Choose Life

As this last book of Moses begins to draw to a close, sense in your heart the tender longing of God for us to respond in love and fidelity to the covenant God is offering. These are powerful closing chapters, read in their entirety every year in Jewish synagogues on the Sabbath.

Have your highlighter ready for 29:19. What consequences for not being faithful to the covenant!

One of my favorite passages in the whole Bible is 30:11–20. May you read it as though you are truly listening to this from the Lord as you and I, along with all God’s people assembled, “Choose life.”

It is the time of the beginning of the school year. Read this passage with your family as you rededicate yourselves to God’s ways. The Holy Spirit is the master-teacher of your soul.

Deuteronomy. 29:9—30:20

This passage occurs in all three years in the Jewish Sabbath readings.
Nitsabim (Stand)

This year the next portion is also read, Vayelech (And He Went)
Deuteronomy 31:1–30

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Lord, my God, You are my life. v. 20

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

Mid-Course Correction

Thursdays in autumn this year find us rolling back the centuries to the birthing and growing of a first century church in a great metropolis. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians offers a powerful example of a church struggling with the momentum of a lifestyle prior to commitment to Christ—idolatry, sexual immorality, lawsuits, worldly philosophy, etc.

Corinth is situated on a narrow isthmus between the mainland part of Greece in the north and the Peloponnesian peninsula to the south. It is perfectly placed to meet the ships sailing from the east and moving westward after a brief portage across the isthmus. It was the center of world trade, much like New York City in the cosmopolitan nature of its population.

Paul founded this church about 50 A.D. Now he writes to give them “mid-course correction” on their way to salvation. Let Paul do the same for you.

1 Corinthians 1

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: What is weak shaming the strong v. 27

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

For all the Firestarters in the original version, I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these Firestarters with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information.

Sparks for a New Fire 

 In a dying fire, most is ash with only a few sparks left. Such an image might describe this psalm of David. The ashes of his suffering at the hands of evil enemies are described in verse upon verse. Yet sparks of a new fire kindle in his soul and in yours, if you cherish the sparks and let them light a new fire.

A fresh, new fire needs the ashes of the old to be removed. So it is that David’s very expression of mounting injustices against him are as the ashes being taken out of the hearth of his heart so that from the bottom of his being he can praise the Lord in new ways.

May this psalm do for you what it does for David—new praise, new awareness of God’s faithful dedication to defend and rescue the poor and the innocent. When mistreatment and even slander come your way, may this psalm bring you comfort in the company you keep—David and Jesus.

Psalm 35

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: All day long, my tongue in praise v. 28

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