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Starting the spiritual journey

16 posts · 9 participants · started Feb 19, 2015, 8:35 PM

blackwolf093Participant
Feb 19, 2015, 8:35 PM
Hello Brothers and Sisters my name is Brandon im 20 years old, and I have just recently begun reading the Urantia, which i must say is the best book ive ever put in my hands. I joined this community to share my experience and to get help with my now infinite number of Questions concerning Urantia, and also to be with people that share my beliefs cause ive noticed ive felt pretty lonely being the only one in my family and town that has these beliefs, which sucks because i just want to share this overwhelming love with everyone i see without sounding crazy. But let me start from the begining.

All my life ive been more than open minded which i dont see as a bad thing but for some reason that scares people, i guess its because most people fear the unkown but i embrace it. ive had alot pain for the majority of my life, so much pain that ive tried to kill mysef 3 times and struggled with hard drugs and have overdosed a few times but for some reason i would never die, which i now realize i was not meant to die but do something i feel as severly important for the world even though i still dont know what that thing is. What changed everything was one day i had taken a substance that i have taken many times before but this time something was majorly differrent i felt something so powerful/intense/overwhelming/blissful, there are no words in any langauge that can really describe it except god. My nieghbor/friend who has been dedicated to the Urantia for many years(i didnt know this at the time.) sees me in this state and sits with me me through the whole experience without saying a word, and after it passes i inform him i felt god(i was an atheist before that so i wouldnt have said thatunless it was real)he then starts to inform me on meditation and world religions and shows me a few excerpts from his 20 year old Urantia i then ask him if i could borrow it because it matched what i felt perfectly but he gives it to me and tells me to keep it which is weird because ive never even seen him let anybody touch it. I guess he must have seen something special in me, been since then ive been completely dedicated to it and now know true happiness and love with just my little understanding of it

my experience goes alot deeper than that but id be typing for days if i tried to tell it all.if anybody feels there are some essential things i need to know for this exciting journey im on now please let me know.
KerynMember
Feb 19, 2015, 8:51 PM
Welcome, Brandon. Thank you for sharing your story with us. So much of what you write about your feelings upon discovering the Urantia Book resonate with my own and I am sure many others’ here.

Please feel free to post your questions, thoughts, and insights here. We are all learning together and we all have questions and wonderings, but the main thing is, we all love and rejoice in the beauty of TUB (as we affectionately refer to The Urantia Book on this forum). I am in the midst of my 3rd reading of this wonderful book, and I have posted many questions here and received so many insightful answers.
BradlyParticipant
Feb 19, 2015, 10:30 PM

blackwolf093 wrote:

my experience goes alot deeper than that but id be typing for days if i tried to tell it all. if anybody feels there are some essential things i need to know for this exciting journey im on now please let me know.

blackwolf093 wrote:

….because i just want to share this overwhelming love with everyone i see….

Welcome Brandon. I appreciate your story and your voice here. There is much to learn about making progress in the Spirit within the Urantia Book. I remember I was not much older than you when I first discovered the book….it was also handed directly to me by someone who thought I would appreciate it. But your sincere expression in blue above is all you or anyone truly needs to know to find God within and to reach your destiny. We are also taught that it is okay to feel confusion and uncertainty as we move forward into Spirit and Truth and that our certain faith in our paternal Creator will carry us forward through thick and thin.

This life is an adventure, or really, just the very beginning of an eternal adventure upon which you have already begun by this heart felt intention declared here. Fear not the vicissitudes of material life….we are truly soul in body and while the body will ultimately fail us, the soul will not ever. We are advised that, over time and with experience, we begin to transfer that which we identify with from the material to the spiritual. But this is no race and there is no time limit to any mortal who chooses eternity for their own.

So……relax…..smile……be glad. We live in a friendly universe dedicated to love and one another. All is in the hands of God, now and forevermore. I look forward to your comments and questions and some enjoyable discussions to come. Welcome….and Peace. You will find friends here I have no doubt.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
emanny3003Blocked
Feb 19, 2015, 10:38 PM
Welcome Brandon and I am happy that you are enjoying TUB.

