Deuteronomy 28 – If you obey the voice of God by observing the law, you will prosper.  Disobedience will bring destruction (28:45). The big word in this chapter, as in others, is if or “provided” or “so long as.”  This is the great condition that hangs over the redemption people.  The word does not disappear under the new covenant either as we sometimes like to think.  “You are my friends if you do as I command you.” (John 15:14).  The…

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

Yesterday was sandwiched between a traditional Bible study and a new women's group on astrology and archetypes. Could I have chosen anything more different? One is an ongoing study of Luke that my mother initiated…

“The only thing that truly defines Friends as a distinct group and not just a bunch of Unitarians or Christians or a secular social club is that all True Quakers are committed to the process of gettin’ naked as a step in the longer path of being clothed in righteousness, which means a return to right order, or the Gospel Order, or the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Garden or Eden, or total Liberation, or WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT.” Maggie Harrison…

Greetings, Friends!   

Chapter 5 of Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is now available online and also attached as a PDF file below.

For this chapter, we invited Friends to respond to the query, "When has God made you laugh?"  We received 8 personal stories, an original painting from Melanie Weidner (on loan), a photo essay and several original still photos.

Minding the Light is a bimonthly publication of West Hills…

The world often views people who advocate for peace as being weak and vacillating. However, in reality, bringing about peace requires strength and conviction. Peace makes demands on us that are not easily met. If it were otherwise, lasting peace would not be so elusive.

One element of bringing about peace is to know what the word means to us. Peace requires a clear definition that is open to frequent examination. This is not merely an academic…

Deuteronomy 27 – They are instructed inscribe all these laws on tall (or large) stones, coated with lime (or plaster in another translation). These stones then are to be placed on Mount Ebal and there too they should build an altar “made of stones that have had no iron tools used on them, because any altar you build for the Lord your God must be made of uncut stones” (27:5-6). At this altar, they are to offer a peace offering.  Moses proclaims to the people, “Today you…

A good friend of mine posted a blog a couple of days ago in which he floated the idea that to achieve an afterlife you have to "nurture and exercise your potential immortal soul to enable it to survive the death of your body," in much the same way that you have to make the effort to learn algebra in order to solve quadratic equations. (…

Deuteronomy 25 – Flogging may be imposed on a person found guilty of an infraction, but not more than 40 strokes – “more than that would humiliate him publicly” (25:3). Do not muzzle ox treading out grain—even animals have a right to a reward for their labor. If brothers live on the same property, and one of them dies with no son, the surviving should take a deceased brother’s wife as his own so that children may be brought forth for that brother’s line. Now…

Paul Anderson gave this message on equality as the second-to-last in North Valley Friends' Peace Month 2012 series on "SPICE: the Friends Testimonies." (We're doing them out of order!) Friends around Northwest Yearly Meeting participated in Peace Month this January.…

Paul Anderson gave this message on equality as the second-to-last in North Valley Friends' Peace Month 2012 series on "SPICE: the Friends Testimonies." (We're doing them out of order!) Friends around Northwest Yearly Meeting participated in Peace Month this January.…

Deuteronomy 23 – Rules on who can and cannot be considered “among the Lord’s people”: not a man whose private parts have been removed, or born out of wedlock. The latter would have to wait 10 generations to have descendants considered “in.” Ammonite and Moabites who failed to permit the Jews to eat or drink while traveling from Egypt through their lands are “out” but the Edomites are “in” (after the 3^rd generation). Other rules involve keeping military camps clean…

Deuteronomy 21 – The laws we are reading about in this section of Deuteronomy are among the 613 that make up the full “Law of Moses” – the “mitzvoth.” Some very odd laws are put into place in this code, none stranger than the few here described: the concerns are understandable but the methods of dealing with them are hard to understand. If a dead body is found – a murdered person – you need to go to the leaders of the town nearest to where it’s found, get a young cow (under a year)…

I had a lot of trouble getting the font even through these postings. Sorry!

Deuteronomy 19 - The land is to be divided into three regions and each region is to have a city of refuge so “that every [non-malicious or accidental] homicide will be able to find a refuge” (19:4). In the event the territory given is expanded, three…

Deuteronomy 17 – Sacrificial animals must be without “serious defect.” Death is to be the penalty for idolatry, but only on the testimony of more than one witness.  The witnesses must be among those who stone the perpetrator—the first to cast the stone (17: 7) [Here is where Jesus gets his saying when he saves the woman accused of adultery—perhaps they had gotten away from this rule] Complicated cases should go to the assigned judge or levitical priests in office. This is a…

Deuteronomy 15 – Every seven years the people shall have a “relaxation of debts” for kinsmen.” The NAB notes that we are not sure if this meant a suspension of interest or of payments on debt, or release from the full amount of any debt.  There should be no one of you in need.”  Kinsmen who sell themselves for debt shall be freed every 7^th year.  They are also to watch that they do not get resentful when the year of “release” approaches (15:9). You…

Deuteronomy 13 – Moses warns the people not to add to or take from the command he gives them. If “a prophet or dreamer” performs signs, don’t let that lead you to worship strange gods.  Yahweh tests us to see if we love him. “. . .his voice you shall obey, him shall you serve, to him shall you cling. . .”  (13:5). And if someone tries to turn you to away from the Lord, that person should be “put to death” (13:5). We tend to forget that God’s chosen in our long tradition once held to…

We're participating in Northwest Yearly Meeting's Peace Month this month. The theme is "SPICE: the Friends Testimonies," and this week was on integrity.

The Challenge of Integrity, by Paul Bock

The expression, “Keep it simple, stupid” does not fit with the Quaker testimony of simplicity. Simplicity is not arrived at by taking the path of least resistance. Nor is simplicity a matter of ignoring what is inconvenient or avoiding a careful analysis of the different aspects that make up a situation. We don’t start from simplicity, simplicity is what we arrive at, or at least get closer to, after going…