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 Post subject: O how human we are
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Any one noticed how much detail is in the U.B. about the mind of the Apostles as Christ was taken away to be judged, the conflicts and fears in the minds over the whole situation. i see many of there thoughts as a reflection of thoughts i have had in moment in my life at times.

The human condition, those moments that sunk deep into my psyche to lower my self esteem so that I would not want to achieve much in my life because i had proven my self unworthy, I am in awe of the tellings and the reality that they against all odd ( ok they had help) rose up to the challenge and became ambassador's of God, i ask you all, how many of us have wanted better to be servants of God but fall short of the mark mostly because we don't think high enough of our self after living shattered live's.

So let us see in them what can be seen in us, inspite of our worst we can still become OUR BEST

Just shearing thought.
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This brings to mind the following:

"Almost every human being has some one thing which is held on to as a pet evil, and which the entrance into the kingdom of heaven requires as a part of the price of admission." 1802:03

"Do not become discouraged by the discovery that you are human. Human nature may tend toward evil, but it is not inherently sinful. Be not downcast by your failure wholly to forget some of your regrettable experiences. The mistakes which you fail to forget in time will be forgotten in eternity. Lighten your burdens of soul by speedily acquiring a long-distance view of your destiny, a universe expansion of your career. " 1739 :03


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Exactly, and why is it that we don't give our selves that liberty of freedom in growth,,,In my experiences with clients it is because most give to much power to how they feel than what they know.

It is s leap in there minds to free them elves to such a state of belief that they are not there experiences

What we are is not our past but the courage in the moment to do something different and new in our attempt to live up to a higher idea and Ideals.
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 Post subject: Re: O how human we are
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J. Barry wrote:
Any one noticed how much detail is in the U.B. about the mind of the Apostles as Christ was taken away to be judged, the conflicts and fears in the minds over the whole situation. i see many of there thoughts as a reflection of thoughts i have had in moment in my life at times.

The human condition, those moments that sunk deep into my psyche to lower my self esteem so that I would not want to achieve much in my life because i had proven my self unworthy, I am in awe of the tellings and the reality that they against all odd ( ok they had help) rose up to the challenge and became ambassador's of God, i ask you all, how many of us have wanted better to be servants of God but fall short of the mark mostly because we don't think high enough of our self after living shattered live's.

So let us see in them what can be seen in us, inspite of our worst we can still become OUR BEST

Just shearing thought.


These are beautiful thoughts JB. They are so true. To often we become so destroyed in our self esteem and self confidence that it's almost impossible to pick ourselves back up. When we do manage it's seems like a miracle to us and we have to guard ourselves to keep from falling back into the downward cycle of the self-fulfilling prophesy of self condemnation. We are no good we tell ourselves then we act out our not being good to confirm what we think about ourselves.

If we are lucky we find God and God's love for us no matter how we are and we are so thankful to God we start doing right because we want to please and thank Him for loving us even though we know we're no good. And God lifts us up and gives us respect and in doing so shows us how to respect ourselves and respect others.

God Bless You my brother JB because to touch a tender spot my heart with your sharing. God's Love be with you and all here.
:smile:

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Thank you Joer and Iris;

I want to take this further, I want to ask how many here that are readers, are getting Intellectual gratification from the book, or being stirred to change in there actions of living...Have you started to write your own Mota?

Have you attempted to examine the 7 psychic circles in your life?

Do you write a Journal and reflect on things done and how they can be done better and actually acted on it the next time the opportunity happens?

These things and more are a reflection of our attempts to internalize the teachings we receive as we discover higher truths, no matter the journey we are on, we grow only by action not thought thought alone!

I believe that many of us sit in non-action only thinking our way through life in a dillusion of hopefull existence, knowing we are better, thinking we can be better, but giving our selves no actual evedance to back it up ...only having to fall back on our self doubts and pray we may die in graces arms ... for we have judged our selves O so Harshly


Just a thought and question to my fellow readers :)
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One more...lol...

Do we see opportunity's to act like Christ in forgiving some one or do we act out our usual hurts and play the part of the victim in this confused world?

The Christians have a good saying....What would Christ do?
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Hi JB thank for the questions. I think it's been more of a spiritual and emotional gratification for me than intellectual. It's like the joy of finding truth that resonates with your life. I haven't tried the journal or the seven circles BUT I have noticed a BIG change in the way I live my life. It's still not enough in terms of feeling fully dedicated to doing God's Will but it's so much more than before. And my sense of being closer to God and sensing spiritual activity and presence within my daily experience is greater than it used to be.

And I like it. It's not a chore to help another it's a gift to me in the joy of he adventure of reaching out to strangers.

Your right about the evidence to back it up. In living it the evidence backs up what I read in the book. And I sometimes get so emotional because I know from experience about what it says. I enjoy reading it much more now because I know so many other things in the book from experience now that I didn't really understand experientially before.