I am overjoyed that you found God when a brother (neighbor / friend) showed you God’s love in him. He needed not say a word to you and yet your were shown God in him so that you could recognize God in yourself. You have found Him Who has always known you.

Cherish this brother and all other brothers as you experience God together. Welcome to The Father’s family, Our Father.
BradlyParticipant
Feb 19, 2015, 10:39 PM
I hope you will enjoy some of these text quotes about the joy upon your adventure!! From a fellow tadpole…….

(1094.6) 100:1.4 ……….. Live loyally today — grow — and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole.

(1094.7) 100:1.5 The soil essential for religious growth presupposes a progressive life of self-realization, the co-ordination of natural propensities, the exercise of curiosity and the enjoyment of reasonable adventure, the experiencing of feelings of satisfaction, the functioning of the fear stimulus of attention and awareness, the wonder-lure, and a normal consciousness of smallness, humility. Growth is also predicated on the discovery of selfhood accompanied by self-criticism — conscience, for conscience is really the criticism of oneself by one’s own value-habits, personal ideals.

2. Spiritual Growth

(1095.5) 100:2.1 Spiritual development depends, first, on the maintenance of a living spiritual connection with true spiritual forces and, second, on the continuous bearing of spiritual fruit: yielding the ministry to one’s fellows of that which has been received from one’s spiritual benefactors. Spiritual progress is predicated on intellectual recognition of spiritual poverty coupled with the self-consciousness of perfection-hunger, the desire to know God and be like him, the wholehearted purpose to do the will of the Father in heaven.

(1095.6) 100:2.2 Spiritual growth is first an awakening to needs, next a discernment of meanings, and then a discovery of values. The evidence of true spiritual development consists in the exhibition of a human personality motivated by love, activated by unselfish ministry, and dominated by the wholehearted worship of the perfection ideals of divinity. And this entire experience constitutes the reality of religion as contrasted with mere theological beliefs.

(1095.7) 100:2.3 Religion can progress to that level of experience whereon it becomes an enlightened and wise technique of spiritual reaction to the universe. Such a glorified religion can function on three levels of human personality: the intellectual, the morontial, and the spiritual; upon the mind, in the evolving soul, and with the indwelling spirit.

(1100.7) 100:6.5 But true religion is a living love, a life of service. The religionist’s detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation, and it should not destroy the sense of humor. Genuine religion takes nothing away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life; it generates new types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage. It may even engender the spirit of the crusader, which is more than dangerous if not controlled by spiritual insight and loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of human loyalties.

(1101.1) 100:6.6 One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace, that peace which passes all human understanding, that cosmic poise which betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil. Such levels of spiritual stability are immune to disappointment. Such religionists are like the Apostle Paul, who said: “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else shall be able to separate us from the love of God.”

…..and so much more to come…..

Bradly aka fanofVan

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
blackwolf093Participant
Feb 19, 2015, 11:56 PM
i didnt know id get this many responses so quickly lol, thank you to all that responded and shared their love and wisdom with me. i almost cried reading your responses cause i could feel the sincere energy from evry word. i will surley be messaging u all soon :)
nelsongParticipant
Feb 20, 2015, 1:18 AM
Welcome
BonitaParticipant
Feb 20, 2015, 12:11 PM

blackwolf093 wrote: . . . i now realize i was not meant to die but do something i feel as severly important for the world even though i still dont know what that thing is.

Welcome Brandon. One piece of advice from an old reader, if you start out with this attitude, you’re going to meet with a great deal of disappointment and frustration. Nothing that any of us does is severely important for the world. We are all only small contributors to the whole. We’re all important contributors, but small none the less. It’s best to remain humble. I do like your enthusiasm though.

That thing that you don’t know what it is that will contribute to the world is simply doing God’s will. And doing God’s will is nothing more than sharing your inner life with him. Sharing is Godlike.

