All posts by Eden Lumsden

About Eden Lumsden

Eden is loving wife to Derrick Lumsden and full-time mother to five little men and one little lady. She grew up attending the New Church of Phoenix, went to the GC College, married a priest and was promptly shipped off with him to Africa. They spent 6yrs enjoying the people and culture at the Westville New Church, near Durban, South Africa before returning to the USA in 2014. They currently live in Kempton, Pennsylvania where they dabble in self-sufficiency, homeschool their boys, and scheme of ways to help the Church. Eden finds the True Christian teachings about women and marriage to be particularly profound.

2019 Resolutions…

Do not fret because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret—it only causes harm.

For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the Lord,
They shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more;
Indeed, you will look carefully for his place,
But it shall be no more.
But the meek shall inherit the earth,
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

The wicked plots against the just,
And gnashes at him with his teeth.
The Lord laughs at him,
For He sees that his day is coming.
The wicked have drawn the sword
And have bent their bow,
To cast down the poor and needy,
To slay those who are of upright conduct.
Their sword shall enter their own heart,
And their bows shall be broken.

A little that a righteous man has
Is better than the riches of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
But the Lord upholds the righteous.

The Lord knows the days of the upright,
And their inheritance shall be forever.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time,
And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
But the wicked shall perish;
And the enemies of the Lord,
Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish.
Into smoke they shall vanish away.

The wicked borrows and does not repay,
But the righteous shows mercy and gives.
For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth,
But those cursed by Him shall be cut off.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
And He delights in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down;
For the Lord upholds him with His hand.

I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.
He is ever merciful, and lends;
And his descendants are blessed.

Depart from evil, and do good;
And dwell forevermore.
For the Lord loves justice,
And does not forsake His saints;
They are preserved forever,
But the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall inherit the land,
And dwell in it forever.

The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom,
And his tongue talks of justice.
The law of his God is in his heart;
None of his steps shall slide.

The wicked watches the righteous,
And seeks to slay him.
The Lord will not leave him in his hand,
Nor condemn him when he is judged.

Wait on the Lord,
And keep His way,
And He shall exalt you to inherit the land;
When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.
I have seen the wicked in great power,
And spreading himself like a native green tree.
Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more;
Indeed I sought him, but he could not be found.

Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright;
For the future of that man is peace.
But the transgressors shall be destroyed together;
The future of the wicked shall be cut off.

But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
He is their strength in the time of trouble.
And the Lord shall help them and deliver them;
He shall deliver them from the wicked,
And save them,
Because they trust in Him.

~Psalm 37

And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us…

The reason Jehovah God came down into the world as the Divine Truth was so that He could effect redemption. Redemption was the conquest of the hells, the ordering of the heavens, and afterwards the establishment of a church. To achieve these aims the Divine Good is not powerful enough, but the Divine Truth coming from the Divine Good is. Divine Good regarded in itself is like a rounded point on a sword, or like a blunt piece of wood, or a bow without arrows. But the Divine Truth coming from the Divine Good is like a sharpened sword, and like a piece of wood pointed to make a spear, and like a bow with arrows, all of which are potent against enemies. Swords, spears and bows in the spiritual sense of the Word stand for militant truths; see , 299, 436, where this has been proved. There was no other way in which the falsities and evils, in which the whole of hell was and perpetually is plunged, could be attacked, defeated and conquered except through the Divine Truth coming from the Word. There was no other way in which a new heaven could be founded, formed and set in order, as was then done. There was no other way in which a new church could be established on earth. Moreover, all the strength, all the might and power of God belongs to the Divine Truth coming from the Divine Good. This was the reason why Jehovah God came down as the Divine Truth, which is the Word. Therefore it is said in the Psalms of David:

Gird your sword upon your thigh, o mighty one, and go up in your splendour, ride upon the word of truth; your right hand shall teach you wondrous things; sharp are your arrows, your enemies shall fall beneath you, Psalms 45:3-5.

This is spoken of the Lord, His conflicts with the hells and His victories over them.

~True Christian Religion 86

Wishing you a Blessed Christmas, from all of us at New Christian Woman.

Trusting Him

You’ve probably heard this quote a hundred times, but this is the quote I needed today…

Peace holds within itself trust in the Lord, the trust that He governs all things and provides all things, and that He leads towards an end that is good. When a person believes these things about Him he is at peace, since he fears nothing and no anxiety about things to come disturbs him. How far a person attains this state depends on how far he attains love to the Lord.

[2] Everything bad, especially trust in self, takes away the state of peace. People think that someone bad is at peace when he is calm and cheerful because everything is going right for him. But this is not peace, it is the calm and delight belonging to evil desires that merely simulates the state of peace. This delight, being the opposite of the delight belonging to peace, turns to undelight in the next life, for that is what lies hidden within it. In the next life outward things are rolled away one layer after another through to inmost things at the centre. Peace is at the centre of all delight, even of the undelight of a person governed by good. So far therefore as he casts off what is external the state of peace is revealed and he is filled with bliss, blessedness, and happiness, the source of which is the Lord Himself. Arcana Coelestia 8455

Beautiful for One or Many?

Last week we received this intriguing comment regarding beauty from Ebute-metta Gloria in Nigeria:

“Why is it that women(Wives) like to wear open and transparent dressing irrespective of the season. There is this saying that beauty is to be internal, let our beauty be kept for the our husband alone. My worry is on the married women who are called wives. There was an argument in the spiritual world where women or rather wives wanted to dress beautifully in order to be seen by others but the men said no, it should be only to her husband, and this was confirmed by wives from heaven, that the men are correct, married women are only to appear beautiful to their husband…….. C.L. 330.4. What is your opinion as a New Church woman?”

I was fascinated by this concept and had to look up Conjugial Love 330. Though I’ve read through this book several times, somehow I don’t remember this poignant little memorable relation all about how men and women relate to female beauty. The portion Gloria is referencing is at the very end:

“I once heard a friendly discussion among some men regarding the feminine sex, as to whether any woman can love her husband if she is constantly in love with her own beauty, that is, if she loves herself on account of her appearance. The men agreed among themselves, first that women have a twofold beauty, one a natural beauty having to do with their face and figure, and the other a spiritual beauty having to do with their love and demeanor. They agreed also that these two kinds of beauty are very often separated in the natural world, but that they are always united in the spiritual world; for outward beauty in the spiritual world is an expression of a person’s love and demeanor. It frequently happens after death therefore that homely women become beautiful, and beautiful women homely. Continue reading Beautiful for One or Many?