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Personal stories & experiences

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Majeston
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« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2007, 06:40:06 pm »

I almost missed it!

(Anonymous)

During my childhood I went to church every week with my family. I was baptized 3 times through 2 different denominations. I found the information I was given in church to be good in many respects but in my opinion inconsistent. In some very important areas it was detrimental to my ability to have a sincere trust and faith in God. I could not have faith and trust in a God that could be characterized with words like vengeful, wrathful and jealous. I really took issue with a God that would require the painful death of His Son to balance the bad choices of my forefathers.

Un the late 70's I started becoming interested in religious information outside the mainstrean religion that I had been exposed to. My Stepmother was interested in this as well and we would share this information back and forth. One day in the early 80's she said she had found this very unusual book that whe wanted me to read. After I found out some of the story of how the book came to be written I declined her offer. It just seemed to far out for me to take seriously.

My Stepmother died in January of 2003. My life had also started coming apart. I quit a job I had held for 25 years, was divorced from a marriage of over 22 years and had entered a 12 step program to address some other bad choices I had made. One morning in February 2003 I had awaken to begin my ritual of reading some 12 step material and setting my day in motion by scheduling the things that needed to be done. I was in a house that I now lived alone in, with no job that required my time. In this condition of being humbled, simplified, willing and open minded the thought about the book my Stepmother had told me about 20 years earlier entered my mind. I wondered if it might still be in her house so I drove the 30 miles to my late parent's house and let myself in. Although she had several hundred books in her home I found her Urantia Book on the headboard of her bed with a handful of other books...imagine that.

I came home and started reading the book. I have read it every morning, with the exception of a few days ever since that time. How has it changed my life? The real gift for me is it has erased theinconsistencies and all doubt that affected my faith and trust in God. It brought Jesus to life for me right here right now. It has given me glorious dreams to try to apply to my daily living. It is affecting every aspect of my life. It has made all old things new in my life and I am grateful and enrgized to be on this new adventure.

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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

http://mercy.urantia.org/papers/paper44.html
Majeston
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« Reply #16 on: March 16, 2007, 07:01:20 pm »

At first it seemed too weird

Submitted by Joseph H. Reza

My Father died around 1982. I was depressed for a while after his death. I felt sad at the loss of his company on this earth. I was happy for the foundation of love he left me to build on. Both feelings made me cry tears of sadness and tears of joy. I was emotional at the time.
My wife at the time became disturbed at the amount of time it was taking me to get over my dad's death. About six months after his death, I had a healing dream about him. When I awoke I felt a pressure or tightness had lifted off of my chest area that I wasn't even aware was there.
Almost immediately after that I became interested in researching spiritual things that interested or bothered me in my life. One was the fact that I wanted to know what happened to the missing years in Jesus’ life. What happened between 13 and 30? I began to ask questions of my friends, co-workers and family. I heard about the lost books of the bible, and the council of Nicea around 410 AD or so where it was decided what writings would be included in the Bible. I wanted to know what happen to the ones that weren't included? Did any of them have information about Jesus’ life?
I went to library and researched and scanned and read books. One was a brand new fragmented translation of Cave Scrolls recently found in the Holy Land. It supposedly had writings of St. Matthew. They were too fragmented, just in the beginnings of translation and though they had many differences from the bible, none seemed very important.
I read a book by an American minister from the South from about the 1850's. A purported revelation describing a religious sect called the Essenes and how Jesus supposedly passed through all their teachings and even reached the level of Divine. One test was in a Pyramid where he passed a test of denial of sexual desire displaying only pure spiritual Love. The best book I found was “Jesus, the Son of Man” by Kahlil Gibran the author of "The Prophet". He translated these letters about Jesus written by those who knew him at the time, from Ancient Aramaic which he learn from monks in a Monastery as a youth.
Around the time I was researching Jesus, a friend of mine gave me "The Urantia Book" I began to browse and review the index. My friend liked a lot of Science Fiction and in my brief review I wasn't interested. He urged me to at least read the part about Jesus. I said O.K. but didn't.
About a year later while exploring another interest in Electro-magnetism (I wanted to find a source of energy that would produced more energy than it needed to create it.) I figured that the earth's magnetic fields would give up energy when something passed through it's lines of force by changing the polarity on the object to attract it to the line of force and repulse it after momentum pushed the object through the line of force. I met a family friend at a party and he said the Urantia book spoke of energy like that. He also mentioned that it spoke of other scientific discoveries before they were discovered and that it spoke of others that hadn't been discovered yet.
So it was that after about a year or so on top of my dresser I began to look for answers to my energy questions in the Urantia Book. Eventually I read the story of Jesus. I can't tell you the joy of satisfaction, the sense of completeness that I felt after reading that story. I told my sister who was into the church that it was quite simply the best story I've ever read or seen (like movies) on Jesus. I had a strong faith and had believed in earnest in Jesus since I was thirteen or 14 in Catholic School. I was truly moved by Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels. I loved the New Testament because it was Jesus’ teachings. There were many things in the Old Testament I couldn't reconcile in my heart with the teachings in the New Testament. And now I had something fulfilled inside of me. The holes that were empty had been filled so beautifully by this new story.
I had read many of Herman Hesse's books. "Journey to the East", "Siddhartha", "Narcissus and Goldman", Jung, Freud, Heddiger, Marx, Hegel, and now I finally found something that just made me feel content, good, at peace with myself.
Since that time I've bought and given away the Urantia book in Spanish, French, English and Korean, to family, friends and co-workers. I tell everybody to start on page 1344 (old blue book). So they don’t fall into the same trap I did. If they read that, then I tell them to read part 3, then part 2 and finally part 1. My sister always seemed to have reservations about my enthusiasm about the Urantia Book. I told my sister you find Truth everywhere. You find it in Nature. You find it in novels. You find it in movies. You find it at work. You find it in life. It's everywhere waiting for you to discover it. I use to tell her "do you think native's that have never heard of God or the Bible or religion or church aren't saved?" Everyone can reach God.
Now I had found a book (the Urantia Book) that reinforced the religion I had found in myself through my experience in this life. And because of this book I have become a more spiritual person. Because of this book I now read the bible and many translations of it. And I get so much more out of it. Now because of this book (and our search for truth and fulfillment in our lives) I'm a better Catholic. Another friend who reads it is a better Methodist, another a better born again Christian, etc. etc. etc. I want more and more to do God's will on earth as it is in heaven. And now that means something to me. I look forward to my progression and spiritual evolution. I await the more perfect unions with my heavenly father and my heavenly and earthly brothers. I don't fear death. Wars will come and go and eventually we will have world peace. Or if our world is physically destroyed our spiritual progression will continue.
I can now see life in terms of spiritual time, which is even much longer than geological time. Our human frailties are passing experiences and our spiritual eventuality a long awaited development. God Bless and guide us all.

