Have you ever wonder where true happiness comes from? Is it from having wealth? Is it from accumulating great knowledge? Or is it from having a supportive family and good friends? Is it from having good health? The last two - good family and friends and good health certainly help us to be happy. However, what really brings us true happiness comes from within in doing one's job, one's work or one's profession, because you know in that work you are serving the society or the neighbor, and because this is of use in the Lord's kingdom. In that act we see or recognize the Lord and see His love for us. The Lord has said we are to love the neighbor and, in serving, in being useful through our profession, we contribute to the need of the society and, so, there is charity done and the Lord loved. However, in doing one's duty brings to light a higher use of charity than just giving to the poor or to organizations set up to help the needy. In that happiness of being in service to the Lord and the neighbor, that is, in this charity, one is blessed and he feels that he is doing something for the Lord that not only helps others, but that it is according to the laws of Divine Order. It is working, even living according to the Lord's commandments in that we are not doing evil to the neighbor, which is also the society and, it is the doing of good works (or charity), not from and for one's self, but from the Lord within, from His Good and His Truth that desires to resides within us in our will and our understanding. In this, the Lord can be said to reside within us, that is, make His abode in our hearts and minds.
It is true that often, God's people are not easily identified or known from the rest of the world and that only the Lord knows how many and who and where they are, despite all the many organizations - Christian and non Christian - the Churches and various world religions claiming, that they serve the good of mankind or the Lord or the true God and are His people and that they are 'good' people.
However, as a result of doing such work or your job in love is really a love for the Lord. Therefore, no one is to be persuaded of such knowledge, but we are only shared it with those who ask and want to appropriate it for their use. Good and its truth: things of our faith are free. However, a person to truly receive them must also open his mind and his heart and accept this labor of love, which really is the Lord's love, into their life. They will, then, clearly receive the Lord's love for them. What we are really speaking of here is the Lord's true Church that is in a man's will and understanding, for the Lord is truly in those who receive Him and who appropriate His love and His truth, for usefulness in the Lord's kingdom here on earth. This is the true Church with man.
The Lord has provided that His Church is to come on earth so that we not only learn about Him and about His love for us, but that we also live as having been made into His image and made after His likeness. When we read the story of Adam and Eve we come to understand that man was and is to be made in the Lord's image and likeness, but we also learn that Adam, that is, man rejected that knowledge that when it is acknowledged and believed leads to his becoming an image and even into a likeness of the Lord, that is, a spiritual and celestial being. We learn that because of man's (Adam and Eve's) fall that man would die. Life without God is death and man had turned from that true Life. Now, basically, one can say life is from and of the Lord's Proceeding Love and Wisdom inflowing man and that man must not only know of this love and wisdom, but must live it 'as if' of himself if he is to truly and spiritually live.
Now, because mankind had rejected the Lord's life that spiritual inflow from God into his spirit, such knowledge could no longer come to man pure and without distortion. Truths and Goods, which are of the Lord's Love and Wisdom, His Good and Truth, now come only through a man's natural external senses. Thus, at first, after man's fall from Paradise, the truths and goods that God had insinuated into man into his will and his understanding were recorded by chosen men of the Adamic Church and were later written down by chosen men of the Noahactic Church. This Word of God served to teach and to lead men in the Ancient Church in truths and goods so that in their life, at least, in their worship the Lord was represented. Later, after the Noahactic or Ancient Word was lost, the Lord God inspired other men - prophets - to write the Lord's Word (the Old Testament) so that the Natural Church that followed the Ancient Church man could live their life according to the God's Word or Truths, at least, in their natural existence until the Lord could come on earth in 'flesh' in a natural body of man.
Why was this all necessary? Could not the Lord God simply change man back to the spiritual and celestial state where man was when he lived in spiritual and celestial fellowship with God and angels and their was conjunction and immediate or direct communication with Him, where man received the Lord's life into his spirit and soul, where man had perception from within from the Lord and his understanding came not through his natural senses as it does today? If the Lord did change man back to a state of fellowship with God, would man still be a man? Would mankind, now, even exist? Would man be in freedom, have free will, or would he be simply a robot having no life, no will, of his own? Man would not and could not, in fact, be made in the Lord's image and likeness. Thus, man would and could not be either spiritual or celestial - an image and a likeness of God - but would be no different than an animal that does not truly think or rationalize. In truth there would be no man at all and all creation would cease, for all creation is for man's use and it is through man that the Lord's love is reciprocated or returned.
