Fri, May 03, 2013
Following Jesus Means Loving All Kinds of People
By
Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs
Is someone a "bad person" or one who did "something bad" when a person does something that we think of as unthinkable?
This question has been on my mind since before the Boston Marathon
bombing. One Sunday in March, when I was doing the Youth Sunday message,
I commented that we have to love each other as God has commanded us to.
One of the young people asked whether she had to love someone who did
something really terrible. As hard as it was to accept, I had to say,
"Yes, according to Jesus you must love that person."
I remembered that exchange several Friday evenings ago, and realized
that I had to really think about what I had said in light of what
happened during the Marathon and the ensuing days and nights of fear and
uncertainty that followed. Do I really believe what I said -- that I
need to love a person despite what they do? Did I practice what I preach
when watching the events unfold that Friday night, as I joined more
than 42 million people, watching and hoping for the capture of this
young man who, along with his brother, had chosen to do something truly
heinous? Did I love another as God loves all of us?
See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.
It is easy to say that we admire Jesus, that we believe in Jesus, and that we agree with his teachings about love, tolerance, forgiveness and non-violence...but when push comes to shove, many of us find ourselves standing aloof and letting the "wisdom of the world" influence us. That wisdom preaches "an eye for an eye," and that forgiveness equals weakness...
Here's are some quotes from
The Urantia Book that might help all of us stay on the Master's path - or not - it's all up to the individual, after all.
196:1.3 To “follow Jesus” means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master’s life of
unselfish
service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to
find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for
the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge,
that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus
and how he lived it.
195:9.6 Primitive man lived a life of
superstitious bondage to religious fear. Modern, civilized men dread the
thought of falling under the dominance of strong religious convictions.
Thinking man has always feared to be held by a
religion.
When a strong and moving religion threatens to dominate him, he
invariably tries to rationalize, traditionalize, and institutionalize
it, thereby hoping to gain control of it. By such procedure, even a
revealed religion becomes man-made and man-dominated. Modern men and
women of intelligence evade the religion of Jesus because of their fears
of what it will do to them—and with them. And all
such fears are well founded. The religion of Jesus does, indeed,
dominate and transform its believers, demanding that men dedicate their
lives to seeking for a knowledge of the will of the Father in heaven and
requiring that the energies of living be consecrated to the
unselfish service of the
brotherhood of man.
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Tue, January 01, 2013
Movie Review: Jesus Himself Would Have Bought a Ticket and Waited on a Half Hour Line to See Les Miserables.
By
Peter Enns
If
you’re not the church going kind of person, or if you were but left
because Christians are fake and self-absorbed, or if your main exposure
to Christianity has been TV evangelists or the Tea party, you ought to
see this movie.
Les Mis will help you see what the Bible means, and what the church at its best has meant, by “good news.”
Sacrifice of self for the salvation of others.
Les Mis is a story of those who, through personal torment and pain, die (literally and figuratively) to save others.
...the very last line all three sing summarizes the entire story:
”And remember the truth that once was spoken: ‘To love another person is to see the face of God.
’” You see the face of God in all three, though in different ways.
All I can say is AMEN! Really loved this movie...See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.
Jesus was the personification of self-sacrifice. In The Urantia Book, his teachings are as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago:
180:1.3 “When I invite you to love one another, even as I have loved you, I hold up before you the supreme measure of true affection, for greater love can no man have than this: that he will lay down his life for his friends. And you are my friends; you will continue to be my friends if you are but willing to do what I have taught you. You have called me Master, but I do not call you servants. If you will only love one another as I am loving you, you shall be my friends, and I will ever speak to you of that which the Father reveals to me.(143:1.7) "Today, the unbelievers may taunt you with preaching a gospel of nonresistance and with living lives of nonviolence, but you are the first volunteers of a long line of sincere believers in the gospel of this kingdom who will astonish all mankind by their heroic devotion to these teachings. No armies of the world have ever displayed more courage and bravery than will be portrayed by you and your loyal successors who shall go forth to all the world proclaiming the good news—the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of men.
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Fri, May 25, 2012
Good Friends, Good Times, Good Health: Cultivating Quality Friendships
By
Jeannie Ward
May 22, 2012
"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost."
Charles Caleb Colton
When
it comes to friendship, "enriching, healthy, loving and meaningful" are
words that come to mind for me. Truthfully, creating meaningful,
lasting friendships has been a big challenge for me, for most of my
life. I've spent more time than I care to admit, wondering if there was
something about me, something wrong with me, that hindered me in
developing and growing quality, loving, supportive and healthy
friendships. I have found comfort in recognizing that my childhood, in
many ways, had a huge impact on my ability to establish, nurture and
grow healthy, loving and lasting relationships.
