He Came as a Thief in the Night

I've been reading the <<Meditations>> of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, since I love wisdom literature. And it is very wholesome for Christians. He insists on the importance of being good even in one's thoughts to the best of one's ability. And he has been a way I believe that God has gotten through to me how to apply the Lord's commandment to turn the other cheek to a situation. In the New Church we do not teach that this commandment to turn the other cheek involves literally not to defend ourselves as individuals or groups or nations; for this would result in ruin! Certainly parry that blow and if necessary neutralize that target in defense of self and loved ones and what is greater even than these.  We are not to return evil for evil. We can return defense to aggression, but we are not to hate and otherwise commit sin against the neighbor. This brings me to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius again. He insists throughout the <<Meditations>> that we are ours...

So, I've been profiting from this long break from intensive lay preaching to go deeper into the Latin Testament. The overall structure of the Third Testament is interwoven with numerous encounters with angels and devils and spirits of various kinds to mirror the God Man's gradual  glorification and our gradual regeneration. While it is certainly true that our own encounters with angels, devils and spirits of various kinds are not so visually  dramatic as those recounted by Swedenborg; yet are these occurring in the form of the fluctuations in our feelings and our thoughts. We cannot feel or think without its being in relation to other people in a community, whether visible or not. All feeling and thought involves you in relationships.  And the Latin Word contains an elegant series of expressions of these feelings, thoughts, and their interactions in a best fit taxonomy. Since we have both good and evil desires, and true and false thoughts, the Latin Word, like the Hebrew ...

I learned something of what this fun episode means last night while listening to the Word at work:  2 Kings 6:18-23 - King James Version (KJV) <18> And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. <19> And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. <20> And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. <21> And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? <22> And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldst thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with th...

The closer you get to anything good, true, or beautiful in this world, the more counterfeits swarm around it in order instinctively to occlude it; & these counterfeits all pander to some yearning to commit evil or wallow in falsehood which is more attractive to enormous numbers.  It is like that proto-scifi and cosmic horror novel The Night Land, where all of surviving humanity resides in two something like geothermally-powered pyramids; and monsters abound in dense profusion around them to destroy them, like the dragon waiting to devour the child in the book of Revelation. The 2nd Coming inspired an explosion of counterfeits which in their variety pander to the various ways the masses of humanity do not want unadulterated good and truth. Rather, they want mediated good and truth which leaves more of their sin and error alone. This is for instance why Kardec's spiritualism has so many millions of followers, which contains a few correct teachings from the New Church about charit...

The Word contains many instances of fire and water in close association because purification processes of temptation/bitterness/affliction involve cleaning the will & the understanding with internal tests. Tests designed to make you a decent and loving person in God's sight. Let everyone who would be truly loving pass through fire and water; being purified as to their will & behavior, understanding & utterance as I, microcosm, also pass through fire and water. It is fire and water which cleanse the inside of the plate and the cup for His bread & wine Let everyone pass through fire and water who would end up in a wealthy place. How often hath it afflicted him? From a child. From a spiritual child. From the fire and water processes which follow our spiritual birth as a believer in the Church. Pass through the fire what is for the fire, and through the water what is for the  water. Answer the strident thoughtforms of recurrent sins and errors within us with truths from...

The living joy like music that loved me and everyone made it clear to me that it was God, Jesus, the God of the Bible. It is recognizably one intricately, oceanically intelligent and loving being perfectly identical with the risen Jesus Christ. It is the "joy unspeakable and full of glory" of which Peter speaks. And the recognizable characteristic of that glory is its inseparability from divine truth and from being taught by divine truth. It is this glory which one found in the Writings and knew on sight to be authentic concerning the Presence. After learning that Jesus, God, the God of the Bible was real, I read the Bible fully for the first time; and I found that verse of Peter's about "joy unspeakable and full of glory" and knew it to be authentic material about the presence of the Lord. It is the same voice which I recognize. His sheep hear His voice. There is a particular humiliation in the presence of the Lord that is uplifting rather than disheartening; t...