Religion can become dangerously “outer.” Customs, traditions and “the way we do things” can substitute for that powerful, inner presence of the Lord, which alone makes religion breathe with true spirituality.

Works can be merely external. While there must be action in our lived response to Christ, works unenergized by a loving, surrendered heart to the Lord, will not produce the kind of fruit about which Jesus teaches.

What is within defines what comes out. If your heart is right, then what you say and do will be expressive of the goodness of your inner state of soul. However, if your heart is insincere, then the outer feigning of religious activity will be a sacrilege that defiles you.

Mark 7:1–23

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Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels. This year, we generally read
from the Gospel of Mark, this season, chapters 4 to 9.

For the next several weeks, the Firestarters will be from the original version of this program. For these 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.

The message keeps pounding away when the people ignore God. Infidelity in marriage means more than actual adultery; indifference to the other is unfaithfulness as well.

In verse 4, the Lord speaks through Hosea about decisions made without consulting the Lord. This can happen at a church meeting or a family gathering. The group prays first, but the discussion following is often barren of Godly awareness—no ongoing seeking the Lord’s guidance, direction and will.

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by indifference. Treasure the love of Jesus for you. The grace of God won for you on the cross is free, but it is not cheap.

Hosea 8

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Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In this season we read Hosea; in the 9th week, we read Lamentations 3.

For the next several weeks, the Firestarters will be from the original version of this program. For these 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.

 After Jesus’ family rejects him, further family pain comes in the murder of his cousin, John the Baptist. Herod Antipas beheads this last and greatest of the prophets.

This Herod is the son of Herod the Great, the one that made magnificent expansions on the Second Temple; he murdered the innocent babies of Bethlehem when the Magi went back to their countries.

Notice the vices present, all of the seven traditional ones: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. One vice breeds another, especially when pride is embedded in a person.

Be sobered by this evil, and the atrocious murders that take place in our day because the same evils are present. Be with John’s disciples as they quietly come and bury him; stay close to Jesus and feel his pain.

Mark 6:14–29

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

For the next several weeks, the Firestarters will be from the original version of this program. For these 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.