Toward Life or Death 

Pray this passage, open to its simple, clear truth. As with darkness and light, here contrasts of death and life, love and hate are starkly set against each other so that John’s teaching will affect his listeners.

John does the same as Moses in Deuteronomy 30 when he placed life or death before the people. As Moses invited them to choose life so that they could live, John does the same. Choose light, love, and life instead of darkness, hatred, and death.

Which way will you go today—toward life, or toward death? Pause at various moments of transition in the day to monitor your choices. As an astronaut, perhaps you need “mid-course” correction!

1 John 3:10–24

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: From death to life through loving v. 14

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read the Letters of John and Jude.

For all the Firestarters 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.

Withering Fools 

Read this psalm with Herod in mind, along with the scheming retinue that surrounds and chokes him of life. They are fools that do not know God. The root in Hebrew for “fool,” nabal, means to “fall away,” or “to wither.” Just as in Jesus’s “Parable of the Sower,” when seed falls on rocky ground, the plant withers and falls away, because the roots do not go deep.

Feel again the contrast between corrupt, worldly power typified by Herod, and the salvation expressed in the final verse that has come in Jesus. Do not play the fool by failing to engraft your spiritual roots onto the vine, which is Christ.

You followed Jesus to Bethlehem and adored him there; now go with him to safety in Egypt and feel an inward serenity until all that is “Herod” in your life withers away and dies.

Psalm 53

We continue to follow 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

Going It Alone 

The story of Jephtha’s daughter is a sad one. While a tragedy in itself, the deeper sadness in this period is that for the most part, only the judges themselves were faithful. They were much like “Lone Rangers,” lacking consistent support from the people to make the victories in war usher in times of spiritual peace. The people refused to follow the Lord’s ways. Jephtha felt that he must keep the vow he made to God, which involved such a sad outcome for his only child.

Are you finding all the support you need to grow spiritually? One of the aspects of these daily readings is the hope that you will find others who are contemplating these passages everyday with you. Together you can reflect upon what the Lord is saying to your lives. The Lord does not want you to go it alone.

Judges 11—12

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: I will not bargain with You.

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Judges, Proverbs 4 6.

 

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