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 5, 2023, 1:46 PM
Passage Read: Romans 10-11
Meditation Verses: 11:20-24
Thought
This section talks about being cut off and being grafted in again. Israelites are being cut off from salvation, but they can yet repent and believe and be grafted in again. Gentles, on the other hand, who believe the gospel are grafted in, but can be cut off if they do not continue in belief, if they start trusting in their works or the Law for salvation. It sounds like people can be cut off and cut in at will, that salvation is not so set as we like to believe.
Sep 4, 2023, 1:48 PM
Passage Read: Romans 8-9
Meditation Verse: 9:18
Thought
"God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden." This is why Jesus and Paul wouldn't spend a lot of time trying to convince people who didn't believe in Jesus in short order. Jesus taught His disciples to move on from any person or place that rejected their message. We can hope that they might believe at a later date, but if God doesn't plan to have mercy on them, then they cannot be saved, even if we wear them down and they confess Christ at some point.
Sep 3, 2023, 1:49 PM
Passage Read: Romans 6-7
Meditation Verses: 6:17-18
Thought
Apparently, with believing the gospel, we offer ourselves in slavery to righteousness. That's an illustration from human experience, but the point is that when I believe in Christ, I believe in Him as Lord of my life with total control over me and should be willingly submitting myself to Him, as if I were actually a slave.
Sep 2, 2023, 1:50 PM
Passage Read: Romans 4-5
Meditation Verse: 4:8
Thought
This is the promise I have in Jesus Christ, that my sins will never be counted against me. This is an impossibly great blessing, because it means I never need fear death, and the Creator of all things will receive me into His eternal kingdom. This is why I want to live for Him, to do whatever He asks of me, though there are still things that scare me or things I don't understand.
Sep 1, 2023, 1:53 PM
Passage Read: Romans 2-3
Meditation Verses: 3:18-19
Thought
"There is no fear of God before their eyes." The Law says this to those who are under the Law, which means even those who should know better somehow still have no fear of God. Those who should know God and His righteous requirements have no fear of God! If that is true of the Jews, how much more true can it be of Christians. Jesus called the disciples friends because they obeyed Him and understood everything He was trying to teach them.
Aug 31, 2023, 1:54 PM
Passage Read: Acts 28 - Romans 1
Meditation Verses: Romans 1:28-32
Thought
When we abandon the knowledge of God, when we turn away from the testimony of Scripture, we're free to do whatever we like and believe whatever we want. Sadly, it doesn't make us better but worse. We become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. We commit all kinds of sin, things we know deserve death, but having rejected the truth about God, we not only keep at them, but we encourage others to do likewise.
Sep 10, 2022, 3:17 PM
Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1
Meditation Verses: Romans 16:17-18
Thought
Anyone who teaches doctrine contrary to what Paul taught needs to be avoided. Such men are not serving the Lord or the church, but their own bellies. They are seeking to gain leadership over a group of believers so that those Believers can support them, and they'll teach whatever they need in order to gain a following. Because their motivation is not Christ and the Truth, they have no intention of knowing the Truth and therefore cannot teach it accurately.
Sep 9, 2022, 3:20 PM
Passage Read: Romans 14-15
Meditation Verses: 14:20-21
Thought
There are those who believe certain foods to be wrong to eat, like the Hindus. If they were to come to Christ, they might have a difficult time accepting those who eat meat, especially cows. In sensitivity to them, until they became convinced in the Lord that eating any meat was acceptable to God, I would need to refrain from eating beef, at least in their presence. It would be challenging for someone like that to suddenly throw off everything they believed from their youth.
Sep 8, 2022, 3:21 PM
Passage Read: Romans 12-13
Meditation Verse: 12:16
Thought
I need to be careful not to pay special attention to some and less attention to others. Not to be arrogant but to be humble, and not to give special treatment to the mighty or the powerful, but give the same treatment to all, rich and poor, influential and insignificant. I need to recognize that God has chosen more of the poor to be saved than the rich and powerful. I need to accept that God knows what He's talking about and trust His judgment.
Sep 7, 2022, 3:22 PM
Passage Read: Romans 10-11
Meditation Verses: 11:19-23
Thought
Salvation by faith is not a once-for-all guarantee of salvation. Faith is only good for as long as it lasts. If someone should abandon faith, they will be lost. That is the point of Paul's letter to the Galatians. The idea that someone prayed a prayer or was baptized and so is eternally secure is false. It is not a one-off that saves, but a living, growing faith in Christ that is saving faith. And faith must be held fast to the end to truly save.