Reaching That One Person

While fervently wanting to spread the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, Frank acknowledges that only the Lord prepares people to embrace the church. Nevertheless, he resolves to play his part as passionately as he is able. -Editor

After years of patient evangelizing, I came to the sad realization that not one friend or family member recognized the value of Emanuel Swedenborg's Writings. I became convinced that if someone happens to receive some truth that we have presented, they were ready to receive it, and it was the angels who made them ready:

That it is the Lord who teaches, thus who collects and gathers, and not themselves (for it was the Lord, by means of the angels, that is, by means of Divine truths from the Word, who prepared for reception those whom the disciples converted to the church). (Apocalypse Explained 911:16)

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Meditate | Being

“In Jehovah there is only what is” (Secrets of Heaven 630).

Note 353 (in Secrets of Heaven 630): “The Latin for this last clause reads apud Jehovam non sit nisi quam Esse, literally, ‘with Jehovah, there is nothing but being’…[Swedenborg] distinguishes between esse, ‘being’ in its pure sense, and existere, ‘being’ as it is manifested. See True Christianity 21: ‘The underlying divine reality is intrinsic reality [esse], and is also an intrinsic capacity to become manifest [existere]’ (translation by Jonathan S. Rose). In Divine Love and Wisdom 14, he writes, ‘Wherever there is reality [esse], there is manifestation [existere]: the one does not occur without the other’ (translation by George F. Dole).”

There is nothing but being; there is only what is. The Lord is intrinsic reality and the intrinsic capacity to become manifest. This is all you need. This is living in the present moment and not adding to it or taking anything away from it. The Lord has it all. This passage brings me peace and takes away worry and anxiety. It gives me trust that the Lord is taking care of everything, even what I create in my life. I can just be present to what is and take it for what it is—nothing more, nothing less. 

Genuine Love

Ronald describes eternal love as unwavering and full of splendor, but if we are preoccupied with time bound concerns, it may not appear to us as it truly is. He directs us to live from a higher perspective, one where the pleasure of acting from love is the only reward we seek. -Editor

Genuine love is not something that is always easy to see, in fact when we look out at the world we can never really be sure that what we are seeing is genuine love. Genuine love takes many forms and often lives deep beneath the surface of most of our relationships. While at times it may be quite apparent as when we see a beautiful smile or selfless act of kindness, often it is buried far within a persons actions. Love sometimes is expressed in ways that do not look loving at all. Love can lie behind the stern look of a parent or a gentle expression of disapproval. Love can also be at the heart of a refusal to show untimely compassion as when a judge puts a criminal in jail for the protection of the community. Love, because it has what is eternal in its heart, will not always be easy to see, and at times love will not be appreciated as much as it should be.

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Meditate | Eventide

“When spiritual people (who are now the ‘sixth day’) begin to turn heavenly (a process first alluded to here), they have reached the eve of the Sabbath. In the Jewish religion, this was represented by the commencement of the Sabbath observance in the evening” (Secrets of Heaven 86).

I am glad to be reminded that evening happens even when we reach the sixth day. We have to go through the evening. It is so easy for me to get caught up in the idea that, “if I’m becoming more heavenly, then shouldn’t things be getting easier?” But no, cycles are essential and there is an evening before the morning of even the sixth day. This is the divine order.

Your thoughts?

Daubed with Bitumen and Pitch: The clinging of the Old Will, the Old Church, and Hell

Isaac writes of the disturbances brought on by evil spirits who attach themselves to his unregenerate will. Within this chaos, he finds that the Lord keeps him in freedom to rebuke those spirits with the truth and act from love. This is only possible because the Lord is protecting the good within him, keeping it hidden from abuse on all sides. -Editor.

When the mother of Moses could no longer hide him, she did a remarkable and risky thing. She sent him to float on the slow-moving side-waters of the Nile among the tall grass in a tar-covered ark! In Exodus Chapter 2 we read:

And she took an ark of rush, and daubed it with bitumen and with pitch. And she put the child therein. And she laid him in the sedge at the bank of the river Exodus 2:4

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Moses, even as a baby, represents the Word. The Lord has amazing ways to keep His Word safe in us.

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Meditate | Expansion of the Center

 “In every subsequent church, the inmost part, closest to the Lord, has also been the Sabbath. The same holds true for all regenerate people when they develop a heavenly nature…

‘If you turn your foot back from the Sabbath by not doing your own desire on my holy day; if you refer to those things that belong to the Sabbath as pleasures honoring the holiness of Jehovah, and you honor [the Sabbath] by not going your own ways and not gaining your own desire or speaking a word [of your own]; then you will be a pleasure to Jehovah, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth and will feed you the inheritance of Jacob’ (Isaiah 58: 13, 14).

Heavenly people act not on their own desire but on the Lord’s pleasure, which is his desire. So they are blessed with inner peace and happiness (their being ‘lifted up on the heights of the earth’) and at the same time with outer calm and enjoyment (their being ‘fed with Jacob’s inheritance’)” (Secrets of Heaven 85).

The first part of this passage is reason for meditation—to connect to that inmost part and experience the Sabbath there.

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