Have you ever been so hungry that you just can’t get your mind off of food?  Millions and millions of children around the world are hungry right now, desperate for nourishment that continues their lives.  Today’s story is about the birth of twins to Rebecca, Isaac’s wife.  One day in the course of their lives, Esau, the older twin was so very hungry, that he begged food from his brother Jacob.  Imagine: Jacob wouldn’t share his food with his won brother!  Esau made a deal: to sell his birthright to Jacob for a meal.  Birthright refers to the special blessings and privileges that come to the child born first.

While starving demands food right away, there are other things we want that we think we must have instantly.  Sometimes, “We want what we want when we want it!”   

Any thoughts about your own life that come to you from today’s story? 

Genesis  25:19-34

The Saturday passages follow the reading list that Jewish people use in their synagogue worship throughout the world. They are taken from
“The Torah,” the first five books of the Bible from Genesis to Deuteronomy that are read each year beginning with autumn.

These Firestarters are from a new edition of The Bible Through the Seasons being developed for families with children. For the Firestarters in the original edition, I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or table! Check the menu options at the site for more information.

Something interesting about the Gospel of St. Luke: it begins in the temple, and ends in the temple. This is an important theme from yesterday’s reading from Revelation.  The temple at the beginning and the end of St. Luke’s Gospel are like bookends that hold the Gospel together.

Join the disciples and catch their joy as they wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them.  They know that their Lord Jesus is risen.  They can wait with hope for the next move of God.

Let’s you and I wait with joy and hope for the next move 

Luke 24:36-53

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels. This being Year C,
the third year in the cycle, we generally read from the Gospel of Luke.

These Firestarters are from a new edition of The Bible Through the Seasons being developed for families with children. For the Firestarters in the original edition, I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or table! Check the menu options at the site for more information.

Did I make a typo in the title of today’s Firestarter?  No; I’m playing with the words “temple,” a physical building occupying space, and a temple inside us that occupies time, rather than space.  It’s a timple!

I got this idea when St. John talks about the various fruits that come from the Tree of Life throughout the twelve months of the year.  Since there is no more a physical temple, but rather the Lamb of God, Christ risen is the temple, this means that the Christ-Temple is always with us wherever we go, all during the twelve months of the year, for God lives inside us. 

Taking the idea of yesterday when I invited us to let our every breath praise God, we can be praising God every second of our lives.  This will go on and on until the temple of God which is our body gives up its work, passing us on to eternal life and the heaven-temple that will last forever.

 Revelation 22

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.

These Firestarters are from a new edition of The Bible Through the Seasons being developed for families with children. For the Firestarters in the original edition, I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or table! Check the menu options at the site for more information.