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 23, 2023, 8:44 AM
Passage Read: Hebrews 13 - James 1
Meditation Verses: Hebrews 13:5-6
Thought
Keeping my life free from the love of money requires being content with what I have. If I'm not content, I will need more money. If I am content with what I have, I won't need any more money. I actually have enough not only to live on but also to gradually pay back my debt. The only drawback is I have so little time to serve the kingdom, and I think that is what God has in mind with such instructions. Paul says godliness with contentment is great gain.
Oct 22, 2023, 8:45 AM
Passage Read: Hebrews 11-12
Meditation Verses: 11:13-16
Thought
Just a few verses earlier, the author mentions that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were living in tents, like strangers, in the land promised to them. They didn't build houses or settle down as if they owned the place. Not until Joshua brought the Israelites in did any of them live in houses. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived like strangers in the land because they recognized that it was not yet theirs to own.
Oct 21, 2023, 8:47 AM
Passage Read: Hebrews 9-10
Meditation Verses: 10:26-29
Thought
The author makes the case at the beginning of this chapter that we have been made perfect through Jesus' death and resurrection. Here he makes it clear that if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving instruction and knowledge about that wrong behavior, then we are trampling the Son of God underfoot, we are treating as unholy His blood that washed us, and we are insulting the Spirit of grace. That's not good!
Oct 20, 2023, 8:48 AM
Passage Read: Hebrews 7-8
Meditation Verses: 8:10-12
Thought
The New Covenant is that the Lord forgives our sins and remembers our wickedness no more, which allows us to know the Lord because He puts His laws in our minds and writes them on our hearts. He becomes our God and we become His people. The New Covenant is not just that our sins are forgiven, but that we are changed, we are made aware of His laws; they are written into our hearts and minds so that we are able to remember them and keep them.
Oct 19, 2023, 8:50 AM
Passage Read: Hebrews 5-6
Meditation Verses: 5:7-9
Thought
Jesus is the source of eternal salvation to those who obey Him. These few verses are filled with obedience; obedience and submission are the very fabric of God's creation, purposes and will. Jesus submitted to the Father, even to the point of death. He didn't back off in order to save His life, but obeyed the Father even though it cost Him His life.
Oct 18, 2023, 8:51 AM
Passage Read: Hebrews 3-4
Meditation Verses: 3:12-13
Thought
The writer is writing to believers, whom he calls brothers, and he warns them not to have a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. He goes on to say that sin is deceitful, and so we need to keep warning and encouraging one another so that our hearts are not hardened by it. It is possible for someone who professes belief and follows the Lord to become hardened by sinful behavior or sinful ideas, such that they turn away from the Lord and are lost.
Oct 16, 2023, 8:52 AM
Passage Read: Hebrews 1-2
Meditation Verse: 1:9
Thought
While this is speaking specifically of Jesus, this pattern and principle is consistent with God's rewarding nature. Those who love righteousness and hate wickedness are rewarded with high rank and responsibility in God's kingdom. No one will be higher than Jesus, but anyone can aspire to greatness in His kingdom. The more we love and live out God's righteousness and hate and resist man's wickedness, the higher place in eternity God will grant to us.
Oct 15, 2023, 9:12 AM
Passage Read: Titus 3 - Philemon 1
Meditation Verse: Titus 3:14
Thought
Paul wants all believers to be devoted to doing what is good, which includes providing for their own daily necessities and being productive. He doesn't say that they should work to get rich or be devoted to providing for themselves. He wants them to live productive lives, which certainly includes being productive in their work, so that they can provide for their necessities.
Oct 14, 2023, 9:14 AM
Passage Read: Titus 1-2
Meditation Verses: 2:7-8
Thought
Paul wants Titus to teach with integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned. These things Paul teaches, the things Jesus teaches, there is a seriousness to them, a weight and importance to them. They are not to be treated lightly, there is a life-and-death quality to them. Everything the Scriptures teach should be taken seriously and applied carefully and diligently.
Oct 13, 2023, 9:15 AM
Passage Read: 2 Timothy 3-4
Meditation Verse: 3:9
Thought
How will the folly of these false teachers be clear to everyone when people in the last days are so selfish and given over to their own evil desires? How will their folly be evident to all when men deliberately gather around themselves teachers who tell them what their itching ears want to hear? Will their folly be evident only to those who actually know and love the truth? Or will men in their duplicity know their own duplicity but doggedly seek their own desires over and against their own consciences?