Gen. 46 - At Beer-sheba, God appears to Jacob in a vision and for the last time (at night) repeats the promise of making him a great nation, even though there will be a sojourn in Egypt.  God had previously forbidden Isaac from going down into Egypt during a famine (26:1-2) as he had forbidden him to go back to Haran, but Jacob is permitted these journeys away from the land of Canaan.  All his offspring in the migration are listed.  The total number of offspring Jacob has in…

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Summer may be over, but memories of those warm halcyon days linger on...

As part of my quest to learn what, exactly,…

I’ve been trying to name the un-nameable in my writing lately.  I’m on draft seven of the prologue to my memoir, and critiques from classmates and my teacher called for more specifics about my spiritual journey. In a revision, I wrote about being in the mountains and having a “sense of a spiritual presence.”

My teacher replied that she tripped…

Sung to the tune of Abide With Me

Meter 10.10.10.10

See Psalm 139:13-16 

For it was you who formed my inward being;

You knit together life and parts unseen.

I praise you for I’m wonderfully thine;

Awesome your handiwork, O God, divine!…

Together on the Jesus Way: Follow Me

North Valley Friends in Oregon (part of Northwest Yearly Meeting) started a podcast a few months ago. I'll try to post them here as they come up. You can also…

New blog post:

Praxis: Faith and Practice

Warning: Lots of Quaker content. :-)

Another round of stream of consciousness! I think I wrote this one in the beginning of August. I'm feeling MUCH less conflicted now.

Emerging Thoughts:…

Just dropping a line to say hello!

Between work, gardening, and health problems I've been away from the Interwebs for a bit.

I want to thank all the people who have been commenting on my posts, all of your words have been extremely helpful to me.

Love and Light.

The Heresy of Silence

Recently I was looking at a Protestant website because it had some articles on the Bible Version Issue that I am interested in.  I noticed that the site also has articles on other topics.  One of the articles was about the heresy of silent prayer.  The site referred to silent prayer as a ‘Roman Catholic’ practice that good Protestants should not indulge in.

I found this interesting because silent prayer, or more accurately the prayer of…

Gen. 40 – Joseph is gifted in having and interpreting dreams – we already have learned this about him. Now in jail because of the accusations made against him by Potiphar’s wife, Joseph has even there risen to a position of prominence. Joseph has been put "in charge" of the prisoners. When two men in the jail come to him with dreams they have had, he interprets the dreams, and his interpretations turn out to be accurate: one of the men - the chief cup-bearer of the Pharaoh – is…

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An interview with Jon Watts and Maggie Harrison about their new project, "Clothe Yourself in Righteousness."  Listen in to find out how Jon and Maggie met, how the…

I was walking out of my Dr.'s office when I remembered I hadn't paid my Co-pay.  When I mentioned it to the nurse she said I didn't have to pay because I had Medicare.  I explained that Medicare was my secondary and I was pretty sure I owed her $20.  She called the insurance company and announced that I was right.  I told her I would rather have been wrong.

Being right isn't necessarily a good thing.  Once I got very upset with my first wife and stalked out of the room and mumbled to…

Those with nothing to lose will always gravitate to a message that removes hierarchy, in which we are all equal. It is a perspective we say we accept as part of being Americans. But we also seek the security of…

O God, do not keep silent;

be not quiet, O God, be not still.

See how your children have strayed,

how your detractors ever increase.

Avoiding you, we diminish your own family;

silencing your own beloveds.

“See,” we say, “how Christianity has destroyed nations,

let the name of Christ be remembered no more.”

In corporate discernment we’ve erred;

We witness while avoiding the Word –

The house of New England and New…

"God and Superstition": are all ideas about God superstitious?

http://tinyurl.com/3f4pb8p

It seems that the post I did last week I posted in a different place, so there is a little gap here for chapters 34 through 36. The post I made (wherever it was) can be found at the following place on the QuakerQuaker blog:…

By Martin Kelley

 A few weeks ago I decided to spend my lunch hour wandering Philadelphia. It was a beautiful day and I headed east, toward the Old City neighborhood. I looped around Race Street and started west when I came to the compound of the Old First Reformed UCC Church.

It has an inviting courtyard surrounded by a low brick wall and cast…