lead them to fulfill His prophecy against them from this parable! They could have proved Jesus wrong by leaving Him alone, but instead they chose to prove Him right by looking for a way to get rid of Him.
Aug 3, 2023, 8:04 AM
Passage Read: Luke 17-18
Meditation Verse: 18:9
Thought
Humility is the hallmark of a servant of Christ, even those that are following Him best and closest. Their righteousness doesn't come from their own works or obedience, but from God. Their righteousness is a gift from God, and because they recognize how precious and valuable a gift it is, they respond in grateful obedience. Their heart to obey is the result of their faith in Jesus, a gift, an exchange of a soft heart for a hard heart, made by God.
Aug 2, 2023, 8:06 AM
Passage Read: Luke 15-16
Meditation Verse: 16:15
Thought
The Pharisees loved what all men loved, but we're supposed to be faithful believers in God. So when their love of the things of the world was questioned, they had to justify themselves and explain why it was okay for them to pursue worldly things and still be counted faithful to God. Some men might have been convinced, some might have even joined with them because their explanation sounded good to them, but others could see through it and despised the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.