Listen to Pastor Nick read the “Firestarter” and Proverbs 9:7-12.

Feelings of completion, fulfillment, satisfaction, celebration, and community flow from the images of wisdom. The power of poetry takes the abstract, investing it with all the vividness of the five senses.

Engage your senses as you read about the ways of wisdom, once again contrasted with the ways of the harlot. The Lord gives us our senses so that we can find God through them, and with God, God’s plan for us.

Wisdom is a practical way of living. It is not intended to fill the mind with a gluttony of ideas, but rather to bathe the heart and ready it do what the Lord wants. Read this chapter repeatedly until you fully catch the Lord’s beckonings to you this day.

Proverbs 9

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Walking with wisdom each day

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the season of Advent to Epiphany this year, we read Ruth, Esther and Proverbs 7 to 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 Pastor Nick read the “Firestarter” and Isaiah 66:1-2; 10-13.

Isaiah in this final chapter joins Matthew 25 with the sheep and goats, along with Revelation 21 in proclaiming the justice of God at the end of the world. Yet the end has already begun; the New Jerusalem is the Church.

Be challenged to come to true worship. Move into the fullness of joy as you rest in prayer at the bosom of the Church where the Holy Spirit feeds you with the very love of God. Your imagination is the mouth that takes in all the nourishment that the Mother Church longs to give you as her child.

When you are troubled with the injustices that make the headlines of the morning paper, claim in your heart that the triumph of justice will come. Will you live with the faith that believes that what is coming is already here?

Isaiah 66

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Humble and contrite of heart v. 2

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the seasons of Advent through Epiphany this year we read Isaiah 56 to 66..

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 the Gospel.

Karate chops of Jesus’s blessings and woes of last week continue in today’s reading. The heart of Jesus’s revolution is about non-violent violence. Your enemy expects you to fight back, to hate, to curse, to strike out. When he receives the unexpected, he is thrown off balance and becomes disoriented and confused. The wind is taken out of the “sails” of violence.

The underlying message of the one turning the cheek is, “Your first attempt to insult and hurt me has failed; would you like to try it again? Is there not an alternative to violence?” The turned cheek has a spiritual violence about it—a karate chop to the soul.

Notice how Jesus gives a way out of chronic anger on the part of one attempted to be made a victim by some evil persecutor. If your heart is filled with prayer, blessing, and love for your enemy, joy can never be taken away from you.

Luke 6:27–38

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Loving all my enemies v. 27

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
In year C, we generally read from the Gospel of Luke.

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.