There is much Quakers should be doing, but they don’t. They live in this world, but they say they don’t (in the world but not of the world). They love to speaks to one another, but what have they said to people in places not especially acceptable; people who dress in different clothing, or pick up cans for money, or spend their day at the park boozing or getting high. It is easier to go to known places to proselytize; but that really isn’t the problem. The problem is what is being proselytized. Is it the Gospel or how to save the earth? Is it God’s voice being heard or man’s voice that is spoken?
I’m sure you have read this parable, The Great Feast, but read it again, asking the Holy Spirit to open to you the meaning. George Fox said not to read Scripture from man but from the Holy Spirit. And that is always what I have done, and have been given amazing openings.
When one of the men sitting at the table heard this, he said to Jesus, “How happy are those who will sit down at the feast in the Kingdom of God!”
Jesus said to him, “There was once a man who was giving a great feast to which he invited many people. When it was time for the feast, he sent his servant to tell his guests, ‘Come, everything is ready!’ But they all began, one after another, to make excuses. The first one told the servant, ‘I have bought a field and must to and look at it; please accept my apologies.’ Another one said, ‘I have bought five pairs of oxen and am on my way to try them out; please accept my apologies.’ And another one said, ‘I have just gotten married, and for that reason I cannot come.’ The servant went back and told all this to his master. The master was furious and said to his servant, ‘Hurry out to the streets and alleys of the town, and bring back the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ Soon the servant said, ‘Your order has been carried out, sir, but there is room for more.’ So the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the country roads and lanes and make people come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you all that none of those men who were invited will taste my dinner!’ “
I wanted to commune with the LORD this day of worship. When the time was open, I blurted inwardly, there is only one God but three that bear record. Inwardly, my eyes saw not a face but Jesus, who stood aside from the Two. He did not speak, but I sought to recall what I had learned of him from reading scripture. I said to him, Sometimes you are angry; sometimes you are loving and caring. Sometimes you are discussed with the disciples because they can’t understand what you say.
But I know you from the Old Testament, too. I have heard you tell the people to do all they are told; I have heard your anger when they have not done what you had said to them. I have cried from your hurt when Israel and Judah loved their idols instead of you. I understood your anger. I know your strong arm when you liberated your people from Egypt. I saw your hand as the people praise you. I saw your hand across my inward eyes. Amazing. But no one will believe me, except you. I hear of your power. I hear of your love. I hear of the mountain of the LORD and I go there.
Come hear the voice of God. Listen to the Sovereign LORD as he speaks to Ezekiel Chapter 34, because he is speaking to you, too. But first pray the Holy Spirit is with you, to guide you, to teach you, to open to you the meaning of scripture you will read.
If at first you hear nothing that excites you to amazement and joy, don’t be troubled or worried.
Scripture is like a sea of deep meaning. The more you read the Bible the deeper is the LORD’S giving. Make reading the Bible from beginning to end a lifelong passion. There is no other book that beings with God and ends with God. There is no other book that knows man from his beginning to his end. All humanity is God’s great story.
All day I’ve been thinking about what I learned from reading George Fox’s sermon. Truthfully, it was Jesus opening to me what Fox and two editors put forth. The Kingdom is preached; the gospel is preached. In a moment I was reading Matthew 4:17, “From that time on Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ” Suddenly I knew that that kingdom was Jesus and that that hand was his and that it is he that is near.
Jesus is with us and over us when we belong to him. He is the mountain of the LORD who teaches us the things of God, Is 2:3. There is no end to what his teachings give to those who follow him. Don’t seek the truth from me; find it for yourself, for the LORD God is near you always.
Yes, the vision of the Road heading out far, far away. In the beginning of it was the reminder to pray for and love those who persecute you; to bless them that curse you; and do good to them that hate you.
The LORD put it to me that we are to pray for them and love them because they can’t see the Road and never will see it. All they can see is what they want. We have the LORD, but they do not, and that is sad.
I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger, walking through the winsome land. There’s no sickness, toil, or danger in that bright land to which I will go. I’m going there to see Jesus; going there no more to roam. I’m only going home to Jordan. I’m just going over home.
My pleasure is to abide by his will. So, I follow the Sabbath, though I am uncertain how it’s meant to be practiced. Even so, my LORD loves me and will teach me his ways when I am capable of understanding.
My joy is to know his presence in me. His silent presence bathes me in love for a time or two. He knows exactly my thoughts; though I am much better in following his will now, his sometime rebukes at once sting me, yet leave me thanking him for raising me up. He is the Father who loves his children.
Come all you lovers of God. Let our love for him shine like the ancient stars when we first knew they were his voice. Let us sing to him how we came to love him. Let us rejoice in his commands as we live to be righteous. Let us say to all, Come join us today. Come know the LORD; he’s not far off. Come and he will teach you more than you can imagine. He will open doors evolution never dreamed of.
