Tap the image for a video-meditation on Psalm 77.

This Psalm has ten verses of anguish, ten of hope. The psalmist will teach you about how to deal with your own pains of the heart. No matter how strong the suffering, he is praying.

Share your heartaches with the Lord. When you have poured yourself out, a fresh, new space expands in your heart to listen to the Lord who brings you remembrance of God’s gracious presence to you throughout your life. Jesus was there for you on the cross. He unleashed the power of healing love there; it is all that you have ever needed or will ever need. The Lord is with you. Pour out your heart and listen to Jesus. He loves you. He will comfort you in his out-poured Spirit, filling your pain and emptiness with his sweet presence.

Psalm 77

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.

On July 18 of this year, Jewish people celebrate the Ninth of Av, the date in the Jewish calendar, which recalls the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem. It is a day of mourning and sadness for all of us, for the way in which the forces of darkness seek to reduce God’s presence to rubble in the world.

For Christians, the various attempts to eradicate the temple of the living God in the members of Christ’s body, the New Temple, is our way of sharing in the losses of our ancestors. Yet what martyr is celebrated with sadness! They live on in the temple in the heavenly Jerusalem.

The flow of mourning in this chapter is suddenly interrupted by verses 22–23. The late Thomas Chisholm, a former member of The First United Methodist Church in Vineland, N.J. (where I serve as pastor from 2000 to 2008), composed the famous hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” He beautifully expresses the profound feelings of the writer of Lamentations.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In this season we read Hosea; in the 9th week, we read Lamentations 3.

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.

Here we go is again—wilderness and hunger. Does Jesus flash back to the desert and the forty-day fast, tempted by the devil to turn rocks into bread for himself? No, today will be different—no food for himself, but for others; no rocks will be magically turned to bread, but a boy’s small lunch explodes to feed a crowd.

Bring what you have to the Lord. God has made you good; the Lord will multiply your goodness so you too can feed a multitude. However, first nourish your spirit with the Word of the Lord, handing you miracle bread of his life right now. Walk with Jesus on top of the turbulent waters of your life. He will bring you through a new Exodus to life on the other side of anguish and pain.

John 6:1–21

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
In year B, we read from the Gospel of Mark. However, from today until the last Sunday
in Pentecost, we’ll be following the lectionary which offers these Sundays
from the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John.

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.