Welcome to the Living Gratefully Spiritual Growth Program! Starting 31 January 2016

spiritual growth

Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions and actions we can express. Join with us as we discover and learn new ways to incorporate gratitude in our lives. .

Swedenborg’s book Divine Providence, which inspired this Living Gratefully program, provides an assurance that life is moving toward a state of peace and happiness – as long as we let ourselves go with the flow. Of course we are always in complete freedom to resist the flow by getting stuck in selfish thoughts and behaviors. This program will offer us a chance to practice ways to break free from the sticking points so that we can stay in the flow. Because when we flow, we make the world within and around us a more loving, more beautiful place.
In this program, we will explore five of the “laws of divine providence” that Swedenborg describes, as well as the gifts that lie within them. We hope that you enjoy reading this program as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Thank you for joining us in the practice of living gratefully!

 

Weekly Topics

Each of the seven weeks of the program explores a different day of creation:

  • Gratitude and Happiness - Awakening to the process.
  • The Gift of Freedom - We have the freedom to choose our own actions, according to whatever seems reasonable to us.
  • The Gift of Change - When we change the external negative behaviors that we are aware of, God takes care of the deeper issues that we are not aware of.
  • The Gift of Love - We can’t be forced to love or believe anything that we don’t want to love or believe. We can only compel ourselves - not others.
  • The Gift of Inspiration - We are inspired and led by God through the Word and teachings from the Word.
  • The Gift of Trust - We cannot see providence in action, but only in retrospect.
  • Wrap Up
  • Elements of the Program

    You are welcome to participate in any combination of these. Some will come to the small group sessions and not the worship, others will do the opposite. Most find the workbook to be a very useful companion for the program, but others do fine without it. The choice to use it or not is yours.

    Weekly Worship

    Each week, the worship service and Sunday School sessions will focus on one topic of Living Gratefully program.

    Workbook

    Daily study of God’s Word is foundational to spiritual growth work. As a major component to the program we have created a workbook to facilitate the journey. The workbook provides a daily reading from scripture and a variety of suggestions for incorporating the teachings into life. It also offers guidance on studying, journaling, reflecting, and serving the community as ways to make the program truly relevant and transformative to your life

    Small Group

    A small group is a group of people who commit to meet on a weekly basis for seven weeks to explore their faith and support each other in applying that faith to life. Small groups usually include prayer, a time for checking in, and discussions or fun activities.

    • Hurstville New Church will be operating a small group on Monday evenings at 7:30pm starting on 1 February at 26 Dudley St Penshurst.

     

    Questions? Contact us by email at todd@hurstvillenewchurch.com.