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The Kingdom of Heaven

255 posts · 11 participants · started May 9, 2017, 12:04 PM

AnonymousInactive
Jun 23, 2017, 9:15 PM

Bonita wrote:

What you’re looking for is supermaterial decisions, those that are identified with that “other-than-self” friend in your head. If you keep doing that, your identity shifts to favor those kinds of decisions, the one’s coming from the mind of your friend. It’s a process. These supermaterial solutions are from the soul, where your friend lives. And that’s the only place where decisions in tune with God’s will can be made ready by the Spirit of Truth for action. That’s where happiness comes from. That’s the true stuff coming forth, the stuff that can be acted out because it’s real . . . the fruits . . . the stuff in tune with God’s way . . . God’s will. It’s radical! but works every time it’s tried.

?????

(1134.2) 103:5.4 But man’s interpretation of these early conflicts between the ego-will and the other-than-self-will is not always dependable. Only a fairly well unified personality can arbitrate the multiform contentions of the ego cravings and the budding social consciousness. The self has rights as well as one’s neighbors. Neither has exclusive claims upon the attention and service of the individual. Failure to resolve this problem gives origin to the earliest type of human guilt feelings.

(1134.3) 103:5.5 Human happiness is achieved only when the ego desire of the self and the altruistic urge of the higher self (divine spirit) are co-ordinated and reconciled by the unified will of the integrating and supervising personality. The mind of evolutionary man is ever confronted with the intricate problem of refereeing the contest between the natural expansion of emotional impulses and the moral growth of unselfish urges predicated on spiritual insight — genuine religious reflection.
BonitaParticipant
Jun 23, 2017, 9:26 PM

MidiChlorian wrote:

Also, I am not warring with Bradly, just debating his attempt to dominate his thoughts over mine, when it comes to an individuals personal understanding of the context within the UB.

Wait . . . what are the hallmarks of WAR? Isn’t it two factions trying to dominate and control one another. Isn’t that an animal trait? You seem to have some unwarranted fear of being dominated and controlled, especially your thoughts. I don’t see Bradly doing that. I think you’re imaging that out of fear that his ideas will some how overshadow yours and make you seem less potent as a person. It’s irrational. It’s competitive and useless. Do you think it’s a game of win or lose? It is not. If you think your ideas are valid, then it shouldn’t matter if Bradly turns caveman on you and bludgeons you with his big club of ideas . . . it’s not a battle of the wits here. Really it isn’t. Express your ideas, if they make sense people will listen. If they don’t make sense, don’t be surprised if you get ignored.

Another thing you might think is a play for dominance is when someone corrects you concerning the actual content of TUB versus what you claim is in there. Sometimes you are so off base that it has to be brought up just for the record. Other people have been guilty of this too, such as raping angels, if you recall. I feel, and probably Bradly does too, that since there is nothing at all in TUB about raping angels, it has to be corrected on the record. If you don’t like that . . . tough. Get over it.

Incidentally, the word MANY is not spelled MEANY. If your spell check is doing that, you should fix it. It sounds unfriendly. Love, Mom.
Van AmadonParticipant
Jun 23, 2017, 9:32 PM

Bonita wrote:

If you appreciate all you’ve been given, you’ll want to share just like God the Father shares with you. He shares himself with you, so you share yourself with others. Not complicated. No whys, whats or wherefores.

That’s right. Because it’s HOW.
AnonymousInactive
Jun 23, 2017, 9:36 PM

Bonita wrote:

The quote doesn’t say that you can’t be loyal until you’re a finaliter. It says you don’t have PERFECTION OF LOYALTY until you’re a finaliter. What does PERFECTION OF LOYALTY mean? It’s the same as PERFECTION OF PURPOSE. What is PERFECTION OF PURPOSE? It’s perfection of the desire to be perfect. Such perfection leaves no question as to purpose. Faith has been thoroughly tested and loyalty to God’s will is perfectly assured. What happens when you are perfect in faith and loyalty to God? You produce fruit like crazy. What is that fruit? LOVING SERVICE. What is LOVING SERVICE? It’s an intelligent appreciation of universe brotherhood. And once you have perfection of purpose, a perfect faith and a perfect loyalty, God sets you free in loving service to the universe. That’s the finality of liberty. Pretty simple really.

