Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

For a video meditation on Psalm 137, Tap Here.

Imagine what it is like to be in exile. You no longer feel that special connection to life that comes with the simple joy of coming and going as you wish. Exquisite was the pain of God’s people in Babylon. Once in bondage in Egypt to the west, now in exile in Babylon to the east, there are evil enemies on either side of the sacred land of promise.

Pray this psalm for those persecuted right now in foreign prisons just because they want to spread the name of Jesus and for encouraging people to live in the Lord. Living outside of Jesus is to live in exile.

When you come to the shocking last verse, receive, and accept the feelings of anger on the part of those with such bitterness in their heart. Even for the psalmist, more important than these atrocities actually happening is the experience in prayer that God accepts his deepest feelings and receives his anguish.

Psalm 137

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: You above my highest joy v. 6

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 1 Chronicles 29:10-19.

We conclude the description of the tightly organized community around King David with the army’s twelve divisions, one for each month of service. We catch a glimpse into the economy of the kingdom in 27:25. Finally, as the architect of the Temple, David charges Solomon with the task of actually building it.

The prayer of David from 29:10 is acclaimed as one of the finest in the Old Testament. It is David’s way of saying what Jesus did from the cross: “It is finished!” The prayer flows from David’s serene and joyous heart at one with God. His task is over; the rest is in the hands of Solomon.

Jesus’s task on the cross is finished. But as the Temple yet to be built by Solomon, you are the one in whose hands is the task of continuing to build up the Body of Christ, the everlasting temple.

1 Chronicles 27—29

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Your purpose kept in my heart 29:18

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Proverbs 27—29 and 1 Chronicles.

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 Nahum 1:7-15.

Vivid poetry describes the destruction of the capital city of one of the severest of the enemies of God’s people—Nineveh. The ultimate triumph of God over continuously unrepented evil, balances God’s compassion for the city that we encountered in the book of Jonah.

The meaning of Nahum’s name is “comfort.” Though the book’s three chapters describe anything but comfort to the people of Nineveh, still it is consolation to know that ultimate justice will prevail, that God and God’s goodness is finally going to triumph.

Nations, cities, enterprises, and even minor projects are doomed to defeat if they are built on the sands of sinfulness, pride, deceit, and exploitation, instead of upon the rock of Jesus. The reading will sober and awaken you to deeper justice and mercy in your own life.

Nahum

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the season of Pentecost we read Amos to Nahum with Lamentations 4—5 in the Ninth Week.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Slow to anger; great in pow’r 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.