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
Sep 9, 2026, 8:11 AM
Passage Read: John 5-6
Meditation Verses: 6:64-65
Thought
John is talking about Jesus' followers, His disciples, both among the Twelve and beyond. Jesus knew who among them actually believed and who didn't. He also knew who would betray Him. And with this teaching, many turn back from following Him. Jesus earlier said that if someone does not believe the writings of Moses, they do not really believe in Jesus.
Sep 8, 2026, 11:26 AM
Passage Read: John 3-4
Meditation Verse: 4:48
Thought
Jesus sounds unhappy or impatient with the people because they must see signs and wonders in order to believe. But signs and wonders testify to the presence of God with a prophet. Yet believing on the basis of signs and wonders does not mean a person believes in truth. They may just be there for the excitement!
Sep 7, 2026, 12:44 PM
Passage Read: John 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:23-25
Thought
People were believing in Jesus because of the signs He was performing, but John then goes out of his way to note that Jesus wasn't entrusting Himself to them. Jesus knew people. Jesus knew how fickle they could be, how easily or eagerly they would believe in Him when they see some sign or receive some benefit.
Sep 16, 2025, 7:20 AM
Passage Read: John 21 - Acts 1
Meditation Verses: John 21:12-14
Thought
The significance of the resurrection is hard to fully grasp. The disciples left everything to follow Jesus and spent the next three and a half years with Him, daily walking, talking, learning from Him and seeing all He did. They were followers, not leaders. Then He was killed, and they were devastated. What was the point of the last three years? Jesus wasn't installed as king. But three days later, He rose from the dead and showed Himself to them, two times so far.
Sep 15, 2025, 7:26 AM
Passage Read: John 19-20
Meditation Verse: 19:15
Thought
What a sad but true confession of the chief priests. They should have claimed God as their king, but many among the chief priests were Sadducees, and the Sadducees had turned their back on much of the Scriptures and so on God Himself. What mattered most to them was their position and they found protection and power coming from the Romans, so their confession was very true.
Sep 14, 2025, 8:29 AM
Passage Read: John 17-18
Meditation Verses: 17:6-9
Thought
There is a distinction between the world and those who belong to Jesus, and it shows up throughout the Bible. Jesus prays for those who belong to Him, that they would be protected from the world, those who now hate them because they belong to Jesus. Those who belong to the world are hostile to those who belong to Jesus.
Sep 13, 2025, 8:18 AM
Passage Read: John 15-16
Meditation Verses: 16:1-4
Thought
Jesus just warned His disciples that the world would hate them and persecute them, and the Holy Spirit would come and together He and they would testify about Jesus. He told them this so that they would not go astray. Because the day would come when the world would try to kill them and even succeed. Even those who led or attended the synagogue would think that killing them was serving God! People like Saul.
Sep 12, 2025, 7:29 AM
Passage Read: John 13-14
Meditation Verses: 14:30-31
Thought
Jesus loves the Father so much that He does and says only what the Father does and says, so that He can say that whoever looks on Him sees the Father. They are so closely united that to see one is to see the other. That is the same unity Jesus wants us to have with Him. But it requires Jesus' kind of obedience. Jesus' love for the Father causes Him to do exactly what His Father commands...even though it leads to His death.
Sep 11, 2025, 7:10 AM
Passage Read: John 11-12
Meditation Verses: 12:34-36
Thought
There are times when Jesus doesn't answer questions directly. He responds, but sometimes to a completely different question! The people say that the Christ is supposed to remain forever, then ask who the Son of Man is that Jesus keeps calling Himself. Is He the Christ or some other person from Scripture? Then Jesus answers with this urging to walk in the light while they have it with them!
Sep 10, 2025, 6:04 AM
Passage Read: John 9-10
Meditation Verses: 10:24-27
Thought
The Jews, the holdouts among them, saw the miracles and knew in their hearts that only a righteous, God-honoring man could do so many and such powerful miracles. Their theology demanded it. But they refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and were offended that He called Himself God's Son. The evidence was obvious, but they refused to believe.