God Arises

Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Psalm 68:15-20.

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

The psalm begins with the marching cry of Moses from Numbers 10:35. Military images abound, reminding us of the adage: “Is God on our side?” I prefer this alternative: “Am I on God’s side?”

For God sides with the rejected and forgotten expressed in the psalm by the fatherless and the widow. If you have compassion for these and others in our society, then the grace of the Lord will flow through you in a powerful way.

Paul quotes today’s verse in Ephesians 4:8 in the description of the Ascension of Jesus into heaven; you might turn to that chapter of Ephesians as a counterpoint to the psalm for today.

God is beyond us, yet within us, through the Holy Spirit whom we celebrate Sunday in Pentecost.

Psalm 68

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Love for orphans and widows v. 5

We continue to read 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

A Model for Intercessory Prayer

Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Ezra 8:21-23.

One would think that after the return to the way of life of their ancestors, God’s people would settle down and finally obey the Lord. Wrong! Just as happened soon after the Temple of Solomon was constructed, God’s people wander from the ways of the Lord.

Ezra is a model for intercessors. Without finger pointing, as a true priest, he represents the people before the Lord and expresses the sins of intermarrying as though they were his own personal sins. Jesus did the same. For our sake, “He who knew no sin, [became] sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Ezra desires to lift the people to God. This kind of prayer moves God. In Jesus’s name, pray the same way.

Ezra 8—10

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Gracious hand of God on me 8:18

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the Easter Season this year we read Proverbs 17 – 19 and Ezra.

 

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

God As Lord of the Nations

Listen to Pastor Nick read the Firestarter and Ezekiel 32:16-19.

Using the image of a ship, as Ezekiel did in the case of Tyre, he prophesies the destruction of ancient Egypt. Another ancient power will come against Egypt, Assyria, likened to a great cedar tree. Chapter 32 is a lamentation for Pharaoh and Egypt as poetically powerful pictures describe the downfall of this formerly strong nation.

God is in charge of all the nations. They will rise and fall in their own manipulative power. Only those nations truly dedicated to the Lord will have a power that cannot be taken away from them. It means living in the Kingdom of God and not in the kingdom of the world. We are citizens of a heavenly kingdom with roots sunk deep in the earth right now.

As you pray, feel the divine Kingdom of which you are a special citizen. Pray for this hurting world.

Ezekiel 31—32

Mondays are dedicated to the reading of the Hebrew Prophets.
In the Season of Easter this year we read Ezekiel 17-32.

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…
Example: Praying for this hurting world

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.