111:5.1 The doing of the will of God is nothing more or less than an exhibition of creature willingness to share the inner life with God — with the very God who has made such a creature life of inner meaning-value possible. Sharing is Godlike — divine.
emanny3003Blocked
Feb 20, 2015, 12:17 PM
Bonita is right, Brandon. God does not demand great things from us, only that we do what we do with great love.
BradlyParticipant
Feb 20, 2015, 4:18 PM
Ahhhh….the exuberance and vigor of youth!!!! What an important ingredient to personal and planetary progress! May our collective experience and wisdom temper such vitality without diminishing its useful potential. Some relevant quotes from the Revelation:

(1100.7) 100:6.5 But true religion is a living love, a life of service. The religionist’s detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation, and it should not destroy the sense of humor. Genuine religion takes nothing away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life; it generates new types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage. It may even engender the spirit of the crusader, which is more than dangerous if not controlled by spiritual insight and loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of human loyalties.

(1579.1) 140:7.7 One week of this varied experience did much for the twelve; some even became over self-confident. At the last conference, the night after the Sabbath, Peter and James came to Jesus, saying, “We are ready — let us now go forth to take the kingdom.” To which Jesus replied, “May your wisdom equal your zeal and your courage atone for your ignorance.”

(1773.5) 160:1.8 The wise and effective solution of any problem demands that the mind shall be free from bias, passion, and all other purely personal prejudices which might interfere with the disinterested survey of the actual factors that go to make up the problem presenting itself for solution. The solution of life problems requires courage and sincerity. Only honest and brave individuals are able to follow valiantly through the perplexing and confusing maze of living to where the logic of a fearless mind may lead. And this emancipation of the mind and soul can never be effected without the driving power of an intelligent enthusiasm which borders on religious zeal. It requires the lure of a great ideal to drive man on in the pursuit of a goal which is beset with difficult material problems and manifold intellectual hazards.

(1776.2) 160:2.8 3. The enthusiasm for living. Isolation tends to exhaust the energy charge of the soul. Association with one’s fellows is essential to the renewal of the zest for life and is indispensable to the maintenance of the courage to fight those battles consequent upon the ascent to the higher levels of human living. Friendship enhances the joys and glorifies the triumphs of life. Loving and intimate human associations tend to rob suffering of its sorrow and hardship of much of its bitterness. The presence of a friend enhances all beauty and exalts every goodness……..

(1779.6) 160:4.14 Success may generate courage and promote confidence, but wisdom comes only from the experiences of adjustment to the results of one’s failures. Men who prefer optimistic illusions to reality can never become wise. Only those who face facts and adjust them to ideals can achieve wisdom. Wisdom embraces both the fact and the ideal and therefore saves its devotees from both of those barren extremes of philosophy — the man whose idealism excludes facts and the materialist who is devoid of spiritual outlook. Those timid souls who can only keep up the struggle of life by the aid of continuous false illusions of success are doomed to suffer failure and experience defeat as they ultimately awaken from the dream world of their own imaginations.

(1780.1) 160:4.15 And it is in this business of facing failure and adjusting to defeat that the far-reaching vision of religion exerts its supreme influence. Failure is simply an educational episode — a cultural experiment in the acquirement of wisdom — in the experience of the God-seeking man who has embarked on the eternal adventure of the exploration of a universe. To such men defeat is but a new tool for the achievement of higher levels of universe reality.

(1780.2) 160:4.16 The career of a God-seeking man may prove to be a great success in the light of eternity, even though the whole temporal-life enterprise may appear as an overwhelming failure, provided each life failure yielded the culture of wisdom and spirit achievement. Do not make the mistake of confusing knowledge, culture, and wisdom. They are related in life, but they represent vastly differing spirit values; wisdom ever dominates knowledge and always glorifies culture.

And finally (for now):

(1735.5) 156:2.1 In entering Sidon, Jesus and his associates passed over a bridge, the first one many of them had ever seen. As they walked over this bridge, Jesus, among other things, said: “This world is only a bridge; you may pass over it, but you should not think to build a dwelling place upon it.”

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BradlyParticipant
Feb 20, 2015, 4:35 PM
Bonita wrote:

blackwolf093 wrote: . . . i now realize i was not meant to die but do something i feel as severly important for the world even though i still dont know what that thing is.

Welcome Brandon. One piece of advice from an old reader, if you start out with this attitude, you’re going to meet with a great deal of disappointment and frustration. Nothing that any of us does is severely important for the world. We are all only small contributors to the whole. We’re all important contributors, but small none the less. It’s best to remain humble. I do like your enthusiasm though.

