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
Jul 31, 2024, 7:25 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 15-16
Meditation Verses: 16:22-25
Thought
Jesus foretells His suffering, death and resurrection, but Peter rebukes Him (still thinking the two are mostly equals, I suppose), sure that nothing like Jesus says will ever happen. As if he knew that God would never allow it. God would never allow His righteous servant, the promised Messiah, to suffer and die, but surely He will exalt His appointed Christ and make all men worship and honor Him! Jesus then rebukes Peter, and warns all of them that if they do not give up their lives in order to follow Him, they cannot truly follow Him.
Jul 30, 2024, 7:27 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 13-14
Meditation Verse: 13:19
Thought
When someone hears the Gospel, the Word of God, and doesn't understand it, it is because Satan has snatched away that Word. It's gone! It's not still there percolating, waiting to sprout. It's gone. People want to use Isaiah 55 to convince and comfort themselves, that the Word sown in a heart will eventually do its work and bring that person to Christ. But not everyone who hears the Gospel will eventually believe it.
Jul 29, 2024, 8:29 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 11-12
Meditation Verses: 11:25-30
Thought
Repentance is evidently hidden from the wise and intelligent, but revealed to infants! The wise and learned see the things that Jesus says and does, but don't get that they need to change their ways and conform them to the teachings of God and of Christ. Indeed, Jesus alone knows the Father and the Father alone knows the Son, but the Son is on earth, walking and doing and talking. He can be known by anyone willing to come to Him and spend time with Him. He will not drive anyone away, but they will depart who do not like His teachings, who are not willing to submit to His leadership.
Jul 28, 2024, 8:30 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 9-10
Meditation Verse: 10:4
Thought
Judas Iscariot received authority to cast out demons and to heal every kind of disease. He went in partnership with another apostle to preach the gospel of the kingdom and perform miraculous signs. Yet he became the one who betrayed Jesus. He didn't simply lose faith and walk away; he turned against Jesus and betrayed him for money. He went to the chief priests and negotiated the price to betray Jesus, they didn't seek him out.
Jul 27, 2024, 8:31 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 7-8
Meditation Verses: 8:18-23
Thought
Jesus doesn't wait around for people to come and learn from Him. He didn't open a school and stay put for years so that any one willing could come and learn from Him. Neither did He follow around some guys that wanted to be trained by Him. He kept on the move so as to increase the cost of learning from Him. No one could be fooled by those who spent some time with Jesus as compared to those who gave up their livelihoods to follow and learn from Jesus.
Jul 26, 2024, 8:33 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 5-6
Meditation Verses: 5:44-48
Thought
There are those around me who are not exactly my enemies; it's not like they're trying to do me harm. But they don't care about me or do much good to me or think much of my interests or wishes. They do not honor me or respect me in any way meaningful to me. They do their thing and sometimes I receive a benefit and sometimes I suffer loss.
Jul 25, 2024, 8:34 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 1-4
Meditation Verses: 3:7-10
Thought
John and Jesus both preached the same message: "Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." John pointed to Jesus; Jesus pointed to Himself and the work He would do to purchase our forgiveness and transformation. For both, the repentance God sought was expected to change how we lived. John called the religious leaders to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. His baptism wasn't just one more religious thing people needed to collect in order to be right with God.
Jul 24, 2024, 7:01 AM
Passage Read: Malachi 1-4
Meditation Verses: 1:7-10
Thought
The governor gets more honor than the Lord. The governor gets nice, healthy animals for his food, but God gets the sickly, the castoffs, the unsellable. Because God can't say anything; He won't do anything. He can't, because He's just a figurehead. But the governor is a real person who can bring trouble on you, even send officers against you! So him you must satisfy, even please, so that he will grant your requests or at least leave you alone to do your own thing.
Jul 23, 2024, 7:03 AM
Passage Read: Zechariah 11-14
Meditation Verses: 11:7-10
Thought
There are worthless shepherds and there are flocks doomed to destruction. Some shepherds are called to pasture flocks doomed to destruction. They are flocks with ungodly shepherds who care nothing for the flock but only for themselves, and the flock itself doesn't understand, because they have no hope, they are doomed to destruction. The Lord's shepherd, when appointed over such a flock will come in conflict with those worthless shepherds that have abused the flock, and he will drive them out.
Jul 22, 2024, 7:05 AM
Passage Read: Zechariah 7-10
Meditation Verses: 8:16-17
Thought
Before God sent Israel into exile and now, His desire for them has been the same: that they would speak truthfully to one another and judge all things truthfully and fairly, that no one would plot evil against his neighbor and no one lie under oath to harm a neighbor. His instruction has always been to do good to one another according to what He calls good, to be fair and treat each other as we ourselves desire to be treated.