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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

http://mercy.urantia.org/papers/paper44.html
Majeston
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« Reply #17 on: March 16, 2007, 07:07:05 pm »

I'm Impressed

Submitted by Ulrich Stachel

Even as a child in my native Germany, I was not impressed with the "religious" introductions I was offered in either the public school system or by well meaning persons who were trying to save me from some unknown, undefined infraction, or some "sin" about which I knew nothing. These actions caused a life long personal search for the truth about God, religion and how I fit in?
Well, years of searching formal and casual studies of Christianity and most major and minor beliefs, piles of research papers, notes and collections of philosophical books, pamphlets and other data, and numerous discussions with friends, religionists and philosophical persons lead me to an individual, who, after hours and hours of listening to me, handed me The Urantia Book with an admonition to, "read, study and return this book."
After reading it again and again, I wanted to know just who had been "reading" my papers? It was as though someone had "transcribed" and hard bound my personal notes. (LOL)
I must say, that "The Urantia Book" found me, not the other way around. I'm impressed, delighted and amazed, even after my 7th complete reading.
Regardless of the question about who caused this book to be written or who transcribed it into the language of the realm, I am impressed and although not much impresses me...this book does.

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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

http://mercy.urantia.org/papers/paper44.html
Majeston
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« Reply #18 on: March 16, 2007, 07:54:43 pm »






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« Last Edit: March 19, 2007, 02:43:03 pm by Majeston » Report Spam   Logged

"melody has power a whole world to transform."
Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

http://mercy.urantia.org/papers/paper44.html
Majeston
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« Reply #19 on: March 19, 2007, 02:02:36 pm »

A Jewish Girl Finds Jesus

by Bobbie Dreier

 (“What’s a Nice Jewish Girl Like Me Doing in a Place Like This?”)

Every year as far back as I can remember I went to the synagogue for the whole day with my dad on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. I sat in the back in the women’s gallery with my grandmother. Like Jews all over the world we went to pray for forgiveness from God for all our sins against him, to repent and be released from some unknown punishment. We prayed and we fasted all day long. If God was merciful we were inscribed in the Book of Life for another year. I never knew exactly what would happen if we weren’t inscribed, but I guessed that the people who died that year had not been forgiven.

Judaism is a religion that is based on the law, the law of God presented to Moses at Mount Sinai. Many Jewish people think of God as the Lord God of Israel. He is a just God and he expects his law to be followed. When God is disobeyed, he is fearful and punishing. Did he not banish Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and subject women forever after to pain in childbirth, turn Lot’s wife to a pillar of salt and destroy all life on the earth except for Noah’s family and an arkful of animals? And on Passover Jews praise God for sending devastating plagues on the Egyptians including the destruction of their first born sons. The Old Testament is filled with the stories of God’s laws and his wrath.

In Paper 96, “Yahweh-God of the Hebrews,” a Melchizedek of Nebadon tells us that in spite of Moses’s valiant efforts to assure the fleeing Hebrews that God loved them and would not forsake or destroy them, they were also told during a cataclysmic volcanic explosion of Mount Sinai that “their God was mighty, terrible, a devouring fire, and all-powerful.” (96:4.5,6) Although there is much evidence of a God who loves his people in the Old Testament, the idea of a just and powerful God is the one that persists. The Ten Commandments given to Moses at Mount Sinai are mostly “Thou shalt nots” and the Mosaic law consists of 613 laws that Orthodox Jews obey to this day. The traditions are very powerful and I grew up imagining a bearded king in the clouds who was watching me and waiting for me to slip up.

I always had a deep consciousness of my Jewishness. I was culturally conditioned and thought I was religious. My dad had an orthodox Jewish upbringing and a very strong Jewish identity. He wanted my mother to keep the orthodox religious traditions at home that he had grown up with. Some of those included “keeping the Sabbath holy,” lighting Sabbath candles and keeping a kosher home. “Keeping kosher” involves a strict set of dietary laws requiring separate silverware, dishes and cookware for meat meals and dairy meals. It is forbidden to eat milk products and meat together because of a Mosaic law which states: “Thou shalt not eat the flesh of a kid in its mothers milk.” There is also a long list of forbidden foods including pork products and shellfish. My mom didn’t light Sabbath candles or keep a kosher home but we ate no pork or shrimp, never had milk products and meat together, and I saw my dad get violently ill after he learned that a roasted chicken he had eaten was basted in butter. He believed with all his heart that he should spend the Sabbath at the synagogue (the Fifth Commandment says: “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy”) but he was employed as a retail merchant in a children’s clothing store, and Saturday was the busiest shopping day. The stores were closed on Sunday so Christians could go to church but Saturday was a work day. Like Matadormus and the Jews of old, he was raised to believe that wealth was the token of God’s favor. He believed he never prospered because he disobeyed God by not keeping the Sabbath.

My dad was sixteen when he came to America from Poland with his mother on a steamship in steerage with one bag. They had lived in a little village called Kowel. (I imagine it to be something like Tevya’s village.) His grandfather was a traveling rabbi and there was great joy in the village when he was home. He went to the synagogue schools, spoke Yiddish and Hebrew at home and Polish in public. He told me how he had been taunted and abused by soldiers who often rode through the village. He never knew if they were Polish, Russian or German, but he believed they were Christians. They shouted, “Christ-killer” “Jud de Palestina”(Jew – go to Palestine) as they passed, and they often cut off the beards of the old men with their swords. When he was very young he saw one of them cut off part of his grandfather’s chin with his sword. He learned to spit three times when he passed a church “tu-tu-tu.” He lived in fear of Christians.

He knew first hand of rampant anti-Semitism, he experienced the persecution generated by Jew-hating Poles, Russians and Germans, and continued hearing about the pogroms in Europe from relatives who managed to get out by the late 30s. Hitler’s “final solution” to the elimination of the Jews resulted in the horrors of the Holocaust and my dad and most of the people he knew lost many family members. It was very important to him that his children maintained the faith and survived as Jews.

When my parents were able to buy their first house it was in what they called a “non-Jewish” neighborhood. I was the only Jewish kid in the school. I knew so little about Christianity that I missed getting 100% on a language test because I answered that the gender of the word “monk” could be male or female. I thought “monk” was a short way of saying monkey. In class we celebrated Easter by decorating eggs to take home and Christmas by making decorations and gifts for our families. All my friends went to church on Sunday. Celebrating Christian holidays seemed perfectly normal to me. But not to my dad.

