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 6, 2023, 3:00 PM
Passage Read: Luke 23-24
Meditation Verses: 24:46-47
Thought
Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be preached to all nations. All people have gone astray and live by their own standards of righteousness, but now that Jesus has suffered and risen from the dead, He has been appointed Lord and Christ, and has inherited God's kingdom that will soon come to claim the whole earth. He desires that all men be saved, so all men must repent of their self-will and self-righteousness, humble themselves before the Lord and accept His standard of righteousness and right to rule.
Aug 5, 2023, 3:01 PM
Passage Read: Luke 21-22
Meditation Verses: 22:67-71
Thought
Jesus said they wouldn't believe Him, and He was right, but He answered anyway. If there was any question from His first answer, there was none from His second. And they did not believe Him. He was testifying against them, allowing them to condemn themselves. We don't necessarily tell the truth about God, Jesus and the world to bring about repentance, but we are called to testify against it, to let the world display its refusal to believe.
Aug 4, 2023, 3:03 PM
Passage Read: Luke 19-20
Meditation Verse: 20:19
Thought
They understood that parable was said against them, so instead of distancing themselves from Jesus and leaving Him be, they decide to do that which would lead them to fulfill His prophecy against them from this parable! They could have proved Jesus wrong by leaving Him alone, but instead they chose to prove Him right by looking for a way to get rid of Him.
Aug 3, 2023, 3:04 PM
Passage Read: Luke 17-18
Meditation Verse: 18:9
Thought
Humility is the hallmark of a servant of Christ, even those that are following Him best and closest. Their righteousness doesn't come from their own works or obedience, but from God. Their righteousness is a gift from God, and because they recognize how precious and valuable a gift it is, they respond in grateful obedience. Their heart to obey is the result of their faith in Jesus, a gift, an exchange of a soft heart for a hard heart, made by God.
Aug 2, 2023, 3:06 PM
Passage Read: Luke 15-16
Meditation Verse: 16:15
Thought
The Pharisees loved what all men loved, but we're supposed to be faithful believers in God. So when their love of the things of the world was questioned, they had to justify themselves and explain why it was okay for them to pursue worldly things and still be counted faithful to God. Some men might have been convinced, some might have even joined with them because their explanation sounded good to them, but others could see through it and despised the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.
Aug 1, 2023, 3:07 PM
Passage Read: Luke 13-14
Meditation Verse: 13:24-27
Thought
This is such a shocking set of statements: Many will try to enter the narrow door but not be able. Once the owner closes the door, there will be no second chance, no opening it again for a few last souls. They will remind Jesus that they ate and drank with Him, but He will deny knowing them. They remember Jesus, but He rejects them as evildoers. So He knows who they are, but they never followed Him, they just hung out with Him here and there, enjoyed the show but never bowed the knee and submitted to Him as Lord.
Jul 31, 2023, 3:08 PM
Passage Read: Luke 11-12
Meditation Verses: 12:32-34
Thought
Jesus is so radical! Sell all I have and give to the poor? Provide purses for myself that will not wear out, treasure in heaven? My heart will be in whatever I treasure? So if I treasure the things of earth, my heart will be settled on earth. But if I really trust that the kingdom of heaven will be given to me, that I will have some possession, perhaps even a great possession, in heaven, trusting so much that I willingly give away all I have on earth and live to do good as Jesus defines, then my heart will be settled in heaven.
Jul 30, 2023, 3:09 PM
Passage Read: Luke 9-10
Meditation Verse: 9:26
Thought
Jesus has said a lot of things that are hard to accept. There are things all over Scripture that are hard to swallow, but all come from God. Especially when the society around me rejects such teachings. But Jesus warns that if I am ashamed of His teachings, He will be ashamed of me when He returns in glory. He says this on the heels of two warnings about losing my life, so this shame is most likely to be understood in the same way: If Jesus is ashamed of me, I am doomed.
Jul 29, 2023, 3:10 PM
Passage Read: Luke 7-8
Meditation Verses: 7:37-38
Thought
This woman is pretty amazing. She had led a sinful life and everyone knew it--everyone knew her sin. Yet she was willing to come to where Jesus was, knowing there were many people there. And she humbled herself to so great a degree, weeping at Jesus' feet, wiping them, kissing them and anointing them with perfume--making such a spectacle of herself! And surely not only Simon, but many people were thinking what Simon was thinking.
Jul 28, 2023, 3:12 PM
Passage Read: Luke 5-6
Meditation Verses: 6:27-31
Thought
This is a hard teaching. I have to love people, even evil people, more than I love my stuff. So much so, that if someone wants to rob me, whether it's to deliberately to attack me or just a random act, I let them take what they want. I pray for them, I bless them. I don't demand back what was taken, I don't fight to keep what is mine.