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 26, 2024, 7:16 AM
Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 5 - 2 Thessalonians 1
Meditation Verse: 1 Thessalonians 5:14
Thought
This is important enough that Paul didn't just encourage the Thessalonians to do these things, but urged them to admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak and be patient with everyone. The unruly need to be rebuked, admonished, to turn them from their evil ways and protect others who might stumble into their same sinful rebelliousness. The fainthearted need encouragement and assurance that suffering for Christ would be richly rewarded, to hold on and not give up.
Oct 25, 2024, 9:21 PM
Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 3-4
Meditation Verses: 4:9-12
Thought
It sounds like Paul is saying that a next step up in their love for the brethren is to lead a quiet life, minding their own business and working with their hands, so that they would behave correctly towards outsiders and not be in any need. He commends them for their love of the brethren, that they are taught by God to love one another, so it's not like they have a problem in this area. They care not just for their own locally, but throughout the region.
Oct 24, 2024, 9:22 PM
Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:4-6
Thought
The Gospel is a hard thing to accept. It can provoke a hostile reaction almost as often as it draws some to believe it. It is so offensive to many that those who preach it can be tempted to distort it in order to please men rather than preach the truth of it in order to please God. That is so not my experience that I wonder if I have been preaching the true Gospel?