So he made sure I spent a lot of time at the synagogue. After school on Tuesdays and Thursdays I went to Hebrew School, on Friday nights we went to the Sabbath service, on Saturdays I went to “Junior Congregation” while the adults who were off on Saturday were in the synagogue, and on Sundays I went to Sunday School. I learned to read and write Hebrew phonetically so I could participate in the rituals of the synagogue service. They were conducted in Hebrew and I participated fully – without ever understanding a word. I also wrote “Merry Christmas” phonetically in Hebrew on the chalkboard when my third grade teacher was doing a lesson on how Christmas was celebrated in other lands. It didn’t occur to me that Jews in Israel didn’t say “Merry Christmas.” I engaged in many mindless rituals, which unlike Jesus, I didn’t question. As prescribed, I kissed the mezuzah (a religious object on the doorpost of Jewish homes) and said to myself: “The Lord shall preserve our going out and our coming in, from this time forth and even forevermore.” (124:4.7) I never wrote out the word God because it was forbidden. I wrote G-d. I wore a Jewish star around my neck and studied to become a “daughter of the covenant” (a bat mitzvah) when I was thirteen. I learned all the Old Testament Bible Stories and believed they were true. I’m embarrassed that when I was in a ninth grade biology class and the teacher asked how life began I unhesitatingly said: “with Adam and Eve.”

At the time I thought that doing those things was my religion. I realize now, however, that my experience of being Jewish was more social, cultural and political than religious. My Hebrew School lessons were filled with politics. I was totally immersed in the excitement when Israel officially became the Jewish homeland. The Jews finally had a home, a land where they would be free from persecution. And my studies were filled with morality. I developed sense of righteousness and of guilt and duty. I was a good student because the high value Jews placed on education was always evident. My parents sacrificed many pleasures to save enough money to put three kids through college. I enjoyed celebrating all the holidays with family and participated in all the events at the synagogue. My father’s hope was that I would maintain the traditions, become a leader in the Jewish community, perhaps the head of a national Jewish women’s organization. I was happy with my life and my religion. The problem was that I knew nothing about who God really was, nothing about the spirit within, nothing about doing God’s will, and I thought about him only when I was doing something wrong.

One Christmas I went to a church service at midnight with a friend. We were seated at the front of a balcony. The service was unfamiliar, but magical and I was totally engaged. Suddenly the preacher was looking at me and shouting: “Have you been saved? Have you taken Jesus as your Lord and Master?” And then he was yelling: “Come down, confess your sins and take Jesus as your savior.” I thought he was talking directly to me and I was scared out of my mind. I wondered how he knew I was Jewish and that I didn’t believe in Jesus.

Of course, I was not about to believe in Jesus. Like Mary and Joseph up to the time Jesus was twelve years old, I could never have “even faintly dreamed that Jesus was indeed and in truth the actual creator of this local universe of things and beings (124:4.4) Jewish people just don’t believe in Jesus as divine. First of all, the belief in one God is a certainty in Judaism. Jews KNOW that there simply are not any other gods, especially one who died on a cross and came back to life in three days. They obey the First Commandment: “I am the Lord thy God and thou shalt have no other gods before me.” In fact, as Urantia Book readers know the belief in one God is the revelation of Melchizedek and the legacy of Abraham and Moses. The most important Jewish prayer, the Sh’ma, (“Sh’ma Yisrael, Adonoi Elohaynu, Adonoi Echad - Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one”) is the first prayer that is taught to Jewish children and the last one uttered before one dies. It is repeated many times daily at synagogue services all over the world. It was certainly repeated by Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth and in the Temple at Jerusalem. The “Sh’ma” was the answer Jesus gave to one of the Pharisees who while trying to entrap him asked: “Which is the greatest commandment?” Jesus answered: “There is but one commandment, and that one is the greatest of all, and that commandment is: ”Hear Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one…” (174:4.2)

Secondly, “Jesus” is kind of a bad word in most Jewish households. The persecutions during the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, the pogroms, the Holocaust, widespread anti-Semitism – much of the suffering that Jews have experienced is in some way laid at the feet of Jesus. They make no distinction between Christianity and Jesus. And finally, there is the feeling of the need to perpetuate the race. Today the Jewish population is approximately 13.5 million and some fear that the downward trend indicates that Jews may disappear in a few generations. Jews fear assimilation, intermarriage and especially conversion to Christianity.

No, I was not about to believe in Jesus. But I had lots of Christian friends and I liked everybody. It never occurred to me to think who was Jewish and who was not. However, it concerned my parents that I was dating “gentiles.” In spite of their constant efforts to make me go out with Jewish boys I liked the Italian boys and my dad was very worried that I would fall in love and marry a non-Jewish man. His concern was so great that he uprooted our family and moved to a town that was not “restricted” and had a sizable Jewish population. There I would likely meet a nice Jewish boy and get married. I did! I met Steve almost immediately and six years later we had a big Jewish wedding.

So how did I come to see Jesus as divine? I was involved in Jewish organizations and on the way to fulfilling my earthly father’s dream. I believed I was Cinderella and I had married the prince. But our early years together were very difficult. In the first year Steve’s dad died suddenly and tragically and we became responsible for his despondent mom and sixteen year old sister. I had intended to teach while Steve finished graduate school, but we had an unplanned baby and I was unable to continue teaching full-time. I found my mother in law to be very emotionally needy and demanding, and I was young and immature and didn’t handle things well. There was lots of conflict and sadness and life was not the fairy tale I had imagined it would be.

I was confused, unhappy and not coping well, but Steve was searching. He was searching for meaning and he was searching for truth. For many years he had studied philosophers and truth seekers, explored many paths and contemplated the meaning of life. I went along for the ride, but solutions to our problems were not forthcoming and the quality of life didn’t improve very much. And then he found and began to read The Urantia Book and I saw a significant emotional change in him that seemed very real. In spite of all the chaos and conflict around us, he was peaceful. And it lasted, and I knew he had found something really important. So in spite of the fact that the book had something to do with Jesus (and the idea frightened me very much) I began to read it too. And it was in the pages of The Urantia Book that I first found Jesus.

At first I saw that there was much about his young life that I could relate to personally. Like me, as a child he lived in a place that was more gentile than Jewish and spent lots of time in the synagogue. He engaged in the same rituals (although he questioned their meanings, which I never did) and celebrated the same Jewish holidays. He celebrated Hannukah, the Festival of Lights commemorating the dedication of the Temple after the victory of the Macabbees; Purim, the feast of Esther and Israel’s deliverance through her; Passover, the commemoration of the escape from Egypt and the sparing of Jewish first born sons; Succoth, the feast of the first fruits and the harvest ingathering; and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Like most Jewish boys he was circumcised eight days after birth, and like Steve, and our son Marc, who were first born sons like Jesus, he was ritually redeemed from sacrifice in a temple ceremony. At thirteen, like Jewish boys the world over, when Jesus graduated from the course of training at the synagogue he was pronounced a “son of the commandment” (bar mitzvah). This is a very big occasion today for most Jewish boys.