??????

(290.2) 26:4.12 The pilgrim lands on the receiving planet of Havona, the pilot world of the seventh circuit, with only one endowment of perfection, perfection of purpose. The Universal Father has decreed: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” That is the astounding invitation-command broadcast to the finite children of the worlds of space. The promulgation of that injunction has set all creation astir in the co-operative effort of the celestial beings to assist in bringing about the fulfillment and realization of that tremendous command of the First Great Source and Center.

(290.3) 26:4.13 When, through and by the ministry of all the helper hosts of the universal scheme of survival, you are finally deposited on the receiving world of Havona, you arrive with only one sort of perfection — perfection of purpose. Your purpose has been thoroughly proved; your faith has been tested. You are known to be disappointment proof. Not even the failure to discern the Universal Father can shake the faith or seriously disturb the trust of an ascendant mortal who has passed through the experience that all must traverse in order to attain the perfect spheres of Havona. By the time you reach Havona, your sincerity has become sublime. Perfection of purpose and divinity of desire, with steadfastness of faith, have secured your entrance to the settled abodes of eternity; your deliverance from the uncertainties of time is full and complete; and now must you come face to face with the problems of Havona and the immensities of Paradise, to meet which you have so long been in training in the experiential epochs of time on the world schools of space.

(290.4) 26:4.14 Faith has won for the ascendant pilgrim a perfection of purpose which admits the children of time to the portals of eternity. Now must the pilgrim helpers begin the work of developing that perfection of understanding and that technique of comprehension which are so indispensable to Paradise perfection of personality.

(290.5) 26:4.15 Ability to comprehend is the mortal passport to Paradise. Willingness to believe is the key to Havona. The acceptance of sonship, co-operation with the indwelling Adjuster, is the price of evolutionary survival.
AnonymousInactive
Jun 23, 2017, 9:47 PM

Bonita wrote:

Incidentally, the word MANY is not spelled MEANY. If your spell check is doing that, you should fix it. It sounds unfriendly. Love, Mom.

Corrected, where possible, thanks.
BonitaParticipant
Jun 23, 2017, 10:00 PM

MidiChlorian wrote: My reference to “spirit from within” is not a person as you might understand it, it is more like a combination of Thought Adjuster and the Morontia Self, the “real you”, or the “other self”.

Okay, but you’re defining the soul. The soul is a combination of the MATERIAL MIND and the Adjuster. The soul is NOT a combination of the “morontia self” and the Adjuster. The material mind is the mother the Thought Adjuster is the father of the soul, which is the morontia self. That’s what makes it morontia. Morontia needs two ingredients: material and spiritual.

0:5.10 4. Soul. The soul of man is an experiential acquirement. As a mortal creature chooses to “do the will of the Father in heaven,” so the indwelling spirit becomes the father of a new reality in human experience. The mortal and material mind is the mother of this same emerging reality. The substance of this new reality is neither material nor spiritual–it is morontial. This is the emerging and immortal soul which is destined to survive mortal death and begin the Paradise ascension.

The Adjuster is the real you. The soul is the part of you which is becoming Adjuster-like.

110:7.4 Subsequent to mortal fusion the Adjusters share your destiny and experience; they are you.

The “spirit from within” is not the morontia soul or a combination of the soul and the Adjuster. The word SPIRIT is used because the Adjuster is a spirit, not some combination of things. Is the Adjuster a person? Technically no. Even though his personality is not expressed, he has a personal PRESENCE and he relates as a person in a very intimate and personal way. Plus, there are the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit, both of which are personalities.

103:1.6 The spirit of God that dwells in man is not personal–the Adjuster is prepersonal–but this Monitor presents a value, exudes a flavor of divinity, which is personal in the highest and infinite sense. If God were not at least personal, he could not be conscious, and if not conscious, then would he be infrahuman.
AnonymousInactive
Jun 23, 2017, 10:47 PM

Bonita wrote:

The Adjuster is the real you. The soul is the part of you which is becoming Adjuster-like.

