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
Sep 9, 2023, 7:17 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 2-3
Meditation Verse: 3:3
Thought
Jealousy and quarreling are signs of immaturity, of worldliness. Every leader and teacher, their first and only priority is to build people up in Christ and Christlikeness. If they build in any other way, it is misguided and unhelpful at best; at worst it is destructive. The more they lead into Christ, the more quarreling and jealousy should fade away. In Christ, there should be no sides to pick, because we're all seeking the same thing, and there is only one God and one Christ, and they have no quarrel between themselves.
Sep 8, 2023, 6:42 AM
Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1
Meditation Verses: Romans 16:17-18
Thought
Paul says plainly that people who cause divisions, who introduce new ideas contrary to what has been laid down for us in Scripture, such people are not serving Christ, but their own appetites. They are seeking to draw people away after themselves, they are seeking to remove Scriptural boundaries so that they can freely indulge their fleshly desires, and gain converts to join with them in their sin, both as encouragement to perform their desires and as victims to participate with them in their evil deeds. Paul says to stay clear of them...and to not be naive, so as not to fall for their lies.
Sep 7, 2023, 6:44 AM
Passage Read: Romans 14-15
Meditation Verse: 14:13
Thought
Paul calls us to accept one another, to stop passing judgment on each other and put no stumbling block in the way of another. Of course, he gives lots of instructions in different letters about how we're supposed to behave and treat one another. It's not that commands are the stumbling blocks or obstacles he's referring to here, otherwise, we could never teach any command of Scripture except this one.
Sep 6, 2023, 6:45 AM
Passage Read: Romans 12-13
Meditation Verse: 12:6
Thought
If a man's gift is prophecy, he only needs to use it in proportion to his faith! Does that mean he can keep silent if he has little faith? Does it mean he can be content with whatever amount of faith he has? Should he grow in faith, and therefore exercise his gift to greater degree? I feel like I don't have enough faith to do the things I think I should, so this is comforting in that I don't have to do what I don't have faith to do.
Sep 5, 2023, 6:46 AM
Passage Read: Romans 10-11
Meditation Verses: 11:20-24
Thought
This section talks about being cut off and being grafted in again. Israelites are being cut off from salvation, but they can yet repent and believe and be grafted in again. Gentles, on the other hand, who believe the gospel are grafted in, but can be cut off if they do not continue in belief, if they start trusting in their works or the Law for salvation. It sounds like people can be cut off and cut in at will, that salvation is not so set as we like to believe.
Sep 4, 2023, 6:48 AM
Passage Read: Romans 8-9
Meditation Verse: 9:18
Thought
"God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." This is why Jesus and Paul wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to convince people who didn't believe in Jesus in short order. Jesus taught His disciples to move on from any person or place that rejected their message. We can hope that they might believe at a later date, but if God doesn't plan to have mercy on them, then they cannot be saved, even if we wear them down and they confess Christ at some point.
Sep 3, 2023, 6:49 AM
Passage Read: Romans 6-7
Meditation Verses: 6:17-18
Thought
Apparently, with believing the gospel, we offer ourselves in slavery to righteousness. That's an illustration from human experience, but the point is that when I believe in Christ, I believe in Him as Lord of my life with total control over me and should be willingly submitting myself to Him, as if I were actually a slave.
Sep 2, 2023, 6:50 AM
Passage Read: Romans 4-5
Meditation Verse: 4:8
Thought
This is the promise I have in Jesus Christ, that my sins will never be counted against me. This is an impossibly great blessing, because it means I never need fear death, and the Creator of all things will receive me into His eternal kingdom. This is why I want to live for Him, to do whatever He asks of me, though there are still things that scare me or things I don't understand.
Sep 1, 2023, 6:53 AM
Passage Read: Romans 2-3
Meditation Verses: 3:18-19
Thought
"There is no fear of God before their eyes." The Law says this to those who are under the Law, which means even those who should know better somehow still have no fear of God. Those who should know God and His righteous requirements have no fear of God! If that is true of the Jews, how much more true can it be of Christians. Jesus called the disciples friends because they obeyed Him and understood everything He was trying to teach them.
- ← Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3 (current)
- Next →