See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.
...there's an informative questionnaire which serves to help you assess your friendships' health, too.
Friendship played a big part in Jesus' life, and friendship is one of the key elements of a successful "art of living" philosophy. For a comprehensive look at Urantia Book teachings about Friendship, please see THIS LINK.
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Fri, March 30, 2012
Questioning God Easier for More Devout
By
Stephanie Pappas
Occasional questioning of God is common among Americans. Now, research
reveals that the people who are most comfortable with this fact may well
be those who feel closest to the deity.
In general, people who are strongly religious are more likely than the
less devout to say that it's not okay to be angry at God, the new study
found. But people who describe their relationship with God as close and resilient are actually likely to accept complaining and questioning directed toward God.
See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.
All of us have disagreed with our parents - even hated them at times. But if they are good parents, this does not in the least affect their love for their children. God is our affectionate Spirit Father - his love is about as unconditional as it gets: Supportive Urantia Book quotes follow:
2:6.2 Religion implies that the superworld of spirit
nature is cognizant of, and responsive to, the fundamental needs of the human world.
Evolutionary religion may become ethical, but only revealed religion becomes truly and spiritually moral. The olden concept that God
is a Deity dominated by kingly morality was upstepped by
Jesus
to that affectionately
touching level of intimate family morality of the parent-child
relationship, than which there is none more tender and beautiful in
mortal experience.
3:4.7 Finite appreciation of infinite
qualities far transcends the logically limited capacities of the
creature because of the fact that mortal man is made in the image of
God—there lives within him a fragment of infinity. Therefore man’s
nearest and dearest approach to God is by and through love, for God is
love. And all of such a unique relationship is an actual experience in
cosmic sociology, the Creator-creature relationship—the Father-child affection.
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Fri, January 27, 2012
Self talk: Rewinding, deleting and rerecording
By
Jennifer Jarrell
Our hearts and minds are like spiritual recording devices. They are
constantly recording and storing messages into our data bank. We are
born hungry for truth and our spirits are very receptive. As children,
we are sponges, soaking up the world around us and believing the words
of the people we know and trust. Then comes the outside voices, stimuli,
and feedback that may or may not be truth, positive, or healthy.
I want to share a reading that I happened up on, it speaks loudly about
how our thoughts can and will affect our ultimate outcome.
"A Native American elder walks slowly down the path. The leaves of the
trees and the soft breeze protect him from the heat of the noonday sun.
In his worn, calloused hand is the small, soft hand of his young
grandson. The two walk in silence. After a time the grandfather
interrupts the silence. "Grandson," he begins, "there are two wolves
fighting in my heart. One wolf is angry, vengeful, jealous and violent.
The other wolf is peaceful, loving, compassionate and joyful." The boy
looks up at his grandfather and asks, "Which wolf will win the battle of
your heart?" The wise elder replies: "The one I feed."
See "Link to External Source Article" below to read further.
Here is an inspiring passage from The Urantia Book that will top off this article quite nicely...
102:6.7
Belief may not be able to resist doubt and withstand fear, but faith is
always triumphant over doubting, for faith is both positive and living.
The positive always has the advantage over the negative, truth over
error, experience over theory, spiritual realities over the isolated
facts of time and space. The convincing evidence of this spiritual
certainty consists in the social fruits
of the spirit which such
believers, faithers, yield as a result of this genuine spiritual
experience
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Fri, December 02, 2011
Live Your Life with More Healing, Gratitude, and Love
By
Ric Thompson and Dr. Bernie Siegel
Since 1978, Dr. Bernie
Siegel has been reaching out to international audiences on the issue of
patient empowerment, and the choice to live fully and die in peace. A
seasoned physician, his philosophy of living and dying stands at the
forefront of the medical, ethical, and spiritual issues we have about
our health and mortality.
In May 2011, he was honored by the
Watkins Review of London, England, as one of the top 20 spiritually
influential living people on the planet. He continues to break new
ground in the field of healing, supporting changes in medical education
to humanize medical practice.
His 12th and latest book, A Book of
Miracles: Inspiring True Stories of Healing, Gratitude, and Love,
affirms his trust in miracles and bolsters his belief that providing
more love is a true path to healing. He certainly has a lifetime's worth
of wisdom and experience to share with us.
Ric Thompson:
Let's get right into this. Can you give us some background on the
story behind your whole journey that's gone on for decades of trusting
in love and miracles and the power of that?
