Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Numbers 22:15-30.

Complaining continues. Snakes come and torment the people. The Lord tells Moses to make a serpent out of bronze, lifting it high for the people to see, that they might be healed. The consequences of sin become the means of salvation.

So too for the cross. There is no greater sin than to have crucified the son of God. However, God takes the cross, the results of the cruelest evil, and turns it into a source of salvation. St. John has this in mind in his Gospel when he relates the cross to the fiery serpent in 3:14 and 12:32.

Is there any person, place, or thing that has been sin for you? Rather than look away in guilt or shame, let the cross upon which Jesus has suffered in your sin, become a source of healing for you and others. God can turn your greatest sin into a source of grace.

Numbers 22:2—25:9

This is the third of three parts of the Torah Portion Hukkath (Ordinance) 
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 19:1—22:1

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Forgive me for complaining 21:5

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

Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Luke 11:1-13.

A newly seeded garden needs daily gentle care and watering to nurture the growth to full maturity. However, when it is time to move a plant to a garden, to change it from pot to plot, we turn the plant upside down and give it a strong whack on the bottom to loosen the clinging hold that the soil has to its first home.

The chapter opens with the disciples moved by the results of Jesus’s personal time of prayer. They want to receive this gift—to learn how to pray. Jesus opens the treasures of his heart and talks to them about prayer. They are like the freshly seeded garden needing nurture and protection for the seed-word to grow.

There are those who resist being transplanted from a religion of law, manipulation, self-interest, and greed, into the fresh garden of the Kingdom. Jesus’s harsh words to them are designed to jolt them into saving space. Protect the planted word in your heart.

Luke 11

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Protecting the planted Word v. 28

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels.
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Luke 9—19:27.

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 Hebrews 2:14-18.

If angelic annunciations were such powerful moments of God’s intervention in history, how much more are the words of Jesus to you right now! The writer uses Psalm 8 to ground the argument so that we understand and rejoice in the accessibility that we have to Jesus. Christ has completely entered our history, even taking on death that he might deliver us from this last and final enemy to life and love. The triumph of Jesus in his suffering is the source of the victory that we have over all that would diminish us.

The first listeners to this letter needed to be reminded of the truths this letter teaches. Find yourself in similar need as you drink in these words of extraordinary truth about God and about you.

Hebrews 2

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Jesus tasting death for us v. 9

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 1 Timothy and Hebrews.

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.