110:7.4 Subsequent to mortal fusion the Adjusters share your destiny and experience; they are you.

Okay? But the reference that you used above, has additional narration that follows, which adds and changes, what you may be attempting to express.

(1212.5) 110:7.4 Subsequent to mortal fusion the Adjusters share your destiny and experience; they are you. After the fusion of the immortal morontia soul and the associated Adjuster, all of the experience and all of the values of the one eventually become the possession of the other, so that the two are actually one entity. In a certain sense, this new being is of the eternal past as well as for the eternal future. All that was once human in the surviving soul and all that is experientially divine in the Adjuster now become the actual possession of the new and ever-ascending universe personality. But on each universe level the Adjuster can endow the new creature only with those attributes which are meaningful and of value on that level. An absolute oneness with the divine Monitor, a complete exhaustion of the endowment of an Adjuster, can only be achieved in eternity subsequent to the final attainment of the Universal Father, the Father of spirits, ever the source of these divine gifts.

However, I noticed, in the UB narration that precedes the one from above, which ties in with something that a mentioned earlier, regarding non-survivors, that would be an interesting topic point as well.

(1212.4) 110:7.3 Most Adjusters who have translated their subjects from Urantia were highly experienced and of
record as previous indwellers of numerous mortals on other spheres. Remember, Adjusters gain valuable
indwelling experience on planets of the loan order; it does not follow that Adjusters only gain experience
for advanced work in those mortal subjects who fail to survive.

Where, if a subject who does not survive, is absorbed or ends up in or with the supreme, and the experience gained from one is used for another mortal subject, as it implies above, might also indicate that if one “fails to survive”, are those peaces or personality patterns used to construct a being elsewhere in the universe? If so, this would add some light as to the meaning of “fail to survive” or a non-survivsor?

And there must be an additional factor, that seems to affect “survival”, where if, in the following narration, a “guardian angel must be adjudicated”, it would also stand in reason that the “guardian angel” may have had something to do with the subjects failure to survive?

(1192.5) 108:5.10 If you have a personal guardian of destiny and should fail of survival, that guardian angel must be adjudicated in order to receive vindication as to the faithful execution of her trust. But Thought Adjusters are not thus subjected to examination when their subjects fail to survive. We all know that, while an angel might possibly fall short of the perfection of ministry, Thought Adjusters work in the manner of Paradise perfection; their ministry is characterized by a flawless technique which is beyond the possibility of criticism by any being outside of Divinington. You have perfect guides; therefore is the goal of perfection certainly attainable.
BonitaParticipant
Jun 23, 2017, 11:51 PM

MidiChlorian wrote:

Okay? But the reference that you used above, has additional narration that follows, which adds and changes, what you may be attempting to express.

It doesn’t really change things. Before fusion the Adjuster is the potential real you, after fusion the actual real

109:5.2 It is sometimes possible to have the mind illuminated, to hear the divine voice that continually speaks within you, so that you may become partially conscious of the wisdom, truth, goodness, and beauty of the potential personality constantly indwelling you.

MidiChlorian wrote: Where, if a subject who does not survive, is absorbed or ends up in or with the supreme, and the experience gained from one is used for another mortal subject, as it implies above, might also indicate that if one “fails to survive”, are those peaces or personality patterns used to construct a being elsewhere in the universe? If so, this would add some light as to the meaning of “fail to survive” or a non-survivsor?

There is no such thing as a piece of a personality. And no, you can’t put together a personality from pieces of other personalities. Each personality is entirely unique gift from God the Father himself. There is can be no duplicate anywhere in all the universes. Your personality is a one-of-a-kind. The experiences of a personality remain as part of the Adjuster, not the personality itself, or pieces of it. Those experiences of the personality are NOT absorbed by the Supreme.

112:0.12 10. Personality is unique, absolutely unique: It is unique in time and space; it is unique in eternity and on Paradise; it is unique when bestowed – there are no duplicates; it is unique during every moment of existence; it is unique in relation to God – he is no respecter of persons, but neither does he add them together, for they are nonaddable – they are associable but nontotalable.

