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, 2025, 3:05 PM
Passage Read: John 7-8
Meditation Verses: 7:16-17
Thought
Jesus gives many reasons in these two chapters why people can't understand Him. Those who don't believe Him disbelieve because they belong to the devil. If they belonged to God, Jesus' words would be clear to them and they would be able to hear them. They disbelieve because they rely on the "experts" and authorities to tell them whether Jesus' is the Christ. They don't do their own homework; they judge by mere appearances rather than by what they actually see and hear.
Sep 8, 2025, 3:11 PM
Passage Read: John 5-6
Meditation Verses: 6:63-66
Thought
There were many "disciples" who followed Jesus. They considered themselves His followers and students. They liked many of His teachings and of course liked to see the miracles, especially if they themselves benefited from them. But they followed from their own curiosity, from fleshly reasons. They were not converted by the Spirit. The proof was not in the following, but in the believing and acceptance of God's Word, through the Scriptures and through Jesus.
Sep 7, 2025, 2:28 PM
Passage Read: John 3-4
Meditation Verse: 4:38
Thought
There are those who sow and those who reap. Those who sow do not often see the fruit of their labor, but they speak for God and live godly lives. They persist and endure. They do the hard work. Who did the work in these Samaritans lives? Surely it was not the priests of Israel, who themselves were not faithful to God and His Word. Yet if not for them, they would know nothing about Jacob's well and something about Jacob's God.
Sep 6, 2025, 2:29 PM
Passage Read: John 1-2
Meditation Verse: 1:27
Thought
John understood what it meant that Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus was no ordinary man, but one so much greater than John, that John wasn't even worthy to untie His sandals. Jesus would come in the form of a man and seem just like John, but John understood Jesus to be so much greater than him!
Sep 5, 2025, 3:09 PM
Passage Read: Luke 23-24
Meditation Verse: 23:28
Thought
Did these women weep for Jesus or for all three who were about to be crucified? Did they know Jesus or just mourn over the death of their own people at the hands of the Romans? Jesus indicates that they have no idea what's coming, and will be caught up in the disaster. It does not sound like they are faithful followers.
Sep 4, 2025, 3:29 PM
Passage Read: Luke 21-22
Meditation Verses: 21:17-19
Thought
"All men will hate you because of Me." Jesus couldn't be more clear. Yet I have grown up in a world that has tolerated Christians and even honored them. Only of late has there been some open hostility. But I am taught to be careful and kind to everyone I meet, so as not to give offense. 1 Peter 3:15-16: Be gentle and respectful in responding to those who want to know my hope. But what about those who do not want to repent of sin?
Sep 3, 2025, 2:51 PM
Passage Read: Luke 19-20
Meditation Verses: 19:20-23
Thought
The last servant comes and says he was afraid of his master, calling him a "hard man," greedy and always taking more than he deserved. For being afraid of his master, this servant has serious guts to insult his master! He's bold enough to criticize, judge and condemn his master. It's his justification for doing nothing with his master's money, but returning it as given to him.
Sep 2, 2025, 2:29 PM
Passage Read: Luke 17-18
Meditation Verses: 17:1-6
Thought
How often have I read these two verses and heard the doom of the one who causes a little one to sin. And of course I think of truly wicked people who have no hope of repentance. But then it is immediately followed by Jesus' command to "watch yourselves." And the latter is tied to the former by a "so." In other words, the required response to the deserved judgment of one who causes little ones to sin is to rebuke the one who sinned, not to write off such a sinner!
Sep 1, 2025, 3:20 PM
Passage Read: Luke 15-16
Meditation Verses: 16:9-12
Thought
Worldly wealth is ultimately for one purpose: To make friends who will welcome us into heaven, or in other words, for the purpose of helping others be saved. It is not primarily for my comfort or even my provision, though providing for my basic needs is fine--yet the widow was praised for giving all she had to live on to the Lord. All I possess and all I earn are best spent on advancing Christ's kingdom and even better, personally helping others believe in Him.