Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

Tap here for a video meditation on Psalm 120.

 Quick to ignite into a blazing fire with long-lasting coals: such is the broom tree. This image occurs to the psalmist to describe the deceitful mouths that surround him, an image that James would use in his letter about the tongue.

The psalmist walks with those making their way to Jerusalem for the pilgrimages three times a year for Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. We interrupt the numerical flow of Psalms on Wednesdays, to catch this sense of movement to Jerusalem each Lent. This year, one third of the fifteen “Songs of Ascent” (Psalms 120 to 134) will be our weekly Wednesday meditation-points to Holy Week and Easter.

Burn away your old self, so that a new self can live. If you are as dead to self as the ashes of last Wednesday, the fires of life can harm you no longer. On the contrary, you will burn on and on in the Spirit!

Psalm 120

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: In distress I cry to You. v. 1

We read the Psalms in numerical order.

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 1:1-22.

We know something Job does not: God and Satan have decided to test him. How far can Satan push Job by the powers of evil in his life, and Job still not curse God? God, sets the boundaries of the test—not Satan; Satan is not permitted to touch the life-core of Job.

So begins this book of the Bible, dealing with the ancient problem posed in the Garden of Eden—how to understand good and evil. God forbade us to eat of that tree.

The test for Job and for us: how much do we trust God, no matter what?

Job 1—3

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Silence absorbing suff’ring 2:13

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the Season of Lent, we read the Book of Job.

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 1:1-10.

Of all the feats that skiers do in the Olympics, no one has ever attempted to ski backwards. Yet this catches the essence of the Biblical concept of meshubah “backsliding.” Of the twelve times that the noun is used in the Bible, nine of them are found in Jeremiah.

When we turn our eyes away from the Lord, it is impossible not to fall—literally sliding down on one’s back, feet sprawled in mid-air. To repent means to turn back again, with eyes and life totally focused upon God.

The Lord will pound away at your heart through Jeremiah these Mondays of Lent, until you stop, pick yourself up, and turn back again, face to face with the Lord, the spouse of your soul. Listen with the same energy as Jeremiah speaking.

Jeremiah 1—3

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the seasons of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Isaiah 1-13.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Known before formed in the womb 1:5

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.