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
Nov 18, 2023, 12:42 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 21-22
Meditation Verses: 22:11-12
Thought
God lets everyone choose their path, but He decides the result. He is coming with His reward. For those who are vile, for those who do wrong, there will be suffering and torment for eternity. If that's the path someone chooses, this also is the destination. But if someone is holy, if someone does right, Jesus has a reward for them too, and it will be to share in this new creation. We can continue on the path we have chosen, and reach the destination to which it leads, or we can take warning and change paths as we see fit.
Nov 17, 2023, 12:44 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 19-20
Meditation Verses: 20:1-3
Thought
Satan is so easily captured and bound: One angel and a chain. He could be removed so easily, if God desired. But he has a part to play, deceiving the nations. When he is imprisoned, he will not be able to deceive men, and men will be able to obey the Lord fairly well. That suggests that God's commands really aren't all that difficult. We just need the deceiver silenced and quick justice on all who disobey, and we will walk in obedience.
Nov 16, 2023, 12:45 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 17-18
Meditation Verse: 18:20
Thought
A day is coming when the saints and apostles and prophets will rejoice over the destruction of those who hated them. All heaven will rejoice over the destruction of Babylon, and the saints, apostles and prophets will do likewise. God will judge Babylon for the way she treated His faithful ones. Though today we pray for our enemies and desperately desire their repentance, it is not always that we will have to be abused and debased, scorned and mocked and ridiculed.
Nov 14, 2023, 12:46 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 15-16
Meditation Verses: 16:9-11
Thought
Three times in this chapter of the seven last plagues of God's wrath men curse God and refuse to repent. They refuse to admit they were wrong, even as God pours out His wrath on them, proving they are powerless before Him, proving that He exists and rules over all creation. They are helpless before Him, but instead of repenting, they curse Him. They know exactly who is doing these things. There is no mystery, there is no doubt.
Nov 13, 2023, 12:48 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 13-14
Meditation Verse: 13:5
Thought
The Antichrist receives authority over all mankind only for forty-two months! During that time, he blasphemes God, he makes successful war on the saints, rules over all the nations, because all people who aren't recorded in the Book of Life worship him. He doesn't rule for seven years, but for 3 and a half years! And during that time, he opposes God, fights against believers and is worshiped by and rules over unbelievers. People who say his reign is a full seven years are wrong.
Nov 12, 2023, 12:49 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 11-12
Meditation Verse: 12:11
Thought
The only way to overcome the devil and his hatred of believers is by the blood of Christ, by our testimony and by not loving our life so much as to shrink from death for Christ's sake. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, our testimony is both our speaking the gospel and our lives of obedience, which is truly dependent on not loving this life so much, but actually loving our next life so much. When our hope is placed firmly and actively in the eternal life yet to be revealed, then we are diligent to live in obedience to God and have no fear of losing this life.
Nov 11, 2023, 12:50 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 9-10
Meditation Verse: 10:4
Thought
Not everything has been revealed, and I need to be OK with that. The Lord knows exactly what He's doing and plans to do, and I need to trust Him and obey what He has revealed. He is Lord and Creator, so what He chooses to make known and what He chooses to keep concealed is entirely up to Him. I can't complain. I need to spend my time understanding and applying what He had made known, not wondering what He's withheld, or worse, distrusting what He's said because He's still keeping secrets.
Nov 10, 2023, 12:51 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 7-8
Meditation Verse: 7:14
Thought
These came through the great tribulation in faithfulness to Jesus. They survived, they washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death for Christ. They were able to endure and make it through because they decided early on that nothing was more important than knowing and trusting Jesus. No matter how the wicked of the earth tested and tried them, they remained faithful to Jesus.
Nov 9, 2023, 12:53 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 5-6
Meditation Verse: 5:5
Thought
Jesus triumphed and so is worthy to open the scroll. How did He triumph? According to the songs that follow, He triumphed by giving His life to purchase men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. He triumphed by being obedient to His Father to the point of death. He did not love His life so much as to shrink from death, but surrendered Himself and His life in obedience to the Father.
Nov 7, 2023, 12:54 AM
Passage Read: Revelation 3-4
Meditation Verses: 4:8-11
Thought
In my flesh, I think, "How boring it would be to spend eternity repeating the same thing over and over again, and bowing down and getting up just to do it all over again in a few minutes." What a small and simple understanding of God I have! If I really understood how glorious He is, I would be like David, wishing at least to be a doorkeeper in His house, to be as close as possible though unworthy to be in His presence.
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