Listen to Pastor Nick read the “Firestarter” and Psalm 106:1-15.

Tap here for a video meditation on Psalm 106.

The sweep of God’s covenant reviewed in last week’s psalm takes place again today. Here, however, the focus is upon the sinful rejection of God’s promises to our ancestors. Repeated acts of infidelity on the part of God’s people bring not rejection and abandonment from God, but even greater expressions of God’s fidelity.

As you scan the movement of your life, where have you been unfaithful to the Lord? The purpose of this is not to call up the ravages of guilt and remorse, but rather to place the Lord’s loving acts toward you into even greater relief.

Who or what is your golden calf? Make the psalm personal to you. The same evils that tempted our ancestors are focused upon us today—all variations of the golden calf.

Psalm 106

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Your love endures forever. v. 1

We follow a reading of 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 Proverbs 8:1-12.

Contrast the call of Wisdom today with the enticements of the seductress of last week. The former leads to life, the latter, to death. The seductress dresses up as wisdom, but only for a brief moment. At times, the devil comes as an “angel of light,” only later, to envelop one in darkness. With wisdom comes the gift of discernment of spirits—the spiritual power to sense at the very outset, whether a thread of thoughts and desires leads toward death or toward life.

Verses 22 and following are a poetic and profound reflection upon the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Recall the opening of John’s Gospel where, just as the sacred writer of Genesis and the author of today’s passage, John penetrates to the very beginning of creation. Watch beginnings. See where they lead.

Proverbs 8

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Watching and waiting for You v. 34

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 the reading.

Glorious images fill this week and next, springing from the joy of the Lord which God has planted in the heart of Isaiah. The power of God’s saving grace is expressed by the utter transformation of the physical world into complete reconciliation and exuberant life.

Soak in these images of life. The final times of which Isaiah speaks are with us now in the age of the resurrection of Jesus—the Church. Though tainted with sin, the Church is the expression of the visions that well up from these verses.

All that may be at odds with you and your past, to which you have yet to be reconciled, is happening in the realm of the Spirit. Pray until all aspects of your life—past, present and future—are before you here and now in the healing joy of the Lord.

Isaiah 65:17–25
Example: Trusting You, my faithful God v. 16

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..

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…

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.