Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

Tap here for a video meditation on Psalm 122.

Picture Jesus in the crowds making their way to Jerusalem. Since he was twelve years old, three times a year he walked to the great city surrounded by pilgrims chanting this psalm and all the psalms that fill our Wednesdays in Lent. There would be a final journey to Jerusalem and the lament over the city heard only by the olive trees on the mount, and then the final walk up Calvary’s hill with the cross.

Six times in the psalm, the word shamar sings itself, naming the Lord as “keeper” and “preserver.” Meditate on this word, sighing its sweet sound over and over as you mull over its inner meaning of God as a hedge around you. No matter what lies before you in your journey—challenge or temptation—the grace, power, and presence of God press on before you and hedge you all around.

Psalm 122

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More

We pray in Lent this year, Psalms 120 to124.

For all the Firestarters I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information

Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Job 8:11-22.

Though Job is filled with immense pain, anguish, and anger, there is beauty in the poetry that flows from his mouth.

Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 8:1 apply to the attitude of Job’s friends: “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” Love, not knowledge, is greater than evil. All the truth in the world, without love, amounts to nothing— amounts to evil. The absence of love allows evil to rush into the vacuum created. In all of Bildad’s judgmental words about Job and his wrongs, Bildad fails to see the arrogance of evil imbedded in his own loveless heart.

If you were to write or cry out the current “chapter” in your life just as Job does in his, how would the words flow? Will you trust the Lord and pour out your heart in prayer, sharing with the Lord how you feel about all aspects of your life?

Job 6—8

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Recalling: life is a breath 7:7

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the season of Lent this year we read Job 1-14; 38.

For all the Firestarters I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information

Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Jeremiah 9:1-3.

Chapter 9 verse 1 gave Jeremiah the name: “The Weeping Prophet.” He grieves over the people’s lost condition, so much of which has to do with leaders lying to the people.

What is your experience of crying? Do you weep easily, or is it hard for you to pour out the sin and sadness in your life through tears? Shame often enters to gridlock the emotion of pain that needs the loosening release of sobs. The tears of others often help to free this “liquid prayer.”

Read slowly, carefully, reflectively. You might take a chapter for each of the three hours in the quarter parts of the day. Let your heart be touched; your head may flow with tears. Listen for the tears of Jeremiah until you hear your own. Pray for what spiritual writers call “The Gift of Tears,” a gift from God for intercessory prayer.

Jeremiah 7—9

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the season of Lent we read Jeremiah 1—17.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Weeping for those who suffer 9:1

For all the Firestarters I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information.