The Adjuster utilizes the worthwhile experience of helping one personality to help an entirely different personality. Furthermore, the presence of personality precedes the Adjuster. If the Adjuster took pieces of personality pattern to construct another personality, then the Adjuster would precede the presence of personality . . . which is exactly opposite of reality. And can’t see what this has to do with non-survival. What new meaning are you talking about?

16:8.3 Personality is a unique endowment of original nature whose existence is independent of, and antecedent to, the bestowal of the Thought Adjuster.
AnonymousInactive
Jun 24, 2017, 2:29 AM

Bonita wrote:

There is no such thing as a piece of a personality. And no, you can’t put together a personality from pieces of other personalities.

I understand what your saying, however my use of “pieces” was only an illustration to patterns of personality, where the following UB narration would indicate that a “personality” would or could have aggregate components even though each “personality” is unique, similar to DNA.

(162.3) 14:6.28 A Creator Son uses the creatures of Havona as personality-pattern possibilities for his own mortal children and spirit beings. The Michael and other Paradise Sons view Paradise and Havona as the divine destiny of the children of time.

The following might indicate the aggregate components, even though they are just duplicates or reproductions of pattern.

(127.3) 11:9.5 Paradise is not ancestral to any being or living entity; it is not a creator. Personality and mind-spirit relationships are transmissible, but pattern is not. Patterns are never reflections; they are duplications — reproductions. Paradise is the absolute of patterns; Havona is an exhibit of these potentials in actuality.
BonitaParticipant
Jun 24, 2017, 1:35 PM

MidiChlorian wrote: I understand what your saying, however my use of “pieces” was only an illustration to patterns of personality, where the following UB narration would indicate that a “personality” would or could have aggregate components even though each “personality” is unique, similar to DNA.

I don’t think personality has pieces, but selfhood does. Personality is what unifies all the components of selfhood, and they say it has nothing to do with selfhood other than being that unifying power.

112:1.18 In the human organism the summation of its parts constitutes selfhood – individuality – but such a process has nothing whatever to do with personality, which is the unifier of all these factors as related to cosmic realities.

In my mind I don’t picture personality as a structure, which can broken up, so much as a unique unifying and very specific power. Maybe power is not the perfect word for it, but something like that which represents the authority and dominion of will/volition. Personality is not an empty bag. It comes filled with a divine force which unifies, identifies and enables self-consciousness.

You’re wondering what happens to that divine force once it gets absorbed into the Supreme? I really don’t know, but I do know that the Supreme does not bestow personality, so once it goes there I think it stays there, perhaps becoming part of the Supreme’s overall experience with personalities. The Supreme is going through a power-personality synthesis. The quote below says that it never appears again as personality. I take that to mean none of it appears; all of it stays with the Supreme forever. Never is a pretty strong word . . . as though it had never been . . . pretty much means gone.

2:3.4 When this sentence is finally confirmed, the sin-identified being instantly becomes as though he had not been. There is no resurrection from such a fate; it is everlasting and eternal. The living energy factors of identity are resolved by the transformations of time and the metamorphoses of space into the cosmic potentials whence they once emerged. As for the personality of the iniquitous one, it is deprived of a continuing life vehicle by the creature’s failure to make those choices and final decisions which would have assured eternal life. When the continued embrace of sin by the associated mind culminates in complete self-identification with iniquity, then upon the cessation of life, upon cosmic dissolution, such an isolated personality is absorbed into the oversoul of creation, becoming a part of the evolving experience of the Supreme Being. Never again does it appear as a personality; its identity becomes as though it had never been. In the case of an Adjuster-indwelt personality, the experiential spirit values survive in the reality of the continuing Adjuster.
AnonymousInactive
Jun 24, 2017, 3:33 PM

Bonita wrote:

You’re wondering what happens to that divine force once it gets absorbed into the Supreme? I really don’t know, but I do know that the Supreme does not bestow personality, so once it goes there I think it stays there, perhaps becoming part of the Supreme’s overall experience with personalities. The Supreme is going through a power-personality synthesis. The quote below says that it never appears again as personality. I take that to mean none of it appears; all of it stays with the Supreme forever. Never is a pretty strong word . . . as though it had never been . . . pretty much means gone.

