Listen to Nick read the Firestarter and the reading.

If you find yourself caught in the humdrum of your own expectations of how things are going to be, then Advent is the time to be shaken to new awareness. The Lord wants to leap into your world and offer you the power to change it.

This shaking is not an outer violence, but an inner one. If you are alone, lost and thirsty in a desert, then the faint voice of another promising to lead you out will be very refreshing. This is the voice and water of John.

Listen to the beginnings of this Gospel, which shall be with us this year. Your heart quivers as you hear these words with millions of believers throughout the earth. God is up to something great for you in fire and in the Holy Spirit.

Mark 1: 1–8

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Prepare the way of the Lord. v. 3

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
During the Winter Season of Advent to Epiphany this year, we read the Gospel of Mark, chapters 1-2.

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 Genesis 38:12-30.

Around this time of the year for over 2500 years, Jewish people have been proclaiming these readings. For the first time they are integrated into a sequence of readings for Christians. Think of the power of this as we join our Jewish brothers and sisters as they lift the scroll each Sabbath and chant these stories! This is the Torah— God’s precious communication with us.

This story fits well in Advent, for with Tamar, we have a direct descendant to Jesus. Tamar’s son Perez was an ancestor to David. (Matthew gives the list 1:3.) Jesus came from the family of David.

Look what the Lord does with the sinfulness and intrigue of ancestors! The Lord can use everything and everyone. In your family tree, you probably have some with a “shady past.” The Lord can use them for good.

Genesis 38

This is the second of three parts of the Torah Portion Vayeshev (And He Settled)
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.

Genesis 37:1—40:23

Learn about Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: You turn all things into good.

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 Luke 1:5-25.

Once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a Jewish priest would be privileged to offer incense in the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary of the Temple. Lots were drawn to see who it would be. In today’s passage, they fell to Zechariah. The moment of a lifetime had come.

He is there to atone for his people, and to pray longingly for the Messiah. There was an additional heartache for him; he and his elderly wife Elizabeth were yearning for their own child. However, it seemed too late; she was just too old.

Enter Gabriel with astounding news—a son for Zechariah and Elizabeth, intimately connecting the child with the coming of the Messiah! Zechariah was not prepared to listen to this, and so he was unprepared to shout out its news. He is struck dumb.

How open are you to the wonderful things the Lord wants to do with you?

Luke 1:1–25

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…
Example: Living righteous and blameless v. 6

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.