[From the original version]

Six identical letters make up the words “silent” and “listen.” If you would listen to the sound of the voice of the Lord through Isaiah in this passage, then your heart must become silent, so that you hear only the sounds of these verses in your depths.

Notice the stunning hardness of heart of those who have yielded to idolatry. Once the first commandment is broken, all the others follow as rows of falling dominoes. The Lord takes you to the silent heights where God dwells. Feel God’s pain. Believe in God’s compassion—infinitely greater than the sin of idolatry. What does the Lord say to you? Do you have sanctuaries of delight other than the Lord’s home within you?

Isaiah 57

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the seasons of Advent through Epiphany this year we read Isaiah 56 to 66..

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…

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.

[From the version for families with children]

“Hi!” or “Hey!”…the usual way we greet each other. Sometimes we hear, “Wazz up?!”  None of these are really invitations for us to really say what’s going on inside us.  In fact, “Hi,” and “Hey” come from the same source of sound: just a kind of gentle shout to each other to let you know that you’re in each other’s presence.  

“Hiya doin’?”  Now we’re getting a little closer to inviting someone to say how they are.  But even then, we usually give the standard answer: “OK” or “Fine.”  But when we hear someone say with lots of attention and with real interest in listening…”How are you?” that becomes something warm and inviting and we get ready to share how it is with us.

How it really is inside us—whether sad, glad, mad, or feelings of love maybe some fear—all this needs to find a way out so that the energy of peace can well up inside us because we are sharing with someone we care for and whom we trust.  That’s the way it was with John the Baptist.  Way down inside him, God was speaking to him and preparing him in turn to prepare others for Jesus’ coming.  When we read about “The voice crying in the wilderness,” doesn’t that sound like the feelings we have way down inside us—in the “desert” part of our hearts, where the sounds of deep feelings come from?  Hey! That’s the place where God speaks to you and the very feelings and sounds that we make are often one with the voice of God inside us—the Holy Spirit—who really wants to know how you are!  So tell the Spirit…that’s prayer!

Luke 3:1-6

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…

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

[From the original version]

You may feel impatient, as you anxiously wait for the recognition of Joseph by his brothers. Yet the mounting tension only serves to make the coming disclosure all the more poignant—all in the Lord’s own time. Each step of the story purifies Joseph’s brothers of the evil they did to him. The coming reconciliation of the brothers will be all the more complete.

Do you become impatient when some issue needs resolution in your own life? Perhaps the Lord is dealing with you as he did with Joseph’s brothers, purifying your mind and heart so that you will more fully recognize your Jesus who has been with you all along, yet you did not know it. What is in the way of the deeper recognition that is delayed?

Genesis 43:16—44:17

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…

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