Jeremiah 44 - For the Jews in Egypt, Jeremiah continues to rant and rave against them.  It is because of the evil they did to provoke God that they have seen Judah and Jerusalem destroyed.  “Though I kept sending to you all my servants the prophets, with the plea not to commit this horrible deed which I hate, [sacrificing to strange gods] they would not listen or accept the warning to turn away from the evil of sacrificing to strange gods” (44:4).

Why do they keep…

Listen to this post: http://www.turtleboxstories.com/audio/fullnessofexistence.mp3…

I suffer from chronic pain from several sources internal and muscular/skeletal. Yet, I am hopeful.   Sometimes that hope comes into doubt, as when you feel the impact of an automobile with the rear of the one in which you are travelling. It was our blessing that it occurred in front of our meetinghouse. Our pastor, Alivia Biko, helped me pray back through the new pains as I waas prepared for transport to the hospital. Beside my physical pain, I also was greiving the total loss of my…

New podcast is up! Brian Bews on Mark 13, "Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?"

Jeremiah 42 - The leaders of the remnant, Johanan and Azariah, beg Jeremiah to intercede for them with God. They sound as if they are REALLY ready to be obedient to whatever the Lord wants from them. Jeremiah takes ten days to consult with the Lord, but when he returns and tells them they must not go on to Egypt, they disobey YET AGAIN. They give in to their fears: their fear of the Chaldeans, their fear of starvation and battle. The message of Jeremiah…

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Jeremiah 40 - The next several chapters are very dramatic and show the chaos surrounding the whole broken Judaean region following the Chaldean conquest. Jeremiah is taken with the captives who are being led into exile with their Chaldean captors as far as Ramah, but is then told that he does not have to go into exile; he can go wherever he wants to go.  He is advised to go to Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon has named governor of Judah. Gedaliah comes from a family that was deeply…

Jeremiah 38 - Jeremiah counsels surrender again.  The princes want him dead because he disheartens the soldiers and people of the city with his words.  The king, Zedekiah, seems to give them leave to do what they want. So they put him in a cistern that is in the Court of the Guard, a cistern filled with mud.  A man named Ebed-melech, a Cushite (Ethiopian), pleads with the king to let him take Jeremiah out and he does.  The king seems very easy to manipulate. Zedekiah…

QuakerQuaker This Week, 3/18/2012

One of our favorite posts from the Quaker web this week is Jeffrey Hipp's Why I became a Quaker--or why, as a college student, I came back after my first time. (turns out someone reached out to the new visitor and helped him get involved in the meeting). There…

The Bridge Film…

Listen to this post: http://www.turtleboxstories.com/audio/fullnessofexistence.mp3

A few short weeks ago, my hands were wet in plaster, casting the beautifully full…

Jeremiah 37 - Chronologically, this chapter follows 34:1-7. Zedekiah is installed as king by Nebuchadnezzar, and he will not listen to Jeremiah. But he does send people to ask Jeremiah to intercede with God for the people.  Pharaoh’s army is on the move to Jerusalem and the Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians) will abandon the siege of the city for a time.  But the Lord warns Jeremiah that the Egyptians will turn back and when they do, the Chaldeans will return to destroy the…

This week's message was from Lynn Holt on Conflict in the Temple, based around Mark 12. Check it out!

The question of how Quakers should view homosexuality is a religious and spiritual question, not a matter of law or public policy. Nevertheless, our consideration unfolds in the midst of continuing turmoil in law and policy. And that turmoil creates an undertow that can drag our spiritual seeking to places far from God’s will.



Until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was approved in…

Jeremiah 36 - Years 605-604 BC.  Jeremiah sends for Baruch to write a scroll containing all of his prophesies he has made from the beginning, during the reign of Josiah, down to the present.  He hopes that if the people hear them all, then certainly they will repent of their unfaithfulness before it is too late. During a fast, Jeremiah says “I cannot go to the house of the Lord; I am prevented from doing so” (36:5). So he sends Baruch to the Temple to read it. He reads it all…

Jeremiah 35 - In the days of Jehoiakim (609-598 BC), Jeremiah said go to the Rechabites and take them to the Temple, give them wine.  The Rechabites were a nomadic clan that upheld the ancient religious practices of the desert. They didn’t live in houses but in tents close to the soil.  They had been driven into Jerusalem around 605 BC, by bands of Syrians sent out by Nebuchadnezzar to harry the countryside according to JB note.  Jeremiah does what the…

Jeremiah. 34 - With Nebuchadnezzar at the gates, Jeremiah is told to go to King Zedekiah, and tell him the Lord is handing the city over to the king of Babylon.  If he obeys, he will die in peace; if not he will die by the sword.  Only the fortified towns of Lachish and Azekah hold out. 

Zedekiah had agreed to emancipate all Hebrew slaves (presumably to provide more defenders for their side; but maybe also because they knew they had not obeyed the command of YHWH to…

"Say not: 'It was God's doing that I fell away,';

     for what He hates He does not do.

Say not: 'It was He who set me astray,'

     for he has no…

QuakerQuaker This Week, 3/13/2012

Lots of great stuff on the Quaker blogosphere this week. We're hearing a lot about Robert Griswold's "A Condition Beyond Membership" and a provocative BBC News piece that asks "…