I ebjoyed this one tonight among others:

188:5.2 The cross forever shows that the attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither condemnation nor condonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation. Jesus is truly a savior in the sense that his life and death do win men over to goodness and righteous survival. Jesus loves men so much that his love awakens the response of love in the human heart. Love is truly contagious and eternally creative. Jesus' death on the cross exemplifies a love which is sufficiently strong and divine to forgive sin and swallow up all evil-doing. Jesus disclosed to this world a higher quality of righteousness than justice—mere technical right and wrong. Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs and actually destroys them. The forgiveness of love utterly transcends the forgiveness of mercy. Mercy sets the guilt of evil-doing to one side; but love destroys forever the sin and all weakness resulting therefrom. Jesus brought a new method of living to Urantia. He taught us not to resist evil but to find through him a goodness which effectually destroys evil. The forgiveness of Jesus is not condonation; it is salvation from condemnation. Salvation does not slight wrongs; it makes them right. True love does not compromise nor condone hate; it destroys it. The love of Jesus is never satisfied with mere forgiveness. The Master's love implies rehabilitation, eternal survival. It is altogether proper to speak of salvation as redemption if you mean this eternal rehabilitation.

Peace be with you Jim. Thanks for the questions. Live the Spirit! :smile:

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Thank you Joer

Forgiveness, What a word, I have in my life struggled and than abandon this word so many times.... in the end, when i began my sobriety,.. it became the one word that made the biggest difference in my life.

I can easily remember all those self justified moments of hating, and condemning, ..thinking only of how right I am to judge those that had done me wrong... never once looking or even seeing the damage holding onto it was doing to me, in the end, it was more profound for me to forgive my self than to forgive others and I did for give all,... I had to if I wanted this love that was so freely being given to me.

It was not easy though, I had rationalized and justified my angers and resentments for so long, ...I even had social cues in our society telling me it was ok for me to hate and be angry over certain things.....So how was i going to let all those years of stewing go...lol...(But for the grace of God) you know what I mean...lol.

I have told person at time that when it came time for me to face this issue in my life it took several months, and it was like me having a tooth pulled that had a root all the way down to my ass...It was going to take a long time coming out and it was not going to be painless.

But when I finally gave in to forgiveness, I mean surrendered to I think is a better statement, and truly let go of my need to be angry, I was no longer the same person.

I remember how it felt,...the first few day I was going to meeting shearing with the groups I was in,.. that i saw every thing different,..Even little things that people would do did not boughter me any more like they used-to.

Love does heal and redeems as well as transforms....I want so strongly for every one in the world to have these experiences so they too can know what I know...That God, (IT) or what ever you want to call this amazing Higher Power...that it is Dynamically involved in our lives on every level if only we could just open our eyes and accept it being in us all.

Some times I feel this so much it is like a hurt wanting to get out, that I am missing a something that I can do that will help bring about this awareness.

The only tools I have at this point is my Love for others and willingness to be of service ..to shear my experiences, strengths, hopes for other, and dreams of what life can be if we all begin to let this awesome of a loving force in our lives....Living it, breathing it, and in every simple way experiencing it. ....well that is all i have to say for to day.. thanks for keeping this tread alive Joer and Iris

Stay True To The Journey my friends...and Much Love
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"An effective philosophy of living is formed by a combination of cosmic insight and the total of one's emotional reactions to the social and economic environment. Remember: While inherited urges cannot be fundamentally modified, emotional responses to such urges can be changed; therefore the moral nature can be modified, character can be improved. In the strong character emotional responses are integrated and co-ordinated, and thus is produced a unified personality. Deficient unification weakens the moral nature and engenders unhappiness."1572:08

"Material feelings, human emotions, lead directly to material actions, selfish acts. Religious insights, spiritual motivations, lead directly to religious actions, unselfish acts of social service and altruistic benevolence." 1121:05

"Religion, the conviction-faith of the personality, can always triumph over the superficially contradictory logic of despair born in the unbelieving material mind. There really is a true and genuine inner voice, that "true light which lights every man who comes into the world." And this spirit leading is distinct from the ethical prompting of human conscience. The feeling of religious assurance is more than an emotional feeling. The assurance of religion transcends the reason of the mind, even the logic of philosophy. Religion is faith, trust, and assurance." 1104:03


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Quote:
The only tools I have at this point is my Love for others and willingness to be of service


I can't think of better tools than those Jim. You are truly blessed to have found those tools within you. The opportunities to use them will present themselves. Then it's up to us how we will respond.

Bless You Brother. Your heart is good. Your service to others will reflect that. Keep forgiveness in your heart. It hard to do sometimes but we have an eternity to practice. :smile:

Quote:
We grow by having faith in the Way, trust that the Spirit of Truth will show us the Way, and assurance, a pledge of honor, or a guarantee that he will never abandon his faith trust in us while we're learning the Way.

Amen/Awomen. :smile:

Jim I believe that desire within you that craves more and better service to and forgiveness of your brothers and sisters is a natural craving for someone who has found God in their lives and desires to do God's Will.

