1stMo. 2017 Blog Posts (5)

Fox repeats this call over and over: "Keep your testimony...for your worship in the spirit and in the truth, that Christ Jesus hath set up" (Works, 8:34); "keep up your testimony in the light, power, and spirit of God, for the worship that Christ set up above sixteen hundred years since, in spirit and in truth,...which is a worship that cannot be shaken." (8:84) This is a testimony that the Quakers had before the peace testimony was formulated in 1660, and I think in Fox's mind it was the…

You can tell someone something

or they can tell you.

And what is told is true and good.

But You only, LORD, can give the substance to true and good.

You breathe its life into us

that we might see and know;

know in a way only you can impart.

The world is full of wisdom 

that grinds night to night;

its lite of little stature;

its mouth of little heed.

But to tell the truth of it to another, 

to plead…

Be a Blessing!  Be Kind to One Another!

These exhortations from one person to another were common in the holiday season in December 2016 and have continued on into a hard winter in 2017.  I have heard them from folks across the religious and political spectrum.  It is an unusually cold and wet winter in many parts of North America and political change has many uncertain or even fearful.

These sentiments seem right at first take.  I want people to do these things also.  But on…

8th day, 1st month, 2017

Autobiography of George Fox, location 1303

"As we travelled we came near a very great hill, called Pendle Hill, and I was moved of the Lord to go up to the top of it; which I did with difficulty, it was so very steep and high. When I was come to the top, I saw the sea bordering upon Lancashire. From the top of this hill the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered."

And gather them he did. And those people gathered are…

This poem (parable, what have you) came to me last summer, and I felt drawn to share it here.

The Heretic

I built my house in the lonely mountains,

I built a place where I might rest.

For of this world I was so weary

That all I asked was one request.

I said good neighbors, can't you leave me be?

I said the peace of the Lord is here,

I said your church is not for me,

They said I blasphemed, it was clear.

They said old…