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[theinwardlight]

[theinwardlight]

Seek first the Kingdom of God. Everything else must stand aside—personal, family or national interest—yea, life itself. No half-measures will ever succeed in efforts for that Kingdom which aims at turning the world upside down.

Max Reich, "The Abolition of War" in The Friend, 1915

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O! make room for Christ in your hearts, or else He is never like to dwell with you; He loves to dwell with the poor and humble and contrite spirit, He abhors the proud, He will empty your souls, that He may fill them

William Dewsbury, 1621–88, early Quaker

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Quote from a general audience with Francis, called Pope

Icon of Christ the King of Glory/the Humiliation

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The likeness we bear to Jesus is more essential than our notions of him.

Lucretia Mott, 1860

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I should rejoice not in what I have but in what I lack, in lack of success and in need, for then I have the cross and poverty of Jesus, the most precious possession the earth can give.

Charles de Foucauld, Reflection of December 1902

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Gentleness is given to those who have learned that God will not have his kingdom triumph through the violence of the world, for such a triumph came through the meekness of a cross.

Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir

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We would like a church that again asserts that God, not nations, rules the world, that the boundaries of God's kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main political task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price.

Stanley Hauerwas & William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens

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Quakerism – the refusal to limit in any way the active, living Power of God. To worship, order the church, minister, care for each other, etc., as directed by the risen Christ himself, without hierarchy or merely human authority.

Photo: Great Friends (Quaker) Meeting House, Newport, Rhode Island.

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From Christopher Stern, "Quaker Worship: We Cannot Do It on Our Own"

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Sarah Benson, "Hearing the Voice of Christ", 1983

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Jesus is Lord, and everything else is bullshit.

Stanley Hauerwas

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See in the crucifixion not merely a martyr’s death, not merely a passing gleam of God’s love, certainly not a sacrifice to God carrying a legal significance, but in truth the flashing into light of an eternal fact, the nature of God’s relation to sin, of the pain we inflict on his heart by our own wrongdoing. Here is the wonderful dynamic of the cross. God calls you to him. He shows you his suffering, he shows you the hatefulness of the sin that caused it [...]. In Jesus, in his life and his death upon the cross, we are shown the nature of God and the possibilities that are within our reach. We are shown the world as the Father sees it, are called to live in harmony with his will and purpose [...]. [I]n the active, free and holy love of God, ever seeking entrance, ever powerful if we but yield the gateway of our heart, is the substance of the Gospel.

John Wilhelm Rowntree, 1904

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Look not out, but within… Remember it is a still voice that speaks to us in this day, and that it is not to be heard in the noises and hurries of the mind; but it is distinctly understood in a retired frame. Jesus loved and chose solitudes, often going to mountains, to gardens, and sea-sides to avoid crowds and hurries; to show his disciples it was good to be solitary, and sit loose to the world.

William Penn, 1694

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Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

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The Crucifixion, Stefano da Verona, ca. 1400