Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

Whatever are the sufferings you are undergoing in your life, this psalm will offer your sweet comfort. As you move through the verses, let the specific sufferings in your life attach themselves to these expressions. You will find yourself delivered from a focus upon the suffering, to a growing and glowing awareness of the presence of God who alone can give meaning to your pain. In addition, something else that expands your spirit: through your fervent praying of this psalm, the outpouring of David becomes a vehicle for the many kinds of sufferings of all God’s people. The psalm touched Paul; he cites verse 22 in Romans 8:36–39.

You may find it helpful to note the areas of your pain, praying along with the millions today and over the centuries who have found peace through this psalm. Those verses that express the brevity of life will sober you.

Psalm 39

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Human life is but a breath. v. 5

We continue to follow the Psalms in numerical order.

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

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 2 Samuel 6:12-23.

The dance of David before the Ark expresses the energy released in spontaneous worship. There is joy, for the Ark finally arrives at a fixed place for worship. As the hands of a clock move freely about the center point, so does David find extravagant expression as he reels about while grounded in the joy of the presence of God centered in his life.

Michal criticizes David. She wastes her time judging him, instead of entering into the source of his joy. The same will happen to you, if you criticize and judge others. As a downward spiral, energies will go inward and bind, instead of spiraling outward in joyous expression.

Find a place in your house where you especially find the presence of God—a prayer closet, a special chair— some place where you find yourself drawn to be in God’s presence, where your spirit can dance.

2 Samuel 5—6

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: You chose me to serve you, Lord. 6: 21

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the season of Kingdomtide this year we read Proverbs 15-16, 2 Samuel and Ecclesiastes 1-4.

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

Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and Isaiah 32:1-8..

Isaiah is like a great symphony. There are majestic tones of glory and promise of messianic deliverance, as well as somber ones of judgment and call to repentance. Both of these contrast with each other in this chapter. A glorious expansion of the heart comes with the assurance of the reign of peace and justice; then there come strong admonitions to the complacent. Notice the future tense used—what God is going to do in Jesus. Isaiah speaks the words of promise; there are only two months until Advent.

These two themes in counterpoint remind me of a phrase I once heard about the prophets: “They came to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”

Appreciate vv. 16–18. Dwellings will be secure—very close to the promise of Jesus in John’s Gospel to those who keep the Word: “We [the Father and Jesus] will come to him and make Our home with him” (14:23).

Isaiah 32

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the season of Kingdomtide this year we read Isaiah 28-39.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: You, a stream in the desert v. 2

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.