101:2.14
P.1107 - §4 Your deepest nature--the divine Adjuster--creates within
you a hunger and thirst for righteousness, a certain craving for divine perfection. Religion is the faith act of the recognition of this inner urge to divine attainment; and thus is brought about that soul trust and assurance of which you become conscious as the way of salvation, the technique of the survival of personality and all those values which you have come to look upon as being true and good.

101:6.1
P.1111 - §5 The morontia phase of revealed religion has to do with the experience of survival, and its great urge is the attainment of spirit perfection. There also is present the higher urge of worship, associated with an impelling call to increased ethical service. Morontia insight entails an ever-expanding consciousness of the Sevenfold, the Supreme, and even the Ultimate.

103:5.7
P.1134 - §5 The pursuit of the ideal--the striving to be Godlike--is a continuous effort before death and after. The life after death is no different in the essentials than the mortal existence. Everything we do in this life which is good contributes directly to the enhancement of the future life. Real religion does not foster moral indolence and spiritual laziness by encouraging the vain hope of having all the virtues of a noble character bestowed upon one as a result of passing through the portals of natural death. True religion does not belittle man's efforts to progress during the mortal lease on life. Every mortal gain is a direct contribution to the enrichment of the first stages of the immortal survival experience.

May the spark of God within us be our guiding light. :smile:

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I agree..i would not have this hunger if it were not for the Spirit of truth and the indwelling fragment of God ...and I can't express enough the importance to all of us growing in the awareness of spiritual leadings to seek out every opportunity to Augment and Foster our environment to bring out those gifts that come from the transformation of feeding out soul.

I am asking U.B. reader what they do because i thing we get in comfort zone and stop short of our potential to reflect God in our life's.


Stay True To The Journey
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I have reached my peak and am falling down on the job, no doubt about it. I used to have some great habits, and a great attitude, with which God provided me some great opportunities, but I have become old, grouchy, and limited, if only in my own mind.

On the other hand, I must say that with each epoch in my life God has given me something to do in accordance with my capacities at the time, and so I ought not diminish myself. After all, I may not be an energetic spring chicken any more, but I have never been wiser and never more astute. And for that matter, never more patient or intuitive or gracious.

While I often lament that I am not able to do more, I do make a point of keeping my spiritual house is in order. I keep my phone lines open and my social calendar provides opportunities for occasional outreach. I go to meetings, make social calls, invite people over for tea and conversation. Cultivate, cultivate, cultivate.

I cannot allow myself to die on the vine. God has more in store for me, even if it is just writing emails. He didn't train me all this time just for me to sit on my behind and watch soap operas. In fact, just yesterday I woke thinking about that thing in the UB that says:
Quote:
In the ideals of pair marriage, woman has finally won recognition, dignity, independence, equality, and education; but will she prove worthy of all this new and unprecedented accomplishment? Will modern woman respond to this great achievement of social liberation with idleness, indifference, barrenness, and infidelity? Today, in the twentieth century, woman is undergoing the crucial test of her long world existence! P.937 - §7

So I am still challenged. But I have to be careful I don't browbeat myself for not doing more. I must also remember that I am not that important, that God can run the world without my interference. Staying close to my Adjuster is probably what I should focus on at this point in my life. And prayer. It is said that prayer is often the most effective thing we can do.

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Thank you Gerdean

I am now 46, and I know that is young compared to many here, but I have been experiencing many changes in my body the last couple of years and it has challenged me, and every time i open the U.B. I find something that puts it all in perspective ..just like the quote you just gave.

I want to be that New voice that spreads the Life of Christ that the book talks about...I want to experience the 7 psychic circles ...I have been aware of my T.A.'s leading, and I pray that my body does not give up before I live the example of every thing the U.B. says we are capable of....I just my fall short of the mark, but i will give it my best and show that even if I fall down , one can still become more.

Being Human is a challenge just in and of it's self...lol...Now being a Spiritual being Conscious of it and what it implys...lol...Hold on to your seats this is going to be bumpy...lol...lol


Stay True To The Journey...and Much love
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Gerdean and Jim, I hear what you both are saying. "Keep on doing and becoming more spiritual. And Do within our capacities to do so."

The truth of a well lived well intentioned reality.

Since you've started this thread Jim, I've have the pleasure (A working pleasure) of examining what I'm doing, feeling like I'm not doing all I can and judging the opportunities I see to determine what more I can do.

I'm hesitant, due to more and more physical incapacity but like with Gerdean there still things I can do without over exerting myself.

And I just sensed that perhaps something bigger is coming my way soon. So there may be a little lull but before I fill up that space and time with long term service commitment giving me time to do short term service for now. :smile: So I'll keep working on my little projects.

Thanks Jim for your impetus giving me that nudge to examine what I'd doing for God today!

And Thanks Gerdean for reminding me to keep it within my capacity. :smile:

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"Man cannot cause growth, but he can supply favorable conditions. Growth is always unconscious, be it physical, intellectual, or spiritual. Love thus grows; it cannot be created, manufactured, or purchased; it must grow. . . . Man's sole contribution to growth is the mobilization of the total powers of his personality—living faith." 100:3.7


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