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 17, 2025, 7:18 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 16 - 2 Corinthians 1
Meditation Verses: 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
Thought
God allows us to suffer great hardships so that we would recognize how much we need Him, how little we ourselves can do, and how much we need the prayers of others, so that many would rejoice in the Lord when we are delivered. God wants glory from His people; He doesn't intend for the Christian life to be easy, manageable in our own strength and ability, because then we have little or no need of Him.
Oct 16, 2025, 10:34 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 14-15
Meditation Verses: 15:12-14
Thought
It seems the Sadducees are promoting their philosophy. Some in Corinth have decided that Christ's resurrection does not mean that we all will rise from the dead. Some have decided that there is no resurrection for the rest of us. Paul won't have it: If there is no resurrection for us, then there is no resurrection for Jesus either!
Oct 15, 2025, 7:31 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 12-13
Meditation Verses: 13:1-3
Thought
Tongues without love is just noise. I may have vision and wisdom and a powerful faith, but without love, I'm nothing. I may give away all my wealth to the poor and die as a martyr, but if I didn't do it from love, if I don't have true godly love, it's of no benefit to me. But if I have love, that will guide my use of these gifts and make me very careful how I use them, for the good of others and not for drawing attention to myself or puffing up myself.
Oct 14, 2025, 7:11 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 10-11
Meditation Verses: 11:31-32
Thought
Judgment is an expression of mercy and wisdom. The goal is salvation, protection against eternal condemnation with the world. We do well to judge ourselves, individually, as carefully and strictly as possible according to the Word of God, not the ideas of men. If I judge myself carefully, no one else should need to, including God.
Oct 13, 2025, 9:13 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 8-9
Meditation Verses: 9:24-27
Thought
In a race or any other sporting event there is only one winner. Paul wants us to think in terms of only one winner in the race of life in Christ. But we know all who believe in Jesus gain eternity with God, so where's the urgency? We're in, right? Not if that thinking leads us to such laziness in terms of personal righteousness.
Oct 12, 2025, 9:31 AM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 6-7
Meditation Verse: 7:19
Thought
Knowing that there are commands and instructions about circumcision in the Law makes this seem like a paradoxical statement. If I desire to keep God's commands, shouldn't I be circumcised? Circumcision is a sign of the righteousness Abraham received by faith that produced obedience to God. But that sign became corrupted and distorted, such that circumcision came to be treated as the thing that makes you part of a saved community.
Oct 11, 2025, 12:06 PM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 4-5
Meditation Verses: 4:2-5
Thought
"Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time." What a strange thing to write, when he had already asked the Corinthians to judge what he writes and he will shortly warn them that he is coming to discipline them and that they should judge the immoral man in their fellowship! In his instructions about communion, he tells us to judge ourselves so that we will not come under judgment!
Oct 10, 2025, 3:29 PM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 2-3
Meditation Verses: 3:3-4
Thought
Boasting about men, boasting about who we follow, there should be none of this among mature Christians, wise Christians. Mature Christians recognize that all honorable teachers are each given by God. There is no need to divide ourselves by whom we claim to follow, because each of those teachers should recognize that they all serve one Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oct 9, 2025, 11:55 AM
Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1
Meditation Verses: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Thought
Ouch! This is a brutal truth, but a vital one, to help us keep all things in perspective, to help us keep Christ as the center and most valuable thing in our life. It is hard to think about who I really am, that I am a nobody, not the smartest guy in the room, insignificant and unimportant. I am a lowly and despised thing, chosen by God out of His mercy as a rebuke to those who think they are all that!
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.