Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and the Psalm.

For a video meditation on today’s Psalm created three years ago, Tap here.

One thing about David: he feels all the emotions. The personal vengeance that David wants to bring against his enemies is at the level of his feelings; he knows that vengeance is the Lord’s and that God will bring justice to bear.

Actually, that is the point of David’s anger. His deepest emotions have to do with the Lord’s honor and justice violated. In this respect, he is like Jesus. Christ’s anger comes out, not when something personal is done to him, but when his Father’s glory is at stake. Such was Jesus’s anger when he overturned the moneychangers in the Temple. The business of the world was profaning the Temple.

These days, may your anger be full and free when you see God’s glory diminished when one of God’s little ones is being abused. Then we need the energy of anger to address the sin.

Psalm 58

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Like water, evil runs off. v. 7

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

Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and Proverbs 4:1-9.

The key to this chapter is the Hebrew musar: “instruction.” The word means “correction, chastisement, rebuke, and warning,” not the kind of physical punishment that parents wrongly inflict on their children. We would say it is what happens when we “learn the hard way”; the pain of our mistakes becomes instruction for change.

Anything less than total surrender to God will bring spiritual distress to you. Take responsibility for your situation, without blaming others or punishing yourself for your sin and mistakes.

Actually, the image of a parent is not the one that Proverbs uses here, but rather of a woman who longs to be loved by a man. A feminine dimension of God’s love is beautifully expressed here. Embrace wisdom.

Proverbs 4

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Keeping watch over my heart v. 23

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Judges, Proverbs 4 6.

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 Nick read the Firestarter and Isaiah 50:4-11.

You will think of Jesus in some of the verses in this reading, just as do Matthew and Luke in their Gospels. Again, make this Servant Song personal.

There is an image that Isaiah uses related to the basic image of these reflections—Firestarters. In verses 10 and 11, he describes what happens when people walk with their own fire and sparks, instead of being led by the light of the Lord. When one relies upon one’s light alone, the walking will be around in circles with a frustration resulting in one “lying down in torment.”

The fire that I want started for you in these introductions is the Lord’s own light and fire. While there is a cycle at work in these readings, when the Lord leads the way, it is a spiral. The movement of these readings in their special weekly cycle is designed to move your life forward with the light of the Lord leading the way and God’s fire igniting your heart.

Isaiah 50—51

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the Winder Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Isaiah 40 – 55.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Led by the light of Your fire v. 11

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.