I am using this blog right now as a personal diary. Just letting you know. This evening I had an intense negative experience. Negative in the sense of the feelings it engendered in me and afterward left me with. Huge waves of anger and disappointment, rolling along with their own momentum. I recognized there was [...]
Posts Tagged ‘providence’
Negative feelings
Posted in Flashes, tagged Abraham, fairies, freedom, Hicks, Jonah, providence, Swedenborg on November 16, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Let us work together
Posted in Flashes, tagged church growth, evangelization, freedom, liberation, providence on June 20, 2011 | 2 Comments »
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us work together.” (anonymous aboriginal woman) I have written a post about this quote before. It’s come back, something is visible now that wasn’t before. It’s the working [...]
The mirror of the Divine
Posted in Flashes, tagged Abraham, Buddha, feelings, freedom, Hicks, law of attraction, providence, reality, Swedenborg, thought on November 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The Divine is far away. Out of my reach. Somewhere in heaven or in creation. Far way. Right? No. Words create this impression. By thinking about the Lord as the man Jesus Christ, I can get into the belief that he is far away. He lived 2000 years ago, after all. That’s far away. By [...]
Diamonds and dust
Posted in Flashes, tagged correspondence, life, providence, reality, understanding on August 31, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
From the hot sheets (MIB) of current news: “Emeralds are part of North Carolina’s mineral claim to fame, though other places in the U.S. also are rich in gems. Maine mines have yielded aquamarine and amethyst, Montana bears sapphires, Idaho is known for star garnets, and Arkansas has diamonds.” (http://www.king5.com/news/Huge-emerald-pulled-from-North-Carolina-farm-101834798.html) In the Writings of Swedenborg [...]
Humanity
Posted in The Sacred, tagged belief, church, God, holiness, Lord, providence, religion on August 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
(A section from my dissertation on “The Sacred”) When we say we are human we mean that we have a will and an understanding. This is more essential than talking about the design of the human body. The body is called “an obedient servant” (DP 124.2), whereas “the will and the understanding … make up [...]
New perceptions
Posted in Flashes, tagged James Joyce, perception, providence on August 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
We are allowed to see, sometimes, the hand of God working in retrospect. At the start of the 20th century a new level of awareness came about. It was like a dawn breaking in a time that most people probably thought was already filled with daylight. It happened, and therefore it can and will happen [...]
Our power
Posted in Flashes, tagged creation, presence, providence, reality on July 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“The Lord’s Divine Providence extends to the smallest details of a person’s life. For there is only a single source of life, the Lord, from whom we exist, live and act.” (NJHD 268) I don’t see this on a day to day basis. Even looking back at years past I cannot see this. Yes this [...]
Pain
Posted in Sermon writing and preaching, tagged grief, Jesus Christ, Lord, love, providence, struggle, suffering on June 5, 2010 | 8 Comments »
(A sermon by Stephen Muires, June 2010) Lamentations 3:25-40; Luke 13:1-5; DP 234 (take-off) There is no such thing as chance. (pause) No evil happens by chance. Not a single evil thing is permitted to happen to a person on earth that does not lead to good (SE 1088). OK. That’s the teaching. We find [...]
Heaven
Posted in Flashes, tagged attraction, heaven, Lord, providence on June 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“The law of attraction grants our every command.” (The Secret) Objection! That is so selfish. It’s not all about us and what we want. This is a misuse of religion. Where is God in all of this? What about all the suffering in the world? “The Lord’s Divine Providence Has as Its Goal a Heaven [...]
What is, is
Posted in Flashes, tagged God, living right, Lord, love, providence, reality on May 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
When something happens I react to it from emotion and with judgments. Something bad happens, someone dies, an accident, a loss. But the bad is my reaction. Something good happens, a celebration, a graduation, a new beginning. But the good is also my reaction. So does that mean that good and evil are “subjective”? No, [...]
The finger of God
Posted in Flashes, tagged attraction, Lord, mystery, providence, The Secret on May 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s an image that captures the imagination. The finger of God that writes our fate. Do you remember this poem? “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.” (Omar [...]
Animal name: Strong Wolf
Posted in Flashes, tagged faith, mystery, providence, understanding on May 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In the Spiritual Warfare men’s group that I take part in, we were guided tonight through a process to find a new power animal name. My old name was Circling Deer. My new name is: Strong Wolf. Looking up some of the meanings of this animal totem, I find: “The Wolf is a creature with [...]
Instruction and Worship for Children
Posted in Sermon writing and preaching, tagged church, education, Lord, providence, religion on May 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The main passage from the Writings that governs my thinking about religious instruction and worship aimed at children is: The universal affirmative. It is only by a universal affirmative principle that man is imbued with truths from the Lord – such as that the Word is the Word, the Lord is the Lord, Providence is [...]
Evangelization
Posted in Flashes, tagged church growth, evangelization, freedom, liberation, providence on May 6, 2010 | 1 Comment »
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us work together.” (anonymous aboriginal woman) I feel it is insulting to go up to someone and start telling them about my religious beliefs. No one had better [...]
No plan
Posted in Flashes, tagged God, providence, suffering, The Secret on May 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
God has no plan, but He does have absolute certainty. Do you agree? What about God’s “plan” for the children of Israel to come to the Holy Land? That was a plan, wasn’t it? What about the Lord’s “plan” to be crucified and to then be resurrected? That was a plan, too. Well, for every [...]
Helplessness
Posted in Flashes, tagged Lord, providence, struggle on February 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Here’s an interesting concept from child psychology: learned helplessness. Children who ascribe their success or failure to factors they cannot do anything about develop learned helplessness. If they fail a test in school, it was the teacher who asked the wrong questions. If they don’t catch a ball in sports, the other kid threw it [...]
I ask for me
Posted in Flashes, tagged prayer, providence on December 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We turn to the Lord in prayer. Is it wrong to ask for things for ourselves? Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and [...]
Web of Providence
Posted in Flashes, tagged divine, providence, web on November 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“The conjunction of temporal and eternal things is the Divine Providence of the Lord.” (DP 214) I noticed again today a news story in which something bad happened to an innocent person. The news makes it look as if unreasonable events can suddenly occur to a random passerby who never expects it nor has any [...]
