Jeremiah 33 - Jeremiah is still in prison at the Court of the Guard when a second message from God reminds Jeremiah that despite the destruction they will suffer, God also promises restoration: “I am going to fulfill the promise I made to the House of Israel and the House of Judah.”  A virtuous branch will grow for David (33:15). Yahweh would sooner break his covenant with day and night, with nature and its laws as break his covenant with David and the Levitical priests…

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That phrase has been echoing in my head awhile, first about my…

Jeremiah 31  - This chapter is maybe one of the most important biblical passages in Quaker “theology.” Jeremiah gives voice to his prophecy of the “New Covenant.” I don’t think scholars are sure of the origin of the Book of Consolation  (chapters 30 through 33}, of which this is a part. Laurence Boadt, in his Reading the Old Testament, says that they are “words of hope from a variety of different times and occasions. Some . . . are addressed to ‘Israel’ and…

Success=acheiving that which you set out to acheive.  Failure=the opposite of success.  Can GOD fail? yes or no.  If the answer is no; and keeping in mind that GOD set out to acheive salvation for all humanity; then all humanity has to be saved. to say otherwise is to say GOD is a failure.

Oil City, and Venango county in Pennsylvania

have their share of Welfare recipients.

They also have more than their share of less

than positive remarks, comments, and opinions

about those welfare recipients.

What they don’t have though; or at least you

never see or hear is comments, opinions, or

remarks from the welfare recipients  view.

What is it like to be on welfare.

What do they feel, what do they want or

desire from…

The world today seems to have so much

pain, anguish, suffering, hunger, and hatred.

Everyone wishes they could come up

with a solution.

Every person, politician, and religion

each has their own version of something

that would solve all our problems.

What if instead of:

Continue reading on Examiner.com…

Jeremiah 30 – Here towards the end of the Book of Jeremiah, the lack of historical continuity becomes a bit of a problem for readers. Chapter 30 begins what my Jerusalem Bible calls The Book of Consolation; it was written sometime between 622 BC and the death of Josiah in 609, at the very beginning of Jeremiah’s “career” as a prophet. The Assyrian Empire was in decline and Josiah made an attempt to retake the lands of Samaria and Galilee that had been lost at the end of…

One hundred years ago next week was born Bayard Rustin, the man who was the principal logistical organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That march took place on August 28, 1963 and was attended by upwards of a quarter of a million people. Bayard Rustin was a Quaker and a gay man.

A. Philip Randolph, the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was the civil rights leader who initiated and built the leadership coalition for the March. Other leaders…

Jeremiah 29  - Jeremiah writes a letter to the exiles in Babylon and tells them to settle there, take wives, have families; it will be a long time (70 years), but he encourages them: “I know the plans I have in mind for you, . . . plans for peace, not disaster, reserving a future full of hope for you”  (29:11). I will let you find me.  Do not be deceived by false prophets there, in Babylon, or people who interpret dreams.  The King who remained…

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Conflict. Disagreement. Opposing viewpoints. I don’t much like any of them, especially when they involve me and those I’m in relationship with. Some people tell me they like controversy, spirited opposition, debate and argument. They say it energizes them, excites them, gets their juices flowing. All that conflict does for me is make my stomach churn.

So, at Meeting last Sunday, when our Worship-Sharing time focused on queries about…

Jeremiah 27 - Chapter 27 is the first of three chapters that apparently existed separately at one time; and each is about the “false prophets.”  The date of this first is supposedly 594 BC when an embassy of states—Edom, Moab, Sidon [south to north on the eastern side of the Jordan River]--conferred about what to do about Nebuchadnezzar. It is at the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign (c.598/597 BC). Jeremiah is called by God to make a yoke and to wear it as a sign to these leaders. There…

Here are two new podcasts from North Valley:

The Triumphal Entry by Paul Bock

Temples, Trees & Jesus the Prophet by Andy Henry

Jeremiah 26  - The narrative here goes back to around 608 BC just after Jehoiachim becomes king of Judah as a vassal of the Neo-Babylonians. Jeremiah tells us he must speak, for the people of Judah still have a choice at this point. They might listen and be saved. Everything rests on the word IF. IF the people change then the Lord “may repent of the evil I have planned to inflict upon them for their evil deeds” (26:3). It is interesting that the writer…

Jeremiah 25 - The year is about 605 BC, the year of Nebuchadnezzar’s victory over Egypt at Carchemish.  Babylon became the dominant power in the region, and Jeremiah saw them as the “enemy to come out of the North” that his prophecies had foretold.  It is 23 years since Jeremiah was called to preach his message. Jeremiah’s message has been, “Turn back. . .from your evil behavior and your evil actions and you will stay on the soil Yahweh long ago gave to you. . .” (JB 25:5-6), but you…

Stewardship is the testimony to which the other Quaker testimonies point. To the extent we live simply, we will avoid the wastefulness endangering the earth’s ability to adequately sustain life for future generations. When we make an honest effort to live in peace with each other, we will, in the words of John Woolman, “lessen the distresses of the afflicted and increase the happiness of the creation”. If we seek to live with integrity, we will develop, in the words of Paul, “a…

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Jeremiah 23 - Jeremiah’s harangue against the people’s shepherds very similar to the words of Ezekiel. “Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the Lord” (23:1).

Early Friends took passages such as these for prophesies that God would never trust his people to human shepherds under the new covenant, but that Christ Himself would be their shepherd.  “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have…