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 8, 2025, 7:33 AM
Passage Read: Romans 14-15
Meditation Verses: 15:15-16
Thought
Paul is writing to a group of believers that clearly contains both Jews and Gentiles, and he has written strong words and specific instructions to each group. There is a great temptation for some with personal convictions to insist that others also walk by their convictions. One of the hardest things about being a mixed group is discerning between God's instruction for all and things I have chosen to do in response to God's instruction.
Oct 7, 2025, 7:17 AM
Passage Read: Romans 12-13
Meditation Verse: 12:6
Thought
This sounds like permission to do little, if that's all the faith that I have. If I have just a little faith then only need to exercise my gift a little. Then I'm free to busy myself with other things, worldly things that have no eternal significance, because that's how much faith I have. Surely God will not be pleased with those who think this way, who take advantage of His instructions to do as little as they can for His Kingdom, to seek and serve Him with just the bare minimum effort.
Oct 6, 2025, 7:22 AM
Passage Read: Romans 10-11
Meditation Verse: 11:32
Thought
God has hardened all men, handing them all over in bondage to disobedience, so that He may display His mercy to all men. All have been given over to disobedience, so I should not be surprised that anyone walks in disobedience to God! They know nothing else and can do nothing else! God's intent is that all men are offered mercy, and those whom He chooses are granted mercy.
Oct 5, 2025, 9:06 AM
Passage Read: Romans 8-9
Meditation Verse: 9:18
Thought
God chooses to whom He will grant mercy, and He chooses who's hearts He will harden. That's the biggest reason that salvation is not by our works. There may be those who faithfully perform all the rituals, yet they are not saved. And there may be those who do not do all the things "righteous people" think they're supposed to do, yet they are saved.
Oct 4, 2025, 8:44 AM
Passage Read: Romans 6-7
Meditation Verse: 6:19
Thought
Whatever we were before believing in Jesus Christ, we now have both the power and the responsibility to choose to walk in righteousness. We have no excuse to sin. Paul uses the human concept of slavery to describe our past condition and our current duty: We formerly were slaves to sin and readily did what sin required of us.
Oct 3, 2025, 4:43 PM
Passage Read: Romans 4-5
Meditation Verses: 4:23-25
Thought
The righteousness that saves and assures a believe of salvation is an absolute gift given to those who believe and trust in Jesus' death as payment for our sins and in His resurrection, which justifies us before God. Salvation is not a gift to those who obey the Law, as if they had made themselves righteous and worthy of eternal life, because no one keeps the Law perfectly.
Oct 2, 2025, 7:19 AM
Passage Read: Romans 2-3
Meditation Verses: 2:3-6
Thought
Paul just condemned the world, all the unrighteous for their suppression of God's truth by their evil deeds. He pointed out that God gave them over to unnatural sexual desires as a demonstration of His wrath upon them. But their evil is not limited to these perverted lusts, but also all kinds of evil and rebellion and disobedience to parents and all kinds of other wrong behavior.
Oct 1, 2025, 7:26 AM
Passage Read: Acts 28 - Romans 1
Meditation Verses: Romans 1:18-19
Thought
God's wrath "is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." It is being revealed by the ever-deepening depravity they seek out. It is being revealed by the penalty they suffer in their own bodies. They know who God is; they know what He requires.
Sep 28, 2024, 9:24 AM
Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1
Meditation Verses: Romans 16:17-18
Thought
Anyone who argues with sound doctrine, with the teachings that have been entrusted to the church through those who were Apostles of Christ, anyone who believes himself or herself to be wiser than those who knew Christ best, these people need to be watched. And if they're unwilling to submit to the teachings as entrusted to the churches, then they should be avoided. It's OK to have questions and to be teachable. The danger is when someone refuses to submit to the teachings, even if they don't fully understand the why's.
Sep 27, 2024, 9:26 AM
Passage Read: Romans 14-15
Meditation Verses: 15:17-19
Thought
Paul has cause to boast in Christ, and it is what Christ has accomplished through him, in particular resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, and the miraculous signs and wonders through the Holy Spirit, so that he has fully preached the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum. So to the degree that we serve Jesus Christ and proclaim His Gospel and disciple people to walk in obedience to Christ, and to the degree that He manifests His power through us, to this degree we can boast in Christ!