Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and the reading.

Embedded in the midst of the most pagan of cities, there are those hungry and waiting for the Gospel. After a failure in Athens, Paul is lead to turn to another Greek city—Corinth.

It would be different for Corinth. Located on a small isthmus, it was the center of trade in the ancient world, shipments briefly passing over land in the traffic from east to west across the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Similar to New York City, it was a cosmopolitan city with a great diversity of peoples. It became open to the Gospel. Paul wrote two great letters to this Church.

The verses for today deserve special meditation. What might they mean for you? Are there tasks that God has placed on your heart that in the natural realm, do not seem possible?

We return to the Book of Acts next year at Easter time, with Paul’s third missionary journey.

Acts 18:1–22

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: “I am with you: none will harm.” v. 10

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the Easter Season this year we read Acts 10:1 to 18:22.

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 Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Psalm 68:15-20.

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

The psalm begins with the marching cry of Moses from Numbers 10:35. Military images abound, reminding us of the adage: “Is God on our side?” I prefer this alternative: “Am I on God’s side?”

For God sides with the rejected and forgotten expressed in the psalm by the fatherless and the widow. If you have compassion for these and others in our society, then the grace of the Lord will flow through you in a powerful way.

Paul quotes today’s verse in Ephesians 4:8 in the description of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven; you might turn to that chapter of Ephesians as a counterpoint to the psalm for today.

God is beyond us, yet within us, through the Holy Spirit whom we celebrate Sunday in Pentecost.

Psalm 68

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Love for orphans and widows v. 5

We continue to read 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

Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Ezra 8:21-23.

One would think that after the return to the way of life of their ancestors, God’s people would settle down and finally obey the Lord. Wrong! Just as happened soon after the Temple of Solomon was constructed, God’s people wander from the ways of the Lord.

Ezra is a model for intercessors. Without finger pointing, as a true priest, he represents the people before the Lord and expresses the sins of intermarrying as though they were his own personal sins. Jesus did the same. For our sake, “He who knew no sin, [became] sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Ezra desires to lift the people to God. This kind of prayer moves God. In Jesus’s name, pray the same way.

Ezra 8—10

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Gracious hand of God on me 8:18

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the Easter Season this year we read Proverbs 17 – 19 and Ezra.

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