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
Oct 21, 2025, 8:05 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 8-9
Meditation Verse: 8:8
Thought
Paul is not commanding them to give a gift, but he wants to test the sincerity of their love for Christ by comparing it to the earnestness of others. It was actually the Corinthians who first thought of giving to the saints in Jerusalem, and their compassion inspired others to do the same. Now there's concern that their initial zeal may have been lost in the busyness of life.
Oct 20, 2025, 3:59 PM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 6-7
Meditation Verse: 7:15
Thought
The Lord has said that it is the humble and contrite, the ones who tremble at His Word, these are the ones He honors and esteems. Here, Paul is saying the same thing: As the one who teaches them, who first brought them the Gospel, who longs for their communion with Christ and His acceptance of them, both Paul and Titus have greater affection for those who are obedient, who receive Paul, his messenger and his message with fear and trembling.
Oct 19, 2025, 11:49 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 4-5
Meditation Verses: 4:1-3
Thought
The ministry of the Gospel is given from God, not from men. God is in control of the results. If I explain the Gospel clearly, simply, accurately, and someone doesn't believe, it's not a problem with the message or the messenger, but of the hearer. The god of this world has blinded them, and God has not delivered them.
Oct 18, 2025, 9:02 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 2-3
Meditation Verses: 3:6-9
Thought
The new covenant is so much more glorious than the old because it is the difference between mere words and the Spirit. The Law was glorious because it revealed the very heart of God, His love for us and the love He wanted us to have for each other. But it was powerless in the face of sin. It could not free us from our slavery to sin.
Oct 17, 2025, 7:18 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 16 - 2 Corinthians 1
Meditation Verses: 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
Thought
God allows us to suffer great hardships so that we would recognize how much we need Him, how little we ourselves can do, and how much we need the prayers of others, so that many would rejoice in the Lord when we are delivered. God wants glory from His people; He doesn't intend for the Christian life to be easy, manageable in our own strength and ability, because then we have little or no need of Him.
Oct 16, 2025, 10:34 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 14-15
Meditation Verses: 15:12-14
Thought
It seems the Sadducees are promoting their philosophy. Some in Corinth have decided that Christ's resurrection does not mean that we all will rise from the dead. Some have decided that there is no resurrection for the rest of us. Paul won't have it: If there is no resurrection for us, then there is no resurrection for Jesus either!
Oct 15, 2025, 7:31 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 12-13
Meditation Verses: 13:1-3
Thought
Tongues without love is just noise. I may have vision and wisdom and a powerful faith, but without love, I'm nothing. I may give away all my wealth to the poor and die as a martyr, but if I didn't do it from love, if I don't have true godly love, it's of no benefit to me. But if I have love, that will guide my use of these gifts and make me very careful how I use them, for the good of others and not for drawing attention to myself or puffing up myself.
Oct 14, 2025, 7:11 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 10-11
Meditation Verses: 11:31-32
Thought
Judgment is an expression of mercy and wisdom. The goal is salvation, protection against eternal condemnation with the world. We do well to judge ourselves, individually, as carefully and strictly as possible according to the Word of God, not the ideas of men. If I judge myself carefully, no one else should need to, including God.
Oct 13, 2025, 9:13 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 8-9
Meditation Verses: 9:24-27
Thought
In a race or any other sporting event there is only one winner. Paul wants us to think in terms of only one winner in the race of life in Christ. But we know all who believe in Jesus gain eternity with God, so where's the urgency? We're in, right? Not if that thinking leads us to such laziness in terms of personal righteousness.
Oct 12, 2025, 9:31 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 6-7
Meditation Verse: 7:19
Thought
Knowing that there are commands and instructions about circumcision in the Law makes this seem like a paradoxical statement. If I desire to keep God's commands, shouldn't I be circumcised? Circumcision is a sign of the righteousness Abraham received by faith that produced obedience to God. But that sign became corrupted and distorted, such that circumcision came to be treated as the thing that makes you part of a saved community.