From the boundaries of Paul’s prison come these words that leap in freedom beyond those walls. A careful, meditative reading of this chapter will penetrate walls of resistance that may yet lurk within the prison of your own heart. Here are words that bear potential for personal transformation. Read and reread them slowly, until the power of God in Paul moves within you as well.

Pause with Paul at those places where you find your spirit shaken positively or negatively. These are the areas where you need to grow so that you can meet the challenge of Paul to respond to grace. Make jottings in your journal where joltings occur. A spontaneous list of areas to grow may emerge. The very process of writing will help to unfold the list; you will have a “blueprint” for the work that yet needs to be done in your life.

Ephesians 4

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Your body built up in love v. 16

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the season of Lent this year we read Ephesians and 1 Corinthians 11-12.

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.

Tap here for a video meditation on Psalm 123.

In the archives of our home movies, there is a clip of me as a child playing in the surf while my mother looks on lovingly and caringly. At that moment of play, I was only aware of the delight of the waves at low tide washing over me. While viewing the film as an adult, the love of my mother moved me, as did my love for her.

In the verse for today, the psalmist uses an image similar to mine to stir devotion to the Lord. Recalling also “The Man Born Blind” from last Sunday’s Gospel, let these images stir about within until you find your own image offered. How do you sense the presence of your tender and caring Lord who never removes God’s eyes from you?

Psalm 123

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: To you I lift up my eyes. v. 1

During Lent this year we read Psalms 120-124.

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

As a child of Adam, Job cries out with the pain that flows into him and into us from Adam’s fall. The poetry of chapter 9 is Job’s attempt to stretch himself beyond the circle of his suffering into the larger sphere of God’s world. However, as a great bungee cord stretched to its limit, it snaps Job back into his pain that is the center of everything. Zophar makes all this worse when he, third of Job’s so-called friends, intervenes with his theology of sin. Instead of living with questions that evade easy answers, Zophar sets his speech to be the last word on the subject.

Give the Jobs in your life the compassion they need, but which they do not receive. Return this compassion to yourself at those points where your spirit quivers with Job’s.

Job 9—11

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Your hands fashioned and made me 10:8

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the season of Lent this year we read Job 1-14; 38.

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