December 20, 2010

II Corinthians 3:1

The first two chapters have left us an impression that relations between Paul and the church in Corinth had become strained. We go on with 3:1:

"Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?"

Obviously kind of astringent! rhetorical questions with an obvious answer in the negative!

Do you understand this, Jo? tell me yes or no.
Anyone? If I go on I'll need some comments.

December 18, 2010

To Jo-Dahn and 'Many Other Things'

A thousand apologies, Jo; for some unknown reason your November comment never got to my eyes. Yes, I will gladly consider 2nd Corinthians; but meanwhile I've written the following:

The Gospel according to John ends with this verse:

"21:25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen" (KJV)

According to one internet source there are some 146 million books in the world as of 'today'. Have you written your book? Have I written mine?

Well yes and no. What does the word 'book' mean? Written and published books is one thing; my life and yours something else.

Friends, we are writing now; today will be another chapter.

Many Quakers seem to have a horror of proselytizing; I wonder why. As a UMF minister I knew I was supposed to 'seek souls', but when I became a Quaker (some 27 years ago), I became more evangelistic.

Of course there are many forms of evangelism. If your life is one of the apostle John's books, other people are reading it (we call it witness). What will they read today?

St. Francis reportedly said, Preach at all times, and if necessary use words. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)