"There is One that can speak to thy condition"

[Publisher]

Jeanannemarie asked concerning what it is about my faith that “speaks to my condition.” So I offer this brief “testimony” of what I have found in Christ Jesus through the Society of Friends.

I was raised in an evangelical church(Church of the Nazarene). My family was nominal “Christians” and I became very invloved with the church. I took the gospel seriously as a teen. As my 18th year approached I became concerned of the response a Christian has to war as I was approaching registering for the draft. After much soul searching I happened upon a book called “Testament of Devotion” by Thomas Kelly. It spoke of the Light Within and our continual return to it as the source of our faith and strength. I began looking into the religious tradition Thomas Kelly spoke of and found the Society of Friends. At 19 I became “convinced” of the Truth as understood by Friends…that God is known through experience and through immediacy.

I read of George Fox in 17th century England and how he as a young man searched for meaning and faith…he visited all the “priests and ministers” in the land looking for answers…he wrote…“when all my hopes…in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, then!..Oh then, I heard a voice which said, “There is One, even Christ Jesus that can speak to thy condition.” and when I did hear it, my heart did leap for joy.”

I began my Journey. I married at 21 and began studying for the “recorded ministry” in the Friends Church…as a young minister among Evangelical Friends I became dissatisfied with “programmed” meetings…my wife and I had a child…he was Called back to the Presence soon after he was born…and a couple years later my wife was Called back to the Presence when she had an auto accident one evening coming home from church.

It was then I truly was able to echo the words of George Fox "when all my hopes…in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, then!..Oh then, I heard a voice which said, “There is One, even Christ Jesus that can speak to thy condition…and my heart did leap for joy.” I became involved in the Friend’s Meeting which was un-programmed…that Living Silence healed me in a way I have never forgotten.

I found that rites and ceremonies can’t speak to our spiritual condition…only the Light Within…I have no problem that others find solace in rites and outward forms…but they left me dead and empty…there is One who has filled me…“my cup runneth over.”

I became involved in many activities many Friends get involved with. Social justice, peace activities to name a couple.

Life is Sacramental…each cup of water and each piece of bread offered in His Name is where the Body and Blood of Christ are manifest…each time we share a meal we share a time where God can be truly present among us. We can turn to the Risen One…the True Light…Light Withing…That of God in every man…our True Guide and Teacher to find meaning in His words…God’s Word is not contained in a book nor is His People found in a brick or wood building…His Word is lived out in escatological meaning and Truth in our daily lives…“God With Us”…NOW, He is truly Present with us…His Body incarnating His Love in our world…being His Presence…His Hands…His Feet…His Voice in this world…“then Oh THEN!!! Did my heart leap for joy.”

I am a mystic I guess, but I have found nothing better than what I have…“there is One, even Christ Jesus that can speak to thy condition.”

A Christian isn’t one who belongs to an organization…a Christian is one who belongs to Christ joined with Him in the One Baptism that truly changes a person…the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the baptism that regenerates and cleanses from sin…if we walk in the Light as He is in the Light he cleanses us from unrighteousness…

Love one another…the fruit of the Spirit is love , joy, patience, kindess…against which is no Law…though I speak with the tongues of men and angels…and understand all mysteries…and have all knowledge…without love it profits me nothing…love is kind…it does not seek it’s own way…is not proud…is longsuffering…love never fails…these are the things that the Society of Friends has taught me…I might get all the “doctrine and dogma” right…but if I get the “love one another” wrong…all the rest is “tinkling brass and clanging bells”.

I have found Something that words cannot describe in the Meeting for Worship.

 

[notself]

Publisher,

Thank you for speaking of your faith. I have the highest respect for the Society of Friends.

If I had not found Buddhism, I would have become a Quaker.

Metta,
notself

 

[Publisher]

Publisher,

Thank you for speaking of your faith. I have the highest respect for the Society of Friends.

If I had not found Buddhism, I would have become a Quaker.

Metta,
notself

If I wasn’t a Quaker, I’d consider being a Buddhist with Christian leanings. One of my favorite authors is Thich Nhat Hanh, I throughly enjoyed “Living Buddha Living Christ” and “Going Home”. I purchased a used copy of “Anger” but haven’t yet read it.

 

[emeraldcoast]

“I might get all the “doctrine and dogma” right…but if I get the “love one another” wrong…all the rest is “tinkling brass and clanging bells”.”

Isn’t that the truth!

God Bless!

 

[Evan]

It sounds very much like the time of Eucharistic Adoration would speak to you in the Catholic Church. For it is there that you would enter into the presence of God on Earth with a quiet that can let your heart hear the voice of God.

I see each protestant community as emphasizing some part of the truth that God revealed in his Church.

The quiet of the Friends
The spirit of the Pentacostals
The biblical evidence of the Fundamentalists

So each community, allows Catholics, once again to see the full possiblity of some aspect of the “Organization” given us by the Incarnate Son of God.

May the blessings you find in the Friends community bring you ever close to the one who calls us all.

 

[Contarini]

Publisher,

Thank you for that moving testimony. My “Holiness” background has a lot of affinities with the Friends tradition–my grandmother was a great admirer of Fox and the early Quakers. My experience has been the opposite of yours. I’ve found “rites and ceremonies” to be liberating because they don’t require me to manipulate my emotions–they allow me simply to “go through the motions” (which people always speak of negatively–why?) and let God be present to me any way He wants to.

The irony is that in some ways I think the liturgical traditions and the Friends tradition have a lot of things in common over against the standard evangelical/Protestant approach to worship, which involves trying to do things to people’s souls by direct manipulation (whether through teaching/preaching or through emotional music or whatever).

So we may not be as far apart as it appears!

In Christ,

Edwin

 

[ralphinal]

Publisher,

Absolutely beautiful. I have great respect for Friends, as they tend to “put their money where their mouth is” more often than the rest of us. Even though I am solidly Catholic, I feel like I gain insight from your posts. Insight into my own soul.

 

[flameburns623]

It might be noted that almost the only religious upbringing that Thomas Merton had growing up was among Quakers. His “Seven Storey Mountain” is a classic work of religious conversion treasured by Protestants and Catholics alike. I find it interesting that after his conversion to Roman Catholicism he became a Trappist and spent much of his religious life in just the kind of silence the Quakers and many Buddhists practice.