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 23, 2025, 6:52 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 12-13
Meditation Verse: 12:6
Thought
Paul could boast about all the Lord has shown him and taught him, and it would be impressive and true! But he doesn't want what was shown him to enamor people; he doesn't want people to judge him for what he has seen. He wants people to judge him by what he says and does. Does he speak truth? Does he live by the same?
Oct 22, 2025, 2:02 PM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 10-11
Meditation Verses: 10:4-6
Thought
Paul doesn't list the weapons or explain what they are, but only describes their power and effectiveness. They are spiritual weapons rather than physical weapons, clearly. He doesn't whip people or beat them. But he speaks truth to them and explains God's commands, purposes and ways to them. He rebukes them and calls the church to cut off fellowship from the unrepentant.
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 12, 2024, 9:08 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 12-13
Meditation Verses: 12:20-21
Thought
Paul fears that there may yet be all these unrighteous behaviors in the Corinthian church. Which means he expects them to have conquered all these sinful behaviors! Things like jealousy, arrogance, slander, anger, strife—all kinds of disunity, all kinds of "me first," all kinds of distrust of one another, and all kinds of immorality—all of this in the church and among believers!
Oct 11, 2024, 9:09 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 10-11
Meditation Verses: 10:3-6
Thought
Sometimes the answer to a question is so obvious that I can't see it. Here Paul talks about weapons that destroy strongholds and take captive every thought. He talks about spiritual weapons, not fleshly. Divinely powerful weapons! He's talking about his letters, his teachings and his corrections recorded in these letters.
Oct 10, 2024, 9:11 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 8-9
Meditation Verses: 9:13-14
Thought
Receiving gifts from others should result in praise to God for the true faith of the giver and their generosity. It should also result in prayer and longing for the giver because of the amazing grace of God displayed in them by their gift. If given once or twice, if given a truly remarkable and unexpected gift, this kind of gratitude is pretty natural.