Me here: Indeed!!! We are here to learn to triumph BY overcoming our disappointments and our failure with continued zest and appetite for perseverance in the face of all such life lessons, conflicts, and vicissitudes:

(291.3) 26:5.3 That, then, is the primary or elementary course which confronts the faith-tested and much-traveled pilgrims of space. But long before reaching Havona, these ascendant children of time have learned to feast upon uncertainty, to fatten upon disappointment, to enthuse over apparent defeat, to invigorate in the presence of difficulties, to exhibit indomitable courage in the face of immensity, and to exercise unconquerable faith when confronted with the challenge of the inexplicable. Long since, the battle cry of these pilgrims became: “In liaison with God, nothing — absolutely nothing — is impossible.”

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
emanny3003Blocked
Feb 21, 2015, 12:35 AM
you have found God, the same God who always knows you. You have found your life in Him.

There is nothing to take when you have everything. You have everything so that you can lovingly give it away to all.
MaraParticipant
Feb 21, 2015, 12:44 AM
Hello Brandon,

I wish you every blessing and goodness as you go forward in your life.

Welcome to this place.

I thought you might enjoy reading this 130:6:0 about a young man.
JulianParticipant
Feb 21, 2015, 4:02 AM
A warm welcome to the forum Brandon! I hope you feel at home here. Don’t be afraid to ask any questions because we all learn so much from other people’s questions! It was certainly heartwarming to read your story. God has found you and you have found God. What is our role on this troubled planet? To discern what God’s will is and to do our utmost to practise it in our lives. Just remember: you are infinitely loved by our Universal Father and his Creator Son, Michael (Jesus) of Nebadon.

Love to you,

Julian
nelsongParticipant
Feb 21, 2015, 3:12 PM
My advice is to stay away from the posion. It retards you physically, intellectually and spiritually.

You have your whole life ahead of you and the posion will greatly retard your chances of doing something constructive with it.
chucksmith1982Participant
Mar 6, 2015, 1:24 AM
According to Urantia Book history, the papers were received as a result of asking questions. Questions would be asked and the answers would appear in written form. Yet more questions would be asked as a result of the previous answers, and that is how the book was written. After a while, the revelators asked the readers to go back through the material again and ask yet more questions. More papers appeared as a result of said questions. This continued for a time, with each set of questions either causing more papers to appear or revisions of the previous papers.

In a simplified form, that is how the UB papers came to be. Yet how may this be applied to a study of the UB by todays’ students? How may we, as students, use this same method in our own personal study?

The plan is simple. We put ourselves, with a few modifications, in the shoes of those early readers.

Step 1. Download a copy of the text of the UB from the Foundations’ website.

Step 2. Open and save a word document for questions to be written in.

Step 3. Ignore the forward for the moment. This is because the early readers had no forward.

Step 4. Start with paper 1, section 0. Note: for the purposes of this plan, the introductory sections of each paper will be denominated as section 0.

Step 5. Read section 0 of paper 1 carefully. Every time a question comes up, no matter how small, write it down in your questions document.

Step 6. After you have completed the reading/question method of study on section 0, stop.

Step 7. Go back through all of the questions that were written down, deleting the ones that you are able to answer. This has two purposes. The first one is so that you will know which questions were answered. If they aren’t there anymore, then you know the unanswered ones. After all, they are the only ones left. The second purpose is to avoid, as much as possible, asking a duplicate question.

Step 8. Repeat the process on every section of every paper throughout part 1.

Step 9. Repeat the process on part 1 until as many questions have been asked/answered as possible. This may mean going over part 1, using this method, multiple times. Note: the reason for this has to do with the way revelations are given. A new revelation does not appear until we are ready for it. Look at the way that the UB papers were written. The revelators did not present more material until what was already given was thoroughly understood.

Step 10. Repeat steps 1 through 9 for parts 2 and 3.

Step 11. Read the forward. You will have a better grasp on the forward as a result of your study using this method. After all, the forward is a guide to things not fully explained until the end of part 3.

Step 12. Repeat steps 1 through 9 on part 4.

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