When his mother joined him on his Passover trip to the Temple for his consecration as a son of the commandment she was made to sit in the women’s gallery. I remembered the little synagogue where I sat in the back balcony with my grandmother. Women took no part in the religious life of the Jews in Jesus’ time, and are still segregated from the men in Orthodox synagogues today. For almost 4000 years when orthodox men recite the morning prayer, they have prayed: “Blessed art thou the Eternal Our God, King of the Universe who hath not made me a woman.” Jesus’ treatment of women shocked the apostles, but “he made it very clear to them that women were to be accorded equal rights with men in the kingdom.” (138:8.11) As a young man, in spite of the fact “that girls of Jewish families received little education, Jesus maintained that they should go to the same school as boys, and since the synagogue school would not receive them he conducted a home school especially for [his sisters.]” (127:1.5) That endeared him to me.

He openly and graciously shared his relationship with his Father in heaven. He knew him to be kind and compassionate, loving and merciful, a Father who loved each of his children personally and affectionately. It was so different from my vision of a powerful God of judgment and anger. I loved when he had his little talks with him. I began to try it myself instead of mindlessly repeating the 23rd Psalm or the “Our Father.” God didn’t talk back to me, but I began to realize that he was there, and that he was my friend – not my judge. I began to love God instead of fear him, and ask him what he wanted me to do, and not be afraid to do it. I began to have a relationship with God and Jesus was teaching me how, and when I was in doubt about what God wanted, Jesus was there to show me the way. He was the way.

Because of him my marriage improved. I realized that if there were problems to solve I needed to look inside myself for the power of goodness to make the changes, not to the supposed wrongdoer. The story of Jesus and Anaxand in Caesarea made a profound impact on me. My son Marc doesn’t know it, but I became a more competent and caring mother by learning from Jesus who was the master parent to his brothers and sisters. Because of Jesus I became a better teacher. I noticed that my teaching was changing. I began to look more for the children’s motives than at their behavior. I tried to give them what they needed before they asked rather than as a reward for good behavior.

His fatherly treatment of aggressors helped me to see aggressive parents at school in a new way. Our district had been accused of “institutional racism” and white teachers were under scrutiny and attack by many black parents. One day I was summoned to meet with a single mom who had just moved to town and whose son was to be in my class. She pointed her finger at me and yelled threateningly, “I know about this district and I know the law and I don’t expect my son to get a fair shake and I’ll be watching you.” It was a scary moment, my heart was pounding, and I took a deep breath and prayed: “Help me Father,” and then I heard myself say to her, “Nickolas is one lucky boy to have an advocate like you in his corner. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like if my mom cared about me the way you care about him.” She was completely disarmed and we became friends and partners in Nickolas’ education. I realized later it was the Spirit of Truth speaking and I knew then for the first time what it meant that Jesus would always be with me in times of trouble. And he is.

My dad didn’t have to worry. I am a Jew. Belief in the divinity of Jesus is not conversion to Christianity. It is a deepening of faith in God. Jesus kept all that was fine and beautiful in the Jewish teachings and enlarged the concept of God’s nature through his life. He asked his followers to believe with him, not in him. I was inspired by his teachings but I was won over by the life he lived. Jesus’ love is irresistible. He was God’s love revealed and is the most beautiful personal expression of God on earth. Because of him I know I am a beloved child of God. And that’s simply divine!

Bobbie Dreier is a retired teacher. She is the grandmother of Matthew and Jason. Bobbie and her husband Steve recently celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.
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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

http://mercy.urantia.org/papers/paper44.html
Majeston
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« Reply #20 on: March 19, 2007, 02:22:39 pm »

A Quaker's Story

Submitted by John Frazier

Nine generations ago my Quaker ancestors moved to North Carolina. We still reside here and practice the faith of The Religious Society of Friends. A key article of faith is the belief in the presence of "the light" of God in each individual.
Fifteen years ago I was browsing the stacks in the public library and the unusual title of this book seemed to leap out at me. This was my discovery of The Urantia Book. My spiritual life has not been the same since that momentous day.
As I read more I realized that this book was an example of the continuing revelation that we believe occurs when a Quaker stands to speak in meeting for worship. After reading more, it was clear that this was a major revelation as opposed to minor revelation that can occur at any time, in any place.

The greatest discovery for me about The Urantia Book is the confirmation of the presence of The Universal Father, in the form of the Father Fragment, The Thought Adjuster.
There has always been a feeling, or a kind of knowing associated with the belief in the presence of "the light" for me, but to find an epochal revelation that actually designates and defines that presence was a spiritual gift unequaled by any other.
I read almost every day and still worship as a Quaker. The combination of the two religious practices sooth my soul and help me face the rigors of daily life. I often thank God for the "gift" of The Urantia Book, and always look forward to my next period of reading about truth, beauty, and goodness.
As a Friend, John

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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

http://mercy.urantia.org/papers/paper44.html
Majeston
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« Reply #21 on: March 19, 2007, 02:31:03 pm »

A Baha'i and Student of The Urantia Book

Submitted by Jim Scott

As I began to read The Urantia Book, I sensed truth and an awesome explanation of everything! The subjects of God, creation, time, the beginning of man, Adam and Eve, and the centralizing focus on Jesus (Michael) were put forth.
As a member of the Baha'i Faith, I have found my "way to worship." The Baha'i Faith sets out the importance of:
(1) Belief in One God.
(2) The brotherhood of man.
(3) The truth of all religions.

With The Urantia Book, I have found my "way of understanding" with respect to creation, philosophy, worship and wisdom, etc.
I am truly thankful for all the great souls who have guided and are now guiding us - as we all walk the walk with an ever-growing lighted way.
Peace and Love......