Bernie Siegel:
I always say what started it is a quote from a young woman with breast
cancer. I attended a meeting run by Carl Simonton, a weekend workshop,
thinking it was for doctors because it had to do with helping cancer
patients and empowering them. There were no doctors there except me.
There were 125 people, and I was the only doctor.
I was sitting
with my patients. I'll always remember her turning to me and saying,
"You're a nice guy. I feel better when I'm in the office with you, but I
can't take you home with me. I need to know how to live between office
visits." For me, that was a way of no longer feeling like I was failing
people when I couldn't keep them alive forever and cure everything.
We
started our support groups in 1978. To underline it all, what you
realize is when you help people to live, they don't die when they're
supposed to. It extends their life. Yesterday in USA Today I read "Happy
People Live Longer." Wow. You needed to do research on that one? I was
reading something today by a hypnotherapist talking about Carl Jung.
When
people found faith, that's when the healing happened. You don't hear
those things in medical school about love, hope, and faith. You're
blaming your patient if you talk about what's going on in their life,
and you'll give them false hope. That was always a big thing with me.
Other doctors would say, "You're blaming your patients, and you're
giving them false hope."
I said, "Hope isn't false." It's our
potential. That's the word that came to me a few years ago by a
politician friend, Rosa DeLauro, who's in congress. We were both
speaking at a meeting, and she's had cancer. I said, "I can't take
politics because whether it's in the hospital or our town, people know
me, and I get elected, and then I go nuts. You sit on committees, and
nothing happens. You want to do something good for the community, and it
takes so long. You get frustrated."
She said, "Bernie, it's the
potential. There are things that have taken me three to five years to
get passed, but they are passed now, and we're doing some good." When I
heard that word, I thought, "Here's a decent soul. She's the kind of
politician I wish everybody was. What's our potential? How can we help
people?" I saw that in patients. You're not a statistic.
The
other thing that's crazy is I hear this so often from people who are
doing well. What does the doctor say to them? "You're doing very well.
Whatever it is, keep it up." Why doesn't the doctor say, "What are you
doing? Let me tell another patient"? You say to somebody, "You're doing
very well. Keep it up." Why don't you ask, "What are you doing? What's
going on in your life?"
That's the other thing I found: every
patient had a unique story about the changes they brought into their
life. I summarize it now with a simple sentence: love your life and love
your body, and some wonderful things can happen. When the body gets the
message, "You love living?" it says, "Let me see what I can do for
you." There are no coincidences. Yesterday I had a crazy day where some
things were cancelled, so I ran out to go shopping.
Carl Jung
said this very clearly. The future is unconsciously prepared long in
advance. Or as Elizabeth Kubler-Ross always used to say to me, "Bernie,
there are no coincidences." I went to one Stop & Shop because I had
stopped in that neighborhood for something else. I was totally confused
because everything was put in different places than the one I'm used to.
I just left and went back to my Stop & Shop. That's where I
met two people I have known who are dealing with cancer. One of them
looked terrific. I'd been worrying about her because I hadn't heard from
her in a long time. She said, "I'm glad to be alive." She has shifted
from focusing on the disease. As Mother Teresa said, "I won't attend an
anti-war rally, but if you ever have a peace rally, call me."
She's
now enjoying life and working on her life and not just opposing the
disease, which is a very different focus. It doesn't feel good, and it
empowers your disease and wears you out.
*********************
Please go HERE so that you can access the entire interview with Bernie Siegel.
And to see some Urantia Book teachings, please see our topical studies on: Love, Hope (Trust) and Faith
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Fri, December 02, 2011
Schools of the future
By
Professor BM Hegde
The future of the world depends on a new change in schooling system, thus ushering in an era of sharing, caring and universal compassion—the true religion for the masses
"The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.” -- Rabindranath Tagore
Life is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as ceaseless change
till death. “Anything that does not change does not come under the
definition of science” wrote a federal judge in the US while delivering
his judgment in a dispute between the Creationists and Scientists. Human
life history is the story of the
evolution of this Universe itself. If one wants to understand the
nature of Nature one has just got to understand human nature which is a
miniscule of this universe itself. We are obsessed with science today.
The word science brings goose-pimples on many of us....
...
