Look to the Light is a series of short messages shared weekly with subscribers to the Friends Journal email newsletter, discussing matters of Quaker faith and spirituality. You can receive new messages in your inbox, along with information about other Friends Journal articles and features, by filling out the adjacent form.
For I Did Not Receive It from a Human Source (January 20): “As I read about the spiritual revelations that changed George Fox’s life, I could see how his experiences echoed Paul’s.”
In Your Light We See Light (January 13): “For those who believe in God’s promise, no other guarantee is needed.”
…And They Received the Holy Spirit (January 6): “We want what the earliest Christians—the ones who hadn’t even thought yet to call themselves Christians—experienced in giving themselves over completely to God.”
2024
He Came As a Witness to Testify to the Light (December 30): “Do we really gain anything, you might object, by comparing ourselves to the likes of James Nayler and Mary Dyer and finding ourselves wanting?”
A People Who Are Zealous for Good Deeds (December 23): “Friends live our lives in such a way as to remind the rest of the world of the life available to them.”
There Is Still a Vision for the Appointed Time (December 16): “That sounds a lot like continuing revelation, and that puts us squarely in Quaker territory.”
Let Your Gentleness Be Known to Everyone (December 9): “The beloved community must extend beyond the meetinghouse if we want it to truly prosper.”
Guide Our Feet into the Way of Peace (December 2): “I know I don’t always live up to the peace testimony, though I wish I could.”
The Word Is Very Near to You (November 25): “Revelation may not impose God’s will upon us so much as it draws out the potential already within us.”
An Everlasting Dominion That Shall Not Pass Away (November 18): “God calls us to pray for our oppressors, not to obey them, nor to collaborate with them.”
The Lord Is My Chosen Portion and My Cup (November 11): “I believe that the next four years will put the testimony of every Quaker to the test—not once or twice, but on an ongoing basis.”
Do Not Put Your Trust in Princes (November 4): “From the days of George Fox, Quakers have believed in the immanence of the Kingdom of God.”
You Are Not Far from the Kingdom of God (October 28): “The Torah calls on people to recognize good and actively choose it, to become full participants in the covenant with God.”
Take Heart; Get Up, He Is Calling You (October 21): “The one who can speak to our condition hears our cries for help, sometimes before we even realize we’re crying out, and calls to us in this very moment.”
Are You Able to Drink the Cup That I Drink? (October 14): “Jesus wouldn’t cut James and John any deals, and Quakers don’t have any short cuts, either.”
The Word of God Is Living and Active (October 7): “Do we believe in continued revelation as intensely as they did in the time of Friends like George Fox and James Nayler?”
As for Me, I Walk in My Integrity (September 30): “The Quaker establishment deliberately distanced themselves from James Nayler, assuring Puritan authorities they would never step as far out of line as he had.”
Would That All the Lord’s People Were Prophets (September 23): “God doesn’t need to come to help us—if we could but see clearly, we could detect the presence of Spirit accompanying us right now.”
WIth Joy and Gladness They Are Led Along (September 16): “To fully honor Margaret Fell, we should look beyond the mere existence of her ministry and delve wholeheartedly into its substance.”
The Lord God Has Given Me a Trained Tongue (September 9): “The earliest Friends had a model for ministry, in the voices of the prophets recorded in the Hebrew Bible. Their example calls to us as well.”
Be Doers of the Word (September 2): “We can’t just say we believe in simplicity and peace and all that. We have to actively commit ourselves to identifying what it means to live a simple, peaceful life, then live that way, every day.”
The Eye Is the Lamp of the Body (August 26): “What happens when you don’t believe that Spirit will see you through the hard times?”
This Teaching Is Difficult; Who Can Accept It? (August 19): “Some of us may find ‘the work of God’ much harder than others—especially when we’re called upon to apply it consistently, across the board, to everyone.”
I Sought the Lord, and He Answered Me (August 12): “I know many Quakers whose passion for peace and social action comes from the same holy enthusiasm that animated Mary as she set out on the path God had chosen for her.”
Let Us (Not) Set Up Three Tents (August 5): “Most Quakers today understand that a meetinghouse has no spiritual significance without Friends to give the meeting life.”
Filled with All the Fullness of God (July 25): “Is the seed which God sows in the heart inherently Christian?”
My Soul Thirsts for God (July 18): “Together, we reinforce one another’s faith—because believing not only that God exists, but that we might directly experience God in our lifetimes, takes work.”
Let Me Hear What God the Lord Will Speak (July 11): “The prospect of continued revelation, to use the technical term for it, plays a central role in Quaker faith and practice.”
They Shall Know That There Has Been a Prophet Among Them (July 4): “George Fox didn’t sound smart or clever to those he preached to, but he did sound convincing—and divinely inspired.”