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
Aug 15, 2025, 7:42 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 27-28
Meditation Verse: 27:46
Thought
Almost everyone abandoned Jesus. His mother and some of the other women and John watched nearby, but everyone else had scattered. All the others who came by mocked Him and insulted Him, even the robbers crucified with Him! Even His Father turned away. Yet Jesus was doing exactly what was required by God to fulfill our salvation. He had done nothing wrong and was unjustly condemned, yet He accepted it and endured it.
Aug 14, 2025, 7:10 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 25-26
Meditation Verse: 25:40
Thought
We are supposed to care about all people, but especially those who belong to Jesus, brothers and sisters. Jesus did good to everyone who came to Him, but they came to Him because they believed enough about Him to sell helping from Him. Whether they understand everything about Jesus, they knew He had power to heal all kinds of diseases and cast out demons. When they came, they would hear Him teaching and have the chance to learn more about Him.
Aug 13, 2025, 6:53 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 23-24
Meditation Verse: 24:24
Thought
It sounds like the elect cannot be deceived. That's good news for me, if I'm truly among the elect. It's good news for any who are among the elect! It means they know their God and they understand what He has in mind even for the end times. They don't have to know all the details of the end, but they trust fully in what Jesus has promised about His return so that they cannot be deceived by false Christs.
Aug 12, 2025, 6:51 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 21-22
Meditation Verses: 21:31-32
Thought
This is such a great illustration of what God is looking for, what counts as true salvation. It is not the appearance of obedience and honor that saves, but the actual act of doing what we're told. The son who refused to go and serve his father, but then repented and did what his father wanted, that's what God is looking for. Not the initial refusal, but the eventual humbling and submission. That's the tax collectors and sinners and prostitutes who have turned from their evil ways and are now walking in obedience and honor to God.
Aug 11, 2025, 7:19 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 19-20
Meditation Verses: 20:25-28
Thought
Unbelievers who gain authority over another use that authority for their own comfort and advantage. They think everyone under them is given to them for their own benefit and comfort, to satisfy all their wishes. There may be some mediating and problem-solving duties toward those under them, but those under them are really just tools for their own comfort and pleasure and purposes. So when Jesus says that those who belong to Him and wish to be great, they must become the slaves of all, its easy to think we just turn the paradigm upside-down:
Aug 10, 2025, 6:42 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 17-18
Meditation Verses: 18:21-22
Thought
This is not a command to forgive everyone who sins against me, but everyone who pleads for forgiveness, as the parable that follows makes clear. God doesn't forgive the sins of every person, but only those who come to Him in repentance, pleading for forgiveness. He keeps a record of every sin of every person, and in the final judgment, all will be judged according to what is recorded in those books.
Aug 9, 2025, 6:47 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 15-16
Meditation Verse: 16:12
Thought
The teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees would be two sides of the same false teaching coin. On the one hand are the teachings that add rules and regulations that have the appearance of good, but actually create loopholes to escape obeying God. On the other hand are the teachings that outright deny things the Scriptures teach. Both do the same thing, both set aside God's Word, one blatantly and one subtly.
Aug 8, 2025, 11:01 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 13-14
Meditation Verses: 13:10-15
Thought
The people have become calloused; They barely see and hear, but they don't recognize or understand. If they opened their eyes and ears and hearts, they could turn and be healed. But instead of making it easier for them to understand, Jesus speaks in parables, to make it harder for them to get what He's saying! He's willing to heal them if they turn, but He won't help them understand! Instead, He seems to be judging them and letting them condemn themselves.
Aug 7, 2025, 7:24 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 11-12
Meditation Verses: 11:20-21
Thought
The correct response to miracles is repentance. When miracles are given, it is so the people who see them or hear about them would know that the messenger is sent from God and they need to listen to Him. Miracles raise the expectation of God on the people who experience the miracles or just hear about them. The cities where Jesus performed most of His miracles should have repented en masse.
Aug 6, 2025, 6:56 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 9-10
Meditation Verse: 10:28
Thought
Believing in Jesus should in effect make me fearless, because I should no longer fear any man. The only one I should fear is God Himself. Of course, this is not a fearlessness that comes from believing I'm indestructible and therefore can do any crazy stunt. This is a fearlessness in proclaiming the truth about God and His Son Jesus, proclaiming Jesus as the coming King, His standard of righteousness the standard by which all men will be judged, and Jesus Himself the only means of forgiveness and transformation.