Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Galatians 1:1-11.

Paul in Galatians will help you ponder in your heart as Mary did. The credentials he offers come from the decisive move of God upon his life on the road to Damascus. Paul first goes to the Arabian Desert, then on to a three-year period in Damascus. God gave the Gospel to Paul, unmediated by anyone else. Damascus was the jolt to Paul; later came the deep, inner preparation of the wondrous Apostle to come. Paul too, has his desert, just as John the Baptist, Jesus, and God’s people in the wilderness.

God’s unique intervention in history through Jesus breaks all the assumptions about how we think God is going to act. God wants to do great things in you by grace. Let God shake you. However, you receive your “wakeup call,” get busy with the daily, inner work of responding to God’s Word … for three years, as in this Bible plan, like Paul!

Galatians 1

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: God be glorified in me. v. 24

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 5.

If last week’s psalm can become your night prayer, this Psalm is perfect for mornings. The first attention of David upon awakening is God. Learn from David. Direct your words and your eyes straight into the Lord’s presence as soon as you awaken.

We are creatures who need the rhythms of daily cycles. Just as children love the security of routine, so we need that sense of comfort that comes through the repetition and return of regular practices of prayer. These can deepen our entry into God’s presence.

What are the habits of daily devotion that the Lord urges upon your heart? Though my own life has been through so many changes, I find continuity and peace to gently whisper into the morning what we used to pray as novices in religious life: “Laudetur Jesus Christus – in saecula saeculorum” Praised be Jesus Christ – forever and ever.

Go straight into the presence of your God and from there only, live out your day.

Psalm 5

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Make Your way straight before me. v. 8

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 11:6-8.

The summary list in chapter 12 bears witness to one clear truth: God longs for a people wholly dedicated to God. The Lord does not want us to make deals with the Enemy, as the Israelites did with Canaanite neighbors with whom they mingled.

Christmas contrasts with the conquests of Joshua. The wood of the manger is at the center of the space of God-with-us, won for us, not with the edge of the sword, but with the laser-beam of Jesus’s love. From the manger outward, to the cross upward, Jesus’s love is the weapon that has given us a “holy land” where we can live right now and forever.

Feel the contrasts in the silence—lists of conquered kings in Joshua … your list of spiritual enemies overcome … Joshua’s sword … Jesus’s manger … Come to the stable!

Joshua 11—12

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Your power at work in me

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