2:3.4 When this sentence is finally confirmed, the sin-identified being instantly becomes as though he had not been. There is no resurrection from such a fate; it is everlasting and eternal. The living energy factors of identity are resolved by the transformations of time and the metamorphoses of space into the cosmic potentials whence they once emerged. As for the personality of the iniquitous one, it is deprived of a continuing life vehicle by the creature’s failure to make those choices and final decisions which would have assured eternal life. When the continued embrace of sin by the associated mind culminates in complete self-identification with iniquity, then upon the cessation of life, upon cosmic dissolution, such an isolated personality is absorbed into the oversoul of creation, becoming a part of the evolving experience of the Supreme Being. Never again does it appear as a personality; its identity becomes as though it had never been. In the case of an Adjuster-indwelt personality, the experiential spirit values survive in the reality of the continuing Adjuster.

Based on the UB narrative which you presented, when analyzed, would indicate that over a period of time, the “sin-identified being”‘s personality and experience, becomes a part of the Supreme, and since we are told that “energy” cannot be destroyed, only changed, and being that this energy once posi-matter, in a manor of speaking, may be changed to anti-matter, where, as indicated “cosmic potentials whence they once emerged.” The “transformations” and “metamorphoses” process seems to be described in the UB, elsewhere, as the process of matter through the various parts of paradise. If this is somewhat of a simulation, then in order to keep the grand universe revolving through changing or modifying energy, then an over-abundance or under-abundance of beings who survive or do not survive, could create an imbalance in the process. So, in retrospect, where I mentioned earlier, that the absorption of non-survivors into the Supreme may cause problems, may not be the case? Something to consider.
BonitaParticipant
Jun 24, 2017, 4:18 PM

MidiChlorian wrote:

So, in retrospect, where I mentioned earlier, that the absorption of non-survivors into the Supreme may cause problems, may not be the case? Something to consider.

Just for the record, I never thought or said that it would be a problem. Personality is divine. It’s incorruptible. It’s the mind that gets corrupted. A non-survivor’s mind no longer exists. Firstly because it’s on loan; secondly because it is material (only morontia mind survives); thirdly because of the absence of a soul.

Mind corruption is a serious thing.
BonitaParticipant
Jun 24, 2017, 5:38 PM
Since brought up the Supreme Being, I thought it might be interesting to look at how the Supreme relates to the kingdom of God/heaven concept. We know that the kingdom of God is a spiritual experience within the “hearts” of men, which I translate to mean “souls of men.” We also know that the Supreme is dependent upon the experience of every single person for his evolution. Obviously, it’s the spiritual kingdom, the spiritual brotherhood, which contributes to the evolution of the Supreme. The social brotherhood is what follows as a result of that effort.

118:10.17 The kingdom of God is in the hearts of men, and when this kingdom becomes actual in the heart of every individual on a world, then God’s rule has become actual on that planet; and this is the attained sovereignty of the Supreme Being.

It looks like establishing the kingdom of God in each individual heart on the planet is the key to light and life. I don’t think we can ever agree on the best way to work towards that goal, but I do think everyone will agree that making sure that the kingdom of God is alive in your own heart is at least the starting point.

I think those words “becomes actual” say far more than you’d think at first glance. Right now, every normal person on this planet probably has the kingdom of God within their heart, but not everyone has made it actual. Not everyone has given it life, given it expression in thought, word and deed. If folks want to evangelize, I think giving expression to the kingdom of God in their own heart would be a wonderful way to start. Thanks to the blessing of TUB revelation, we no longer have to take its existence on faith alone. It’s a fact, we’ve been educated. Now that we know this inner kingdom is a genuine, bona fide phenomenon, and not a figment of our imagination, it should be easier.

I’m guessing that most of the world thinks the kingdom of heaven is a social phenomenon where everyone gets along all happy and clappy. And in a time when everyone seems to be at each other’s throat, it seems like a zillion bezillion years away. But that’s not what the focus should be, I don’t think. I think teaching people about their souls, about the Adjuster, about the wonderful idea of mind ministry, and about the purpose of prayer and communion would be a real service to the world. Just the suggestion that God lives in your mind is a great start. I don’t know very many people who accept that, frankly. Probably because they don’t see the human mind as all that exceptional. And they’re right, which is why soul and mind ministry education is crucial too. But how humbling is it to realize that a great and mighty God would want to dwell in such unexceptional minds! That fact alone has to eat away a little bit of the ego right there.