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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

http://mercy.urantia.org/papers/paper44.html
Majeston
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« Reply #22 on: March 19, 2007, 02:37:47 pm »

An Atheist No More

Submitted by Roxanne Andrews


By Roxanne Andrews, a retired Chemist from Colorado
I was raised in a secular household. All holidays were celebrated without religious connotations—Santa and the Easter Bunny, not the birth and death of Christ, Thanksgiving with food, but without the prayer of Thanks. It was not because my parents did not believe in God, it was because they were uncomfortable talking about concepts that they had not examined. I doubt that they had given themselves permission to question the dogmas of mainstream Christianity as presented in the Old Testament and had ceased inquiring about spiritual matters before getting into the "good stuff" of the New Testament. After living through the depression and the horrors of the Second World War, I am sure that the concept of a Loving Father was hard for them to imagine. In addition, after the deaths of two much loved and wanted children, God became unfathomable and unlovable. God was cruel, wrathful, vengeful and totally illogical, but then, they did not have access to The Urantia Book to give them an expanded view of Universe Realities, nor the expanded teachings of Jesus for comfort and guidance.
At the age of thirteen, due no doubt to the leading of the spirit of God within me, I became very curious about religion. Since my friends were of all different Faiths, I began at the library, studying the different denominations of Christianity and found none that I could embrace wholeheartedly. I went on to study the non-Christian faiths, visited various churches, temples and Fellowships. From my search, I discovered that while each faith had some beliefs that "rang true" and felt noble, others felt repulsive. Then arose the question in my mind, that if all these doctrines and dogmas were touted as The Truth, and yet differed so much in many aspects, then maybe none were inspired and all were man-made. After pondering these dilemmas of Agnosticism for five years, I became uncomfortable sitting on "the picket fence of indecision" and jumped to the conclusion that maybe even their commonalities were man-made. Therefore, God also was just a figment of man's imagination! An Atheist was born, and no lightening bolts zapped me to persuade me otherwise.
All through college, I studied the sciences of biology, chemistry, physics, geology, anatomy, physiology, genetics, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontology, as well as all the anthropology classes available. At the time, I had no trouble at all constructing a philosophy of my own to explain the universe, evolution of plant and animal life, and the development of the human mind. The only thing that I could not explain was how the Original matter or energy that exists in the universe came into being. However, none of my religious associates could explain where God came from, so I figured that we were "even" philosophically. I was not at all bothered by the absence of an afterlife in my philosophy. The concept of hell with it's never-ending punishment was pointless, reincarnation made no sense, and as far as heaven was concerned, who would want to sit on a cloud and play a harp or be a flower in God's garden for eternity? Living a life according to the Golden Rule was sufficient unto itself and spending one's time learning from the vast storehouse of knowledge available and enjoying nature's bounties were all that was necessary for a joyous life. In addition, if one wanted more, there were many creative pursuits of music, art and invention to make life more challenging.
One day, many, many years later, I felt compelled to read the book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and I distinctly remember saying to myself, "If Heaven could be like that, it wouldn't be so bad—might even be enjoyable." Less than one month later, I was introduced to The Urantia Book. Of course, I was drawn into it kicking and screaming! My husband had become enthralled by this big, blue book and since I did not want to be married to a religious fanatic, I started reading in order to prove it false. I began with part III, since my education was so heavily weighted in the earth sciences and the evolutionary record. If this book is religious, it does have to be anti-evolution, right? Well, that was January 1974. Here it is 2001 and I have given up trying to get my husband to abandon the book, or myself, for that matter. We have been avidly studying the teachings of The Urantia Book for twenty-seven years, participating in study groups, going to conferences and retreats, and just quietly re-reading the papers at home.
I have to laugh at myself when I stop to think at how my philosophy and my entire life have changed! Actually, my eternity has changed. I read the book the first time through with all my skeptical sensors turned on full blast, and although I did not always understand the more difficult parts, nothing felt phony or false, harmful or detrimental. I am always amazed at how the puzzle pieces of life so neatly fit together, and how all the gaps in my knowledge are eventually filled. The universe is cohesive beyond my wildest dreams and the beauty and complexity of its design and over care make me wonder how I could have ever NOT believed in God. To go from thinking that Jesus was the biggest fraud ever to walk the planet to being totally awed by his matchless gifts makes me thankful beyond words. Reading the Jesus Papers from The Urantia Book gives me the spiritual joy and inspiration to live my life with Truth, Beauty, Goodness and unbounded love. Thank you Heavenly Father, for Christ Michael and The Urantia Book…and for changing my life.
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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
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Harmony is the speech of Havona.

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« Reply #23 on: March 20, 2007, 10:31:22 am »

A Jewish Perspective


Martin Greenhut
Reader since 1970

I am a graduate of Talmudical Academy High School and of Yeshiva College in New York City. I also attended the Hebrew Teachers Institute at Yeshiva for six years. For my entire youth I was intensely active in Jewish life and was a practicing orthodox Yeshiva student until my senior year in college when I chose to give up my orthodoxy and its consequent segregation from the rest of the world. I became what is known in Israel today as "a secular Jew". It simply means that I gave up my orthodox involvements and practices and lived as an agnostic... although not hostile to religion... just not able to relate to the various sectarian doctrines. I believed that If God existed he didn't love any people on earth any better than the others and certainly wouldn't exclude anyone from eternal salvation just because they were born into the wrong religion.

As a Jew, the obstacle to relating to Christianity was my resentment for the anti-semetic confrontations that were thrust upon me by Christians. I grew up during WWII and as a teenager I saw the first filmed evidence of the Nazi Holocost that was presented as evidence at the Nuremberg trials. Whenever I heard quotations from "The New Testament" I regarded them as teachings hostile to the Jews and consequently would not read it.

I lived a life dedicated to improving the world and it brought me into contact with all kinds of people. When working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s movement in the civil rights struggle I often found myself in churches of the blacks and that is where I was first introduced to the love of Jesus.

I was not satisfied that things were as we were taught. I always lived in hope and never left the "Kriat Shema" behind. "Hear o' Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord, your God with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your might." I just knew that He was out there, but I didn't know where.
As it turned out, my search for truth brought the Urantia Book into my hands and since that day I have been taken up with its study and in the practice of its teachings.

Getting into the Urantia Book meant that I had to be open to new truth and this process has meant an ongoing expansion of my understanding of life and of the problems that we are facing in this world. It brought me to the doors of faith which are opened as I knock.

The greatest problem that I had as a Jew were in the teachings about the Paradise Trinity but a careful reading of Book One of the Urantia Book dispelled these doubts with no problem. As for Jesus, the Urantia Book gave me an opportunity to meet him as a Gallilean Jew. I didn't ever have to become a "Christian". If anybody asks me to this day what my religion is I unhesitatingly tell them that I am a Jew.

Knowing Jesus as a jew is an unspeakable blessing. The Urantia Book reveals Jesus' Jewish upbringing, education and racial outlook in such a way as to allow me to identify with him as a Jew. He had the same kind of home and schooling as did I, went to the synagogue as did I, and lived in a jewish culture which has not significantly changed to this day. The prayers and biblical passages that he quoted were the same ones that I used, he attended seders and read from the Torah, had a Bar Mitzvah and his teacher was a chazan. His apostles were Gallilean Jews and his earliest followers were also jews.

