I've just had the great luxury of four nights away from the everyday, on retreat, at Woodbrooke, the Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham UK.  Luxury because…

Gen. 18 shows us Abraham sitting at the entrance to his tent near a small tree called a terebinth at Mamre.  It is just getting to the hot part of the day, when three strangers appear.  Abraham runs over to them and begs them to accept hospitality from him.  He enlists Sarah’s help and arranges for meat and cheese to be offered.  While they are eating, they ask where his wife is and one of them says “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a…

I'm feeling the need to slow it down a little even though there were few comments posted on the last entry. And I really didn't get to chapter 15 in the last post, so I am starting with it and going through chapter 17 only. I have also done a lot of reorganizing of some of my own blogs. I created another blog page called "The Narrative of Scripture" [http://scripturenarrative.blogspot.com/] where I can do posts similar to the ones I do…

This is a very hard thing for me to think about. I had a friend pass over and I know he is going to be with god I told me that he is not fear of death but the plain of passing over is what he didn't like. I'm not to that point in my life death is my biggest fear. I don't why because I know it is part live !!

Well . . . in Pa. the leaves are now out in full force.  

When this happens . . . I have to work more hours to get my work completed.

So . . . I have less time to spend on the computer.    

And another organization has asked me to be an administrator  for their internet forum.  

So . . .  it  looks  I will have a busy summer.     I've got to choose between this forum and the other.  

I should be back in November.…

When a person reads . . . they have control . . . they can stop when they wish. 

They can start  . . . whenever they wish.  

They can skip paragraphs or even chapters if they wish.  

The words that are observed by the reader have the same meaning and value of the reader and not the writer.

 …

Chapters 12 through 25 of Genesis present the story of Abraham, who will become the/or perhaps a “founding father” of the world’s three largest faith “communities” – Jews, Christians and Muslims. In my mind – seeing the array of biblical “stories,” legends, historical accounts and meditations – as a “narrative” put together by God in “His” very mysterious way through those who put “Him” first in their lives and consciousness - the story represents God’s new plan or approach to redeeming His…

My best student told me the other day that he thought that the tree of KOGAE was the same as the tree of life.  

And when I explained to him the difference . . .  he let out a big sigh.  And said "now it  all makes sense"  

I replied "what's up?"   He said . . . the whole story of the garden of Eden was confusing to him   even the  words and actions of God in the garden . . .  but now it was cleared up because . . . he was assuming both trees  as…

Based on Psalm 116

Meter:  6.6.8.6

Return to rest, my soul;

The Lord has heard my cry.

Because Your ear has turned to me

I’ll praise You till I die.               

My sorrow and distress

was more than I could stand –

I called Your name in anguished pain

And there I found Your hand!

You dried my eyes from tears;

I couldn’t catch my breath

Until Your saving…

The reports on the murder mission that keep coming out . . . are constantly changing.  It now seems . . . the chopper that malfunctioned and was destroyed . . . was a new secret weapon with stealth technology.  And the accounts of the slaughter are increasingly more and more gruesome and savage.    The news media now reports that no more information about the slaughter will be released to the public.  …

The next seven chapters of Genesis set forth the early history of "fallen" man as they saw it. The descendants of Adam and Eve are told of and some early legends and myths set in the narrative build a sense of God's frustration with how his creation has turned out. Man's heart "fashioned nothing but wickedness all day long" (5). So God decides to basically start over again, to wipe everything out, saving only Noah and his family to start the "human being project" over again. Noah's name…

Listen to: Simplicity, Integrity, Clarity: What is Plain Speech Today?

A panel presentation for Pacific Northwest Quarterly Meeting on 4/16/2011, emceed by Western Friend's…

Soon to be released through FGC's Quakerbridge Press, Build It!: A Toolkit for Nurturing Intergenerational Spiritual Community contains common sense strategies for building a Young Adult and Young Friend presence. Along with practical solutions is straightforward logic that many Friends have vocalized but few have felt the need to document until now. To cite…

When people ask me what made me consider Quakerism two years ago, I tell them that I followed G-d to the Meetinghouse near my home in nothern Illinois. And with that straightforward response, people nod and smile appreciatively.  Of course, the complete story is significantly more complicated than “G-d told me to”. I have since tried to think of a more visual way to illustrate just how complex my journey with G-d has been. Consider this:

Imagine yourself sitting in a massive room…

The voracious appetite of the news media has been displayed by their ability to consume any type of  ridiculous information that is tossed into their putrid dumpster.  

If the building that Osama lived in cost one million to construct.  The U.S. government must have been the contractor.  I can remember that a few years ago a hammer cost the U.S. government over four hundred dollars.

 …

When the planes began to fall from the sky on September 11, 2001, time stood still.  My husband (a captain at Midway Airlines) and I (an international flight attendant) were enjoying our second cup of coffee.  We were getting ready to go buy cupcakes to take to school for our son’s birthday when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. We knew instantly that our lives would never be the same again.

My husband’s company folded the next day on September 12, and the company…