As gears out of sync in a machine, so are Saul and the Israelites. Decisions are made apart from prayer; rather they are impetuous reactions, prompted by fear, power and pride.

Alone among them completely doing the Lord’s will, is Samuel. Listen to him once again say to the people as he said to God as a boy, “Here I am” (12:3). His transparency to God makes him able to be used by God. Nothing is between him and his Lord. He lives uncontaminated by the evils that enter and gradually push their way deeper and deeper into Saul, disconnecting his heart from the Lord. Samuel, on the other hand, always holds God’s people in prayer.

Discern those inner movements that make for oneness with the Lord and those that disrupt and break away from God. As you listen to the promptings of the Spirit, are you like Samuel or Saul?

1 Samuel 11—13

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Turning not to useless things12:21

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Proverbs 13 and 14 and 1 Samuel.

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

Reckless abandon to one’s own methods and disdain for God’s help guarantee a headlong descent to destruction. Hezekiah’s tunnel is a parable of the ways in which our own plans, apart from God, push us to where we alone want to go. We can be like Balaam who refused to listen to his donkey block his path to evil in Numbers 22. The world adopts v. 13 as its “Verse for the day.”

The siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C. anticipates the future destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple over a hundred years later in 589. The Book of Lamentations echoes the sounds of grief.

The messianic figure of Eliakim comes as a ray of divine energy. John uses the verse for the day as the power of the risen Christ in the Book of Revelation 3:17. Groan and grieve freely as the Spirit moves.

Isaiah 22

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the season of Pentecost this year we read Isaiah 13 – 27; Lamentations 1 and 2 in the Ninth Week.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: When You open, no one shuts. v. 22

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.

Silence: the word comes from the ancestral root si, meaning “to rest,” “to let the hand fall.” Our word seed is sister to silence. The falling seed from the hand of the sower becomes an image that Jesus uses in “The Sermon of Parables.”

For the next three Sundays, the seven images that Jesus uses to describe the Kingdom are set forth in meditative detail. The alphabyte “Gears” for this week suggests a slowing down of life to magnify the movements of God in you. Receive these parables and other images God will be sending your way into the silence of your being.

Silence embraces every word of Jesus. May this minute meditation with you here, be as a seed dropping into the some one thousand minutes of your waking day, so that your day may bear fruit.

Matthew 13:1–9; 18–23

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: May my soul be good soil, Lord. v. 23

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
During the Seasons of Pentecost and Kingdomtide, we read the Gospel of Matthew.

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.