So anyway, I just wanted to make the point that when it comes to the kingdom of heaven the Supreme Being is our goal, and the starting point is within the soul . . . the heart of man.
Van AmadonParticipant
Jun 24, 2017, 5:43 PM

Bonita wrote:

Mind corruption is a serious thing.

You can say that again!

I think the point of no return, sort of speak, for the mind having become corrupted or distorted, is much more common in people than we think.

I hope I’m dead wrong about that however.

(117:4.14) God’s gifts—his bestowal of reality—are not divorcements from himself; he does not alienate creation from himself, but he has set up tensions in the creations circling Paradise. God first loves man and confers upon him the potential of immortality—eternal reality. And as man loves God, so does man become eternal in actuality. And here is mystery: The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality—actuality—of that man. The more man withdraws from God, the more nearly he approaches nonreality—cessation of existence. When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father’s will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is.
Van AmadonParticipant
Jun 24, 2017, 5:50 PM

Bonita wrote:

Since brought up the Supreme Being, I thought it might be interesting to look at how the Supreme relates to the kingdom of God/heaven concept. We know that the kingdom of God is a spiritual experience within the “hearts” of men, which I translate to mean “souls of men.” We also know that the Supreme is dependent upon the experience of every single person for his evolution. Obviously, it’s the spiritual kingdom, the spiritual brotherhood, which contributes to the evolution of the Supreme. The social brotherhood is what follows as a result of that effort.

118:10.17 The kingdom of God is in the hearts of men, and when this kingdom becomes actual in the heart of every individual on a world, then God’s rule has become actual on that planet; and this is the attained sovereignty of the Supreme Being.

It looks like establishing the kingdom of God in each individual heart on the planet is the key to light and life. I don’t think we can ever agree on the best way to work towards that goal, but I do think everyone will agree that making sure that the kingdom of God is alive in your own heart is at least the starting point. I think those words “becomes actual” say far more than you’d think at first glance. Right now, every normal person on this planet probably has the kingdom of God within their heart, but not everyone has made it actual. Not everyone has given it life, given it expression in thought, word and deed. If folks want to evangelize, I think giving expression to the kingdom of God in their own heart would be a wonderful way to start. Thanks to the blessing of TUB revelation, we no longer have to take its existence on faith alone. It’s a fact, we’ve been educated. Now that we know this inner kingdom is a genuine, bona fide phenomenon, and not a figment of our imagination, it should be easier. I’m guessing that most of the world thinks the kingdom of heaven is a social phenomenon where everyone gets along all happy and clappy. And in a time when everyone seems to be at each other’s throat, it seems like a zillion bezillion years away. But that’s not what the focus should be, I don’t think. I think teaching people about their souls, about the Adjuster, about the wonderful idea of mind ministry, and about the purpose of prayer and communion would be a real service to the world. Just the suggestion that God lives in your mind is a great start. I don’t know very many people who accept that, frankly. Probably because they don’t see the human mind as all that exceptional. And they’re right, which is why soul and mind ministry education is crucial too. But how humbling is it to realize that a great and mighty God would want to dwell in such unexceptional minds! That fact alone has to eat away a little bit of the ego right there. So anyway, I just wanted to make the point that when it comes to the kingdom of heaven the Supreme Being is our goal, and the starting point is within the soul . . . the heart of man.

Sign me up Bonita. I think about what you just said EVERYDAY. And everyday my frustration (impatience) for feeling like it’s not happening, hampers my sense of joy sometimes. I snap out of it though when I remember to pray and return to him.
BonitaParticipant
Jun 24, 2017, 7:54 PM

Van Amadon wrote:

Sign me up Bonita. I think about what you just said EVERYDAY. And everyday my frustration (impatience) for feeling like it’s not happening, hampers my sense of joy sometimes. I snap out of it though when I remember to pray and return to him.

