new church life: jan uary / february 201 4
Develop your will, He says, by learning to love all people, even those who
have hurt you and mistreated you. Make My will your own. Sharpen your
intellect, He says, through studying My Word. Make My truth your own. Act
as if you are doing all of this yourself, through your own power, He says, but
believe that the power is from Me. Make My power your own.
Trust in Me, He says, and do good, and I will put away all that is ignoble
and unlovely in your heart. Instead, I will give you new desires, new thoughts,
new dreams. I will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4) I will make
you a new person. Have I not said, ‘‘I make all things new”? (Revelation 21.5)
And then, looking directly into our eyes and into our heart, He says: “I will
operate on your soul, and you can cooperate with Me by striving to keep My
commandments. And then you will know what it means to be a human being.*
And I guarantee that in the end it will be very good.”
So this week as we continue with the Journey Program our focus will be
upon becoming more fully human, going forward with love in our hearts, and
with a sure faith that the Lord is with us, leading us and blessing us, whispering:
“Build your character upon the truths of My Word. Hear these sayings of Mine
and do them. And then, when the rain descends, and the floods rise, and the
winds of adversity assail you, you will stand firm, and in that day – the sixth
day of your new creation – you will know with blessed assurance what it means
to be truly human.” Amen
Lessons: Genesis 1:24-31, Matthew 5:43-48, Arcana Coelestia 50:2, 3
* I am indebted to Thomas A. King, author of Allegories of Genesis (1922), for
this insight. King writes: “Here is the man of the world, absorbed in mere worldly
things. He is in the human shape; he has attained to some degree of intellectual,
moral and civil life; and God says to him: ‘I will operate upon your soul; you
co-operate by keeping my commandments, and thus let us, I operating and
you co-operating, make man – the spiritual man in you, who as he comes into
power, will have dominion over all lower things, subduing and bringing them
into order.’” Available at www.biblemeanings.info/Parables/King/Allegories_of_
Genesis.htm
The Rev. Dr. Ray Silverman is Assistant Professor of Religion,
English and Moral Philosophy in Bryn Athyn College. He was
ordained in 1984 and into the second degree in 1985. He and his
wife, Star (Bruner), live in Meadowbrook, Pennsylvania.
[email protected]
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