7thMo. 2011 Blog Posts (8)

Forgive Us Our Trespasses As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us

Where is the line, beyond which one may not go? Where you say, "Now really! This is unforgivable." What do you hold most dear? It is against our treasure that we will not endure trespass. How then can we pray to be forgiven in the same manner we forgive those who trespass against us, who deprive us of our most treasured possession? That possession may be money, land, family, heirlooms, social status, or…

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the joint gathering of the New Foundation Fellowship and the Wider Conservative Friends Fellowship in Oregon.  We met at Clackamas Park Friends Church 7-9, Seventh Month (July).  The gathering included Conservative, Evangelical and Liberal Friends with a number who have no formal association with Quakers.  This was a fruitful mix as good questions were asked of one another and helped all of us to sharpen and clarify our understanding and language.  Folks…

Quaker Worship and ‘Centering down’

I was recently asked a question about the term ‘to center down’ in the context of Quaker worship, and whether, as a phrase, it had been used by early Friends. A few checks confirmed my suspicions that it was not used by them, and I have not found any references to ‘centering down’ in George Fox’s writings (with which I am the most familiar). My questioner did come back to me with some examples of the use of the phrase used by…

Dear Ones,

I would like to know how one can go about teaching others about Our Lord and starting a small meeting for worship?

Any advice dear friends?

Love in the Light of Christ,

Brad

Explanation of How I Have Handled the Text

In my previous post, I put up two passages for comparison. One was from Deuteronomy 18; the other from John 6. In this post, I would like to explain how I have handled the John text.

If you read from most, if not all, translations, you will notice that I have rendered those portions that say "believe in" or "believe on" as "believe." Verse 27 ends with the phrase, "…for on him God the Father has set his seal." This seal…

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread.

This phrase of the Lord's Prayer makes me think of manna and the exodus from Egypt. But there is more to come on that in a subsequent post. In this post I will be putting up two different sections of scripture so that you can compare and draw similarities between them.

The first scripture I am referring to comes from Deuteronomy 18. For background you should read Deut. chapter 5.

When you come into the land…

Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

When you listen to or read the writing of Evangelical or Fundamental Christianity, their expressed purpose is to escape hell, to spend eternity in heaven. There is, however, a noteworthy lack of any mention of "spending eternity" one place or the other in the prayer Jesus taught His disciples.

Instead, He begins with a declaration of lineage and proceeds with a proclamation of purpose. Your kingdom…