Science today tells us that the world began with the Big Bang. I
wonder if there was a big bang or a small whimper! For 750 million long
years, they say, that there was no life on earth. The first life came as
a single cell which could do all that you and I can do today-breathe,
eat, excrete, think, and work. That stage went on for more than a
trillion and half years when these single cell individuals wisely
thought that it is better to get together as a colony to work more
efficiently with least expense. They had a fertile brain in their cell
wall (membrane), called the memBrain by a famous cell biologist, Bruce
Lipton. They could sense their environment through antennae in their
cell walls, their brain, called Integral Membrane Proteins (IMPs). These
could make the cells come alive to the environment (universal
consciousness) to have own their individual consciousness. Figuratively
life gets born then like your actors on the TV screen. When that antenna
does not get the message (when you switch off your TV) life ebbs out
just as the TV actor dies when the switch goes off. The consciousness
gets into, may be another cell immediately after that- life again. So
death is only a part of life and not its end! Thus the human body is a happy colony of 50 trillion individual cells.
Why did the single free-floating cells come together then? They, in
their wisdom, realized that they are better off and stronger if they
came together in larger groups as they could expand their individual
consciousnesses many fold by increasing the IMPs exponentially! How wise
of them? As time passed they realised that each one of them need not do
all the work that needs to be done. They could share
their responsibilities. Some cell groups inside the body became what we
call today organs doing specific tasks more efficiently. But they did
not lose sight of the fact that they were all functionally identical
even when they morphologically different to fit that organ e.g. brain
looking after overseeing the total function of locomotion, etc. In this
new role they found that they could care for others better. Thus evolved
the philosophy of spirituality—sharing and caring! Body cells therefore
love one another. This could be seen under the electron-microscope in
disease conditions. In a fresh fracture site the red blood cells in the
clot could gradually change to pluri-potent stem cells to heal the
fracture eventually! Same cells but different work. These endogenous
stem cells are our best doctors in all disease states.
Education, therefore, should teach the young mind that it is in sharing
and caring that the world can go on for good. Our grading system, on
the contrary, puts negative thoughts of greed, hatred, jealousy, anger
and pride into that innocent, creative, loving, and compassionate mind
of a child. Scientific studies have shown that if students in a class with varied levels of intelligence could be taught the principles of collective compassionate sharing
efforts they all get high grades in the final examination! This is
conducive to good health as well since body cells enjoy working
together, anyway. Health is defined today as “enthusiasm to work and
enthusiasm to be compassionate.” Those who do not have either or both of
those are really sick! In that definition society as a whole is
becoming sick today with no compassion. Recent noise about “Wall Street”
greed is but a sign of that universal sickness that is overtaking our
present society; rather it is the corporate greed that would eventually
destroy all God-given resources of nature. The root cause for this
disease is the wrong type of primary education that turns a universally compassionate, creative, God-like child
into a greedy, angry, proud man/woman who joins the rat race to acquire
money, power and parking lots! The future of the world depends on a new
change in schooling system, thus ushering in an era of sharing, caring and universal compassion—the true religion for the masses.
“Education is not the amount of information that is put into
your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life. We must have
life-building, man-making and character-making assimilation of ideas.”
-- Swami Vivekananda.
****************
Please see THIS LINK to access the whole article
And see Urantia Book teachings on Education HERE
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Fri, July 29, 2011
It's crucial to ask yourself, 'Why bother?'
By
John M. Kalb
The mere mention of inner peace brings me visions
of rolling-meadows with wildflowers and meditating monks. But what
exactly is inner peace? How can we possibly achieve it during these
interesting (some would say turbulent) times? Is inner peace a far-off
fantasy or something we can attain in this lifetime?
For
me, inner peace is the holy grail of spiritual and psychological health
and can be experienced by most of us, at least for short periods of
time. Realistically, I don't expect to experience it 24/7. I discovered
many years ago that I have an inner wound that says, "I'm not good
enough." I've also discovered that this inner message is almost
universal, at least among those of us raised in the Western world. It is
hard for me to experience peace when my inner voice sometimes whispers
and sometimes shouts out all my shortcomings. By working on this
psychological shadow — the parts of me I want to hide, repress or deny —
I have been able to experience longer periods of inner peace.
I
find it hard to feel peaceful when my body is agitated or my mind is
fatigued or depressed. By supporting my health and resilience at all
levels, I have boosted my happiness tremendously. I consider authentic
happiness to be the other holy grail of psychological and spiritual
health.
Another big piece of peace for me is feeling
fulfilled and living my life on purpose. For me, passion and purpose go
together. Spending time developing my life mission has helped immensely
to give my life meaning. In my quest for truth and to be of service in
the world, I have come to realize that asking and answering the
question, "Why bother?" is crucial. Why bother to get out of bed in the
morning and do what I need to do stay healthy and happy? Why bother to
exercise, eat right, deal with my inner conflicts, and connect with
other people? As I've gotten an inkling of why I'm here and where I want
to go, my journey has become much more peaceful.
