Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

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

Read this psalm with Herod in mind, along with the scheming retinue that surrounds and chokes him of life. They are fools that do not know God. The root in Hebrew for “fool,” nabal, means to “fall away,” or “to wither.” Just as in Jesus’s “Parable of the Sower,” when seed falls on rocky ground, the plant withers and falls away, because the roots do not go deep.

Feel again the contrast between corrupt, worldly power typified by Herod, and the salvation expressed in the final verse that has come in Jesus. Do not play the fool by failing to engraft your spiritual roots onto the vine, which is Christ.

You followed Jesus to Bethlehem and adored him there; now go with him to safety in Egypt and feel an inward serenity until all that is “Herod” in your life withers away and dies.

Psalm 53

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Lord may I grow in goodness. v. 3

We continue to follow 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 Nick read the Firestarter and Judges 11:34-40.

The story of Jephtha’s daughter is a sad one. While a tragedy in itself, the deeper sadness in this period is that for the most part, only the judges themselves were faithful. They were much like “Lone Rangers,” lacking consistent support from the people to make the victories in war usher in times of spiritual peace. The people refused to follow the Lord’s ways. Jephtha felt that he must keep the vow he made to God, which involved such a sad outcome for his only child.

Are you finding all the support you need to grow spiritually? One of the aspects of these daily readings is the hope that you will find others who are contemplating these passages everyday with you. Together you can reflect upon what the Lord is saying to your lives. The Lord does not want you to go it alone.

Judges 11—12

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: I will not bargain with You.

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Judges, Proverbs 4 6.

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 Isaiah 45:1-8.

It is Epiphany, time of God’s manifestation—the meaning of the word. Today we read about God revealing himself to a pagan King, Cyrus, who would allow Israel to go back to their homeland from Exile in 538 B.C. The ancient historian Josephus relates that King Cyrus decided to let Israel go when he read this passage about himself.

Verse 8 deserves a special focus: “Rain down, you heavens, from above …” It has happened. The Lord has come down. He desires to enter your soul as the sweetest of rains that soak the earth.

Isaiah is a poet whose images will carry your prayer along. He unfolds God as a powerful, all-encompassing presence in every aspect of creation. Exult in the Lord as you by faith, experience God’s power and presence in the world.

Isaiah 45

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the Winder Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Isaiah 40 – 55.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: You call me by my own name. v. 4

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.