The distortions that Pauline Christianity imposeed on the Teachings of Jesus along with the mistakes of his apostles who preached a religion about Jesus rather than the religion of Jesus compromised the Gospel Message. I find Christianity's doctrines of the virgin birth and the doctrine of atonement by the shedding of blood (the crucifixion of Jesus as a sacrificial offering for the sins of man) both alienating and degrading of the wondrous bestowal and the life of truth that Jesus lived here among us. The Revelation of God's love in the human life of the Son of Man will continue to enrich us spiritually in all eternity.

As for the rest of the Urantia Book, its revelations are both challenging and eddifying, inspiring and supreme.

In my opinion, any Jew who gets into the Urantia book will not only gain a profound understanding of our religion but also has a head start in understanding the teachings of our Lord and Creator who lived here as one of us and revealed the Father in Heaven as he lived a human life among us.

There is some especially interesting Jewish Lore that relates to the Urantia revelation which has significance to me.

Pentecost is the Jewish Festival of Shevuoth. It is the Hag HaBikkurim... The festival of the First Fruits. It is also called Z'man Ma-tahn Torateinu... the time of the giving of our Torah.
 
The day of Pentecost on Which Jesus poured His Spirit of Truth upon all flesh is the same day celebrated by Jews for the giving of the Torah to the world through Moses.





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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

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« Reply #24 on: March 23, 2007, 06:32:44 pm »

The Great Integrator

Submitted by Gideon Davidson


I had been very interested in the theme of advanced, extraterrestrial intelligences for some time now, and in learning about the universe as a whole.

This was giving me a new understanding of The Bible, but The Bible itself wasn't following my line of enquiry very far, at least as far as I could understand it. In other words, I was drifting away from 'revealed' religion, with it's heirarchy of angels and talk of a Divine Kingdom as embodied in The Bible, and towards fan sites which talk about extraterrestrials. Searching for interesting sites on the Internet, I chanced upon The Urantia Book and got far more than I had bargained for.

For the first time, The Urantia Book tied together my interest in cosmic exploration with the teachings of Jesus and of the Angelic Host. There had been a painful conflict in my mind between revealed religion on the one hand, and the idea of a 'cosmic community' of freely evolving life on the other. It seemed to me that the moral teachings of religion and the evolution of life were in quite separate spheres and I would have to choose between them at some point (as many have appeared to do). I found the 'one planet' view of most religious people I had met intellectually stifling, but at the same time I realised that their concern with the moral sphere and our treatment of others is really important and no amount of learning renders it less so. The Urantia Book pulled these two together in a divine synthesis that I could never have made myself. Never before had I seen such an integrated source of knowledge, or seen the words of Jesus in such a naturalistic and sympathetic style. Gone was the 'mysteriumm tremendum' of a God who moves in ways that are always beyond our understanding and more emphasised was a loving God who can be known. Why this is not always immediately apparent on our world was made very clear in the narratives of our world's history. Many things that had confused me for some time were cleared up, for example the question of the original rebellion and of attempts to integrate this world into the cosmic kingdom.

So now I study the Urantia Book regularly, especially through the Internet resources of Truthbook.com, each time picking up a new spiritual gem. It presents a vast universe, not abandoned to chance but ruled by angels of various descriptions. It has helped support my growing contention that even if all is not as it often should be on this world, in the universe as a whole, things are going according to plan, in a manner that shows God's benevolence. Also, whilst it says that this world is indeed something of a cosmic backwater in developmental terms, this does by no means render our deeds and attitudes here meaningless- here of all places Jesus himself chose to demonstrate the possibility of a meaningful and compassionate life despite all the obsticles.

So if, like me, you have realised that life is indeed wonderful and a constant learning process of wonder, but that this rather lost world has to an extent forgotten this and misunderstood life to be something of a burden cut off from the rest of existence, then you too can find solace and encouragement in the Urantia Book.

I only wish more of my friends and family could share my passionate interest in this work- they often assume it is nothing more than a sectarian curiosity. Yet I am leaning new and wonderful things from the Urantia Book every day, and more importantly it has given me new impetus to see this wonder reflected in the world around me. I am happy to see that I am not alone, and in fact near-infinite beings are happily evolving and learning in the universes, enjoying learning and being kind to others for it's own sake. When things are hard, they are hard for a reason and if we push through to the next level of evolution, new possibilities open up and our world becomes bigger. Having the Urantia Book confirmed so much that I had suspected all along, yet even more so opened up new lines of enquiry and contemplation. Phrases like- "The universe is not like the laws, mechanisms, and the uniformities which the scientist discovers, and which he comes to regard as science, but rather like the curious, thinking, choosing, creative, combining, and discriminating scientist who thus observes universe phenomena and classifies the mathematical facts inherent in the mechanistic phases of the material side of creation. Neither is the universe like the art of the artist, but rather like the striving, dreaming, aspiring, and advancing artist who seeks to transcend the world of material things in an effort to achieve a spiritual goal."(The Urantia Book P.2080 - §7), help me to have a sense of wonder of reality and how it creates my life according to my own choices and way of thinking. The universe is more like us, and we are more a part of it, than it might seem. I am sure I will be studying this book for the rest of my Earthly life. The fact that I found it at all shows God's love for me.




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Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

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« Reply #25 on: March 30, 2007, 10:16:49 am »





The Tool Maker

(Anonymous)

I had little or no upbringing in a traditional church, but studied Edgar Cayce and other New Age concepts as a much younger man. I lived so many years of my life in the mode of self-destruction. But one very special evening after yet another weekend spent drinking and drugging, I also reached out in desparation for help and the Master came into my life, and with His help, I've remained clean & sober for about two and a half years now. God has allowed me to start over with a new life and a new sense of purpose.

About three months after finding God and Jesus, The Urantia Book came into my hands, quite unexpectedly, as I had never heard of it prior to then. It has been a great help in understanding what happened to me that evening and it continues to be the best spiritual textbook and reference book I've found so far. But I must point out that Father and Christ Michael (Jesus) came into my life as a personal experience first, then The Urantia Book second. My point being: a book, even the UB, bible or other book of uplifting truth, should never be a substitute for a personal relationship with God or Jesus.

I must point out that God has changed my life, [The Urantia Book didn't], but the UB is an exceedingly well crafted tool that helps me to better understand my true relationship to Father, Jesus Christ Michael, Creative Daughter Spirit [Mother Nebadonia], and all my brothers and sisters in God. Only a tool crafted for no purpose is truly a useless tool and once a SUPREMELY crafted tool serves it's purpose, it isn't needed nearly as often...but it is no less valuable!!!

I must give glory to the Tool Maker, and not the tool.

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Harmony is the speech of Havona.

