New Church Life March/April 2017 | Page 52

We can ’ t truly imagine how much the Lord loves us . And angels think nothing of giving their own lives to save us and they would suffer hell in our place if they could . That ’ s how much they love us . the forces of love , light and kindness . Sometimes we forget that . We don ’ t feel that .

In Support of Mental and Spiritual Health

A Sermon by the Rev . David C . Roth
The New Church at Boulder , Colorado – January 8 , 2017 Lessons : Luke 15:3-7 ; Matthew 2:13-18 ; Secrets of Heaven 2077 , 905

To begin I want to draw our attention back to the Christmas story for a moment . It is a wonderful story of both hope and promise – the promise of bringing light into a dark world , restoring a state of freedom and bringing love to people again . We see Goodness setting the stage to overcome those dark forces . And then right on the heels of that beautiful story of innocence , peace and light is this story of evil , pain and horror : the story of Herod , in his jealous rage , killing all the male children two years old and below in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas .

I bring up this contrast to remind us that hell is real and that there are forces at work against us whose influences are powerful , insidious and cruel .
But they are not more powerful than
We can ’ t truly imagine how much the Lord loves us . And angels think nothing of giving their own lives to save us and they would suffer hell in our place if they could . That ’ s how much they love us . the forces of love , light and kindness . Sometimes we forget that . We don ’ t feel that .
The reading that we shared today from the Heavenly Doctrines says that the Lord ’ s love is unbelievable in the extreme . I don ’ t know how He could have said it more strongly than that . It ’ s unbelievable in the extreme . We can ’ t truly imagine how much the Lord loves us . And angels think nothing of giving their own lives to save us and they would suffer hell in our place if they could . That ’ s how much they love
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