Lazarus does not merely represent a man restored to earthly life, but a state within us that has grown spiritually inert. The tomb is the mind closed off by habit, distraction, or despair. When the Lord calls, “Come out,” He is summoning our will to awaken. His voice is divine truth entering the darkness of our lower nature. Resurrection begins the moment we respond. The stone is moved, the light enters, and what seemed finished becomes the beginning of a new life of love and use.
The bronze serpent represents the ultimate or external level of life—the sensory mind. While our own sensory nature can become a site of selfish impulses, the Lord did not remove the serpents (our inherited tendencies). Instead, He commanded a bronze serpent be "lifted up."
This act symbolises the glorification of the sensory level in the Lord. The bronze snake represents the Lord’s own sensory level—the Divine Natural—which is the only "heavenly" state capable of perfect watchfulness and provision. Healing occurs when we "look up," shifting our focus from our own distorted sensory perceptions to the Lord’s Divine Human. By looking to Him, our lower nature is brought into submission and order. What once threatened life is transformed into a means of seeing the Lord’s saving power, as we trust in His "watchfulness" to guard us against the evils our own senses cannot navigate.
The Samaritan Woman and Living Water (John 4:5-42)
In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus speaks of “living water”—not as a reward for moral perfection, but as a gift for a thirsty soul. In the symbolic language of the Bible, this living water represents divine truth flowing from divine love, offered to renew the inner life. The woman’s many “husbands” symbolise the many ways we try—and fail—to find lasting fulfilment in external things. Jesus meets her not with condemnation, but with understanding, awakening her to a deeper source of life within. True worship, He teaches, is not about place or ritual, but about receiving truth that transforms the heart.
These words remind us that the Lord is never distant or withdrawn from us. He is present with every person, not intermittently, but constantly—quietly sustaining our freedom while gently inviting our hearts to open. The “insistent pressure” he describes is not force or coercion. It is love at work.
This divine pressure is the steady influence of truth and goodness pressing at the edges of our awareness—especially in the places we would rather keep closed. The Lord seeks entry not into our self-assured strengths, but into our uncertainties, our fears, and our hidden griefs. Like light slipping through heavy curtains, He shines where we least expect it, illuminating not to condemn, but to heal.
To receive the Lord is simply to allow that light to remain—to let truth clarify, love soften, and goodness take root. Even in our darkest moments, the Lord has not ceased knocking. His light has never stopped trying to reach us.
Are you seeking your own pleasure or are you seeking your own fulfilment? There is a difference.
No one who is wholly involved in pleasures of the body or the flesh feels any pleasure except in eminence or profit or in physical and sensory gratification. These stifle and smother deeper pleasures of heaven so completely that people do not even believe such pleasures exist. (Heaven and Hell 398)
Remembering the Holocaust isn’t only about one religion, one race, or one people—it’s about how we treat all people. You may look at WWII and the Holocaust and think, “I would have been on the right side of history. I would have opposed the Nazis.”
But the sobering truth is that for the vast majority of us, had we lived in that time and place, we likely would have just gone along. We would have kept our heads down. We might even have participated in the discrimination against, the ostracisation of, or the murder of our neighbours—simply because they were different, they were easy to dismiss, they were easy to hate… and they were Jewish.
In the teachings of the New Church, we are called to this very kind of introspection—to examine the true leanings of our hearts (Divine Providence #278): “We need to look especially at which evils we see as permissible in our spirit and do not regard as sins, for eventually we do them.”
Memory is not passive. It is spiritual work.
The words of Micah 6:8 still speak to us today: “He has shown you what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.
When someone struggles against their evils, the Lord gives a quiet inner peace as a result. (DP 41)
“Once a spiritual crisis is over we at first fluctuate between truth and falsity, but then the truth shines forth we feel peaceful lighthearted.” (NJHD 197)
Since temptations serve to strengthen the truths of faith and to implant forms of the good of charity, and also to subdue cravings for evil, it follows that temptations are the means by which the spiritual or internal man gains dominion over the natural or external man, that is, the good of charity and faith gains dominion over the evil of self-love and love of the world. Once this has been accomplished the person becomes enlightened and enjoys a perception of what truth is and what good is, and also of what evil and falsity are. This brings him intelligence and wisdom, which increase daily after that. (Arcana Coelestia 8967)
Hatred is not just a feeling — it's a chasm. When we hold contempt in our hearts, even while acting “religious,” we separate ourselves from the Lord.
In Luke 18:9–14, Jesus tells of a Pharisee who prays with pride and judgment — and a tax collector who prays with humility and sorrow. Only one walks away justified.
Swedenborg writes:👉 “Hatred for other people is that intervening, hellish chasm.”— Secrets of Heaven #904
As someone who grew up listening to Carl Sagan describe the vastness of the universe, I think the rarity of life in the universe paired well with this verse from Jeremiah. Each life is precious and unique...a MIRACLE.
Spiritual Shorts
Lazarus does not merely represent a man restored to earthly life, but a state within us that has grown spiritually inert. The tomb is the mind closed off by habit, distraction, or despair. When the Lord calls, “Come out,” He is summoning our will to awaken. His voice is divine truth entering the darkness of our lower nature. Resurrection begins the moment we respond. The stone is moved, the light enters, and what seemed finished becomes the beginning of a new life of love and use.
