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 27, 2022, 7:08 AM
Passage Read: Galatians 5-6
Meditation Verses: 5:2-4
Thought
Paul is making this a very big deal! It is either Christ alone or nothing! But keeping the Law provides a measure of security and comfort--except that no one can keep the Law perfectly, so in that sense, the Law is useless. Still, it is attractive to have a back up plan, so that if Christ is not enough, then God might still accept you for your effort to keep the Law. Paul is forcing a choice, either Christ or the Law. We can't have both.
Sep 26, 2022, 7:09 AM
Passage Read: Galatians 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:23-26
Thought
Is Paul speaking to Jews or to people heavily influenced by Jews? Who was locked up under Law but the Jews? The Gentiles didn't grow up under the Law, it is something we likely wouldn't even know about until we came to Christ. It was the Jews who would be locked up under Law, but they might come to us Gentiles and teach us that we too need to submit to all the Law. So we Gentiles need to understand that the Jews were originally locked up under the Law until faith came, so that we too do not look to the Law for salvation.
Sep 25, 2022, 7:11 AM
Passage Read: Galatians 1-2
Meditation Verse: 2:20
Thought
If I died and now the life I live is Christ's, how can I think of my life as being my own in any way? Am I not all the more a slave of Jesus Christ? And if Christ loves me so much as to give His life to save me, do I need to fear at all anything He might ask me to do, anything He might do with me? Even if He wants to do something painful or scary with my life, do I have any say anymore? My life is done. I died with Christ, the life I'm now living is His life and I'm just along for the ride.
Sep 24, 2022, 7:29 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 12-13
Meditation Verses: 13:2-4
Thought
There is a power in Christ, an authority that men sent by Him have access to. It is the same power to discipline that the Lord has and exercised through all His appointed leaders of the past. The spiritual leader of a community has spiritual power to discipline and correct and defend that community. Most leaders today think they have to rely on man-created methods to control or manipulate their congregation, but God's appointed leaders need none of that.
Sep 23, 2022, 7:30 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 10-11
Meditation Verses: 11:26-27
Thought
Paul suffered all kinds of things for the sake of Christ, His Gospel and people who had not yet heard it. Why should I think things should be easy for me, if I really want to follow Christ and care about others? Paul was in danger from his own people and from outsiders. He was in danger from robbers and from wild animals, in cities and in the countryside. Do I want to put Christ on the back burner in order to gain a little peace and prosperity? God forbid.
Sep 22, 2022, 7:31 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 8-9
Meditation Verses: 8:12-14
Thought
Giving is not a competition that we should see who can give the most. Nor is it something to go into debt over. But it is simply an expression of the love and care we have for others, based on what we have available to give. Ideally, we live on less than we make and we have an excess available to give to the needs of others. This is a very practical application of loving one another. Neither are we called to make everyone's wishes come true, but to help those who lack basic needs.
Sep 21, 2022, 7:32 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 6-7
Meditation Verse: 7:3
Thought
It is sad that Paul always has to defend himself. The Church has fallen into error and he teaches and corrects them, and still he has to remind them that it is out of love that he corrects them. Why are we all so stubborn and arrogant, that we somehow think we know so much about God and godliness when we barely know anything at all? Why are we so stubborn as to refuse correction even by the one who introduced us to Christ?
Sep 20, 2022, 7:34 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 4-5
Meditation Verses: 4:2-4
Thought
Knowing that he has received a ministry from God, Paul speaks only what God has revealed. He had no need to deceit or deception or to change the Truth of God to be more acceptable to men. He knows full well that salvation depends on the power of God working in the hearts of men, not on his ability to win someone to accept what he's saying. So he doesn't need to distort the Word of God, but simply present what it actually says.
Sep 19, 2022, 7:35 AM
Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 2-3
Meditation Verse: 2:4
Thought
True correction comes from love, and true love corrects those it loves, when they are wrong. Paul says he wrote things that grieved them out of his own grief over them, over their sins. He wrote them because he wanted to visit them in joy, not having to correct them when he arrived. Better to come and see them worshiping the Lord in truth and righteousness. But if he arrived and they had all kinds of problems, then he would have to spend his time rebuking and correcting them, and there would be no joy in that for anyone.
Sep 18, 2022, 7:36 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 16 - 2 Corinthians 1
Meditation Verses: 2 Corinthians 1:23-24
Thought
There is great joy in fellowshipping with those who walk in obedience, with those who are teachable. But there is much grief in meeting together with those who resist sound doctrine. When meeting the latter, you see all the problems, and if you love them, you point out the error and direct them towards the truth. But if they are resistant, it becomes a heavy burden to all, to the one who desires to show the way and to those who resist the direction.