new church life: november/december 2015
so much knowledge been so instantly available.
We spend our lives in pursuit of knowledge, which helps us to be successful
in life. We store up trivia and love to beat a Jeopardy! contestant with an answer.
It is good and valued to be smart.
But all of the things we learn – and all of the things we forget – do not pass
on with us into the spiritual world. There knowledge gives way to wisdom. We
are told that angels love to study the Word to eternity, forever increasing in
understanding. But we can be sure they are not reading the literal facts of kings
and prophets, the Children of Israel and the disciples. They are focusing on the
internal sense – on the wisdom of the Word and of heaven.
Facts and knowledge are essential in this life, but it is worth pausing amid
the crush of information swirling around us to reflect that there is a higher
calling for our minds. And in this season of New Year’s resolutions – so often
focused on exercise and health – let us resolve to care for our spirit as well:
“So teach us to number our days, that we may incline our hearts unto
wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)
(BMH)
aim at heaven
C. S. Lewis was one of the great champions of Christianity – all the more so
because he had turned to atheism amid the horrors of World War One, unable
to see a loving God within the carnage. But then he rediscovered his faith by
studying the Bible with an open mind.
In one of his many essays on what religious faith can do for us, he wrote:
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the
present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles
themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great
men who built up the Middle Ages, the English evangelicals who abolished
the slave trade, all left their mark on earth precisely because their minds were
occupied with heaven.
“It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that
they have become so ineffective in this one. Aim at heaven and you will get
earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither.”
(BMH)
where the magic is
Here is another letter to the editor that I have saved and treasured, written by
someone out there in the “Old Church” who seems very much a part of the
New Church:
“Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. As long as our culture keeps killing
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