Mixed Media | Are You Living Up To God's Expectations?

We have tried a few different mediums here at New Church Perspective, and this week we offer a video by Ronnie Schnarr. Watch Ronnie's powerful message about what God wants for us compared to what the hells want for us. Where does your burden and your anxiety actually come from? -Editor

The Lord tells us that His "yoke is easy and His burden is light," but I think a small part of us all goes "Yeah right, spiritual life easy? I don't think so." But what a lot of us don't know is that the load we think we are supposed to be carrying is not something the Lord has put on us at all, but is something we have put on ourselves. The Lord's expectations are light in comparison and His work actually brings rest into our life in the long term.

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Another Powerful Phrase

Longing for clarity about some situation in your life? The means might be easier than you've ever let yourself imagine. Here Ronnie shares a simple and direct approach to gaining a clearer perspective when you need one. -Editor

A year or so ago I wrote an article about “the most powerful phrase I know.” I want to share another phrase from the Heavenly Doctrines that I have found to be powerful as well. While the phrase I wrote about in my first article was one in which Divine Power could be called upon to help us, the phrase I want to share with you now is one in which a person can call on spiritual enlightenment whenever it is needed. This phrase can help a person when they desire to know the truth about something or receive guidance from the Lord on some important spiritual decision.

Here it goes:

“Lord come with light.”

Sounds simple right? But it really works!

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The Fabric of Consciousness or Jesus Christ?

When searching out paths to happiness, do people need to choose between Christianity and a more modern approach that locates the source of joy and consciousness within them? Ronnie doesn't think so. He finds the two knit seamlessly together in the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg and elaborates on those concepts below. -Editor

Many people these days are skeptical of God because they have been told that God is some guy who died on a cross 2000 years ago with a set of arbitrary rules that we must follow to get to a prize at the end of our lives. Many of us have found this picture lacking. Because of this, a different kind of salvation has been defined by many post-modern philosophies, self-help books, and even recovery programs. These philosophies have led people to look within and discover the process involved in being “saved.” Not the “saved” we were taught as children, but instead a process in which peace, joy, love, truth, and connection to Divinity could be found, not outside ourselves in the walls of a musty old building, but inside ourselves, a kingdom we were taught little about as children.

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Dangerous?: A Discussion About the New Church and Politics (Part 2)

In his second essay, Ronnie takes excerpts from Emanuel Swedenborg's writings where he speaks directly to what makes a good leader. It is Ronnie's hope that people will take this information and let it influence their political decisions in the coming week. -Editor

Maybe you have seen a movie, or read a book, where some primitive tribe of people inquires of the spiritual world through some act of divination about who should be crowned a king, or a leader of a tribe? Once crowned, the king's longevity as leader is thought to depend on the favor of God, or the gods. Even in the Old Testament we see a similar phenomenon. Leaders in the Old Testament were often selected by the Lord, anointed by a prophet, and would have success or failure depending on their ability to live within God’s law.

While the hand of Providence may be just as active in politics as it has been portrayed in these stories, one thing we can say for sure about the political process is that it is not as easy as asking God who He would vote for. And I’m not even sure that is how God really wants it to work these days anyhow. Instead, today we turn to our best rational selves, put on our thinking caps, and ask the important question, “What makes a good leader?”

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Dangerous?: A Discussion About the New Church and Politics (Part 1)

With an election upon us, Ronnie takes spiritual principles and superimposes them over our current political system. Are the two more related than one might assume? What can be gained from letting a spiritual perspective influence a political decision? Read on. -Editor.

Now, talking about politics in the context of religion can be really dangerous; in fact, I think that most people live by the principle that religion and politics should live as far away from each other as they can. I totally get this, but maybe since I am a pastor and find myself thinking about politics a lot from a spiritual perspective, I wonder if it is even really possible to separate the two.

You see, I wonder if the danger in discussing this is that so often it is approached from thinking of particular parties or people that we like. This election season more than any other, I have seen that news reports are pulling my mind into thinking from person and from human organization in politics instead of thinking about principles. But if we take a step back and examine particular principles, I think not only could we have a “safe” conversation about civil things and their relation to spiritual things, but we also might come to realize that they have been friends influencing each other for a long time.

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The Most Powerful Phrase I Know

Ronnie shares a phrase, originally recorded by Swedenborg, that has the power to overcome the negative states we struggle with. He has experienced it's transformational strength, and encourages everyone to use it for their own benefit. -Editor

There is a phrase which has the power to scatter a thousand demons. There is a phrase which can instantly wash the mind of evil thoughts and feelings. There is a phrase which the Lord spoke as a voice from heaven to His servant Emmanuel Swedenborg as a gift for our people to free ourselves from the bonds of hell. Would you be surprised if I told you this phrase was beyond our expressing with physical words and that it must be searched for in the heart beyond the shores of our spiritual awareness. Well that might be what you would expect, but actually we are lucky enough to have this phrase written down for us in Emmanuel Swedenborg's work True Christian Religion 567.4 where it says these amazing words,

"[I] do not will to do this thing because it is a sin against God."

Now let me give you a moment to test this out. Find some evil thought, feeling or intention in yourself, if you need some help think of something in this article that may have frustrated you and what it makes you want to do. Do you have it? Now think the words "[I] do not will to do this thing because it is a sin against God."

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