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 16, 2024, 7:02 AM
Passage Read: Galatians 5-6
Meditation Verses: 5:18-24
Thought
The war we're in is not a war between the Law and the Spirit, but between the flesh and the Spirit, and the battleground is our moral behavior. It is not a war of circumcision or holy days or animal sacrifices, but one of godly or selfish behavior. Fulfilling the material requirements of the law will not save, but rather will separate us from Christ.
Oct 15, 2024, 7:04 AM
Passage Read: Galatians 3-4
Meditation Verses: 4:22-24
Thought
God promised to give Abraham an heir through Sarah, but He delayed in fulfilling it, knowing that Sarah would become discouraged and suggest using Hagar, and Abraham would agree. This would become an illustration for our spiritual state apart from Christ and produce an illustration for our state in Christ. That doesn't justify Abraham's decision, but neither did it hinder what God had planned.
Oct 13, 2024, 7:05 AM
Passage Read: Galatians 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:11-14
Thought
Two things here: One, how easy it is to be pulled back into old ways when others who are in the grip of those old ways come along; two, leaders who fall into sin need to be publicly rebuked for the benefit of all. Peter had no problem fellowshipping freely with the Gentile believers until fellow Jews came from Jerusalem, Jews who still held firmly to Jewish ways, sadly including the belief that Gentiles were unclean.