For God is a God at hand

I've been having a lot of trouble blogging lately. Things are well in my world, but the blog's been pretty quiet. The Young Adult Friends' gathering last weekend was powerful. At some point I'd like to write more about our experience there...soon, maybe.

Well, like I said, I'm feeling quiet. But I wanted to lift up some extracts from George Fox's letter to Lady Claypole, Cromwell's daughter. Phrases from it have been rising up in my mind all this week. They seem perhaps relevant to the weekend past...as well as to life in general.

I am separating the closest approximations to paragraphs that I can make out, for easier reading. Sometimes I find the thick blocks of text from George a little hard to dive into.



"Keep in the fear of the Lord God; that is the Word of the Lord unto thee. For all these things happen to thee for thy good, and for the good of those concerned for thee, to make you know yourselves and your own weakness, that ye may know the Lord's strength and power, and may trust in Him. Let the time past be sufficient to every one, who in anything hath been lifted up in transgression out of the power of the Lord; for He can bring down and abase the mighty, and lay them in the dust of the earth. Therefore, all keep low in His fear, that thereby ye may receive the secrets of God and His wisdom, may know the shadow of the Almighty, and sit under it in all tempests, storms, and heats.

For God is a God at hand, and the Most High rules in the children of men. This is the word of the Lord God unto you all; what the Light doth make manifest and discover, as temptations, distractions, confusions, do not look at these temptations, confusions, corruptions, but at the Light which discovers them and makes them manifest; and with the same Light you may feel over them, to receive power to stand against them. The same Light which lets you see sin and transgression, will let you see the covenant of God, which blots out your sin and transgression, which gives victory and dominion over it, and brings into covenant with God.

For looking down at sin, corruption, and distraction, ye are swallowed up in it; but looking at the Light, which discovers them, ye will see over them. That will give victory, and ye will find grace and strength; there is the first step to peace...

...So in the name and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty strengthen thee.
"G.F."