(all drawings by my son Eric, 11) Introduction Swedenborg states in Arcana Coelestia that the revelations about heaven and hell, life after death, the process of regeneration, etc, have been given to lead people into a belief and a true understanding of the Lord’s nature and purpose. He then goes on to say that “in [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Lord’
Aliens
Posted in Aliens, tagged aliens, extraterrestrial life, Jesus, Lord, planets, Swedenborg on May 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Remnants
Posted in Flashes, tagged Abraham, escrow, Hicks, Lord, remains, remnants, Swedenborg on May 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
There are some concepts in the Writings of Swedenborg that are very attractive yet have never really been clear to me. “Remnants” is one of those. Even the word itself is vague. Remnants of what? Remnants where? Remnants that are in pieces? In one of the dissertations for Theological School, just a few years ago, [...]
Exploring a model for ‘church’ – part one
Posted in Flashes, tagged charity, church, faith, Jesus, Lord, New Church, spiritual, Swedenborg, Word on April 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The ‘church’ is inside, not outside. I am repeating this to myself, a hundred times. The church is inside. The church is inside. The church is inside. The church is inside. The church is inside. OK… it’s inside. Using the word in conversation, or on blogs, always morphs it to something outside. Outside means: a [...]
Temple
Posted in Flashes, tagged Arcana Coelestia, Christmas, Lord, messenger, prophecy, Swedenborg, temple on December 3, 2010 | 1 Comment »
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty. (Malachi 3:1) The Lord has come into the world. The Lord is coming into the world. The [...]
Borders
Posted in Flashes, tagged borders, desert, God, Jabez, Kohanov, Lord, prayer, spiritual growth, vision quest, visions on October 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Borders are limitations, or opportunities to extend myself. In the prayer of Jabez God is asked to enlarge my borders: “Jabez made a prayer to the God of Israel, saying, If only you would truly give me a blessing, and make wider the limits of my land.” (1 Chron. 4:10) Borders can of course also [...]
Forms
Posted in Flashes, tagged Bhagavad Gita, God, Jehovah, Jesus, Lord, religion, Swedenborg on October 8, 2010 | 1 Comment »
“When one of my faithful [disciples] desires with all his faith to worship me in a particular form, I take that form.” (Bhagavad Gita) Why does the Lord represent Himself in so many different ways? He is Jehovah the Creator God, He is the Son doing His father’s will, He is a lamb, a shepherd, [...]
Combat
Posted in Flashes, tagged Lord, regeneration, spiritual warfare, SWET on October 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“In combat, mankind is seen in absolutes – at his very best or his very worst. There are no inbetweens. No one has a place to hide.” (Eric L. Haney – Inside Delta Force) That makes me think of SWET, the spiritual warfare training weekends in Pennsylvania. The quote suggests a person is pushed into [...]
Coming alive
Posted in Flashes, tagged Abraham, God, Lord, regeneration, spiritual growth, Swedenborg on October 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I like this quote a lot: Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. (Howard Thurman) Or this one from the same guy: Howard Thurman asked, “What is the greatest enemy that Jesus [...]
Killing babies
Posted in Flashes, tagged Bible, emotion, Lord, Swedenborg, Word on October 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“By the rivers of Babylon a we sat and wept when we remembered Zion… O Daughter of Babylon, happy is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” (Psalm 137) Oh, it’s so good we have Swedenborg’s Apocalypse Explained to soften these words from Psalm 137. Make them innocuous. Because now it [...]
Actions have a peculiar power
Posted in Flashes, tagged God, healing, Jesus Christ, Lord, spiritual growth, Truth on September 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these.” (John 14:12) What things was Jesus talking about? Well, healings, miracles, freeing people from the spirits that possessed them, and the teaching of a truth in such a way [...]
Do we do spirituality? (part two)
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, God, Lord, regeneration, spiritual growth, Swedenborg on September 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Back to part one. So… do we do spirituality in the New Church? Can I answer YES to all of the statements from the definition? Do I refer to the reality of the spiritual world, including heaven and hell? Am I on a path of regeneration, in order to become fully human? Do I live [...]
Do we do spirituality? (part one)
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, heaven, Lord, religion, spirit, spiritual growth, Swedenborg on September 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Is the New Church spiritual? Or is it a religion, or even (just) a church? How do I know if I am in the New Church? Is a New Church person religious, or a church member, or spiritual? Or all of these? Does the modern understanding of spirituality match at all with a New Church [...]
The wake
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, God, growth, Jesus Christ, Lord, spiritual growth on September 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A wake. Not when somebody’s dead. No, when a boat sails across the water. Look at this ultra-interesting definition of a wake: “A wake is the region of recirculating flow immediately behind a moving solid body, caused by the flow of surrounding fluid around the body.” (From Wikipedia, of course) This reads to me like [...]
The answers to all questions
Posted in Flashes, tagged evil, God, Lord, mystery, purification, regeneration on September 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Does God know the answers to all questions? Well of course, isn’t that the definition of God? All-knowing, all-present, all-powerful. The two basic pronouncements of the Lord are: 1) repent; 2) the kingdom of God is at hand. Questions are God’s prodding. They are leading questions. What is it that I don’t want? What is [...]
Liking something
Posted in Flashes, tagged feeling, gratitude, Jesus Christ, Lord, love, The Secret on September 13, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I call these blog postings “Insights into life.” Well, I had another one. Where DO they come from…? I was sitting in the living room just now, listening to the Yes album Magnification from my iPod on a portable speaker system. I realized how much I like this music, how much I like the iPod [...]
No reluctance
Posted in Flashes, tagged attraction, heaven, Jesus Christ, Lord, prayer, religion on September 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s one more insight about prayer. Another angle, another prompt, another encouragement: “Prayer is not forcing God’s reluctance; it is taking hold of God’s willingness.” (Phillip Brooks) I never have to wonder if it is OK to ask for something from the Lord. He begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me [...]
Saying yes quickly
Posted in Flashes, tagged belief, God, heaven, Lord, prayer, spirit on September 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“Is what I say true? Say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from before the beginning of the universe.” (Rumi, Persian poet and mystic, 1207-1273 AD) Is that a good idea, to say yes quickly? Yes, bypass those thoughts that insist on analyzing first. Bypass those spirits in my head that hate [...]
The whole package
Posted in Flashes, tagged God, infinity, life, Lord, Truth on September 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
If you divide infinity you still have infinity. Life is infinite. We receive life. That’s an infinite something. Not because the numbers add up, counting all things that have life. But because life starts out being infinite. Then it gets divided out to all things, and even then it’s still infinite. We got the whole [...]
What are people looking for?
Posted in Flashes, tagged church, faith, healing, Lord, spirit, spiritual growth on September 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
From a New Church outreach document describing goals in evangelization: “We believe that people are looking for us – they just don’t know us by name.” That is an incredible and powerful statement. What’s more, I personally do believe it is true. However, the question of what people are looking for is a little hard [...]
