Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Matthew 5:38-48.

Jesus’s words from the Mount of the Beatitudes join with those given to Moses on Sinai. Jesus embraces them, but goes deeper than mere external fulfillment of the Torah, the Law. Six times, while referring to the Torah, Jesus says “But I tell you …”

Consider the power of this transference. Jesus embodies the Torah. He is alive in the Holy Spirit, seeking to go ever deeper into your own heart, there to refine and make perfect, the inner subtleties of Jesus’s law of love. The Spirit prompts you to live love from its point of depth-sowing until full fruit-bearing, as we considered in yesterday’s reading from Galatians.

May you find special joy in knowing that the Spirit within you will be constantly suggesting, inclining, inspiring you this very day at every moment, to act, not as the world teaches, but as Jesus does.

Matthew 5:21–48

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: I will go the extra mile v. 41

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels.
In the seasons of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Luke 1 2; Matthew 1 7.

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 Galatians 6:14-16.

If outrage at evil drives the verses of yesterday’s psalm, today’s chapter has the sweet movement of gentleness, love, and peace—three of the nine fruits of the Spirit we considered last Thursday. We learn today how real situations evidence these fruits. We are encouraged to be compassionate instead of judgmental when sin besets someone. As for any fruit, the fruits of the Spirit appear and ripen on the tree of your life by what you do. Verse 8 clearly uplifts this principle.

This glorious letter has so many verses you will want to write down and commit to memory. With these words sown as seed, how can your life not bear the fruits of the Spirit in your soul?

Galatians 6

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Examples:

Restoring in gentleness v. 1

Reaping whatever I sow. v. 7

Boasting only in the cross v. 14

Marks of Christ on my body v. 17

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the seasons of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Titus, Philemon, Galatians and Philippians.

For all the Firestarters in the original version, I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these Firestarters 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 Psalm 10:12-18.

Tap here for a video meditation on Psalm 10.

The tragic irony of the prosperity of the wicked and the persecution of the innocent haunts the psalmist. The first verse begins with an outright complaint to God about God’s distance in times of trouble. Ten of the next seventeen verses of the psalm cite example after example of injustices that cry to heaven for vengeance.

However negative and complaining is the psalm, at a deeper level, it is driven by intercession. Profound intimacy binds the psalmist to God, no matter what. In fact, in verse 12, the inventory of evil results in an immense shout of intercession with confidence in God’s response. Feel the flow of assurance that completes the psalm. May your prayer today be driven by the inner energy and depth of this psalm.

Psalm 10

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: You hear the wants of the meek. v. 17

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