So that the true church government being in the Spirit, and over the conscience as in the sight of God, the great care must be to keep it within its bounds, that nothing else govern but the Spirit, and that the government be extended only unto that which is to be governed.

First, Care must be had that nothing govern in the church of Christ, but the spirit of Christ: that nothing else teach; nothing else exhort; nothing else admonish and reprove ; nothing else cut off and…

Standing with two feet on the other shore, the old place fades in the cooling mist. The past things, on the other side of the canyon, are shadowings that no longer overcast and enchant Being. Presence shines inward and fills the space of the old place. I am parallel to the old place, seeing the misty dark forms engulf Being in their outward cast and ruling and guiding Being in their various manifestations and professions. When those casted speak, puffs of mist drift from their mouths…

Presence is known in conscious and is awash in conscience. In times of great outward joy and great outward sorrow, in outward concord and discord, in outward comfort and discomfort, ever is Presence, so that none of these rule or have place; they do not shadow the inward Light that in strength and power washes over the outward from within. I am the Light in all things. I am the Light shining from within.

To experience and live the inward Name is to no longer live in vain.

I…

Recently, A.J. Mendoza (At Queer Quaker) and I had a challenging and enlightening discussion on his blog and and here at QuakerQuaker. 

The shining aspect, for me, of the discussion is the experience of Presence amidst discord. It is clear that AJ and I share little…

Walking the streets of Bandon I am alive in the inshining of Presence. The veil of outward forms (the things that mediate) are lifted and I look upon the unveiled face of Christ; no longer through outward layers placed before me by others. The conservative's static tradition and the liberal's shifting  ideological, political, and intellectual, forms no longer blanket Presence. Through spiritual eyes, I gaze full upon the open face. Moment by moment I am renewed in the glory of the eternal…

" ... to call it to more openness and hospitality." Wess Daniels

In a recent letter , Wess Daniels shared his decision to no longer teach a seminary course at George Fox University because GFU conditioned his position on his willingness to conform to the institution's (his employer) rule that he no longer discuss a particular issue publically.

A person can respect Wess' decision remove himself from his teaching association with his employer to freely express his conscience…

If you find the outward ways and practices of traditionalist, conservative, evangelical, and liberal Quaker forms do not sustain, there is another way. It is the direct unmediated life in Presence. In Presence, there is no looking back and no need for a hoped future. In Presence, all is given and all is known; sufficent to sustain eternity within you in all things and circumstances. The way is simple and uncluttered by outward forms. It is a stumbling block to many. No matter what your…

This morning I found myself in Spenser's sonnets and specifically:

“After long stormes and tempests sad assay,

Which hardly I endured heretofore:

in dread of death and daungerous dismay,

with which my silly barke was tossed sore:

I doe at length descry the happy shore,

in which I hope ere long for to arryue:

fayre soyle it seemes from far and fraught with store of all that deare and daynty is alyue.

Most happy he that can at last atchyue

the…

Watchfullness in times of ease and satisfaction. Presence sustained.

In times of freedom from outward constraint and care, a sense of satisfaction in acomplishment can overshadow the sense of Presence so that unity and identity in the Light fades against outward accomplishment; self-consciousness anchors outwardly and conscious becomes informed by outward sense of the ease of things. However, this inward dimming is forestalled when watchfullness combines with intention; just on the…

I am preserving various foods for the winter these past few days in with fellowship inward Light. This Fellowship renews in the activities of the day so that no thing is a burden. The activity itself is fellowship. What peace there is to experience directly fellowship in the Presence itself so that all activities are worship and edifying. As I work, I share and live the witness of Isaac Peningtion:

Take not up a rest in openings of things, though by the true…

This afternoon, while crossing the street at a traffic light, a person, either unmindful of the light or ignoring it, came close to hitting me with his vehicle. He did not stop. There was a time when I would have become angry or, at best, frustrated by this event. Yet today, Presence filled imagination and anger or frustration had no place. In place of those is the intuitively experienced Freedom transcending outward feelings and thoughts that would enchant the Inward Light in the dim of the…

In Presence, I am awake in all doing. The times over the past months in daily interaction with people and amongst wild things now phases into more restive activities in the shop; creating and restoring. The guidance of inward Presence is manifest victory over the idols of abstracted mind. I move through moments while alive in between; in the eternal. No longer bound by the past or future .. no longer predicated, I am the eternal Name. I am spoken and breathed in ever illuminated and renewed…

On this day and in these moments:

May the Life and Presence of Christ enlighten our consciousness and conscious.

May we unite with and in Presence so that our life is in the Life itself and not predicated on outward beliefs, ideologies, theologies, practices, and secular or religious institutions.

May we know the perpetual watch in all things.

May we eat from the bread of Presence in and during our hourly relations.

May…

Eating the bread of Presence ... the daily and hourly living Eucharist.

This past couple weeks, I’ve been focused on giving talks about an endangered species. These talks have been in High School, Middle School, Elementary, and before that camping environments. Some days, I was giving one hour, back to back presentations, for up to six hours straight. The content and circumstance of the talk are not relevant. I wish to share with you a particular experience I had while right in the…

A Testimony Many Quakers Past, Present, and Future will not abide. George Fox in his own words unfiltered by agenda testifying to Presence.

Now, reader, whosoever thou art that readest this following volume, if thy mind be sober, and thy heart right towards God, thou may come to a good understanding of the ground and cause of this great controversy, between the priests and the professorship of this nation, and us who are in scorn called Quakers, for it is not unknown to…

I am the eternal Presence that liberates consciousness from identity with outward ideals and institutions. I am a new and different idenitity. In me there is neither man nor woman, Quaker nor Pentecostal, rich nor poor. I am identity and meaning itself; lived  in immediacy. When the self-conscious ego releases attachment with all outward things ... the inward light shines ... I am.

In gratitude and thankfulness for life in the Life.

Abstract intellectual discussions and theoretical interpretations are the incantations of the reflective consciousness that bewtiches and enchants the natural mind into a lack of faith in the direct immediacy of my presence. This consciousness holds firm to outward institutional, ideological constructs, and practices as a basis for spirituality. It does not know or speak another way. It must rest in outward thoughts, feelings, and desires about me rather than rest in me directly. 

I…

I am freedom from dependency on natural consciousness; needing the outward mirrors of thoughts, emotions, desires, philosophies, theologies, institutions, and objects in the world to be conscious. I am salvation from the fear of the loss of the body. Spellbound to the mirrored consciousness, there is nothing but oblivion in the death of the body. Imagine no body, no brain to mirror thought and emotion, no eyes to see outward objects, no ears to hear outward sounds, no tougue to taste, no…

I am the living liquid that flows in and through each moment in your life. I am both the chalice and the liquid itself. In all things turn your mind to my presence and it will be renewed and transformed by my light candling your conscious and conscience.I am the living Word that the abstracted mind rejects in favor of outward ideas, conceptual frameworks, and insitutions.

I am non-conceptual. I am not an object ... I am life eternal experienced directly. I am in the living present,…