Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Jonah 1.

God’s heart is warm and tender to Nineveh—Jonah’s is not. God singles out for salvation, this pagan capital of the empire that wreaked havoc on the Israelites from the ninth to the seventh centuries B.C. Jonah flees to Spain—the ends of the earth—refusing to be involved with God’s mercy on a city Jonah hates. However, wherever he goes, Jonah brings faith in the God of the Hebrews. The Phoenician sailors cry out to God whom they have come to know by someone avoiding doing God’s will. Even the great fish obeys and throws up!

God’s patience with the prophet rivals God’s patience with Nineveh. Is there something that you know way down in your own belly that you are called to do and are avoiding? Even greater than flight away from God’s will is God’s pursuit of you until you complete what God wants.

Jonah 1—2

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the season of Pentecost we read Amos to Nahum with Lamentations 4—5 in the Ninth Week.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Never fleeing from You, Lord 1:10

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 Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and the Gospel.

Though the lawyer’s question lacked the sincerity needed to show hunger for Jesus’s answer, may this not be so for you. Pray over the question, until your heart throbs for the answer. Only then will you not be as the priests in the parable who lost the chance to know their God in a new way.

The word neighbor in English means “the boor who is neigh.” The original meaning of “boor,” however, was not an insult as it is today; it simply meant another peasant farmer who lived nearby.

The issue for Jesus is not the one who is near you, but rather the one to whom you come near. Who are the ones in your life from whom you pull away because you do not like them—boors in the bad sense of the word … or maybe just bores? Underneath, there is a hurting, wounded soul needing the bandages of your love.

Luke 10:25–37

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Pouring oil on wounds of heart v. 34

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
In year C, we generally read from the Gospel of St. Luke.

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 Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Numbers 24:15-17.

With each successive prophecy, the pagan Balaam becomes more sweetly open to God, simpler, more childlike as he yields to the promptings of the Spirit. He is completely caught up in the prophetic word he speaks. His yielding opens his eyes to behold the beauty of God’s people, as he sees the tents of the people of God.

In the center of his fourth and final prophecy, Balaam sees a star coming out of Jacob, lifting him to a vision that is realized in David, and especially in Jesus. When you turn your heart totally over to the Lord, God will show you wondrous things.

Verse 1 of chapter 25 begins the shocking story of sexual immorality with foreign women. The exalted state of a pagan yielding to the gift of prophecy, is contrasted with the sin of infidelity by God’s own people.

Numbers 24:1—25:9

This is the third of three parts of the Torah Portion Balak
Conservative and Reform Jewish congregations read only this part this year, 
as also in this Bible plan.
Here is the entire portion in all three parts.
Numbers 22:2—25:9

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Heart yielding; visions coming

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