All Blog Posts (330)

During the course of a recent gathering and subsequent conservation, the following comments arose that illustrate the confusion about becoming a Christian.

C:

Do we hear Jesus differently or more clearly the more we intentionally come before Him whether that be for the purpose of corporate worship or whether we are practicing individual spiritual disciplines such as silence? I asked the question for the purpose of clarifying your comments about disciples being…

Conscience and Light

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Our Friend, Rodney Pharris has posted a very serviceable exposition on Fox and Early Quaker's approach to the taking of outward bread and wine on QuakerQuaker. A useful and well-argued blog that deserves a link from here...

Fox on Bread & Wine

In this age of toleration there are two questions that are not tolerated. The first question is, "Can you be a Quaker without being a Christian?" One's first impulse, on hearing such a question, is to look about at various groups claiming the name of Christian and to wonder, "Does he think I have to be like that?" This brings us to the realm of the second question. "Can you be a Christian without being a Quaker?"

It is time to define our terms. Christian is…

For Yours Is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever.*

Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the son of man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his…

Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From Evil.

Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God.' For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. (James 1:13-14)

All through this prayer, Jesus has been painting a picture of his Father, a picture that is at complete variance with the "normal" conceptions of deity.

Our Father,…

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…

Part 1. Our Father who art in Heaven.

Thus begins the familiar words that most of Christendom has known since childhood. But Jesus told the Jews, John 8:31-59, "You are of your father the devil," when they would have laid claim to being children of God and descendents of Abraham. So, you see, there are two families.

How then can we claim "Our Father…" with any assurance of truth" The Jews, addressed by Jesus, were the ones who had believed him when he spoke in…

This post is about the Transfiguration passages (see Mathew 17:1-12, Mark 9:2-13 and Luke 9:29-36).  I believe that these are some of the most important New Testament passages connecting Jesus to the fulfillment of the prophesy in Deut 18.  The accounts vary slightly but the central thrust is clear.  Moses and Elijah appear and by their coming validate the expectations of the Old Testament connected with both.  When Peter wants to preserve the occasion, God intervenes.  God declares that…

Hello Friends,

At the end of post 3, I said that in post 4 I would look at some of the passages about the Prophet-like-Moses pointed out by other writers.  I was thinking particularly of Doug Gwyn’s Apocalypse of the Word, pp. 105 and 108.  I am going to focus this time on the references in the book of John and throw in some Doug did not list.

The first is in John chapter 1.  In verses 19-28, the writer summarizes a conversation in which representatives of the Jewish…

A GENERAL EPISTLE TO THE SEED OF GOD By Francis Howgill

Dear Friends everywhere who have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, and (who have been) called with an holy calling to the great salvation of God which is made manifest in this day of his power. Keep your first love, and let not the threats of men, neither the frowns of the world affright you from that which you have prized more than all the world. Now the sun is up, and a…

ON BEING A QUAKER MINISTER

All Friends that know the light, which is the life in Christ, be faithful in the truth, and spread it abroad; answering the light of Christ in everyone (George Fox, Epistle 337).

There are many forms of ministry and each person in a Quaker meeting will have his or her own form of service.  My subject here is the prophetic ministry of the spoken word.  Anyone may be given something to say during the…

Hello Friends,

At the end of the second blog post, I wrote that I would begin in this third to look more directly at Moses to see what the expectation of the Prophet-like-Moses might mean.  To get there, I am going to return to Stephen’s discourse in Act 7.  In the last post the focus was on verse 37.  I encourage those of you still reading to consider the whole discourse but especially the central portion related to Moses in verses 17 – 44.  One thing to note here is that Moses gets…