Choose Life

As this last book of Moses begins to draw to a close, sense in your heart the tender longing of God for us to respond in love and fidelity to the covenant God is offering. These are powerful closing chapters, read in their entirety every year in Jewish synagogues on the Sabbath.

Have your highlighter ready for 29:19. What consequences for not being faithful to the covenant!

One of my favorite passages in the whole Bible is 30:11–20. May you read it as though you are truly listening to this from the Lord as you and I, along with all God’s people assembled, “Choose life.”

It is the time of the beginning of the school year. Read this passage with your family as you rededicate yourselves to God’s ways. The Holy Spirit is the master-teacher of your soul.

Deuteronomy. 29:9—30:20

This passage occurs in all three years in the Jewish Sabbath readings.
Nitsabim (Stand)

This year the next portion is also read, Vayelech (And He Went)
Deuteronomy 31:1–30

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Lord, my God, You are my life. v. 20

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.

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

The Impossible Made Possible 

This is a challenging chapter on the supreme values of the Kingdom. Three aspects are uplifted: fidelity in marriage, living as children, and the danger of riches. Only when one is living in the Kingdom, with the Lord as center of all choices and ways of life, does Jesus’ teaching on these three subjects make sense.

The world does not see things this way. Marriage is by convenience, “children are to be seen and not heard,” and riches of money and fame are treasured as absolutes.

What happens to you as you listen to these words of Jesus? Take an inventory of the “things” that you treasure the most. How do they fit with Jesus’values in this chapter? If there is sin, repent now for the Lord forgives you. Remember: only God can give fidelity to marriage and indifference to riches. When you respond to graces that make the impossible possible, you will be ready for the Kingdom riches in the last two verses.

Matthew 19

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: The first last, and the last first v. 30

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels.
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Matthew 8 to 18.

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.

Mid-Course Correction

Thursdays in autumn this year find us rolling back the centuries to the birthing and growing of a first century church in a great metropolis. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians offers a powerful example of a church struggling with the momentum of a lifestyle prior to commitment to Christ—idolatry, sexual immorality, lawsuits, worldly philosophy, etc.

Corinth is situated on a narrow isthmus between the mainland part of Greece in the north and the Peloponnesian peninsula to the south. It is perfectly placed to meet the ships sailing from the east and moving westward after a brief portage across the isthmus. It was the center of world trade, much like New York City in the cosmopolitan nature of its population.

Paul founded this church about 50 A.D. Now he writes to give them “mid-course correction” on their way to salvation. Let Paul do the same for you.

1 Corinthians 1

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: What is weak shaming the strong v. 27

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.