Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and the reading.

Reflect carefully upon “The Parable of the Talents.” Was the man with five talents five times more valuable than the man with one? Could it be that he had a high sense of his worth, more open to taking risks, since his self-worth was greater than the man with one talent? Here is the problem. We have transferred not only the name “talent” from money to innate gifts, but we have a society that compares and judges one another by the amount of talent that one has.

How are you when it comes to taking spiritual risks about who you are and how you see yourself? Do you bury your talents with judgments about yourself and comparisons with others that crush the hidden dreams the Lord offers you? The resurrection of Jesus pulls you out from being buried alive! What a talent you have and are, when the Spirit lives within!

Matthew 25:14–30

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Your world entrusted to me v. 14

Tap here for a video of the alphabyte “Year” for the Twelfth Week in Kingdomtide.

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
During the Seasons of Pentecost and Kingdomtide, we read the Gospel of Matthew.

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.

Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and Genesis 27:1-29.

Families are like mobiles. Ideally, each of the parts of the mobile hangs freely in their proper place, all of them suspended by one string. Few families are like that; most are tangled together, resulting in the term, “dysfunctional family.”

The family of Isaac and Rebecca has seeds of dysfunction within it. Esau, selling his birthright for food—is he not also responsible for the loss of the blessing, which Isaac gave to the deceitful Jacob? Then there is the preferential treatment of Rebecca to Jacob, and the latter’s complicity with her plan. Even Isaac needed to trust his nose more than his hands when he “smelled” something not quite right when Jacob approached him as Esau.

We are responsible for the situations in which we find ourselves. This frees us from the language of blame, reserving the discovering of our guilt when we go and pray to the Father in secret.

Genesis 26:23—27:29

This is the second of three parts of the Torah Portion Tol’doth (Progeny) 
Conservative and Reform Jewish congregations read only this part this year,
as also in this Bible plan.
Here is the entire portion in all three parts.
Genesis 25:19—28:9

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Ever seeking your blessing

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

Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and Matthew 27:45-54.

Ask Simon of Cyrene to let you carry the cross with Jesus for a while. Allow your senses to come alive in the scene, letting the Lord use your imagination to take you beyond the imaginable—God’s Son dying for you. Live the darkness of the sixth to the ninth hour (Noon to three PM). Hear Jesus’s cries against the harsh background of blasphemy. Die with Jesus as he dies for you. The presence of God becomes accessible as the curtain between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies is torn in two. Dead saints break loose from the grave. At the very moment of death, signs of Jesus coming to life are present!

May your contemplation of the death of Jesus have you ready to die with him. Let go of all that needs to die in you, so that you can rise with Jesus.

Matthew 27:32–66

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Carrying Your holy cross v. 32

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels.
In the season of Kingdomtide this year we read Matthew 19 to 28.

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.