Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Isaiah 22:20-25.

Reckless abandon to one’s own methods and disdain for God’s help guarantee a headlong descent to destruction. Hezekiah’s tunnel is a parable of the ways in which our own plans, apart from God, push us to where we alone want to go. We can be like Balaam who refused to listen to his donkey block his path to evil in Numbers 22. The world adopts v. 13 – “Let us eat and drink,
 for tomorrow we die.”

The siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. anticipates the future destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple over a hundred years later in 589. The Book of Lamentations echoes the sounds of grief.

The messianic figure of Eliakim comes as a ray of divine energy. John uses verse 22 as the power of the risen Christ in the Book of Revelation 3:17. “He shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open.”

  Groan and grieve freely as the Spirit moves.

Isaiah 22

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Isaiah 13 – 27; Lamentations 1 and 2 in the Ninth Week.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: When You open, no one shuts. v. 22

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.

Silence: the word comes from the ancestral root si, meaning “to rest,” “to let the hand fall.” Our word seed is sister to silence. The falling seed from the hand of the sower becomes an image that Jesus uses in “The Sermon of Parables.”

For the next three Sundays, the seven images that Jesus uses to describe the Kingdom are set forth in meditative detail. The alphabyte “Gears” for this week suggests a slowing down of life to magnify the movements of God in you. Receive these parables and other images God will be sending your way into the silence of your being.

Silence embraces every word of Jesus. May this minute meditation with you here, be as a seed dropping into the some one thousand minutes of your waking day, so that your day may bear fruit.

Matthew 13:1–9; 18–23

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: May my soul be good soil, Lord. v. 23

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
During the Seasons of Pentecost and Kingdomtide, we read the Gospel of 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.

Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Numbers 31:21-24.

Verses 21-24 of chapter 31 Firestarters for your heart to glow with a basic truth: God wants purity for his people. This may help to interpret the warlike behavior, which seems impossible to justify by modern understanding of how God wants us to act toward our enemies. Certainly, Jesus’s position is clear: we are to love our enemies and to pray for them. These “coals of fire” upon their heads are the holy violence of love designed to win people into the Kingdom. As for the Book of Numbers, there is no consistently clear position about what constitutes a Holy War. Killing defiles; hence the need for purification afterward.

There are harsh consequences for those given to idolatry. However, thank God for Jesus. The way he treats the foreign woman in Matthew 15 shows how he makes new “spoils” for the Kingdom by healing and love.

Numbers 30:2—31:54

This is the first of three parts of the Torah Portion Matoth (The Chiefs) 
Conservative and Reform Jewish congregations read only this part this year,
as also in this Bible plan.
Here is the entire portion in all three parts.
Numbers 30:2—32:42

There is another portion assigned this year: Maseh (Journeys) 
Numbers 33:1—36:13

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Vengeance belonging to You 31:1ff

The Saturday passages follow the reading list that Jewish people use in their synagogue worship
throughout the world. They are taken from
“The Torah,” the first five books of the Bible from Genesis to Deuteronomy
that are read each year beginning with autumn.

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