Friends, seek the kingdom of God first, and the righteousness thereof, and those things, ‘what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, and wherewith ye shall be clothed,’ will be added [Mat 6:33], and will follow. Therefore take no thought, what ye shall eat, nor what ye shall drink, nor wherewithal ye shall be clothed [Mat 6:31]; for the Gentiles seek after these things [Mat 6:32], who seek not after the kingdom of God and the righteousness of it. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness of it. And consider the lilies of the field [Mat 6:28], and who clothes the earth with grass [Mat 6:30], and who feeds the young ravens, when they cry [Psa 147:9]. And the kingdom of heaven being sought after, and the righteousness of it, he that is here lives out of the creatures up to the Creator, which differs him from the people of the world, who take thought, (which thoughts they live in,) ‘what they shall eat, what they shall drink, and what they shall put on.’ And they that be there are out of the wisdom of God, which the saints are in, that have sought and found the kingdom of God and his righteousness; which (wisdom) brings them to use the creatures to his glory; whether they eat, or whether they drink, all is done to the praise and glory of God [1 Cor 10:31]. Such as abide there, can do nothing against the truth [2 Cor 13:8], which truth hath made them free indeed [John 8:36]; who into the kingdom of the dear son of God are come [Col 1:13], which is without end, who over the kingdoms of the world reigneth.
G. F.
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George Fox (1624 - 1691)
Was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. This was a group the Lord started through the ministry of George Fox. God called him apart from all other forms of Christendom in his day because of the lack of Biblical obedience and holiness.The emphasis in George Fox's ministry was firstly prophetic. He called out the people of God to show them that they had the Holy Spirit of God and could be taught of Him and not to solely rely on the teachings of ecclesiastical leaders. Secondly, he spoke directly to many ministers in his day to show them they were hirelings and did not have a true shepherds heart for the people of God rather they were seeking after financial gain.
Founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers). George Fox was born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England, the son of Puritan parents. Little is known of his early life, apart from what he wrote in his journal: "In my very young years, I had a gravity and stayedness of mind and spirit not usual in young children. Insomuch that, when I saw old men behave lightly and wantonly toward each other, I had a dislike thereof raise in my heart, and I said within myself, `If ever I come to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so wanton.'"
At the age of 19, he gained deep, personal assurance of his salvation and began to travel as an itinerant preacher, seeking a return to the simple practices of the New Testament. He abhorred technical theology, and preached a faith borne of experience, freshly fed and guided by the immediate presence of the Holy Spirit.
Fox was persecuted almost daily, yet his power of endurance was phenomenal. He was beaten with dogwhips, knocked down with fists and stones, brutally struck with pikestaves, hard beset by mobs, incarcerated eight times in the pestilential jails, prisons, castles and dungeons--yet he went straightforward with his mission as though he had discovered some fresh courage which made him impervious to man's inhumanity.
He undertook as far as possible to let the new life in Christ take its own free course of development in his ministry. He shunned rigid forms and static systems, and for that reason he refused to head a new sect or to start a new denomination, or to begin a new church. He would not build an organization of any kind. His followers at first called themselves "Children of the Light," and later adopted the name "The Society (or Fellowship) of Friends."
Fox preached and traveled for 40 years throughout England, Scotland, Holland, and America. His life demonstrated the truth of his famous saying, "One man raised by God's power to stand and live in the same spirit the apostle and prophets were in, can shake the country for ten miles around."