Picture you soul as soil. What kind is it? Is it hard and stony with no place for roots to go deep? If the Lord promised in the prophets that God would turn stony hearts to hearts of flesh, how much more will he soften yours through his Spirit! The hardness and harshness of your soul becomes as soft as sifted soil. The finger of God pushes the seed of the Word into your heart.

Firestarters are as “Fire Seeds.” Open yourself to receive God’s Word be planted in you. Be alert throughout the course of your day to what God is speaking to you. Keep a journal of fresh notes that reveal how the Word meets you. Just as soil embraces seed, your soul embraces the Word.

Mark 4:1–25

We’re using The Message translation of the Scriptures.
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Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels. This year, we generally read
from the Gospel of Mark, this season, chapters 4 to 9.

For the next several weeks, the Firestarters will be from the original version of this program. For these 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.

Five times in verses 3 and 4 the word “comfort” appears. Paul begins his letter with the assurance of the comfort of God in all sufferings, this comfort being the source of the same for others. Read slowly; savor these verses.

The word for “comfort” is the same word used in John’s Gospel for the Holy Spirit, “the Comforter,” from the Greek, Paracletos, “to be called to one’s side.” The Holy Spirit is the one at your side, poured forth to heal, restore, and deeply comfort your entire being.

Belief in the Holy Spirit is also the guarantee of all the promises of God in this world and the next. When the Holy Spirit is in evidence in you, you have a passport to the heavenly places you are entering right now.

2 Corinthians 1

We’re using The Message translation of the Scriptures.
Learn about this. unique translation

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Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In this season of Pentecost this year,
we read 2 Corinthians.

For the next several weeks, the Firestarters will be from the original version of this program. For these 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.

Tap on the image for a video meditation on today’s Psalm.

“Dear Diary”: perhaps these are the most familiar words we associate with keeping a journal. It is always there for you, always ready to listen and receive without judgment, criticism, blame, or condemnation.

This is the way David approaches his Lord in the many psalms attributed to him. They are personal. He hardly imagined that you and I would be praying them thousands of years later!

This psalm is typical of many that move from pain to praise. Do what David does. Share your pain with the Lord in writing. You will find images emerging as vehicles for the pain to move out from you. Image gives birth to image as deliverance takes place. Your soul will then be free and empty to be filled with the praises of the Lord. The more you pray, the less likely your struggles with evil will be a cause for your neighbor to stumble.

Psalm 69

We’re using The Message translation of the Scriptures.
Learn about this. unique translation

Bible Breaths Learn More…

We follow a reading of the Psalms in numerical order.

For the next several weeks, the Firestarters will be from the original version of this program. For these 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.