It used to bug me too, but slowly my attitude has changed. It’s not easy to accept, but there is a really good reason for evil. It’s not here just to annoy us. Do you recall reading about the phenomenon of providence when it comes to the evolution of the Supreme? I don’t like posting long quotes, but I think for this it’s easier than you having to look them up. So sorry for what’s coming:

4:1.10 There is also an organic unity in the universes of time and space which seems to underlie the whole fabric of cosmic events. This living presence of the evolving Supreme Being, this Immanence of the Projected Incomplete, is inexplicably manifested ever and anon by what appears to be an amazingly fortuitous co-ordination of apparently unrelated universe happenings. This must be the function of Providence – the realm of the Supreme Being and the Conjoint Actor.

4:1.11 I am inclined to believe that it is this far-flung and generally unrecognizable control of the co-ordination and interassociation of all phases and forms of universe activity that causes such a variegated and apparently hopelessly confused medley of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual phenomena so unerringly to work out to the glory of God and for the good of men and angels.

I don’t know about you, but I found comfort in knowing that things which appear to be a hopelessly confused medley of events will all work out in the end. We’re so close to the chaos, it’s hard to see anything positive in it without faith. Here’s more:

10:7.4 We do not find the overcontrol of Supremacy to be wholly predictable. Furthermore, this unpredictability appears to be characterized by a certain developmental incompleteness, undoubtedly an earmark of the incompleteness of the Supreme and of the incompleteness of finite reaction to the Paradise Trinity.

10:7.5 The mortal mind can immediately think of a thousand and one things – catastrophic physical events, appalling accidents, horrific disasters, painful illnesses, and world-wide scourges – and ask whether such visitations are correlated in the unknown maneuvering of this probable functioning of the Supreme Being. Frankly, we do not know; we are not really sure. But we do observe that, as time passes, all these difficult and more or less mysterious situations always work out for the welfare and progress of the universes. It may be that the circumstances of existence and the inexplicable vicissitudes of living are all interwoven into a meaningful pattern of high value by the function of the Supreme and the overcontrol of the Trinity.

10:7.6 As a son of God you can discern the personal attitude of love in all the acts of God the Father. But you will not always be able to understand how many of the universe acts of the Paradise Trinity redound to the good of the individual mortal on the evolutionary worlds of space. In the progress of eternity the acts of the Trinity will be revealed as altogether meaningful and considerate, but they do not always so appear to the creatures of time.

Again, it’s comforting to realize that all the vicissitudes of living on this confused and chaotic planet are interwoven into a meaningful pattern of HIGH value by the Supreme. It makes me feel kinda small to complain about it, quite frankly. It also makes me think that if God has the patience to wait for the progress of eternity, then I should learn to have the same patience . . . do what I can and do it wholeheartedly . . . let God work out the details in his own marvelous way.

136:9.8 He would return to Galilee and quietly begin the proclamation of the kingdom and trust his Father (the Personalized Adjuster) to work out the details of procedure day by day.

This next quote says that we should take comfort in the fact that all things, both good and evil, work together for our advancement. We have to be willing to accept that we are presently imperfect, that the world is imperfect, but it is for a reason, and the reason is good. Hope lies in knowing that it’s not for nothing, so to speak. Our frustration means we need to reach higher, seek the kingdom within our souls with greater commitment, find that borderland of the soul where we start to detect harmony where there was once chaos.

118:10.18 To realize providence in time, man must accomplish the task of achieving perfection. But man can even now foretaste this providence in its eternity meanings as he ponders the universe fact that all things, be they good or evil, work together for the advancement of God-knowing mortals in their quest for the Father of all.

118:10.19 Providence becomes increasingly discernible as men reach upward from the material to the spiritual. The attainment of completed spiritual insight enables the ascending personality to detect harmony in what was theretofore chaos. Even morontia mota represents a real advance in this direction.
nelsongParticipant
Jun 24, 2017, 8:41 PM

MidiChlorian wrote:

nelsong wrote:

23?

So, what’s the point? Or, do you really have one? When one asks what they think or believe, should they use we, or us?

