All Blog Posts (323)

There are times when our meetings go above and beyond the usual. November 19 was such a meeting. We were reading a fairly short Epistle, (LXXIV or 74), but we only got half way through it in our discussion. We will consider the 2nd part in our December meeting. I will not offer a summary but encourage all to follow the link to the recording below.

You can listen to/download the reading and our discussion by going to …

On Saturday we met to discuss Fox's Journal. We read again the passage beginning "Sound, sound abroad..." and went on from there. Fox finished up his tour in Ireland visiting meetings and discussing the gospel with other people. One discussion concerned election and reprobation. Fox laid out in clear terms how the election is in Christ who was before the world began while the reprobation is in the evil spirit which has been since the world began. 

We read about a fake George Fox,…

SOUND, sound abroad, you faithful servants of the Lord, witnesses in his name, faithful servants, prophets of the Highest, and angels of the Lord ! Sound ye all abroad in the world, to the awakening and raising of the dead, that they may be awakened and raised up out of the grave to hear the voice that, is living. For the dead have long heard the dead, and the blind have long wandered among the blind, and the deaf amongst the deaf. Therefore sound, sound, ye…

Epistle LXVIII.

Friends,—Know the life and power of God in yourselves, and one in another, and to that power be obedient, to thresh down all deceit within and without you in wisdom, and in that dwell which comprehends the world; and know the rest, which is for the people of God, which he that believeth hath entered into. So know the life that stands in God; and all know the power of God, for that power shall never be…

Marvin Michelo is a young Quaker minister, in the true sense of the word, in Zambia.  You can read a brief description of his need, his call to proclaim the gospel preached by George Fox and early Friends, and make a donation by going to https://gofund.me/d3e6c8df. Thank you for prayerfully considering this opportunity to extend a helping hand to Marvin.

With the publication of these sermons, the "library" of Quaker classics readily available to the reading public gains a completeness it had previously lacked. Oh, we'd had the writings of George Fox, Isaac Penington, James Nayler, Robert Barclay, and William Penn in print; but none of these had fully penetrated the armor of my complacent world-view until I'd read Stephen Crisp's Sermon No. 14, "The Kingdom of God Within," made available by the NFF a generation ago, and been struck by Crisp's…

Our new website, https://nffquaker.com/, is now live. Please take a moment to visit. We have a selection of books and an expanding selection of items for download. There is a small charge for each download. There is also a blog page. Feel free to subscribe to our emails by leaving your email address, (see the bottom of the home page). If you subscribe, you will receive periodic updates regarding the site, you will receive notice of new…

Excerpt from November Boughs: "Strange as it may sound, Shakespeare and George Fox (think of them! compare them!) were born and bred of similar stock, in much the same surroundings and station in life - from the same England - and at a similar period." Mulling over this observation of Whitman's, I think on their lack of formal education  - Shakespeare had "little Latin, less Greek" after all. Both used language in ways that seem to defy formal conventions but yet with considerable power,…

The following excerpt from Lewis Benson's Six Disciple Church Lectures details some of the changes that have come about in the concept of salvation. Today we still use words like forgiveness, sanctification, justification, the cross, etc., but our understanding of those words are not the same as when used by the writers of the New Testament or the preachers of the gospel in the days of the early church. The full text of Lewis Benson's Disciple Church Lectures will be available for download…

   I think my presentation yesterday about the Digital Quaker Collection and the Quaker Bible Index went well. Then I went home and made up a kind of "kit" out of it, that any Friend (with some familiarity with using the DQC and the QBI) is welcome to use to make a similar presentation at their own Meeting. Here it is:

   My approximately 45-minute hybrid presentation at West Richmond Friends Meeting began with an account of how I found the “Browse by Author” utility in Earlham School of…

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My apologies to all who have received a comment added to their profile from one A. Maris. Earlier, I admitted into membership someone representing herself as Christina Florand. Immediately, said Christina's profile became A. Maris and people began getting this comment: "How is everything with you, I picked interest on you after going through your short profile and deemed it necessary to write you immediately. I have something very vital to disclose to you, but I found it difficult to express…

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." If you turn that around, we can say, "If you have come to the Father, you have come by the way, you have embraced the truth, you have life within you--you know and are known by Jesus. These three--way, truth, and life--are the most precious assets a human can posses. Allow me to put these three under one umbrella: Truth with a capital T.

In a 1965 paper published by Lewis Benson (Friends and the…

The voice of Christ frees us from bondage to rules. Focusing on the immediate, direct teaching of our Shepherd simplifies our task, because all we need to do is wait for guidance. With God’s voice comes the power to obey, something a focus on rules, even the right rules, can never provide.

However, reading Scripture, especially the New Testament, can tempt us into focusing on Jesus’s precepts for living. This in turn siphons our…

A Sermon preached at Mooresville (Indiana) Friends Church, Sixth Month 13, 2021, and previously blogged at Brethren Life & Thought (www.brethrenlifeandthought.org/2021/06/27/great-joy-dreadful-danger-a-sermon-by-john-jeremiah-edminster/). Reprinted by permission

“Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people,”…

I just posted this comment on a Facebook page, and it seemed important enough to tell the whole world. Whoever is moved to, share it freely:

The attitude I'd encourage in all my fellow enjoyers of well-educated, able-bodied, tall white male American-with-no-felony-record privilege, is this: everyone you know, everyone you meet is not your "equal," but Jesus Christ, your Lord, clothed in their skin. You have probably sinned against them in more ways than you realize, so you…

In 1995, while seeking understanding regarding a previous spiritual encounter speaking about a sovereign Friend's revival, a spiritual voice said, 

"The Friend's revival is the last revival and perfection of the church for God, the culmination of history as we know it. The next stage is the transformation of our mortal body and we will know as we are known."

I have shared elsewhere the Friend's revival encounter but the 1995 manifestation has not been shared with other…

Hi,

I'm french and 40' yo. I'm member of Nantes local assembly.  I feel that George Fox and the quaker vision is the best way to Christ. The early quakerism is so inspiring. 

God's love is like when a friend or family member tells you they love you, even after you hurt them or make the same mistakes over and over. They hold you, and tell you they love you, again and again; they make you believe it. I have been so blessed to have friends and family like this. People who have reflected what the love of the Creator is like to me.

This love is like having a job, but one…

Last night, in my dream, I was in a familiar neighborhood. As I walked, I came upon a house where a crew of people were busily cleaning. This crew was led by Lewis Benson. I readily joined in the effort of cleaning windows, cleaning eve troughs, sweeping the roof, and cleaning the inside. It was as thorough a cleaning job as I have ever witnessed! Nothing was left untouched.

I have had the clear understanding that I must share what I have seen. Even though I can't say precisely what…