*************
To read the rest of this article, please click HERE
Jesus promised "peace that passes understanding" when we follow him and accept the good news of our sonship with God under the Fatherhood of God...when we experience the spiritual growth necessary for successful religious living.
100:4.3
But the great problem of religious living consists in the task of
unifying the soul
powers of the personality
by the dominance of LOVE. Health, mental efficiency, and happiness
arise from the unification of physical systems, mind systems, and
spirit systems. Of health and sanity man understands much, but of
happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is
indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual growth yields
lasting joy, peace
which passes all understanding.
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Fri, July 08, 2011
Faith & Works | Do virtuous non-Christians go to hell?
By
Peter Smith
Written by
“How could Gandhi be in hell?”
I
wish I had a nickel for everyone who asked that question in explaining
why they have a hard time believing in the traditional Christian concept
of hell.
Mahatma
Gandhi seems to be the stand-in for the ultimate example of a virtuous
person who, though influenced by Jesus, never embraced him as a savior.
But
the conflict predates Gandhi. Even the poet Dante, who put his vivid
literary imagination to work in depicting the tortures of the damned in
his “Inferno,” placed noble pagans in the cushiest part of hell he could
imagine. (If there had been air conditioning in the Middle Ages, he
would have had it installed for them.)
These
matters come to mind in the wake of the Southern Baptist Convention’s
June passage of a resolution, “On the Reality of Hell.”
It
follows the recent publication of the controversial book, “Love Wins,”
by author and pastor Rob Bell. He asks whether the unsaved are damned to
never-ending hell.
“Gandhi’s in hell? He is? And someone knows this for sure?” he asks in a promotional video.
In
the book, Bell stops short of embracing a form of universalism, in
which everyone gets saved. But he contends that there are Scriptures and
Christian theological traditions affirming such a view and that it’s OK
to hold them in tension with others affirming unending punishment.
“We
don’t need to resolve (such tensions) … because we can’t, and so we
simply respect them, creating space for the freedom that love requires,”
he writes. But the overall gist is that a loving God offers all kinds
of second chances to people in the Bible.
The
Baptist resolution, passed at the convention’s annual meeting in
Phoenix, affirms “eternal, conscious punishment of the unregenerate in
Hell.”
It continues:
“Orthodox
Christians have affirmed consistently and resoundingly the reality of a
literal Hell” and that “the Bible clearly teaches that God will judge
the lost at the end of the age.”
It
resolves that, “out of our love for Christ and His glory, and our love
for lost people and our deep desire that they not suffer eternally in
Hell, we implore Southern Baptists to proclaim faithfully the depth and
gravity of sin against a holy God, the reality of Hell, and the
salvation of sinners by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus
Christ alone….”
****************
This is the first of three pages...please click HERE to access the rest of the article.
And, here is some wisdom from the pages of The Urantia Book regarding the issue of life after death:
(40
:5.19)
As to the chances of mortal survival, let it be made forever clear: All
souls of every possible phase of mortal existence will survive provided
they manifest willingness to co-operate with their indwelling Adjusters
and exhibit a desire to find God and to attain divine perfection, even
though these desires be but the first faint flickers of the primitive
comprehension of that “true light which lights every man who
comes into the world.”
As to a "hell," The Urantia Book does not teach - nor did Jesus teach - the existence of such a place. Instead, The Urantia Book teaches that there is something called "extinction of being." Rather than a place, extinction of being is a state which is arrived at following complete identification of a person with sin and iniquity. And, rather than God condemning a person to an eternal state of suffering and anquish, the burden is placed - as it should be - on the person's own decision.
2:6.8 God loves the sinner and hates the sin: such a statement is true philosophically, but God is a transcendent personality, and persons can only love and hate other persons. Sin is not a person. God loves the sinner because he is a personality reality (potentially eternal), while towards sin God strikes no personal attitude, for sin is not a spiritual reality; it is not personal; therefore does only the justice of God take cognizance of its existence. The love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin. This attitude of the divine nature would apparently change if the sinner finally identified himself wholly with sin just as the same mortal mind may also fully identify itself with the indwelling spirit Adjuster. Such a sin-identified mortal would then become wholly unspiritual in nature (and therefore personally unreal) and would experience eventual extinction of being. Unreality, even incompleteness of creature nature, cannot exist forever in a progressingly real and increasingly spiritual universe.
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