Advent, Joshua, Jesus, you: all are involved in thresholds to new life. Read with an Advent longing, with yearning and expectation. Listen carefully to the commands of the Lord upon Joshua, hearing them directly addressed to you. You are the most important person to hear this. God’s Word is alive now for you through a personal, intimate encounter with God, as though you were the only one to hear it. This personal revelation comes to you through the Spirit of Christ risen.

Joshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus, the latter coming to us through the Greek New Testament. God called both Joshuas to take God’s people into a new Promised Land. For the first Joshua, this was the actual land promised by God to Moses; for Jesus, it is the inner, spiritual Promised Land called the Kingdom of God.

Find a piece of red ribbon and use it as a marker in your Bible, or hang it somewhere where you can often see it. It will remind you of the scarlet rope in chapter 2 as well as the streaming blood of Jesus from the cross, sign of salvation.

Joshua 1—2

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: You with me where’er I go. 1:9.

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the seasons of Advent to Epiphany this year we read Joshua and Proverbs 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

Noah began to build the ark, not when it looked like rain, but when the Lord commanded. Imagine how Noah must have been mocked—building a great ship far away from the sea! Still, day after day, he built the ark, ready for the waters to become chaotic again, just as in the beginning.

Most of the world will not take notice that a new sacred “ark” of time begins with this First Sunday in Advent. Just as Noah, The Holy Spirit invites you to build each day’s spiritual portion of the year as you ready yourself for the coming of the Lord, whenever, and however that will occur. Be safe and secure in the ark of Christ’s body. Be safe and secure in this ark as worldly waters with chaotic energies pound against you from without, seeking to put a leak into the sacred seal of your sacred ark.

Matthew 24:36–44

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Being alert at all times.v. 36

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
In year A, we generally read from the Gospel of St. 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.

Within the womb of Rebecca, the twins Jacob and Esau struggle in strife—sign of the same evils that will beset future generations of the human family. Within the flow of God’s gracious covenant and the responses on the part of our patriarchs, there are the shadows of selfishness and greed. Witness the tension between instant gratification, and patient waiting to fuller revelation, as described in Esau’s selling his future destiny so that he could have his stomach filled in the present. Find the points of identification with these figures portrayed as so very frail and human, though at the same time touched by God with wondrous plans for the future.

Are there future possibilities you are compromising be being obsessed with some immediate desire that presses on you for satisfaction?

Genesis 25:19—26:22

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Free us, Lord, from fam’ly strife.

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