Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Philemon 1:4-21.

Briefest of Paul’s letters, here is an invitation to forgiveness. Instead of what could have been harsh treatment and even death for Onesimus, the runaway slave, Paul pleads for reconciliation between him and his master, Philemon.

Meditate before the manger. See Mary, slave and handmaid of the Lord. Joseph is wrapped in the swaddling cloths of silence. Here is the place of forgiving love. Jesus has come, writing with his birth and later with his blood, a letter of intercession for us to the Father. All our wrongs have been charged to Jesus’s “account.” Jesus became a slave so that we might be set free and live with the Father as God’s child.

Is there someone who needs a letter like Paul’s coming from you—something more than a hasty “Seasons Greeting” card?

Philemon

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Examples: Grace to all and peace from God. v. 3
Love giving joy and support. v. 7

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the seasons of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Titus, Philemon, Galatians and Philippians.

For all the Firestarters in the original version, 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 the Psalm.

Tap here for a video meditation on Psalm 4

King David’s anointing for intimacy with the Lord comes through deeply and sweetly in this psalm. Pray it often throughout the day and especially as your night prayer. Commit all or part of it to memory.

Verse 4 deserves special reflection. If you fulfill the second part of the verse first, then you will be less likely to sin. When we yield in a reactive manner to anger, sin occurs. Place a silent buffer zone between the feeling of anger and your response to it.

Whatever might have made David angry, his meditative space has enlarged his awareness. The overwhelming sense of God’s protective presence to him makes the source of his anger a mere speck against the shining light of the Lord’s countenance before him.

Psalm 4

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: You put gladness in my heart. v. 7

We 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 Joshua 10:12-14.

War is being waged, not for land, but for a spiritual space in your heart where you can live with God alone. Advent is a time to take possession of this space. However, there are spiritual enemies that have “dug in” to that same territory—perhaps old family strongholds passed on to you through negative, prideful, sinful tendencies that seek to sap the peace that God wants to share with you. Name those “enemies.” Recall in the letter to the Ephesians: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood … but against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (6:12).

God gives you the heart of Joshua and especially the heart of Jesus, born in the silence of the night in the stable of your heart.

Joshua 9—10

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Cleansed of enemies within

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