Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

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

Listen to the weeping of God’s people exiled in Babylonia in the 6th century B.C. Tears of anguish, torment, and grief fall into the foreign Kebar River. Now walk with them as tears become shouts of joy as these freed pilgrims make their way once again to the Holy City. As a burst dam, joy explodes.

Exile—is there a sense in which you have been “deported to some foreign land” and yearn to return to the joy of being free and of being who you are in God’s sight? Lent is the season to learn the disciplines that will bring you freedom. For example, learn how to deal with your anger when you allow yourself to be manipulated by those whose will you do instead of God’s.

Let your true feelings fall into the ground as prayer-seeds. The harvest of God’s comforting presence will flower.

Psalm 126

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Sow in tears and reap in joy. v. 5

In the Season of Lent this year we read Psalm 125 to 129.

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 Nick read the Firestarter and Job 16:1-8.

Imagine the terrible, sudden death of your child. A friend comes to the funeral. Instead of comforting you, the person blames you, saying that it was your entire fault! Make this personal; imagine a specific loss, with some “friend” you know coming to you in this heartless way.

This is what Job experienced, making his suffering even more dreadful. His so-called friends accuse and taunt him. They are more interested in debating their side of a theological position, than in giving love.

Job’s response in today’s reading has the heart-rending cry of many a psalm. There is beauty here, poetry in pain. Job teaches that it is okay to pour out one’s feelings to the Lord in prayer. Can you feel the anger driving his expression? Any pockets of pain, fear, or anger inside of you that need to become chapters in your book of life?

Job 16—17

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Hands that are clean grow stronger v. 9

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the Season of Lent this year we read Job 15-21; 39-40.

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 Nick read the Firestarter and Jeremiah 23:1-6.

Open rebellion and refusal to follow the Lord: this is what has become of God’s people in the 6th century B.C. God raises up Jeremiah whose hammer-like and fiery words are meant to shake the hearts of the people into repentance and recovery of God.

We know more from Jeremiah than from any other prophet about what it is like to speak on behalf of God. He finds his call repugnant and frustrating. Yet the fire still burns within. The alternative? Give up and refuse to prophesy—infinitely more difficult.

Only by doing what God calls you to do will you find inner peace and ultimate meaning to your life. The fire of God’s call upon your life transforms personal preferences. Yield to God.

Jeremiah 21—23

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the Season of Lent this year we read Jeremiah 18 to 35.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: You gathering us as sheep v. 3

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.