Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and Luke 1:5-25.

Once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a Jewish priest would be privileged to offer incense in the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary of the Temple. Lots were drawn to see who it would be. In today’s passage, they fell to Zechariah. The moment of a lifetime had come.

He is there to atone for his people, and to pray longingly for the Messiah. There was an additional heartache for him; he and his elderly wife Elizabeth were yearning for their own child. However, it seemed too late; she was just too old.

Enter Gabriel with astounding news—a son for Zechariah and Elizabeth, intimately connecting the child with the coming of the Messiah! Zechariah was not prepared to listen to this, and so he was unprepared to shout out its news. He is struck dumb.

How open are you to the wonderful things the Lord wants to do with you?

Luke 1:1–25

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Living righteous and blameless v. 6

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels.
In the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Luke 1-2; Mark 1-3

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.

 An aged St. John writes this letter in exile on the island of Patmos, near Greece. Just as a pious Jew faces toward the holy city of Jerusalem when he prays three times a day, so does John “turn his eyes upon Jesus” present in the communities of faith which were alive because of Jesus’s resurrection. There is a tradition that says that in his nineties, John used to keep repeating: “Little children, little children: love one another.”

John’s ending years are your beginning ones, as daily Bible reading becomes part of a way of life for you. Get ready! This is a splendid letter. Feel John’s enthusiasm as he tells you in the first verses, about how tangible and lovely Jesus was in his earthly flesh.

Your relation with the Lord: how tangible is it?

1 John 1

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Blood of Jesus cleansing sin v. 7

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read the Letters of John and Jude.

For all the Firestarters 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.

Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

For a video meditation on today’s Psalm created three years ago, Tap here.

The only remains of the Temple of Jerusalem are what is now called the “Wailing Wall.” This psalm must increase the feelings of grief for Jews as they pray beside this relic of the greatness of the former Temple.

However, more than a building in space, the new temple is the Body of Christ in time. We have entered this holy temple of sacred time through the gateway of Advent. There is a new and heavenly Jerusalem that is to come down from heaven, as we read in Revelation 21:1–4; still, ahead of you lies the daily opportunity to be aware of the intimacy you share with those bonded by the spiritual bones and sinews of the Body of Christ. Time is soaked with eternity.

Let go of all those “former things” in your life that need to pass away that blind and block you from this union with Christ, such as resentments, fears, sins. Let the Holy City descend into your heart.

Psalm 48

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: You are joy of all the earth. 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