“All authority is given to Me in heaven and on earth... And behold, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.” - Matthew 28:18, 20
Kempton New Church

December
24

Isaiah 60:21. “And thy people, all of them shall be just; to eternity shall they possess the land; the stem of My planting, the deed of My hands, that I may have splendor.”

For the children from Isaiah 11

1. And there shall come forth a Shaft from the trunk of Jesse, and a Stem from his roots shall become fruitful.

2. And the spirit of Jehovah shall rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah.

3. And His perception shall be in the fear of Jehovah; He shall not judge according to the sight of His eyes, nor shall He reprove according to the hearing of His ears,

4. but with justice shall He judge the poor, and with uprightness shall He reprove the meek of the earth: and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked.

and Luke 2

40. And the little Child grew, and became strong in Spirit, filled full with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

Readings from the Heavenly Doctrine

AR 954. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright and the morning Star signifies that He Himself is that Lord Who was born in the world and was then the Light, and Who is going to come with the new light that is going to dawn upon His New Church, which is the holy Jerusalem. 'I am the Root and the Offspring of David' signifies that He Himself is that Lord Who was born in the world, thus the Lord in His Own Divine Human. For this reason He is called 'the Root and the Offspring of David', and also 'the branch of David' (Jer. 23:5; 33:15); also 'a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Sprout out of his roots' (Isa. 11:1, 2).

AR 933. By "in the midst of the street and of the river, on this side and on that, was the tree of life bearing twelve fruits," is signified that in the inmosts of the truths of doctrine and of life in the New Church is the Lord in His Divine love, from Whom all the goods which a man does apparently as of himself flow forth. This takes place with those who go to the Lord immediately, and shun evils because they are sins; thus with those who will be in the Lord’s New Church, which is the New Jerusalem. For they who do not go immediately to the Lord cannot be conjoined to Him, and thus neither to the Father, and hence cannot be in the love which is from the Divine. For the looking to Him conjoins—not a mere intellectual looking, but an intellectual looking from the affection of the will; and affection of the will is not given, unless man keeps His commandments. Therefore the Lord says:

He who does My commandments, he it is who loves me; and I will come to him and make an abode with him (John 14:21-24).

It is said, in the inmosts of the truths of doctrine and thence of life in the New Church, because in spiritual things all things are and all things proceed from the inmost, as from fire and light in the center to the circumferences; or as from the sun, which is also in the center, heat and light flow into the universe. Thus it takes place in the least things as in the greatest. Because the inmost of all truth is signified, it is therefore said, "in the midst of the street and of the river," and not on both sides of the river, although this is meant.

That from the Lord, when He is in the inmost, all the goods of love and charity are and proceed, is manifest from the words of the Lord Himself in John:

Jesus said, As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you cannot do anything (John 15:4-6).

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