Regeneration, or Rebirth

Our spiritual life changes gradually. Not all at once. Are we heading in the right direction? How can we be spiritually reborn? It's a process. (See 2 Peter 1:5, and many other places in the Word.)

For anyone who believes in heaven, one question stands above all the others: How can I get there? How can I be saved?

Beginning a new life is, in some ways, the ONE spiritual topic that people have to get right.

Repentance doesn’t just mean confessing our sins, being forgiven, and then forgetting about it and going right back to what we were doing before. In order to truly repent, we need to change our ways.

Here's a summary of the key New Christian teachings about regeneration.

Sin comes first into our desires, then into our thoughts, and finally, if we let it, into our actions.

Imagine a society where everyone is always "looking out for #1".

This is a beautiful prophecy, but two thousand years later much in our world is still not peaceful. Why is that?

Love. It's the heart of it all. God is love itself, and we're made in His image and likeness. What can we learn about it from His Word?

Smooth things ahead. It doesn't sound like a problem.

Love is God, love is life, love is the goal of every person, love is what takes us to heaven or hell, love is the actual source of all matter and energy in the universe...

Freedom -- what is it really? As far as we can tell, our level of freedom is pretty new, at least in this neck of the cosmos.

Covenant, Reciprocation, and Conjunction are three parts of the process of our spiritual rebirth.

"Faith is an internal recognition of truth." That's how Swedenborg begins his book about Faith. Here's a place to start exploring this deeply human topic.

"Charity" is an English rendering of the Latin word "caritas", which is the root of the verb “to care.”

"Lord, teach us to pray..." (Luke 11:1) The Word is full of prayers to express our heartfelt states. Here are some you can start with!

Two things make us human: our spiritual minds, and our spiritual freedom.

In Hamlet, William Shakespeare said that “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” We can see this all around us.

In New Christian theology, there's a very core concept that the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom cooperate, and are "married;" working together to form all of creation. Neither one can operate without the other. "Female and male" together correspond to this celestial marriage.

Swedenborg describes temptation as an assault or an attack on what we spiritually have come to love.

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”

Sometimes, when someone doesn't live up to their professed standards, we think "there's another hypocrite." Is that fair? The answer is: It depends.

Here are some excerpts from the Bible about forgiveness.

The "as-of-self" is a key doctrinal concept in New Christian theology.

Swedenborg uses the term, "to appropriate", in a distinctive way.

What do you do in situations like these? Can you forgive them? Should you forgive?

The Bible states clearly that salvation depends on the way we live, not just on what we say we believe. Jesus said, "Not every one who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)

Each Psalm has a connected spiritual meaning running through it, and they are all linked in one connected series.

Some points on the development of the mind are outlined here. One interesting conclusion: We cannot teach a spiritual truth! We can teach a natural truth which contains a spiritual one within, but only the Lord can inspire that life of truth from within and make it spiritual, living, in another person's mind!

Why is it that when we start to choose something good in our life, we often end up facing resistance, discouragement, or conflict? (This is an audio recording of a sermon by Solomon J. Keal.)

The Lord wants us to be happy. Really, lastingly happy. From John 15:11: "I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete." So... how do we get there from here?

Blessings come from the Lord. We can tap the power of His love to do good to our neighbors, making their lives better. And, with mutual love, it's blessings all around!

People in this world who think and speak well of others "are like the angels" (Arcana Coelestia 1088)

The purpose of baptism is not well understood in the world today. Some people view it in almost magical terms--as something which will automatically bring grace to the one who is baptized. What does New Christian teaching say about it?

When a person becomes a church, he has found a dwelling place, a home inside his heart and mind where the Lord can dwell.

We might picture the Lord thinking within Himself, "What can I tell these people which will allow them to accept Me as their God? How am I going to be able to lead them closer to heaven?"

Understanding prayer isn't all that easy. The insights in this article can help!

In the Holy Supper, or communion, the bread stands for the Lord's good, and the wine stands for His truth. When we eat and drink, there's a correspondence between these natural acts and the spiritual acts of reception.