Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and Isaiah 41:8-10.

Look for quiet times of the day, perhaps in the morning. If it is evening, let the first two candles of an Advent Wreath push back the darkness that moves in more and more to take light from the day as winter comes. Make an Advent Bible Journal for yourself so that you can note spiritual movements in your soul.

Prepare such a prayerful setting as you read Isaiah, the blessed Advent prophet. This chapter begins with all of the cities by the Mediterranean shore as witnesses to the goodness of God in raising the pagan Persian King Cyrus to lead the Chosen People back to their land.

Do you sometimes think that things are just not working out for you in the deep, quiet, places in your heart? Do you relate to being in a kind of exile at times? Pour out your feelings to the Lord and let God lead you “home.”

Isaiah 41

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the Winder Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Isaiah 40 – 55.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: You chose me; I’m Your servant. v. 9

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 the reading.

If you find yourself caught in the humdrum of your own expectations of how things are going to be, then Advent is the time to be shaken to new awareness. The Lord wants to leap into your world and offer you the power to change it.

This shaking is not an outer violence, but an inner one. If you are alone, lost and thirsty in a desert, then the faint voice of another promising to lead you out will be very refreshing. This is the voice and water of John.

Listen to the beginnings of this Gospel, which shall be with us this year. Your heart quivers as you hear these words with millions of believers throughout the earth. God is up to something great for you in fire and in the Holy Spirit.

Mark 1: 1–8

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Prepare the way of the Lord. v. 3

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
During the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year, we read the Gospel of Mark, chapters 1-2.

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 38:12-30.

Around this time of the year for over 2500 years, Jewish people have been proclaiming these readings. For the first time they are integrated into a sequence of readings for Christians. Think of the power of this as we join our Jewish brothers and sisters as they lift the scroll each Sabbath and chant these stories! This is the Torah— God’s precious communication with us.

This story fits well in Advent, for with Tamar, we have a direct descendant to Jesus. Tamar’s son Perez was an ancestor to David. (Matthew gives the list 1:3.) Jesus came from the family of David.

Look what the Lord does with the sinfulness and intrigue of ancestors! The Lord can use everything and everyone. In your family tree, you probably have some with a “shady past.” The Lord can use them for good.

Genesis 38

This is the second of three parts of the Torah Portion Vayeshev (And He Settled)
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 37:1—40:23

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: You turn all things into good.

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