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 5, 2025, 1:42 PM
Passage Read: Matthew 7-8
Meditation Verses: 7:21-24
Thought
Jesus makes plain here that doing the will of His Father means putting Jesus' teachings into practice. There are those who want to use miracles and prophesying and casting out demons in Jesus' name as a proxy for obedience, but Jesus says that people who do such things yet do not obey His words will be cast into eternal torment. Jesus' name has real power, and if someone should use it and see miracles happen, he should have sense enough to recognize that Jesus is no mere mortal, and he'd better get to know this mighty God!
Aug 4, 2025, 1:58 PM
Passage Read: Matthew 5-6
Meditation Verses: 5:43-48
Thought
This is not really about enemies and persecutors who are far away. Jesus is talking about people right here and now who are plotting against a believer, working against him and doing evil to him. We can pray for enemies and persecutors who are far removed from our lives, but this instruction is especially about those we see and interact with regularly.
Aug 3, 2025, 1:47 PM
Passage Read: Matthew 3-4
Meditation Verse: 3:8
Thought
Repentance isn't a one-time thing, but a beginning. The people were coming to John, confessing their sins and being symbolically cleansed in baptism, but that didn't mean anything unless they were genuinely turning away from the sins they were confessing! There may be one point at which they admitted their evil deeds, but if they went right back into them, then they didn't understand repentance. They needed to make changes that showed their repentance, they needed to bear fruit in keeping with their repentance.
Aug 2, 2025, 4:57 PM
Passage Read: Matthew 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:1-2
Thought
These magi from the east are some of the only people to recognize what God had just done! And they were determined to go and honor the newborn king of the Jews. Were they surprised to find out that none of the leaders of Israel recognized what had happened? Did they realize what a chain of events their devotion would set off? In short order, all the babies in Bethlehem would be killed because they tipped off Herod to Jesus' birth.
Aug 6, 2024, 9:16 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 27-28
Meditation Verses: 27:63-64
Thought
The chief priests and the Pharisees understood that Jesus had promised to rise on the third day. Jesus' own disciples didn't get the message; they didn't understand, though Jesus had repeated it multiple times. Yet these unbelievers had a better understanding of Jesus' words! Remarkable! They didn't believe that Jesus would, but they thought His disciples might steal the body and claim that He had.
Aug 5, 2024, 9:18 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 25-26
Meditation Verses: 26:62-64
Thought
The chief priests and elders bring in many "witnesses" who accuse Jesus of different evils, but Jesus doesn't answer a single charge. This amazes the priests and elders, because they would naturally fight any false charges against themselves. But Jesus makes no answer, because there's no need. On the one hand, the charges are false and everyone knows it. On the other hand, He has submitted Himself to the will of His Father and has no intention of arguing Himself out of condemnation. He also knows it's wasted breath in front of this crowd to defend Himself in any way.
Aug 4, 2024, 9:19 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 23-24
Meditation Verses: 24:48-51
Thought
Many say the Lord could return at any moment, but do they live in such a way as to be found doing His will when He arrives? Are they diligently seeking to know and understand the Lord's desires so as to be busy with fulfilling them, so that when the Lord returns He finds them busy doing His will? Or do we fall into the trap of thinking, "Everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation," and then start investing ourselves, our time and our treasure in building our own kingdom here on earth?
Aug 3, 2024, 9:20 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 21-22
Meditation Verses: 21:25-27
Thought
The chief priests and elders couldn't answer Jesus's question, not because they didn't have an answer but because they weren't willing to go on record with their honest answer. They hadn't believed John; they were offended by John as surely as they were offended by Jesus, because he called them out for their hypocrisy. So they had to believe that he came by his own design.
Aug 2, 2024, 9:21 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 19-20
Meditation Verses: 20:22-23
Thought
The cup Jesus is about to drink is that of His suffering and death, as payment for our sins. James and John would both drink of that cup, suffering for Jesus and His Gospel. James would be killed in short order, not long after the resurrection. John would live out his days, though not without incident. They would try to kill him, but their attempt would fail, so they would exile him to a labor colony on Patmos.
Aug 1, 2024, 9:23 AM
Passage Read: Matthew 17-18
Meditation Verses: 17:17-20
Thought
Jesus calls out His own disciples, not just the crowd or the father or the child! If they had faith as small as a mustard seed, they could move mountains! Casting out that demon would have been a simple thing! But they do not have even that little faith. Jesus calls them unbelieving! And this after they were given authority and went out to preach and cast out demons and heal diseases.