The self-effacement of Paul is starkly described in the opening verses. Imagine willing to be cursed and separated from Christ, if it meant the salvation of Paul’s beloved Jewish people! Samuel, David and Paul, and of course Jesus, stand before you this week as those willing to live and die that others might have life.

The questions posed in verses 20 and 21 are designed to have the image of the potter and the clay shift us away from Job-like questions that nag at us. There is yet another question that the clay could ask the pot with equal silence in response: “Why did you make me at all?”

Why were you conceived and the born on the day of your birth, and not someone else? No answer to that question … Neither are there answers to many others. Live with these questions and adore the Lord who made you.

Romans 9

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Example: Awe before Your making me v. 20

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

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.

Tap on the image for a video meditation on Psalm 28.

Contrasted with Saul and yesterday’s reading, here is David and his psalm—the prayer of one whose heart is one with God. The very outpouring of his heart in anguished prayer lubricates the “gears” of his inner being. His spirit loosens; deeper and wider expanse of joyous expression flows from verse 6 to the end. David knows it is God, not he, who will avenge enemies and shepherd his people. Breathe with relief and confidence as the prayer rises to the concluding verse.

Return to this psalm often today, especially when temptations press you to regain control of things, disqualifying you from making this prayer as sincere and open as David. Watch how you are vulnerable to temptations of this kind; thus, you will know to what precise inner places you need to ask the Spirit to direct laser-beams of healing love.

Psalm 28

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Lifting up my hands to You v. 2

We continue to follow 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

As gears out of sync in a machine, so are Saul and the Israelites. Decisions are made apart from prayer; rather they are impetuous reactions, prompted by fear, power and pride.

Alone among them completely doing the Lord’s will, is Samuel. Listen to him once again say to the people as he said to God as a boy, “Here I am” (12:3). His transparency to God makes him able to be used by God. Nothing is between him and his Lord. He lives uncontaminated by the evils that enter and gradually push their way deeper and deeper into Saul, disconnecting his heart from the Lord. Samuel, on the other hand, always holds God’s people in prayer.

Discern those inner movements that make for oneness with the Lord and those that disrupt and break away from God. As you listen to the promptings of the Spirit, are you like Samuel or Saul?

1 Samuel 11—13

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Turning not to useless things12:21

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Proverbs 13 and 14 and 1 Samuel.

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