Reading the story of Solomon’s dedication of the first Temple, I’m struck by how the powers of divine communication attributed to the Temple are ones that Christ brought within us. We don’t have to go to a special place in Jerusalem to get God’s attention.
If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house; If thy people go out to war against their enemies by the way that thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name; http://bible.us/2Chr6.22.KJV
Commentary on G+: http://dlvr.it/11X5mz
"Don’t get involved in foolish, ignorant arguments that only start fights. A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone, be able to teach, and be patient with difficult people. Gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change those people’s hearts, and they will learn the truth."
"When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it., for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others."
"You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike!"
I am convinced that God’s true blessings are meant for everyone. When the Bible says the sun shines on the good and the evil alike, it points to the paradox of rewards but it also describes how God gives. God rains down blessings on us in great abundance. Indiscriminately. Not just on the “deserving.” The forces of evil would try to hoard those blessings for the few. But at the point, they get turned into something spoiled, like the manna from heaven the wandering Israelites tried to hoard.
My review of a talk that Guilford College’s Max Carter gave at the Bible Association of Friends:
Max Carter gave the Bible Association of Friends this past weekend at Moorestown (NJ) Friends Meeting. Max is a long-time educator and currently heads the Quaker Leadership Scholars Program at Guilford College, a program that has produced a number of active twenty-something Friends in recent years. The Bible Association is one of those great Philadelphia relics that somehow survived a couple of centuries of upheavals and still plugs along with a mission more-or-less crafted at it’s founding in the early 1800s: it distributes free Bibles to Friends, Friends schools and any First Day School class that might answer their inquiries.
Early Quaker writings, filled as they are with Scripture, beckon us to read the Bible as early Friends did. How can we embrace their way of reading and make it our own? As I’ve tried to explore this way of reading, I have become persuaded that such reading was an exercise of attention, memory and openness to the presence of God.
The purpose of this blog is for Quakers and interested fellow travelers to explore the Bible together as it speaks to our condition as individuals. This discussion is open to Christians, non-Christians, atheists and Pagans; to those who are often confused or angered by the Bible and to those who see scripture as inerrant; to good Quakers and to not-so-good Quakers—to name just a few points of view.
The promptings of love and truth in me invite me to stay close to the root, Christ Jesus amongst us. My queries about this come from a love of our rich spiritual heritage and a confidence in the…
So how then is one to be instructed, guided, and inspired by Scripture as a liberal Friend? Here are a few suggestions that I learned the hard way. I kept bumping into the low theological literal…
