Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles this year ends with the conversion of St. Paul. Then he was Saul, with one driving compulsion—to persecute those who follow Jesus. Jesus shakes his very being. Enter the scene. Experience the profound shift in Paul to a fire that burns for love and joy, no longer for death.

Are you also ready to be shocked and astonished by the call of God on your life? As you pray, you are bathed in the same light that threw Paul to the ground, rising as a new creature. You might physically prostrate yourself in prayer. Welcome the gifts for ministry that the Spirit pours into you.

Acts 9

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Example: An instrument in Your hand v. 15

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the season of Easter this year we read Acts 1—9.

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.

Tap here for a video meditation on Psalm 21.

Listen to a confident cry in the power of God to save. Pray it riding on the faith and joy of the psalmist and on the joy of the first disciples waiting in praise in the Temple. Christ the Lord has finally entered into the New Jerusalem. Breathe the stability and the security of God’s saving grace.

Pray with ever deepening confidence. Be sensitive to those transition points of the day. Pause to pray verses that will re-energize your activity. God’s power and grace come against melancholy, depression, resentment, or any other de-energized state of soul. As so many whacks in karate, your very being is loosened and made receptive to the power of God lifting you on high.

Psalm 21

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Example: You give me my heart’s desire. v. 2

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

The final scene in Luke’s Gospel is described again in the opening chapter of the Book of Acts. It is the Ascension of Jesus. Before Jesus departs, he does for the disciples what he did for the two on the road to Emmaus—he opens minds to understanding.

Luke’s Gospel begins and ends in the Temple. The closed, empty, inner Holy of Holies of waiting, longing, and finally God’s intervention in Gabriel, contrasts with the whole Temple. The veil of separation is torn; the new community expands the sacred space of God’s presence as they wait for the Holy Spirit. This Spirit will take them beyond the boundaries of the old Temple to endless limits of the new temple of Christ’s body.

Spend these days of waiting, in watching, longing, and hoping for what is yet to come.

Luke 24:44–53

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Staying here till clothed with pow’r v. 49

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
During Lent and Easter, we generally read from the Gospel of John.

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.