The Bible

 

Genesis 1:15

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15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

Commentary

 

Morning

  
Two gorgeous red poppies -- one popped, and one just about to.

Morning comes with the rising of the sun, and the sun -- which gives life to the earth with its warmth and light -- represents the Lord in His divinity, bringing spiritual life through love and wisdom. Thus, the morning represents the coming of the Lord into our lives, and all the things that flow from it: the love, joy and enlightenment He brings; the peace and tranquility of passing the spiritual obscurity of night; the anticipation of the learning and usefulness of a new day; and the awareness of The Lord's renewed presence.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 179; Apocalypse Revealed 151; Arcana Coelestia 2333 [1-3], 2540, 2780, 5740, 8211, 8812, 10134, 10200, 10413; True Christian Religion 764 [1-2])

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #654

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654. This is in keeping with what is well known in the Churches today about faith coming through hearing. But faith is in no sense mere intellectual awareness of the things that constitute faith, that is, of things that demand belief. That amounts to no more than knowledge. Faith is acknowledgement, yet acknowledgement cannot possibly exist with anyone unless the chief thing of faith resides with him, namely charity, or love towards the neighbour, and mercy. When charity is present so is acknowledgement, and so is faith. Anyone who thinks otherwise is as far from being aware of what faith is as land is distant from sky. When charity, which is the goodness constituting faith, is present, then acknowledgement, which is the truth of faith, is present too. When therefore a person is being regenerated in accordance with factual knowledge, rational concepts, and intellectual concepts, the end in view is that the ground, which is his mind, shall be made ready for receiving charity, from which, or rather from the life of which, he afterwards thinks and acts. At that point he has been reformed or regenerated, not before.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.