December
20

Serve the Lord

And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the field, and keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, the angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they feared with great fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people. For to you is born this day a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be the sign to you: you shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace, good will among men. (Luke 2:8-14)

And Jesus being born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came Magi from the east into Jerusalem, saying, Where is He who is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him. (Matthew 2:1-2)

When a man who is looking at internal things from external sees the heavens, he does not think at all of the starry heaven, but of the angelic heaven; and when he sees the sun, he does not think of the sun, but of the Lord, as being the Sun of heaven. So too when he sees the moon, and the stars also; and when he sees the immensity of the heavens, he does not think of their immensity, but of the immeasurable and infinite power of the Lord. (AC 1807)

The Lord is in continual effort, from His Divine love, to reform and regenerate man, and so to purify him from evils. And when the man also wills and intends it, this perpetual effort of the Lord becomes an act. Thus and no otherwise does a man receive power to resist evils and fight against them. Before this he does not receive, but rejects. This, then, is to shun evils as sins as if of one’s self, and yet from the Lord. (Charity 203)

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