Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and the beginning part of the Torah portion.

This song was intended to fill the air from generation to generation. The image of a rock appears throughout. It tells what would happen if the people go after other gods and serve them. While the song expresses the anger of God, yet deeper still, it sings of the compassion of a God who continues to lure the people into fidelity and love.

The end of Moses is near. He is reminded that he will not be permitted to enter the Promised Land because he complained about the people in Numbers 20:11–13. He failed to acknowledge the goodness of the Lord giving water from the rock to the people.

As you hear this song in your heart with countless others “listening” to it this same day, what kinds of thoughts and feelings come to you? Write them down, so that you will remember.

Deuteronomy 32

Today this portion is read in synagogues around the world.

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Your teaching falling like rain. v. 2

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 Mark 12:1-12.

[From the original version of the book]

 A hedge protects; be aware of this as you read today’s parable. Evil powers break into the Lord’s sacred vineyard. This is what happened on Calvary, yet not without the Lord’s permission.

Love is vulnerable. Jesus does not protect himself from the onslaught of destructive forces. Yet his love is stronger than evil, stronger than death, and thus the resurrection has created a hedge around a new garden, a new vineyard, a new temple, protecting us by the power of the Spirit from any evil that would further break through.

As you read the arguments and “set-ups” of the religious authorities, be sobered by this. Do not argue with the Lord; just listen and be saved. Rest in the Lord within the “hedges” of God’s protective arms.

Mark 12:1–27

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Stone rejected, cornerstone v. 10

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels. This year, we generally read
from the Gospel of Mark, this season, chapters 10 to 16.

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 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.

[From the original version of the book]

Watch and be sober—two imperatives in Paul’s admonition today. The Greek root of the word for “watch” is egeiro, whence comes the name, Gregory. The image recalls the security guards of old who stayed up for three hours at a time during a night watch, making sure that no enemies would sneak across the boundary. The root means “to gather together” the senses into a wakeful whole. The notion is linked with being sober, the absence of which shatters and scatters the focus and attention needed to live the realities of the final words of Paul in this letter.

Listen carefully. Is the Spirit sweetly convicting you of anything? The Lord gives you the gift of discernment. Treasure it. Watch and be sober.

1 Thessalonians 5

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: The breastplate of faith and love v. 8

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In season of Kingdomtide this year,
we read 1 and 2 Thessalonians; Revelation 4—11.

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.