4 days ago | [YT] | 9
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Spiritual Shorts
Moses and the Bronze Serpent (Numbers 21:4-9)
The bronze serpent represents the ultimate or external level of life—the sensory mind. While our own sensory nature can become a site of selfish impulses, the Lord did not remove the serpents (our inherited tendencies). Instead, He commanded a bronze serpent be "lifted up."
This act symbolises the glorification of the sensory level in the Lord. The bronze snake represents the Lord’s own sensory level—the Divine Natural—which is the only "heavenly" state capable of perfect watchfulness and provision. Healing occurs when we "look up," shifting our focus from our own distorted sensory perceptions to the Lord’s Divine Human. By looking to Him, our lower nature is brought into submission and order. What once threatened life is transformed into a means of seeing the Lord’s saving power, as we trust in His "watchfulness" to guard us against the evils our own senses cannot navigate.
Read more: Secrets of Heaven 197 (newchristianbiblestudy.org/exposition/translation/…)
1 week ago | [YT] | 10
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Spiritual Shorts
The Samaritan Woman and Living Water (John 4:5-42)
In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus speaks of “living water”—not as a reward for moral perfection, but as a gift for a thirsty soul. In the symbolic language of the Bible, this living water represents divine truth flowing from divine love, offered to renew the inner life. The woman’s many “husbands” symbolise the many ways we try—and fail—to find lasting fulfilment in external things. Jesus meets her not with condemnation, but with understanding, awakening her to a deeper source of life within. True worship, He teaches, is not about place or ritual, but about receiving truth that transforms the heart.
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 13
View 1 reply
Spiritual Shorts
“Insistent Pressure”
These words remind us that the Lord is never distant or withdrawn from us. He is present with every person, not intermittently, but constantly—quietly sustaining our freedom while gently inviting our hearts to open. The “insistent pressure” he describes is not force or coercion. It is love at work.
This divine pressure is the steady influence of truth and goodness pressing at the edges of our awareness—especially in the places we would rather keep closed. The Lord seeks entry not into our self-assured strengths, but into our uncertainties, our fears, and our hidden griefs. Like light slipping through heavy curtains, He shines where we least expect it, illuminating not to condemn, but to heal.
To receive the Lord is simply to allow that light to remain—to let truth clarify, love soften, and goodness take root. Even in our darkest moments, the Lord has not ceased knocking. His light has never stopped trying to reach us.
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 13
View 0 replies
Spiritual Shorts
Are you seeking your own pleasure or are you seeking your own fulfilment? There is a difference.
No one who is wholly involved in pleasures of the body or the flesh feels any pleasure except in eminence or profit or in physical and sensory gratification. These stifle and smother deeper pleasures of heaven so completely that people do not even believe such pleasures exist. (Heaven and Hell 398)
4 weeks ago | [YT] | 12
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Spiritual Shorts
Mind Your Intentions.
4 weeks ago | [YT] | 11
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Spiritual Shorts
A reflection for Holocaust Remembrance Day:
Remembering the Holocaust isn’t only about one religion, one race, or one people—it’s about how we treat all people. You may look at WWII and the Holocaust and think, “I would have been on the right side of history. I would have opposed the Nazis.”
But the sobering truth is that for the vast majority of us, had we lived in that time and place, we likely would have just gone along. We would have kept our heads down. We might even have participated in the discrimination against, the ostracisation of, or the murder of our neighbours—simply because they were different, they were easy to dismiss, they were easy to hate… and they were Jewish.
In the teachings of the New Church, we are called to this very kind of introspection—to examine the true leanings of our hearts (Divine Providence #278):
“We need to look especially at which evils we see as permissible in our spirit and do not regard as sins, for eventually we do them.”
Memory is not passive. It is spiritual work.
The words of Micah 6:8 still speak to us today:
“He has shown you what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
4 weeks ago | [YT] | 6
View 2 replies
Spiritual Shorts
On the usefulness of our struggles.
A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.
When someone struggles against their evils, the Lord gives a quiet inner peace as a result. (DP 41)
“Once a spiritual crisis is over we at first fluctuate between truth and falsity, but then the truth shines forth we feel peaceful lighthearted.” (NJHD 197)
Since temptations serve to strengthen the truths of faith and to implant forms of the good of charity, and also to subdue cravings for evil, it follows that temptations are the means by which the spiritual or internal man gains dominion over the natural or external man, that is, the good of charity and faith gains dominion over the evil of self-love and love of the world. Once this has been accomplished the person becomes enlightened and enjoys a perception of what truth is and what good is, and also of what evil and falsity are. This brings him intelligence and wisdom, which increase daily after that. (Arcana Coelestia 8967)
4 weeks ago | [YT] | 6
View 0 replies
Spiritual Shorts
Hatred is not just a feeling — it's a chasm.
When we hold contempt in our hearts, even while acting “religious,” we separate ourselves from the Lord.
In Luke 18:9–14, Jesus tells of a Pharisee who prays with pride and judgment — and a tax collector who prays with humility and sorrow.
Only one walks away justified.
Swedenborg writes:👉 “Hatred for other people is that intervening, hellish chasm.”— Secrets of Heaven #904
1 month ago | [YT] | 7
View 1 reply
Spiritual Shorts
As someone who grew up listening to Carl Sagan describe the vastness of the universe, I think the rarity of life in the universe paired well with this verse from Jeremiah. Each life is precious and unique...a MIRACLE.
1 month ago | [YT] | 9
View 3 replies
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