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« Reply #26 on: March 31, 2007, 08:09:16 am »

Center Embraced


I was raised in a strict Christian household, and as early as age 10 I think I fostered doubts about my religion. Since in my home, there was no such thing as other divine truth aside from the Bible, I felt as though I was a prisoner in my own skin. And since I stored these unspoken doubts concerning the only religion I was allowed to practice, I felt all the more alone and isolated. I perceived that my inability to form a relationship with Jesus was rooted in my inherent evilness which I feared I was perpetuating with my uncertain thoughts about the Bible and God. It was a vicious cycle, and I was basically just putting on a good show for my Mom until about age 17. It was then that, despite my increasingly demanding involvement in my church (head of the Youth Group Worship Band, frequent mission trips, administrative work, church twice or more a week) I felt my disguise weakening as I myself started to weaken, physically and mentally.

At age 17 I was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa. About 8 months earlier I had decided I was too fat and then before I knew it I was being fed through a tube in the Hospital. I was unable to eat even if I really wanted to... and I certainly didn't at that point. I had absolutely given up on 'God'. I was confused by the monarchal, patriarchal God that the Bible presented to me, and I thought that he had abandoned me for my doubts and my inability to believe like everyone else in my church and family. But even that didn't make any sense, so at this point I had figured that nothing would ever make sense, no matter how hard I tried or looked. I was absolutely lost and angry at a God that I didn't understand, so I let the darkness overtake me in my illness. As I sank lower and lower I became even more desperate and sick. I did come very close to dying that winter of 2001, and if it had not been for my in–patient and out–patient treatment, I very well may have died. I certainly wanted to die.

Eventually I was stabilized enough to where I could finish high school from home, but I had not by any means, recovered. I was merely attempting to fill that gaping vacuum inside of me with anything, anything at all that wouldn’t get me sent back into the hospital.

My parents eventually decided they just couldn't handle me anymore, and agreed to let me go live in Taos, New Mexico for a while to try to get my life together. They could see that my being at home with them in Dallas was not helping the situation, and they were right. I used to visit Taos every year growing up and it really felt like my home on earth, not Dallas, which I absolutely loathed. When I was ready, it was Taos that I was finally called back to. The person that I came back for, that I had met on a summer trip to Taos 5 years earlier, was calling me back, and so was Taos. I didn't know then that infinitely bigger things were in store for me that summer.

When I arrived in Taos, I was a self–conscious, over–thinking, over–sensitive, over–emotional wreck on all sorts of medication that I had been forced to take. When Nic, the one I loved, introduced me to The Urantia Book, all of my problems slowly dissolved all around me and inside of me, as if all of those prayers that I thought were ignored were all finally being answered. Every new page I turned was like a new wonderful discovery. To read the compilations and thoughts of these beautiful celestial personalities that love us, and see all of those concepts and questions that I could never articulate being so perfectly illustrated and answered in full – it was almost more than I could handle at the time! The hole that I had been trying so desperately hard to fill was actually that space reserved for God's infinite, eternal and universal love and mercy. I just needed to ask for it, and accept it. I learned then that I was truly an ascending daughter of my divine mother and father. I had a purpose and destiny and finality in all potential. The desire for righteous adventure that itched in me was fulfilled in promise! Each day is another leap toward the Center of all things, and it will only be the blink of an eye until I embrace Jesus – the sovereign of this universe, and maybe two blinks to my Father in Paradise.

I will for my will to be submitted to the Father. Everyday I am made better; my mind becomes more spiritualized as I focus on my Godward path and leading those around me to the same attainable perfection.

Living Truth is ultimately transforming in all ways. There was no way that I could condone slinking back into a dark, confused and numb lifestyle. The Mother and Father of heaven, that I love with all of my heart and soul, have made my purpose clear to me and have shown me my little niche that I feared God had forgotten to make for me. The wonderful beauty that beckons to me and admonishes me to acknowledge, share and appreciate it here on this planet, is the same wonderful beauty that admonishes me to recreate, spread and make more beauty where there is existing darkness. I am finally truly liberated in my decision to model my life after Jesus, and in my choice to center my life on ministry with the Revelation. Even though my Mom is infuriated in my new knowledge and truth – never hearing or accepting it – I can never let that hurt me, because I FINALLY have found truth, and nothing she can say or do now can detract from that reality. I just hope that one day she will choose to see it too. I hope the same thing for every other doubting and confused person on this planet. I can't imagine standing by and letting people wallow in despair and darkness as I did, when I have such superlative light, truth, answers, and the living cure for all pain and ailments right here within The Urantia Book .

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Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

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« Reply #27 on: April 26, 2007, 06:29:05 pm »

Something Grand To Work Towards

Saskia Raevouri
Disney Animator from California.
 

Before I was able to become a believer in God and have a purposeful life, I needed the answer to one question: What will happen to me when I die? Will I disappear? Will I be reborn as someone else, with no memory of this life? Or will I still be ME, with my personality, my consciousness and my memories intact? Until I had a satisfactory answer, my life was a meaningless round of eating, sleeping (mostly insomnia), shopping for clothes, working to earn money, and stress-filled relationships.
In 1977, aged 31, I discovered through reading the Urantia Book that I would continue to be ME after I died. When I KNEW that to be true deep inside my soul everything changed.

Suddenly my life had meaning and purpose. I now had a DIRECTION to live in--from where I found myself at that moment all the way into Paradise, even if it took four hundred billion years to get there. I began to see things in a universe framework. I went from living in a one-dimensional world to a multi-dimensional world, from black and white to color, from a world populated not only by humans but angels and hosts of other friendly beings who were here to help show the way. Studying our planetary history revealed how I had come to this point through the doings of my ancestors, knowing about the mansion worlds was like an exciting travel brochure depicting where I was going immediately after this life, and learning of our eternal destiny gave me something grand to work towards.

Discovering Jesus and his teachings taught me that God was a friend I could talk to, who understood me even when others didn't. I learned that being kind to others has eternal value, that such actions are the building blocks of the spiritual universe. Nice guys DIDN’T always finish last, as I had previously believed! I began to learn to tolerate people who irritated me, to see their viewpoint instead of mine. I could now cultivate the things that I knew I could take with me into the next life instead of worrying about how big my wardrobe was. I went from anxiety-filled nights to resting peacefully. (I still have insomnia but now I can contemplate the stupendous universe instead of worrying about eternal oblivion.)

The fact that I would continue to know the people I loved after this life added depth to my relationships. I felt a new closeness to ALL my earth brothers and sisters – one day in the distant future we would be able to look back on our Urantia experience as having survived a shipwreck or a plane crash together. I began to see this life as an opportunity to help each other cope with the disaster, and view it with a sense of humor.
Through the information in The Urantia Book I gained hope, strength, security, peace of mind, and the comfort that comes from knowing we are not expected to be perfect YET, as long as we strive to be perfect.
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Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

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« Reply #28 on: April 26, 2007, 06:34:35 pm »

The Universe Creator Is My Dad

Christopher Lepine,  freelance writer from Delaware.


