#FridayFeeling Count Your Blessings

Count your blessings.

Blessing Cards from our Harvest Feast 2019

Since heaven comes from the human race, then, and since heaven is living with the Lord forever, it follows that this was the Lord’s goal for creation. . . . The Lord did not create the universe for his own sake but for the sake of people he would be with in heaven. By its very nature, spiritual love wants to share what it has with others, and to the extent that it can do so, it is totally present, experiencing its peace and bliss. Spiritual love gets this quality from the Lord’s divine love, which is like this in infinite measure. It then follows that divine love (and therefore divine providence) has the goal of a heaven made up of people who have become angels and are becoming angels, people with whom it can share all the bliss and joy of love and wisdom, giving them these blessings from the Lord’s own presence within them. He cannot help doing this, because his image and likeness is in us from creation. (Divine Providence §27:2)

#ThursdayTheology: Saving the Earth

What is our responsibility to the Earth?  What if you spent your career working on solutions to save coral reefs and suddenly as you’re ready to retire, you providentially find the answer you’re looking for.  A coral stuck to the bottom of a tank breaks off and shows it’s ability to regenerate much faster than previously thought!  Do you retire, or do you go on being useful, helping to see this discovery’s implementation through? Emanuel Swedenborg said, ““Whatever love brings forth it calls useful”  (Divine Love and Wisdom #336)  This scientist decided to continue to show his love for saving coral reefs by postponing his retirement, and helping coral reefs bring forth their use: joy and beauty for snorkelers, buffering shorelines from storms and erosion, and a home for creatures of the seas.

#MindfulMonday; Joy from the Rain

…the Lord will not allow anything to happen if it cannot eventually be turned to good (Secrets of Heaven #6574). Explore more about Divine Providence as we wonder about the good to come from the recent natural disasters.

 

Come Glean Our Garden Today!

It’s time to take down the garden for the summer. Come and glean what you would like from what remains.

Also, join us for church today, as Guest Minister Rev. Julie Conaron discusses Divine Providence. 10:30 Hospitality. 11:00 Worship. 12:00 Gleaning

Consider it Divine Providence that you read this email this morning, and come to church in Glendale! 845 Congress Avenue, Glendale, OH 45246

5 Things you didn’t know about Divine Providence

Via Swedenborg.com:

…he (Swedenborg) explains that the Lord’s goal is the formation of a heavenly community, bringing everyone—every human being on earth—into heaven. Divine providence is the way he works to do that.  Swedenborg systematically describes the way that divine providence works in our lives by condensing it into five laws:

1. We should act in freedom and in accordance with reason

2. We should reject any tendencies toward evil that we notice coming into our mind

3. We cannot be compelled to think or believe in a certain way

4. We are taught and led by the Lord, although it may appear that we are acting independently

5. We will not feel the workings of divine providence in our lives

Read explanations for these laws: here.

Why does God allow evil?

“It is not because of divine providence that wars happen, because wars are inseparable from murder, plunder, violence, cruelty, and other appalling evils that are diametrically opposed to Christian caring. However, it is absolutely necessary that they be permitted, because since the earliest people, the times meant by Adam and his wife … our life’s love has become basically a love of controlling others, ultimately everyone, and of gaining possession of the world’s wealth, ultimately all of it. These two loves cannot be kept in chains as long as it is the intent of divine providence that we act freely and rationally, as already explained in §71-97 [71-99]. There is also the fact that if it were not for this permission, the Lord could not lead us out of our evil, so we could not be reformed and saved. That is, unless evils were allowed to surface, we would not see them and therefore would not admit to them; so we could not be induced to resist them. That is why evils cannot be suppressed by some exercise of divine providence.”—Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence §251-3 (George Dole, trans.)