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 1, 2024, 2:21 AM
Passage Read: 2 Timothy 3-4
Meditation Verses: 4:17-18
Thought
After all Paul has been through in his service to Jesus Christ, after all he has experienced of Jesus, he continues to preach the Gospel even while on trial for his life. He senses that the end for him is near. All his friends and disciples have deserted him or gone elsewhere on other tasks. He is alone, but he doesn't falter in his faith. The Gospel is not something he heard from someone else or only studied in books.
Oct 31, 2024, 1:58 AM
Passage Read: 2 Timothy 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:3-5
Thought
Paul is again imprisoned, possibly for the last time, yet he doesn't hesitate to call Timothy to suffer with him, like a good soldier of Christ. He is not afraid to call Timothy to care more for the Gospel and the salvation of others than for his own comfort, freedom and even life. The truth of salvation is so clear to him and the glory and honor of Jesus Christ so precious to him and the concern for the lost and the saved so heavy on him, that he thinks little of suffering to make sure Jesus is praised everywhere and believers kept on track, and even likewise challenged to surrender their lives for the sake of Christ and those who have yet to hear of Him.
Oct 13, 2023, 2:15 AM
Passage Read: 2 Timothy 3-4
Meditation Verse: 3:9
Thought
How will the folly of these false teachers be clear to everyone when people in the last days are so selfish and given over to their own evil desires? How will their folly be evident to all when men deliberately gather around themselves teachers who tell them what their itching ears want to hear? Will their folly be evident only to those who actually know and love the truth? Or will men in their duplicity know their own duplicity but doggedly seek their own desires over and against their own consciences?
Oct 12, 2023, 2:16 AM
Passage Read: 2 Timothy 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:23-26
Thought
There are foolish and stupid arguments, and they produce quarrels. They have no value, except in producing quarrels. But the Lord's servant is not to quarrel, rather he is to be kind to everyone, even those who bring up foolish and stupid arguments. He should be able to teach, and he should not be resentful. People who bring up foolish and stupid arguments are not necessarily people who are seeking truth, but seeking to exalt themselves, to show themselves smart and clever.
Oct 13, 2022, 7:51 AM
Passage Read: 2 Timothy 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:13-15
Thought
Evil men and pretenders will increase and become worse. There is no stopping them. Between their delight in taking people captive and the laziness of believers to believe and know the Scriptures, it is an easy thing for deceivers to multiply! The only safeguard against being deceived is to know the Scriptures well, believe them and hold fast to all they teach, holding to the original understanding of those Scriptures.
Oct 12, 2022, 7:56 AM
Passage Read: 2 Timothy 1-2
Meditation Verse: 2:19
Thought
Any of us who call ourselves Christian should be separating ourselves from unrighteousness. I cannot be a Christian and be unconcerned about righteous and unrighteous behavior. I have to know what God defines as righteous and what He calls unrighteousness, because I have to flee unrighteousness and practice righteousness, if I call myself Christian. How I act reflects back on Jesus, and Jesus is a holy God who walked the earth without sin. I must not drag His name through the mud.