True Christianity #364
364. (a) The Lord flows into everyone with all his divine love, all his divine wisdom, and all his divine life. In the Book of Creation, we read that we were created in the image of God and that God breathed the breath of life into our nostrils (Genesis 1:27; 2:7). This means that we are not life, we are merely organs that receive life. God could not create another being like himself. If he could have done so, there would be as many gods as there are people. God could not create life or light either. God could, however, create people as forms that receive life, just as he created the eye as a form that receives light. God could not and still cannot divide his own essence - it is an indivisible oneness. Therefore since God alone is life, it follows without a doubt that God uses his life to bring us all to life. Without being brought to life, we would all have flesh that was no more than a sponge and bones that were no more than a skeleton. We would have no more life than a clock that moves because of its pendulum and a weight or a spring. Given this fact, it also follows that God flows into every human being with all his divine life, that is, with all his divine love and divine wisdom. (For these two things constituting his divine life, see above, 39-40). Divinity is indivisible.
[2] Furthermore, we can understand how God flows in with all his divine life just as we understand that the sun in our world flows with all its essence (heat and light) into every tree, every bush, and every flower, and even into every stone, both precious and common. Every object draws its own share from the general inflow. The sun does not divide up its heat and light and give part of it to this thing and another part to that one.
The same thing is true of the sun in heaven - the source from which divine love emanates in the form of heat and divine wisdom in the form of light. Love and wisdom flow into human minds the way heat and light from the worlds sun flow into bodies, bringing them to life depending on the quality of their form. Each form takes what it needs from the general inflow.
What the Lord says applies here:
Your Father makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45)
[3] The Lord is omnipresent; and everywhere he is present, he is present with his entire essence. It is impossible for him to take out some of his essence and give part of it to one person and another part to another. He gives it all. He also gives us the ability to adopt as much as we wish of it, whether a little or a lot. The Lord says that he has a home with those who do his commandments, and that the faithful are in him and he is in them. In a word, all things are full of God. We each take our own portion from that fullness.
This is true of atmospheres and oceans, and also of everything that is universal. The atmosphere is the same on a small and a large scale. It does not limit itself to giving one aspect of itself to someone who is breathing, a second aspect to a bird that is flying, a third aspect to the sails of a ship, and a fourth aspect to the vanes of a windmill. Instead, each thing draws on certain aspects of the atmosphere and applies to itself as much as it needs.
It is the same as a barn full of grain. The owners draw from it the provisions they need for a given day. The barn does not determine what they receive.
1 Corinthians 11
1
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
3
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
4
Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
5
But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
6
For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.
7
For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
8
For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
9
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
10
For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
11
Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
12
For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of god.
13
Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?
14
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?
15
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
16
But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.
17
Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.
18
For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
19
For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
20
When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.
21
For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken.
22
What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
23
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24
And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
25
After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
26
For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
27
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30
For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
31
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
32
But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
33
Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.
34
And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.
