Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Joshua 1:1-9.

Advent, Joshua, Jesus, you: all are involved in thresholds to new life. Read with an Advent longing, with yearning and expectation. Listen carefully to the commands of the Lord upon Joshua, hearing them directly addressed to you. You are the most important person to hear this. God’s Word is alive now for you through a personal, intimate encounter with God, as though you were the only one to hear it. This personal revelation comes to you through the Spirit of Christ risen.

Joshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus, the latter coming to us through the Greek New Testament. God called both Joshuas to take God’s people into a new Promised Land. For the first Joshua, this was the actual land promised by God to Moses; for Jesus, it is the inner, spiritual Promised Land called the Kingdom of God.

Find a piece of red ribbon and use it as a marker in your Bible, or hang it somewhere where you can often see it. It will remind you of the scarlet rope in chapter 2 as well as the streaming blood of Jesus from the cross, sign of salvation.

Joshua 1—2

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: You with me where’er I go. 1:9.

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the seasons of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Joshua and Proverbs 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 Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Isaiah 1:18-20.

“The Holy One of Israel” is Isaiah’s favorite name for God. The Lord states his case against his children. Judgment and tenderness intermingle. Allow Isaiah’s poetic images to so move you that you sense in your spirit all the variations on the theme of rebellion that Isaiah lays before you. Listen inwardly as you read. Be one with all humanity that has been in open rebellion against the Lord, yet still the object of the Lord’s tender love when hearts turn to God once again.

This is a new beginning of the cycles of grace. Present yourself before the Lord. Perhaps you feel as that abandoned shack in the field after the farm workers have moved on. May you know by faith that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus is waiting to breathe new life into your inner house. May you receive the Lord and be one with God.

Isaiah 1

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the seasons of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Isaiah 1-13.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: New life in my inner house. v. 8

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.