The Lord is Speaking to You
The Rev. Dr. Ray Silverman
O
n September 10, 2016, it was my privilege to deliver the memorial address
for Shareen Blair, who passed on at the age of 93. She was the fifth child in
a family of 10 children, the mother of five children, and a lifelong member of
the General Church. Many remember Shareen as a gifted organist who played
for church services in Bryn Athyn, Pittsburgh, Glenview, Denver, Tucson and
Sarver (Pennsylvania).
Shareen is also remembered for her Word-based meditations, simple
readings of the Word, accompanied by soft music, while people sat quietly,
letting the Words of scripture enter their spirit. As the Lord said to His
disciples, “Let these words sink down into your ears.” (Luke 9:44) Interestingly,
when a document called “The Rules of Life” was found among Swedenborg’s
unpublished manuscripts, the first rule was: “ 1 Diligently to read and meditate
on the Word of God.”
The Lord speaks to us through the Word
Throughout both the published and unpublished works, two themes
occur and reoccur like a major theme in a great symphony: the Lord speaks
to us through His Word and the Lord gives us eternal life through His Word. In
brief, our whole spiritual life depends on hearing the Word of the Lord and
letting His words sink deeply into our spirits. Here are just a few of the many
passages that repeat this theme:
A person has life by means of the Word. (Sacred Scripture 3)
The Lord is present with everyone, and is conjoined to everyone through the Word.
This is because the Lord is the Word, and in it as it were speaks with everyone. (Ibid.
78)
The Word unites a person to the Lord and opens heaven . . . it fills a person’s will
with the goods of love and a person’s intellect with the truths of wisdom; thus every
person receives life through the Word. (True Christian Religion 191)
1 It is not clear whether or not these were written by Swedenborg himself or whether he found them somewhere
else. For more information see http://www.newchurchhistory.org/funfacts/index9d51.html?p=457
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