A Scenic Overlook on a superhighway invites a choice to both stop and refresh the soul with the beauty of a landscape, or pass the moment by, urged by the need to drive on.

We are about to enter the Lenten movement to Easter. Rather than race right into the journey, Jesus invites us to take a scenic trip to a mountaintop, there to pause in prayer, enfolded by a sense of the wholeness of the journey from death to life. Join Peter, James, and John, the disciples who will be with Jesus in Gethsemane. Curiously, sleep sweeps its covering shadow over them in both places. Can it be that the stretch from glory to suffering catches them and us asleep on either end?

Pause, pray and let the Lord give you one more Epiphany of glory before the descent into the Lenten valley of the shadow of death.

Luke 9:28–36

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Embracing the light within

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

Listen to Pastor Nick read the “Firestarter” and Exodus 26:31-37.

While the second commandment forbids the making of images adored as God, the Lord knows that our senses need to be active so that we can go beyond them to the realm of the Spirit.

In order to get a sense of the size of the court for the tabernacle in the wilderness, imagine the dimensions of a football field. Stretching across the field is the length of the tabernacle—about 50 yards. Its width is from the 25^th yard line to the goal line. Within that sacred space, clear directions from the Divine architect are given to Moses.

Now leave the “football field” and enter into the tabernacle as you listen to the exact dimensions, adornment, and location of every object … the color of every thread. All these are symbols, meant to act upon our senses to stimulate the awe of being in the presence of God. Sense the colors. What spiritual feelings does each one stir in you? Let all your spaces today be sacred.

Exodus 26:31—27:19

This is the third of three parts of the Torah Portion Terumah (Portion) 
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.
Exodus 25:1—27:19

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: My heart an altar for You 

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

Listen to Pastor Nick read the “Firestarter” and Luke 8:26-39.

Jesus’s presence is bad news to demons. Those who come to torment others are themselves tormented by the presence of Jesus.

Is there anything that you are doing about which you are uneasy, or even tormented, that is a sign of the changes that the Spirit is prompting you to make? Do you define your own comfort zones as the limits beyond which you will not go? The discomfort of advancing in your spiritua l journey is the Lord’s way of preserving you from the quiet desperation, stagnancy, dull and boring feeling of torment that may be going on inside you.

Notice the varying approaches of Jesus to the kind of healing that needs to take place. How is the Spirit dealing with you about the wholeness that longs to happen for you?

Luke 8:26–56

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: How much You have done for me! v. 39

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels.
In Advent through Epiphany this year we read Luke chapters 1 to 8.

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.