Energy enters into a search for God. Pagan foreigners peer into the skies, seeking meaning to the new star they discover in the heavens. They leave everything to discover where it is leading. They follow the star shining in their hearts, as well as the one in the skies.

At polar opposites are Herod and the Jewish leaders. Nestled in complacency and inner blindness, they are not interested in God’s new King, but rather are anxious that he might overthrow the tables of their own power. Fear and hostility enter and possess them.

How are you when it comes to some new entry of God into your life? Are you open to search the inner skies of your own possibility for some innovation and direction there, or are you tempted to be your own “king,” resisting God’s reign in your life?

Matthew 2:1–12

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Opening my gifts for You v. 11

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
In year A, we generally read from the Gospel of St. Matthew.

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.

Three great divisions of generations place Jesus into the immense tapestry of God’s activity in history. Each of these has fourteen generations—two times the perfect number—seven. They are described by Matthew in the conclusion of the genealogy in v. 17.

The New Testament begins with a grand sweep of the First Covenant. The list is taken from the paternal line. However, the symmetry is interrupted by the mention of foreign women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathesheba. The ways that God worked through these women outside the strictly male, Jewish line, set the stage for the miraculous intervention through Mary. This also anticipates the way in which God’s saving grace would include Gentiles.

The Lord has placed you in the generational list of those who will bear Christ. How will the next generation be brought to worship God because of you?

Matthew 1

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Being righteous as Joseph. v. 19

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels.
In the seasons of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Luke 1 2; Matthew 1 7.

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.

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, 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.