My point is more along the line of someone looking for affirmation as opposed to revelation. Sorry but thats how you impress me at times.
Van AmadonParticipant
Jun 25, 2017, 2:22 AM

Bonita wrote:

It’s not easy to accept, but there is a really good reason for evil. It’s not here just to annoy us. Do you recall reading about the phenomenon of providence when it comes to the evolution of the Supreme?

4:1.10 There is also an organic unity in the universes of time and space which seems to underlie the whole fabric of cosmic events. This living presence of the evolving Supreme Being, this Immanence of the Projected Incomplete, is inexplicably manifested ever and anon by what appears to be an amazingly fortuitous co-ordination of apparently unrelated universe happenings. This must be the function of Providence – the realm of the Supreme Being and the Conjoint Actor.

Yes I do recall reading it.

Not having been raised in a church going family, the concept of providence was one of those many traditional religious concepts that was foreign to me while I became familiar with what I was reading in the Urantia Book.

The concept of providence, as the quote above presents the truth of it, is an example of how the Urantia Book validates these types of things in reverse. As you know, providence is the idea that God favors someone with good fortune and material prosperity while the revelation of the Urantia Book topples this idea and turns it upside down (right side up) and does so by indicating that apparently unrelated universe happenings (which would annoy, by all appearances) are actually “amazingly fortuitous.” Thanks to the Urantia Book, these kinds of validations for me are quite comforting and takes the weight of uncertainty off my shoulders.

Nonetheless, knowing that many of my sisters and brothers who haven’t had the fortuitous experience of reading the book and holding its many truths dear like we do, still frustrates me and makes me feel I need to do more than I’m doing to help bring them to the source of so much that relieves the common anxieties of life.

How to do more? I’m working on it. I’m sure it’s right under my nose.

(132:6.1) Here in Rome also occurred that touching incident in which the Creator of a universe spent several hours restoring a lost child to his anxious mother. This little boy had wandered away from his home, and Jesus found him crying in distress. He and Ganid were on their way to the libraries, but they devoted themselves to getting the child back home. Ganid never forgot Jesus’ comment: “You know, Ganid, most human beings are like the lost child. They spend much of their time crying in fear and suffering in sorrow when, in very truth, they are but a short distance from safety and security, even as this child was only a little way from home. And all those who know the way of truth and enjoy the assurance of knowing God should esteem it a privilege, not a duty, to offer guidance to their fellows in their efforts to find the satisfactions of living. Did we not supremely enjoy this ministry of restoring the child to his mother? So do those who lead men to God experience the supreme satisfaction of human service.” And from that day forward, for the remainder of his natural life, Ganid was continually on the lookout for lost children whom he might restore to their homes.
BonitaParticipant
Jun 25, 2017, 3:33 PM

Van Amadon wrote:

How to do more? I’m working on it. I’m sure it’s right under my nose.

Yeah, I think it usually is. I don’t think most of us realize how much the little things we say and do matter in life. People are usually looking for the grand gesture, you know, save the world kinda thinking. I learned long ago that I can make more of a difference with the little things, the stuff as I pass by, like Jesus did. I think it’s easier for our angels to manipulate the little things in our outer lives and sometimes you just have to open your eyes to see them . . . right there “under your nose”.

p1245:1 113:4.1 The guardian seraphim are not mind, though they do spring from the same source that also gives origin to mortal mind, the Creative Spirit. Seraphim are mind stimulators; they continually seek to promote circle-making decisions in human mind. They do this, not as does the Adjuster, operating from within and through the soul, but rather from the outside inward, working through the social, ethical, and moral environment of human beings. Seraphim are not the divine Adjuster lure of the Universal Father, but they do function as the personal agency of the ministry of the Infinite Spirit.
BonitaParticipant
Jun 25, 2017, 5:29 PM

Keryn wrote:

Anyone who looks to The Urantia Book for help with terrorism and other social dysfunctions is bound to be disappointed. TUB is intended as a spiritual roadmap, not a solution to all our social, political and economic ills.

I agree that TUB is a spiritual roadmap, but doesn’t it also include many lessons on how to advance civilization? I think it does. Isn’t there a lot of useful info about these things in papers 70 & 71?

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