“The Church is... where the Lord is acknowledged, and where the Word is.” - The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine §242
Kempton New Church

December
11

“Thus Has the Lord Dealt with Me”

And it came to pass that when the days of his ritual were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And° after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus has the Lord done to me in the days wherein He looked on me to take away my reproach among men. (Luke 1:23–25)

All things belonging to birth are meant in the internal sense of the Word such things as belong to spiritual birth, thus to regeneration …. The things that belong to spiritual birth or regeneration are the truths of faith and the goods of charity, for by means of these a man is conceived and born anew. (Arcana Cœlestia 9325)

The kingdom of Christ, which is heaven, being a kingdom of uses; for the Lord loves all men, and from love wills good to all, and good is use. And because the Lord does goods or uses mediately through angels, and in the world through men, therefore to those who perform uses faithfully He gives the love of use and the reward thereof, which is internal blessedness; and this is eternal happiness. (Conjugial Love 7)

As man was created to perform uses, and this is to love the neighbor, so all who come into heaven, however many there are, must do uses. All the delight and blessedness of these is according to uses and to the love of uses. Heavenly joy is from no other source. (Apocalypse Explained 1194)

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