Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

Tap here for a video meditation on Psalm 113.

Psalms 113 to 118 form a group called the Hallel songs, taken from the Hebrew word for “praise.” Wednesdays in the middle weeks of the Pentecost season this year find us lifting our voices in these special  songs that were sung in homes at Passover time. They all contain Alleluia, the Hebrew word that means  “Praise Yah.” Yah is the shortened form for the covenant name Yahweh. 

Alleluia: this unique word of joy and praise only occurs in the Psalms—twenty-six times to be exact. Today let your hours be flooded—saturated with Alleluia. When you are tempted to become a victim and  self-conscious with “poor me,” take on the heavenly perspective of the Lord looking down on the whole earth, not losing the smallest detail of your need. If your heart is barren as the childless mother in the final verse, Alleluia prayed with faith can fill your empty heart with God. 

Psalm 113

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
What verse lifts itself for you to create a seven-syllable Bible Breath?

We continue to pray 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

Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and 1 Chronicles 6:31-32.

The Books of Kings were written as prophetic calls to awaken God’s people to awareness that their exile was the result of profound moral and religious degradation. 1 and 2 Chronicles, while covering much of the same time period, write this history in the light of the community of God that has already returned to freedom after the exile. The emphasis is upon worship; hence, the priestly tone of this work, as contrasted with prophecy.

In the passage for today, genealogies outline the tribes of Judah, Simeon, Reuben, Gad, Manasseh and Levi, with further information about this latter line of priests.

God wants you to see your personal history in the light of God’s present call to you. Pray for a deep awareness of this call, asking the Spirit to help you interpret your past in the light of the blessed future that God is unfolding for you.

1 Chronicles 4—6

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: My life in light of Your call

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Proverbs 27—29 and 1 Chronicles.

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 Amos 9:13-15.

We know about Amos only from what he tells us in 7:14. No human credential or pedigree warrants God choosing him to be a prophet. Recall what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:27: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”

Through the dark passage of pain for not living according to the Lord’s way, to the heights of contemplating God’s grandeur in 9:6, Amos lures his shepherd people back into believing in the promise of ultimate salvation and security in the Lord. Read and reread the promises of a restored Israel, culminating in the final verse.

Is there pain in your path? Amos will move you to hope in the victory in Jesus.

Amos 7—9

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: Blooming where I am planted 9:15

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.