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 19, 2024, 2:36 PM
Passage Read: 1 John 5 - 2 John 1
Meditation Verse: 1 John 5:1
Thought
"Whoever loves the Father, loves the child born of Him." At first read, this seems like a command that I have to love every Christian, which would be true if every Christian loved the Father. But what it says is that anyone who loves the Father must love everyone else who also loves the Father. That's not the same. For there are many false believers, false brothers, some who deliberately teach what is contrary to the truth but still claim to love God.
Nov 18, 2024, 2:38 PM
Passage Read: 1 John 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:5-8
Thought
"Let no one deceive you." John here says that no one who abides in Jesus continues to sin, but he practices righteousness and therefore is righteous. That seems heretical to my modern ears. I have been trained by the church, in the church, that I am a sinner and I cannot cease from sin. Have I misunderstood or have I been deceived by the same people who were to teach me the truth?
Nov 17, 2024, 2:40 PM
Passage Read: 1 John 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:10-11
Thought
Love for brothers is key to walking in the light so as to guard a believer from stumbling. Love for other believers protects us from sinning! But the one who hates his brother is still walking in darkness and has no idea how to live and behave. Now, we think that love for brothers means we put up with everyone who calls himself a brother, even if they don't do what God calls believers to do.
Nov 3, 2023, 2:01 AM
Passage Read: 1 John 5 - 2 John 1
Meditation Verses: 1 John 5:16-18
Thought
I need to pray for those who commit sin, that God would grant them life, which seems to include repentance and giving up their sin in this context. All wrongdoing is sin, and the one who belongs to God does not continue to sin. So if someone sins and I pray for them, and even attempt to correct them, but they don't change, then they probably don't belong to God. In that case, I need to pray for their repentance and belief in Christ!
Nov 2, 2023, 2:02 AM
Passage Read: 1 John 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:4-10
Thought
John really is writing this letter so that those who receive it can know whether they are saved or not. He gives so many signs of a true and false believer. This sign has to do with sin: Jesus Christ came to take away our sins, which we usually understand to mean forgiveness of past sins, which is of course correct. But he goes on to say that anyone who keeps on sinning is not of Jesus but of the devil.
Nov 1, 2023, 2:10 AM
Passage Read: 1 John 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:18-19
Thought
There are those who are sent out and there are those who go out. In John's third letter, he mentions those who have been sent out. They still represent John and so remain a part of him and partners with him. But here he talks about men who have become antichrists: They went out from John, but we're not partners with him. They deserted John, as Paul would put it. They abandoned John and his teachings.