Listen to Pastor Nick read the “Firestarter” and today’s Psalm.

Tap here for a video meditation by Pastor Nick on Psalm 112.

Qualities of a person righteous in the Lord are uplifted along with the blessings that flow from true surrender to God’s power. Examine your heart. How does your life measure up to the virtues celebrated in this psalm?

Once again, the acrostic style of this psalm suggests that we be as creative as the psalmist is. After you pray the psalm, ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind those qualities that you need in order to live more fully according to the Lord’s ways. Take the letters of the alphabet and allow a list from A to Z to well up from within as you pray to respond more fully to the call of the Lord upon your life.

A key word in Hebrew that you could use for “c” is chafets. It means “to delight” in the Lord’s ways. Do you find that your spirit truly enjoys growing in the command of Christ Jesus that we love one another?

Psalm 112

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Create your very own!

On Wednesdays we follow a reading of 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  Amos 5:14-24.

During World War II, German soldiers used to go to the theater at night with their wives after having spent the day gassing thousands of Jews. Comfortable in their seats, they would weep at the beauty of the music, unmindful of the atrocities that went on during the day, ears deaf to the screams and the sobs of those in the camps occurring at the same time as the concerts.

The Holocaust of the Twentieth Century A.D. had its precedent in the Eighth Century B.C. In today’s passage, Amos mourns for the virgin of Israel as though she has already died. He shares his grief in the hopes that the comfort and complacency of those moved only by music, would be shaken to a hunger and thirst for justice.

What are the changes that need to take place in you when it comes to making justice? Without it, the most beautiful music turns worship into vanity, and even blasphemy.

Amos 5—6

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the season of Pentecost we read Amos to Nahum with Lamentations 4—5 in the Ninth Week.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Justice flowing down like streams 5:24

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 the Gospel.

Two responses are announced after Jesus delivers the man with the legion of demons. The first is from the people of v. 36 who have seen the deliverance; the second comes from the man himself. The first reporters are shocked and frightened by the miracle, infecting the people with their fears; they ask Jesus to leave. The second telling comes with the joy, the peace, the energy of the man who had received such a wondrous gift. Both Mark and Luke use the Greek word for “preaching,” kerusso, to describe how he witnesses to the people. Know how different must have been the response of the people infected with joy!

Just as this man, do not stay at the feet of Jesus, but go and share the joy and radiance of your miracle contact with the Lord with many others in your day.

Luke 8:26–39

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Your power over evil v. 26ff

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

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.