Isaiah 43 – Yahweh’s claim on his people: “I have called you by your name, you are mine. Should you pass through the sea, I will be with you or through rivers, they will not swallow you up” (43:1-2).

Yahweh will bring back the remnant. There is “no other savior but me” Yahweh says. He is the power behind a “new exodus”. “No need to recall the past . . . See, I am doing a new deed, . . . I am making a road in the wilderness, paths in the wilds” (43:19). “The…

Imagine, so soon after Santa-mania, that you were not able to enjoy the hype of the holiday. Imagine being left with only yourself, as you could not get out of a funk. That's the way it is, year-round, for those who suffer from depression and anxiety disorders. God, as it were, unwilling to allow you to enter into the fun and festivity of "giving".

More specifically, a form of insanity that lives up to its name, and its relentless endeavor to keep you in-strictly-essential-sanity. The…

Isaiah 42 – This is the first of four “Songs” of Yahweh’s “servant” – the servant is in part the chosen people of Israel, but there is some mystery about the one referred to.

                  I have endowed him with my spirit

                  that he may bring true justice to the nations. . .

                  He will neither waver, nor be crushed

                  until true justice is established on earth,

                  for the…

This is the sixth and last of a series of posts on the Christmas story in the gospels. The first one concerned Matthew’s account, the second concerned Mark’s account, the…

Isaiah 41 – Cyrus, king of Persia, plays a role like unto that of the Messiah in reestablishing the kingdom of Israel. The remnant God has chosen must not fear. “I am with you; stop being anxious and watchful, for I am your God. I give you strength, I bring you help” (41:10). Your enemies shall be destroyed.

The idol worshippers have no god like Yahweh. They cannot “tell us what happened long ago . . . or let them know what’s going to happen” (41:22). “I will send…

Isaac Penington ever brings to the mind of the reader that thinking about Faith and even having faith in thoughts about faith is not sufficient for salvation. Penington ever admonishes to "go further." In the Light, Faith, Peace, Love, Patience, etc. are verbal in essence. Peace, for example, is the result of individual conscious and conscience anchored in and being ever present in the Light. To the extent we seek Peace through outward means like political action or other institutional and…

Isaiah 40 – Now begins the Second Isaiah chapters – the Book of Consolation - Isaiah here begs Yahweh to console his people:

                  A voice cries, ‘Prepare in the wilderness

                  A way for Yahweh.

                  Make a straight highway for our God

                  Across the desert.

                  Let every valley be filled in,

                  Every mountain and hill laid low, . .…

Isaiah 38 – Hezekiah falls ill and thinks he is dying. He prays sincerely to Yahweh, and Yahweh rewards him by giving him another 15 years. There follows a canticle that the footnote says seems more appropriate to the post-exilic period. It is about Hezekiah’s meditation on what he thought was to be his early demise:

                  What can I say? Of what can I speak to him?

                  It is he who is at work;

                  I will give glory…

This is the fifth of a series of posts on the Christmas story in the gospels. The first one concerned Matthew’s account, the second concerned Mark’s account, and the…

Isaiah 37 – On hearing the message, Hezekiah tears his garments and goes to the Temple and sends for Isaiah, wanting Isaiah to plead with Yahweh to punish the Assyrians. Isaiah sends word back that he is not to be afraid of the Assyrians’ words – Sennacherib will return to his country when he hears a rumor of something back at home and Yahweh will “bring him down with the sword” (37:7). Hezekiah approaches the Temple sanctuary and prays to Yahweh. He acknowledges the strength of the…

Intro.: The Court of Quaker Opinion will grant that psychology has become the means of understanding the inner life of human beings.

Conv.: We are convinced that understanding the inner life has more to do with conversion than with introspection - more about turning around than turning inward.

Intro.: But getting in touch with your feelings and hidden impulses leads you to see who you are and what you want from life.

Conv.: Turning around from who you feel you are and…

Chapter 16 of Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is now available online and attached as a PDF file, below. For this chapter, we invited Friends to respond to the query, "When have you felt comforted by God?"  We received 12 responses; one of which was written by a 9-year-old in our meeting.

We invite you to read these stories for yourself.  What stories rise for you as you sit with our latest query?  Could this query be fruitful for young Friends in your…

From Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/virgin-birth-why-believe-194909863.html

Have you noticed the amount of Jesusphobic behaviour that surfaces this time of year?  there is so much of it that you will find it hard to buy a Christmas card that has the name Jesus on it.  Among Quakers it's common to use the word Light for the Divine or our "Higher" Power but even among those who cling to the Christian nation myth there is a reluctance to say the name Jesus.

Years ago when my dad was still alive he was subjected to listening to one of my songs -Geezers 4 Jesus -…

Tonight is the night of our dear savior's birth. May God bless us all with His Light and Power and Presence!

Isaiah 36 – Footnote says this “Appendix” is a poem of return from exile and associated with Second Isaiah. Modern scholars think the “Second Isaiah” is not the work of the 8^th c. prophet. The name of Isaiah is not mentioned and the historical setting is 200 years after his time. Jerusalem has fallen and the nation is in exile. Cyrus is already present.…

Isaiah 33 – Woe to the plunderer who has never been plundered himself. They will suffer what they have inflicted on others. “He who acts with integrity, who speaks sincerely and rejects extortionate profit, who waves away bribes from his hands, shuts suggestions of murder out of his ears and closes his eyes against crime; this man will dwell in the heights, he will find refuge in a citadel built on rock” (33:15-16).

Isaiah 34 – A prophesy about the end of Edom.…

There is a spiritual nature in each of us. This spiritual nature is the experience and knowledge of the transformation of conscious and conscience by the illumination of the inner Light. This illumination transforms and anchors the conscious and conscience in itself so that no longer is awareness and moral guidance anchored in the world of form; ideological, institutional, abstract. The thoughts and doctrine of those who profess outward forms and would bind men and women to their doctrine…

Cultural: May it please the Court of Quaker Opinion to know that our Christmas Social will focus on Bible-based songs and stories.

Spiritual: You mean those that glorify the experience of refugees and mix biblical metaphors?

Cultural: Why shouldn't the Feeding Miracle in the Gospels be compared to the Giving/Sharing of Christmas?

Spiritual: Because it justifies commercialism at the expense of the spiritual hunger that was meant to be satisfied.

Cultural: Would you…

Isaiah 31 – Those who go down to Egypt to seek help there and build their hope “on cavalry” will be in trouble. “The Egyptian is a man, not a god, his horses are flesh, not spirit” (31:3). Eventually, “Assyria will fall by a sword that is not man’s, will be devoured by a sword that is more than human” (31:8).

Isaiah 32 – Kings “reign by integrity and princes rule by law” (32:1).  They are like shelters, like “shade of a great rock in a thirsty land” (32:2). A…

Isaiah 30 – Isaiah speaks out against the efforts of those who are looking to Egypt to help them. “Pharaoh’s protection will be your shame” (30:3). God instructs the prophet to inscribe this oracle on a tablet so “in the time to come it may serve as a witness for ever” (30:8). “Since you . . . prefer to trust in wile and guile . . . your guilt will prove to be for you a breach on the point of collapse” (30:13). “Your salvation lay in conversion and tranquility, your strength, in…