When Christ abides in our hearts, it means we feel toward others as Christ feels toward them.

The plant grows by receiving that which God has provided to sustain its life: sunshine, dew, rain, and life-giving properties from the air and soil. So we grow in Christian experience by using the “means of grace” God has provided: taking deep root in Christ’s love for us; opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit; worship, prayer, singing, service, and fellowship.

It is in the church that we discover the worth of the words, ‘and each member belongs to all the others.’ The church is the body of Christ.

To be a witness to Jesus’ life is more than telling someone else how to think about God and what words to pray. An even more powerful witness is our day-to-day lives, observed by those around us as we follow Jesus through all the circumstances that life brings.

Christmas to Easter! How quickly pass the hours and days before us. But they went more slowly when measured by footsteps to the Babe of Bethlehem’s manger and by the footsteps of the man of sorrows who trod up Calvary’s hill.

The Prospect of so weighty a Work brought me very low; and such were the Conflicts of my Soul, that I had a near Sympathy with the Prophet, in the Time of his Weakness

Whether we wish to admit it or not, the sense of the meeting is a Quaker equivalent of Communion. We absorb and are absorbed by Light. We reach, if only momentarily, that place beyond time where we taste tranquility.

Jesus said, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ And the closer we are drawn to Christ, the closer we are drawn to one another.

Love for others – and from others – means so much in personal experience because we have not only found that it enriches life, but it has the power to bridge the chasm of time and distance. We love, or we perish!

We are free to be reconciled to God and to one another.... This is freedom from judging ourselves and others, walking in the Light of Christ that reaches out to enfold and transform us.

We no longer rely only on our own way of thinking and reasoning – we listen for Jesus’ teaching through the Spirit and trust the One whose ways are far above our own. We no longer live in the confines of our own feelings – we love with reckless abandon through the grace that has been given to us.

This is a soul-searching question, and it ought to be put to all of us. Are we, like Elijah, running from responsibility – seeking a cave of false refuge?

He will cleanse the temple of the heart, and come in and sup with us, and we with Him.

Friends have some precious tools and insights to help create the conditions for peace, stop the destruction of God’s natural environment, and enable the growth of a just society – to help bring the kingdom of God to earth.

Life began in a garden, and gardens continue to feed, nurture, and provide peace and beauty. Living here in western Oregon, spring is everywhere as nearly every yard, field, and pasture are beautiful shades of green decorated with yellow daffodils, forsythia, multicolored tulips, blooming fruit trees, and the color and scents of many others.

Recently, a friend and I were struggling with the why and why not of seemingly unanswered prayers of many years. What good purposes might God have in continuing to leave some people in illness and pain while healing others?

The beauty of evergreen forests, waterfalls, green meadows, and being close to a wild elk herd was incredibly therapeutic and worshipful – a wow time of wonder that thrilled my soul.

That’s what Jesus wanted for himself; not a ritual, just intentional awareness every time we gather in his name or take a drink or eat a piece of bread, that he is there

American Christians don’t do so well at creating memorials. We try to leave our children an inheritance, but often forget to leave a heritage – stories of how God impacted our families.

When you focus on worshiping God rightly, in what ways do your interpersonal relationships become healthier? This passage instructs us to teach our tradition’s stories and ethical behavior to our children. In what ways are you participating in that work or supporting those who are doing that work?