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 10, 2025, 6:47 AM
Passage Read: 2 Timothy 1-2
Meditation Verse: 2:7
Thought
Paul has confidence in the Spirit of God and His presence in Timothy, so that he doesn't have to explain every detail of everything he is trying to communicate. He knows that what comes from the Spirit can be understood by the Spirit. But it takes some reflection. It doesn't come on first reading or even second.
Nov 9, 2025, 9:29 AM
Passage Read: 1 Timothy 5-6
Meditation Verses: 5:6-7
Thought
While I'm sure Paul is talking about all these instructions regarding widows, the preceding statement has application for all people: Anyone who lives for pleasure is dead even while they live! Those who are truly in need have a natural encouragement to pray to God and ask for help; that's good for all of us, but not likely to leave us open to blame if we fail to pray but rather work to supply our need.
Nov 8, 2025, 8:34 AM
Passage Read: 1 Timothy 3-4
Meditation Verse: 3:1
Thought
It is not wrong to desire to be an elder/overseer or even a deacon. These are good and noble ambitions, if they drive a man to prepare himself according to the standards Paul lays out. If it is just a position and power that a man seeks, with no desire to conform his life to these requirements, then it's just selfish ambition, and that man is not worthy of these positions.
Nov 7, 2025, 9:06 AM
Passage Read: 1 Timothy 1-2
Meditation Verses: 1:5-7
Thought
The Christian life is centered on love, which comes from a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith. Christian love is all about being of benefit to others, as the Word of God teaches, doing so out of a heart purified of sin and guile and self-seeking, purified by God's Spirit and according to the standard laid down in God's Word.
Nov 6, 2025, 10:50 AM
Passage Read: 2 Thessalonians 2-3
Meditation Verses: 2:13-14
Thought
It should be clear whom God has chosen, because they believe the truth, beginning with the Gospel, and they submit to the sanctifying work of the Spirit, displayed by their acceptance of further instruction and training in living a godly life. This is contrasted with the majority of people, as described in the preceding verses.
Nov 5, 2025, 2:25 PM
Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 5 - 2 Thessalonians 1
Meditation Verses: 2 Thessalonians 1:4-7
Thought
Persevering, continuing to grow in Christ, holding firm in faith while enduring persecution and trials, this is evidence that the Thessalonians will be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, which is what causes their suffering. He gives no promise of relief, except that which Jesus Himself will bring when He returns.
Nov 4, 2025, 8:23 AM
Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 3-4
Meditation Verses: 4:3-8
Thought
Sexual immorality is one of the biggest temptations and problems facing believers. There are others, but this one perhaps more than any other gets spoken against the most. It was common then, it is common now. God saved us to live holy lives, meaning especially lives free from sexual immorality in any and all of its forms, but somehow believers today don't consider many of their immoral ways to be wrong!
Nov 3, 2025, 1:19 PM
Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 1-2 Meditation Verses: 2:2-6
Thought
Paul is not preaching to make converts, but to announce what God has done and leave the message and the Spirit to do their work. So he feels no compulsion to make his message pleasing to men, but only a compulsion to make his message and his ways pleasing to God. That's also what gives him courage to speak the message even after having been abused in previous cities; opposition doesn't silence him.
Nov 2, 2025, 6:54 AM
Passage Read: Colossians 3-4 Meditation Verses: 4:12-13
Thought
Epaphras is like Paul also a prisoner, according to the letter to Philemon, which should be a companion letter to this one. Yet Epaphras is not silenced or hindered in ministry or in love for his people. In prison, he has more time to pray, and Paul testifies that Epaphras is working hard for them even while in chains!
Nov 1, 2025, 8:44 AM
Passage Read: Colossians 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:1-3
Thought
Both near the end of Chapter 1 and here Paul makes mention of his sufferings for the churches, including the Colossians, whom he hasn't even met. It is deliberate, as he says clearly here. He wants them to know how much he is struggling for them, so that they would "be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they would have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."