All Blog Posts (268)

Having faith, [a person] can thrive even when planted in the chaos of the world that lies in wickedness, even as a sycamine tree could be planted in a hostile environment of the sea (Lk. 17:6). Having faith, the hearing/obeying relationship with his Creator, man is restored, strengthened, and empowered to withstand and rise above such assaults upon his soul. He is given the power of God to rule over his human nature and to…

Prior to seeking membership in my local Meeting, I listened to lots of YouTube videos and read several biographies about early Quakers, My takeaway was that the Quaker space might be a place where I could  explore my relationship with God, void of judgement. That, in some degree, has been the case with one exception: God and Christ are rarely discussed in my local Meeting.

It seems that God and Christ have become not exactly estranged but something close to it. The word Spirit and…

We all need a refuge from stress and severe distraction; a retreat where we can withdraw for a time from life’s problems, so that when we return, they feel more manageable. This is God’s intent for the Sabbath.

Rest, in the Old Covenant, meant a special day when people were supposed to pause in their outward work. But how do we pause in our duel with the stresses of daily life?

The visitation of God, directly to the soul, in the person of Jesus Christ, is our…

In the desert liturgy of obedience to the Lamb, wrought in the wilderness of the Spirit, the engrafted Word and immortal Seed grow, waging the Lamb’s War, there where neither smell nor scent of time, flesh, or reasonings remain; and here all things are made new and one drinks freely from the well of the water of life. This experience of an invasive, desolating, purging Light is signified by the repeated phrasing, ‘And he carryed me awaye into the wilderness in the sprete’ (p541). Untouched…

ALL ye churches gathered into outward forms upon the earth, the son of God is come to reign; and he will tread and trample, will shake, and make you quiver, you that are found out of his life, his light, and his power. His day hath appeared...Come you, that have boasted of my name, saith the Lord, and have gloried in the flesh...who have slain my witness, yet boast of my words...What! hast thou professed the prophets’ words? hast thou…

The Lamb was the Light guiding early Quakers in worship, belief and practice. The contemplative collective state, like the War fought against self ends, carnal reasoning, and concupiscence (intellectual, social, political, linguistic, etc.), was part of what John Punshon called the offensive of the Lamb. This formed a unity of prayer and worship with its behaviour as people in but not of the world.

The Book of Revelation provides a key to this experiential baptism in the Lamb’s…

This morning in worship, I felt led to share the first couple of paragraphs from George Fox's letter to Lady Claypole.

It contains much useful spiritual counsel, and reveals much about how Fox viewed the interior world of human spiritual experience.

One of our attenders, whose first language is not English, asked questions about one particular passage;

"When you are in the transgression of the life of God in your own particular way, the mind flies up in the air,…

The Book of Revelation was one of the topics studied in a Woodbrooke Bible Reading Course a few months ago.  Here is a summary of a talk from it’s notes together with the meaningful commentary by William Barclay.  We were encouraged to share with our meetings.

There is a spirit that runs all through the bible, and Revelation stems from what has gone before. 

The Bible begins:  In the beginning, God…

Just to alert you to an interesting discussion that has taken place on reddit.com/r/Quakers. See https://www.reddit.com/r/Quakers/comments/9x7h1w/can_there_really_be_quakerism_without_jesus/

This is a post I put up in response to another post someone put up concerning Quakerism Without Jesus. (Sorry, I don't have the like to that post.)

If you find that post useful, feel…

It is by subjection to the Light that ‘the exacter and violent doer in them might be thrown out: and they that had been hypocrites, might come to bring forth first fruits of repentance, and their mountain of sin and earthliness might be laid low in them…’ (George Fox, Journal, p32). This is a timely reminder of the obligation, set out by early Friends, to wage the Lamb’s war of resistance against the forces of violence, militarism, and hypocrisy. Some Liberal Quakers deflower the peace…

He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice…

The early Quaker experience shows that unity is possible among those who are listening to Christ. George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement in seventeenth century England, saw that God speaks to all with one voice, and therefore does not contradict himself.

When differing points of view on important matters emerged in a Quaker meeting, all present waited for God to show them who was right. Sometimes the task fell to one person to turn the whole group in the right direction,…

• Brutality of the world’s systematic or military-industrial scale concupiscence vs. Violence of the Lamb’s War 

The inward apocalypse of the Lamb’s War annihilated early Friends’ collusion with and submission to the outward violence of the World. As Lewis Benson writes, early Friends were “at war with society as it is organised apart from the wisdom and authority of God” (Catholic Quakerism p48). This meant that the early Quaker was a “man of war, and in…

Moral -- 1 a: of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior... b: expressing or teaching a conception of right behavior... c: conforming to a standard of right behavior d: sanctioned by or operative on one's conscience or ethical judgment... e: capable of right and wrong action...

Fellowship -- 1: companionship, company. 2 a: community of interest, activity, feeling, or…

Taken from QuakerPsalms: A Book of Devotions, edited by T.H.S. Wallace

The following quote from Penington is the full text of what I quoted parts of in my previous post. It is well worth reading in full.

[Question] What is it to believe in the light?

[Answer] To receive its testimony either concerning good or evil, and so either to turn towards or from, in the will and power which the light begets in the heart.

[Question] How will this save me?

[Answer] By this means; that in thee which…

I am a member of culture A, which has practice X. While traveling to a foreign country I meet you, a member of culture B. I am shocked to find that you have practice Y. I convince you that practice X is much better than practice Y and then return home. You now want to participate in practice X, but all the forces of culture B are against you. I have given you no power to forsake the practices of your culture to take up the practices of mine.…

This came out of a chat with some Friends at the Meeting I attend.  They were encouraging me in the Bible reading I was doing and I mentioned that I had been reading Acts chapter 10 and that it was a favorite of mine.  I also mentioned that it was one Biblical account Early Friends used for rejecting water baptism.  Some of them went and read the passage and one asked me how it could be interpreted as a case against outward baptism.  And how did I know Early Friends thought so?  I responded…

From QuakerPsalms, edited by T.H.S. Wallace

And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? Of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the…