In the Garden of Eden the Lord God was there with man communicating with him, leading him. He had provided man with all the necessities of life the tree in the midst of the garden and all the other trees were there so that he could eat and live, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden to eat. A man had plenty of food to sustain him. It is obvious the food that is meant is spiritual food. The Lord God even bought animals to him in order to teach him what are his affections so that he could grow not only in intelligence and wisdom, but in love to the Lord. God taught man the various affections so that he could receive joy and delight in his life. These are a man's emotions and sensuousness, thus was the development of a man's intellect and his desires. This is what being made into an image and in the likeness signifies.
It is true that often, God's people are not easily identified or known from the rest of the world and that only the Lord knows how many and who and where they are, despite all the many organizations - Christian and non Christian - the Churches and various world religions claiming, that they serve the good of mankind or the Lord or the true God and are His people and that they are 'good' people.
However, as a result of doing such work or your job in love is really a love for the Lord. Therefore, no one is to be persuaded of such knowledge, but we are only shared it with those who ask and want to appropriate it for their use. Good and its truth: things of our faith are free. However, a person to truly receive them must also open his mind and his heart and accept this labor of love, which really is the Lord's love, into their life. They will, then, clearly receive the Lord's love for them. What we are really speaking of here is the Lord's true Church that is in a man's will and understanding, for the Lord is truly in those who receive Him and who appropriate His love and His truth, for usefulness in the Lord's kingdom here on earth. This is the true Church with man.
The Lord has provided that His Church is to come on earth so that we not only learn about Him and about His love for us, but that we also live as having been made into His image and made after His likeness. When we read the story of Adam and Eve we come to understand that man was and is to be made in the Lord's image and likeness, but we also learn that Adam, that is, man rejected that knowledge that when it is acknowledged and believed leads to his becoming an image and even into a likeness of the Lord, that is, a spiritual and celestial being. We learn that because of man's (Adam and Eve's) fall that man would die. Life without God is death and man had turned from that true Life. Now, basically, one can say life is from and of the Lord's Proceeding Love and Wisdom inflowing man and that man must not only know of this love and wisdom, but must live it 'as if' of himself if he is to truly and spiritually live.
Now, because mankind had rejected the Lord's life that spiritual inflow from God into his spirit, such knowledge could no longer come to man pure and without distortion. Truths and Goods, which are of the Lord's Love and Wisdom, His Good and Truth, now come only through a man's natural external senses. Thus, at first, after man's fall from Paradise, the truths and goods that God had insinuated into man into his will and his understanding were recorded by chosen men of the Adamic Church and were later written down by chosen men of the Noahactic Church. This Word of God served to teach and to lead men in the Ancient Church in truths and goods so that in their life, at least, in their worship the Lord was represented. Later, after the Noahactic or Ancient Word was lost, the Lord God inspired other men - prophets - to write the Lord's Word (the Old Testament) so that the Natural Church that followed the Ancient Church man could live their life according to the God's Word or Truths, at least, in their natural existence until the Lord could come on earth in 'flesh' in a natural body of man.
Why was this all necessary? Could not the Lord God simply change man back to the spiritual and celestial state where man was when he lived in spiritual and celestial fellowship with God and angels and their was conjunction and immediate or direct communication with Him, where man received the Lord's life into his spirit and soul, where man had perception from within from the Lord and his understanding came not through his natural senses as it does today? If the Lord did change man back to a state of fellowship with God, would man still be a man? Would mankind, now, even exist? Would man be in freedom, have free will, or would he be simply a robot having no life, no will, of his own? Man would not and could not, in fact, be made in the Lord's image and likeness. Thus, man would and could not be either spiritual or celestial - an image and a likeness of God - but would be no different than an animal that does not truly think or rationalize. In truth there would be no man at all and all creation would cease, for all creation is for man's use and it is through man that the Lord's love is reciprocated or returned.
In the Garden of Eden the Lord God was there with man communicating with him, leading him. He had provided man with all the necessities of life the tree in the midst of the garden and all the other trees were there so that he could eat and live, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden to eat. A man had plenty of food to sustain him. It is obvious the food that is meant is spiritual food. The Lord God even bought animals to him in order to teach him what are his affections so that he could grow not only in intelligence and wisdom, but in love to the Lord. God taught man the various affections so that he could receive joy and delight in his life. These are a man's emotions and sensuousness, thus was the development of a man's intellect and his desires. This is what being made into an image and in the likeness signifies.