Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and Exodus 3:1-14.

It is about 1,450 B.C. God is going to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt. What God brings about becomes the symbol of all activity of God on behalf of human freedom.

It begins with Moses. He had placed himself in voluntary exile in Median, because of murder. Something makes him curious … a bush burning without being consumed. It is there that God reveals God’s name. Yahweh, the Covenantal name for God, is difficult to translate. It means, “I Am the One Who will Always Be with You.” God is the One present to you in all your circumstances to liberate you through the fire of the Holy Spirit. May this Firestarter be a match that the Lord uses to set the never-ending fire of God’s love in your heart. With the Lord present to you, no pain, hurt or abusive past need ever consume you.

Exodus 3:1—4:17

This is the second of three parts of the Torah Portion Shemoth (Names),
the beginning of the Book of Exodus.
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.

Exodus 1:1—6:1

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: I’m standing on holy ground 3:5

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 Nick read the Firestarter and Matthew 2:1-12.

The three gifts of the King—let them be yours. Gold, symbol of the ultimate possession: you are the ultimate gift for the Christ Child. All of who you are is pure Gold to God.

Frankincense is a hard resin from Arabian trees. It looks like stone, until it falls on hot coals, becoming a sweet smelling smoke. Fall upon the fire of the Spirit and the same will become of you. Myrrh, from the Arabic word for bitter, is an ointment offered to Jesus on the cross to soothe his pain. He refused it.

Take your cue from Jesus. Do not anesthetize pain by habits that blunt the spirit. Give the bitterness of suffering to Jesus. Through prayer, pain is transformed and redeemed.

Matthew 2

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Gold and Frankincense and Myrrh

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels.
In the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Luke 1-2; Mark 1-3

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 the reading.

Just as Jesus was presented in the Temple as an infant, so you have been presented to the Temple of Christ’s risen body. Because you live in Christ and he lives in you, you are a child of God. John is wondrously in touch with this fact as he cries out the first verse of the reading, “We are children of God!”

Throughout this letter, themes of darkness and light, of sin and abiding in Christ, are set in stark contrast. For John there are no “gray” areas. There is either a life of sin or a life of grace going on inside of you and me. Yes, there may be occasional acts of sin, but the torque, the momentum, the full surrender of life is to be totally within God. If you are there, then a life of habitual sin is not possible. Experience what it is like to be a child—a very own child of God.

1 John 3:1–9

Find out all about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: We are called children of God.

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year we read the Letters of John and Jude.

For all the Firestarters 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.