All friends every-where, that are alive to God thro’ Jesus Christ, and are living members of Christ the holy head; be still, and stand still in the Lord’s camp of holiness and righteousness, and therein see the salvation of God, and your eternal life, rest, and peace. In it you may feel and see the Lord’s power is over all; and how the Lord is at work in his power, ruling the nations with his rod of iron, and breaking (in the nations) the old leaky vessels and cisterns to pieces, like the potter’s vessels, that will not hold his living water of life, who are erred from the Spirit. But blessed be the Lord God of heaven and earth, who by his eternal arm and power hath settled all his people upon the living, holy rock and foundation, that stands sure; whom he hath drawn by his Spirit to his Son, and gathered into the name of Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth; who hath all power in heaven and earth given to him. Whose name is above every name under the whole heaven, and all his living members know there is no salvation given by any other name under the whole heaven, but by the name of Jesus; and he, their salvation and their living head, is felt in the midst of them in his light, life, spirit, grace, and truth, and his word of patience, wisdom, and power: who is his people’s prophet, that God hath raised up, in his New Testament and covenant, to open to them; and their living shepherd, that hath purchased, redeemed, and bought them with his precious blood. Christ, the living One, feeds his living sheep in his living pastures of life, and his living sheep their living shepherd’s voice, with his living bread and water, and follow him; and will not follow any of the world’s hirelings, nor thieves, nor robbers, nor climbers, that are without Christ, the door. Likewise Christ’s living children know Christ, the bishop of their souls, to oversee them with his heavenly and spiritual eye, that they may be preserved in his fold of life, and go no more forth. Also they know Christ, their holy priest, that by the grace of God tasted death for them, and for every man, and is a propitiation for their sins; and not for theirs only, but for the sins of the whole world: and by the one offering up of himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Such an high-priest becomes Christ’s sheep in his new covenant and testament, who is holy, harmless, and separate from sinners, and is made higher than the heavens: who is not made a priest after the order of Aaron with his tythes, offering, etc. but he makes an end of all those things, having abolished them, and is made an high-priest after the power of an endless life, who ever liveth to make intercession for his people; and is able to save to the uttermost, all that come to God through him. He is the one holy mediator between God and man, who sanctifies his people, his church, that he is head of, and presents them to God without spot, or wrinkle, or blemish, or any such thing; and makes them an holy, royal priesthood, to offer up spiritual, holy sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, who is King of all kings, and Lord of all lords in the earth. So an holy, heavenly King, who hath all power in heaven and earth given to him; and rules in all the hearts of his sheep and lambs by his holy, divine precious faith, that is held in all the pure consciences of his people: which holy faith, Christ, the holy one, is the author and finisher of. By this holy faith all the just live, in which holy, divine precious faith all the just and holy ones have unity; and by it quench all the fiery darts of Satan; and have access to the pure God, in which they please him. Christ, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, in his New Testament and new covenant is the minister of the sanctuary and true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man. Therefore all the lambs and sheep of Christ must feel this holy minister in their temple and sanctuary, who ministers spiritual, holy, and heavenly things to them in their sanctuary and tabernacle. For all the tabernacles and sanctuaries, that are built or pitched by man, men make ministers for them; and such ministers are of men, and by men, with their worldly sanctuaries and tabernacles of men’s pitching, by men’s hands.
And now, dear friends and brethren every-where that are of the flock of Christ: Christ our passover is sanctified for us. Therefore let us all keep this heavenly feast of our passover in his new testament and covenant, not with old leaven, neither of malice nor wickedness: but let all that be purged out, with the sour old leavened bread, that all may become a new lump: and so keep this heavenly feast of Christ our heavenly Passover, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Amen.
Difficult as this reading of George Fox may be at first, keep to it. Just as reading the King James Bible takes more than one reading, so to does reading Fox; but the time and struggle for both is more precious than a man’s love for a woman.
George Fox is so close to Jesus that I believe he is one of Christ’s apostles. His writings always keep to Jesus, so you know you are not reading his own thought’s or man’s worldly thinking. As with the Holy Bible, the depth of Fox’s writings can open to you what you had not seen previously. It’s all the Holy Spirit in him.
The seed (Jesus) of God feel all in yourselves, which is the heir (Jesus) of the power of God, that ye may sit down in the possession of the same; inheriting the power, and the promise, and the gospel. In which power of God is the fellowship, being heirs (we) of the same, and members of that fellowship which never hath an end, which brings life and immortality to light [2 Tim 1:10]; which power of God was before that was which darkeneth (Satan) life and immortality from people. So walk in the truth [e.g. 3 Jn 1:3f], then ye walk with the God of all truth [e.g. Psa 31:5]; and walk in the righteousness, and then ye walk with the righteous God in all peace. Walk in holiness, and then ye walk in that in which ye see God; which they that do not (walk with God), see him not [Heb 12:14]. Therefore walk in the power of God, which goes over the power of darkness (Satan), which (God) was before it (Satan) was; which power of God is the gospel [Rom 1:16], in which is the mystery of the fellowship [Eph 3:9] a mystery (I say) to all the fellowships that are out of the power of God. Therefore the seed (Jesus) of God know, which is the top-stone (Jesus), that it may be over all laid in you, which bruises the serpent’s head [Gen 3:15], which is the fulfilling of the prophets and prophecies; which seed (Jesus) brings to the beginning, where are the pastures of life [Ezek 34:14]…
G. F.
As I was giving meaning to some of Fox’s words, I felt a presence of joy in the fellowship, the fellowship of God’s people every place and time. And then the Holy Spirit opened to me the mystery of the Fellowship. Our love of Jesus and his love for us makes us different from the world. Any where in the world in fellowship we are one in Jesus.
The words we speak to one another are not given to nonbelievers. When we talk about the Bible, we say Scripture. We know Biblical people, places, times. We know scripture books, chapters, and verses. But more than anything, we know our LORD God. We know we can talk to him and tell our friends in fellowship about it, because we are in union together in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Jesus Christ was our first love. We were true believers then, not proud, but filled with joy and excitement of who the Lord Jesus was and the mystery of his words.
In the days of our childhood, we loved Jesus, though the excitement of Santa Claus played the center part of that mystery. Jesus was distant and beautiful like the stars. He was a baby and we knew little of him. Even so, we knew there was something precious in the swaddling clothes.
Why do mysteries die out when youths notice one another? Outward things take place of the inward. Santa Claus failed us, so we decided everything would fail us. We stopped believing in truth and the life of Jesus. Yet, that mystery didn’t die.
