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 14, 2023, 2:10 PM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 12-13
Meditation Verses: 12:1-2
Thought
This should be a sobering statement, that the Corinthians and so many people across the globe and through time, we're led astray and influenced by mute idols. In this context, Paul is saying that there weren't even the use of miraculous gifts, and still they were led astray! They were ignorant, and we should not be. We should understand the truth about God and about false gods, and we shouldn't fall prey to such powerless things.
Sep 13, 2023, 2:11 PM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 10-11
Meditation Verses: 10:1-5
Thought
We are not safe in Christ Jesus because we participated in certain ceremonies of His, any more than the Israelites were because they followed Moses through the water and ate the same spiritual food and water. We're not safe because we were baptized into Christ or eat the bread and juice of communion. We only have communion with Christ if we walk in obedience to His commands. If we ignore His commands then our baptism is meaningless, as is our participation in communion.
Sep 12, 2023, 2:13 PM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 8-9
Meditation Verse: 9:24
Thought
These instructions and examples are not just for us to know what a great guy Paul is. He's telling us these things so that we too would follow in his steps, that we would live for the same purposes and with the same sacrifice for the sake of others. Paul tells us to run in such a way as to win the prize, as if there's only one who will win. He's challenging all of us to give up our rights, our wants, our wishes for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of those who do not yet believe.
Sep 11, 2023, 2:14 PM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 6-7
Meditation Verses: 6:2-4
Thought
God intends to put believers in charge of other men and in charge of angels, such that they judge them. If we are supposed to judge men and angels, we should be able to figure out what is right and wrong even now, and so be able to judge disputes between brothers even today. God's word must be sufficiently understandable that we can grasp it sufficiently to judge matters in this life as well as the next.
Sep 10, 2023, 2:16 PM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 4-5
Meditation Verses: 5:11-13
Thought
Paul expects a degree of perfection from believers. They are not supposed to be guilty of or acting out what is clearly sinful. Where in Scripture does it say it is sin to have your father's wife? All the way back in Leviticus! The Law still is a moral guide to believers today. And it is up to us to judge one another. We are to judge other believers because we can't be letting each other get away with sin! And if there is no repentance when confronted, then expulsion from fellowship is the only remedy.
Sep 9, 2023, 2:17 PM
Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 2-3
Meditation Verse: 3:3
Thought
Jealousy and quarreling are signs of immaturity, of worldliness. Every leader and teacher, their first and only priority is to build people up in Christ and Christlikeness. If they build in any other way, it is misguided and unhelpful at best; at worst it is destructive. The more they lead into Christ, the more quarreling and jealousy should fade away. In Christ, there should be no sides to pick, because we're all seeking the same thing, and there is only one God and one Christ, and they have no quarrel between themselves.
Sep 8, 2023, 1:42 PM
Passage Read: Romans 16 - 1 Corinthians 1
Meditation Verses: Romans 16:17-18
Thought
Paul says plainly that people who cause divisions, who introduce new ideas contrary to what has been laid down for us in Scripture, such people are not serving Christ, but their own appetites. They are seeking to draw people away after themselves, they are seeking to remove Scriptural boundaries so that they can freely indulge their fleshly desires, and gain converts to join with them in their sin, both as encouragement to perform their desires and as victims to participate with them in their evil deeds. Paul says to stay clear of them...and to not be naive, so as not to fall for their lies.
Sep 7, 2023, 1:44 PM
Passage Read: Romans 14-15
Meditation Verse: 14:13
Thought
Paul calls us to accept one another, to stop passing judgment on each other and put no stumbling block in the way of another. Of course, he gives lots of instructions in different letters about how we're supposed to behave and treat one another. It's not that commands are the stumbling blocks or obstacles he's referring to here, otherwise, we could never teach any command of Scripture except this one.
Sep 6, 2023, 1:45 PM
Passage Read: Romans 12-13
Meditation Verse: 12:6
Thought
If a man's gift is prophecy, he only needs to use it in proportion to his faith! Does that mean he can keep silent if he has little faith? Does it mean he can be content with whatever amount of faith he has? Should he grow in faith, and therefore exercise his gift to greater degree? I feel like I don't have enough faith to do the things I think I should, so this is comforting in that I don't have to do what I don't have faith to do.
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.