Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

For a video meditation on today’s Psalm created three years ago, Tap here.

This Psalm joins two kinds of prayer—corporate prayer for the nation and private prayer for the self. As you pray the first twelve verses, see yourself as the intercessor for your country that needs to call upon the Lord to be present and active in the land. In verse 13 where burnt offerings and vows are promised, join your personal outpourings. While you will not be bringing burnt offerings to the altar, bring your whole self on fire with the Lord, with your egoism burnt away as in a refiner’s fire. This is the kind of offering which the Lord wants—death to self and life in Christ Jesus.

At the end of the psalm, you too, have the faith of the psalmist who believes that God has indeed listened to his prayer.

Psalm 66

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Ego burnt: refiner’s fire v. 10

We continue to read the Psalms in numerical order.

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 Ezra 3:10-13.

After seventy years, the sweet, sacred smell of sacrifice returns to the Promised Land. Ground breaking ceremonies take place for the new Temple destroyed when wicked Nebuchadnezzar razed Jerusalem and held God’s people captive in Babylon. A great shout breaks out. The word used in Hebrew, teru’ah, is the loudest of noises that humans can make; it is a combination of shouts, weeping for joy and blasts of trumpets.

However, the neighbors complain. They write letters of protest to the then Persian King Artaxerxes who decrees that the rebuilding cease.

The Lord’s will may be slowed up, but it cannot be stopped. There are two things that the Chosen People need to learn—fidelity to the Lord’s will and patience. Do you have any personal reflections about these? They are gifts of the Spirit.

Ezra 3—4

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: My gifts building up Your Church v. 7

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the Easter Season this year we read Proverbs 17 – 19 and Ezra.

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 Ezekiel 28:1-10.

The ancient seaport city of Tyre in Phoenicia is targeted for destruction due to its wanton pride and arrogance. It was located on an island just off the northeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Its power had stretched as far as Spain in the west, to Mesopotamia, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in the east. A long list of cities is included, such as Tarshish in Spain, cities under the sway of this ancient kingdom. Though many of these cities cannot be identified any longer, the cumulative effect of the list is designed to have us feel the extent of this ancient maritime power.

Nebuchadnezzar laid a thirteen-year siege of Tyre from about 587–574 B.C. Ezekiel sees this as a consequence of the power that this country wielded from its arrogant king whom Ezekiel denounces. This phrase appears twice: “You set your heart as the heart of a god.” Thus passes the glory of the world. Only those connected to the Word of God will live forever.

Ezekiel 27—28

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the Season of Easter this year we read Ezekiel 17-32.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: All I have belongs to you v. 27

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.