Twenty years ago, a next-door neighbor lent me The Urantia Book. At that time, I had a worldview marred by misconceptions, fears, and an ignorance of life’s spiritual essentials. After spending some time with the book, I found that I was not only beginning to see the world differently, but also myself, and thus, was becoming a new person. It gave me a way to remake my life and actually become a bit more alive each day.
My real life began based on several core truths I found in the book. When I allowed myself to believe and contemplate them, everything changed and kept changing. To this day, when I actively think and live these truths, I am thrilled and instantly empowered to do anything.

The re-creation of my being is profound and unending. Challenges that I once thought impossible to overcome are now met with strength and openness. I am completely on fire with the joy and possibility of life. I still go through ups and downs, but in all of it, I grow stronger daily and become more alive and real.

As an eighteen-year-old new to The Urantia Book, I had many issues and yearnings: I felt out of touch with people. I never seemed to fit in. I had little confidence in my abilities. I was always afraid to try, thinking that I just didn’t have it in me or that the consequences would be bad. I didn’t know what career I wanted to pursue. I had a few close friends, but was basically a lonely person. I wanted to realize my destiny and feel the full joy of relating to people. I had neither a clue nor a source of strength with which to accomplish these things. I had a spiritual outlook, but it was black and white, monotone, flat, conventional, and dim: It lacked the power to set me on fire and change my life. Then I found The Urantia Book and the truths that would release me.

So, what did this mysterious, enormous blue book give me – like no other – that made a difference?

Well, it gave me the courage to change my life and myself. Very shortly, I was spending more rewarding and quality time with people than I ever had. I was volunteering, dancing, hiking, going to concerts, and enjoying Urantia Book discussion groups. I started to date more women, began to try new projects, and generally believe that I could change myself. Today I am happily married and employed. I live in a great community, rich with family and friends.

Over time the key truths in The Urantia Book transformed my mind and improved my ability to make decisions: I started to challenge myself, take more risks, and yearn for adventure. When I had a problem, I began to see it as a growth opportunity. When I was afraid, I sought to change myself with courage. When I failed, I used the truths to show me the real value of learning. When I became mired in introversion and introspection, they helped me to emerge to socialize and serve others. When I didn’t know what to do with my life, they reminded me to open up and receive divine guidance. When I wanted to become more than I was, they inspired me and allowed God to fill me.
Today I continue to build my life on the foundation of truths in The Urantia Book: I am a child of a perfect and loving Father-God whom I can contact directly in any moment. He loves me with a sublime parental affection that will see me through everything. He wants me to grow, be happy, and know the joy of adventure. He wants me to see myself as He sees me, an eternal being of light, happy and confident with endless potential. He gives me everything I need. He is a loving parent, true friend, and a perfect, eternal, infinite Deity.

The Creator of the universe is my Dad.

The Designer of all that is, the greatest, unlimited power of all, listens to me each day and offers His kind guidance and gentle divine touch. I know I will surmount every challenge. I know I will grow and exist for eternity. I know there is an unending panorama of breathtaking adventure and discovery in this life and the next. I know that no influence or power in the universe (as Paul has said) can come between me and my God.
The Urantia Book has taught me that it is my right to approach God simply through the sincerity of my heart and the effort of my will. I do not need to join any human institution or follow any human being to be close to God. I know that if I truly make an effort to pray and listen, grow and work, forgive and serve, then I will experience the full joy of intimate contact with God.

I know through the wonderful example of Jesus as portrayed in The Urantia Book, that I can overcome anything and that, in him, I have a loving, understanding and sympathetic brother by my side. I know that humankind is designed for greatness. I know that every act of good helps me grow and is never lost or forgotten, despite appearances. I know that the Spirit of God lives in me and will always be there to guide me.

I know that each day is a new beginning.

I know all of this and so much more, all because I know The Urantia Book.

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Harmony is the speech of Havona.

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« Reply #29 on: April 26, 2007, 06:40:39 pm »

How Does One Recognize What's True?

DAVE TIBBETS  Engineer;  Florida

Raised in a fundamentalist Lutheran environment, I took catechism classes. The minister's questions and written answers were supposed to lead to “inescapable conclusions” that we Lutherans were the truly anointed and enlightened ones, but it had exactly the opposite effect on me. It generated questions such as, “How come God played favorites and picked me over the less fortunate?” This line of thinking inevitably caused me to reject literally everything I’d been told. I later became agnostic with atheistic leanings.

I joined the Air Force, and flexed my newfound philosophical and religious freedoms in a search for bottom line truth. This lasted several years, and on exiting the service, I was still looking. I then joined the Unitarian Universalists. I liked their hands-off approach to the imponderables and their focus, instead, on being good to one another, here and now. But still, I felt driven to find something, somewhere, that had an absolutely, undeniably factual basis. This need was starting to loosen my mental glue because if you have nothing to anchor your belief system, reality gets a little shaky.

1974 was the low point and the starting point for me. Having come to the conclusion that I literally knew nothing, I was open to truly learning. That’s when it happened. One day while sitting at my bench at work, concentrating on wire-wrapping an electronic circuit board, I got a billboard-sized announcement inside my head. It said, “Truth is not facts, but a state of realization.” It nearly knocked me off my stool. My recovery was assured; I now realized that my truth would continuously change and my understanding would grow. I was, however, still severely rejecting my earlier fundamentalist Christian teachings, and I had a negative, knee-jerk reaction to anything that had Jesus’ name associated with it. Thankfully, God and other spiritual friends stuck in there with me.

One day, a fellow who was a friend of a friend invited me to a party after work. As the party progressed, I voiced some of my searching questions during a philosophical “bull session.” Shortly thereafter, the fellow said, “I’ve got something I think you’d be interested in.” It was, of course, Big Blue, The Urantia Book! I thumbed through the index and knew I had to have the book. I copied down the publisher’s address and phone number and ordered my book the next day. When it arrived, I tried to read the Foreword. No way! I saw the Jesus Papers in the back of the book, but just set them aside mentally as I was not ready to deal with them. It took fourteen years of occasionally pulling the book off the shelf and putting it away again before being able to begin reading the story of Adam and Eve. I fell in love. Here, finally, was something that felt true. I’ve made all my friends and relatives a little crazy ever since.

God is now trying to train me in the process of sharing my faith. You’d think I’d know better than to become a fundamentalist myself, but when you discover the keys to the universe and beyond, it’s a little difficult to be self-restrained!

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"melody has power a whole world to transform."
Forever, music will remain the universal language of men, angels, and spirits.
Harmony is the speech of Havona.

http://mercy.urantia.org/papers/paper44.html
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