Journal - May 2018

Greetings, fellow Urantia Book readers. In our May edition, we have several essays that focus on the personal spiritual experience between man and God that The Urantia Book so eloquently tries to convey. Seek and you shall find, and as you read these incredibly introspective epiphanies perhaps you might feel what the authors felt as they wrote their reflections down, leaving the energy there for us all to find and absorb.

Our first essay is A Jesusonian Calling by Dr. Bruce Jackson. It is difficult to encapsulate just one phrase of this undertaking as it is much more than just an essay, it is a mission. It is a spiritual, physical, earthly and visionary mission. Dr. Jackson has accepted the mission and if anyone else is so divinely inspired his vision goes from possible to reality. “First and foremost, any Urantia Book based educational institution should be Christ-centered and spirit-led God’s-will focused organization. For readers of The Urantia Book that means a sincere focus on the following:

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A proposal for the development of a curriculum based on The Urantia Book for the certification of teacher/scholars, and the certification of community, regional, and international leaders.

In winning souls for the Master, it is not the first mile of compulsion, duty, or convention that will transform man and his world, but rather the second mile of free service and liberty-loving devotion that betokens the Jesusonian reaching forth to grasp his brother in love and sweep him on under spiritual guidance toward the higher and divine goal of mortal existence. Christianity even now willingly goes the first mile, but mankind languishes and stumbles along in moral darkness because there are so few genuine second-milers—so few professed followers of Jesus who really live and love as he taught his disciples to live and love and serve. [Paper 195:10.5, page 2084.5 emphasis added]

This familiar and challenging passage found in Paper 195 actually defines the name of the lifestyle and religion presented in the fifth epochal revelation: Jesusonianism. Here the individual Jesusonian is challenged to follow the teachings presented in The Urantia Book. It is easy to stop at the level of this quotation and focus entirely on the inner spiritual life of the individual. However, the fifth epochal revelation suggests throughout its text, a third mile that is about community service and world-wide spiritual outreach.

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The Urantia Book unequivocally declares:

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 . . . [Paper 111:5.1, page 1221.2]

What? Seriously? That’s it?

When I began The Urantia Book journey so many years ago, that was my initial reaction. At that time, my search for spiritual meaning among various groups of well-intentioned seekers often presented a particular “spiritual path” through a more or less convoluted series of spiritual hoops and progressive “states of consciousness.” Each with an inviting promise of future mystical rewards, yet each a necessary prerequisite before one could experience God directly. Doing God’s will for me personally would require a level of divinity recognition only available to those who had at last arrived at the very pinnacle, the greatly coveted, “Enlightenment.” And from which vantage one finally became faultless, pure, holy, and perfected, a literal saint. Not to mention of course, becoming so much more “highly evolved” than mere un-enlightened mortals. Yes, if I could somehow get to that ultimate state, my search would be fulfilled. For the moment, alas, such enlightenment remained an elusive, spiritual carrot.

Ah yes, those early years . . . (sigh)

As a Urantia Book novice I believed in God (in his existence), yet I was still seeking to intellectually discern his will for me in terms of each individual decision, but without actually knowing him. What did he want me to do about this, or about that? What should I do next? Should I take this job? Should I rent this house? Should I end my troubled marriage? Should I . . . should I . . . the list never ended. However absurdly impossible, my fanciful spiritual wish was to wake each morning with an explicit to-do list directly from God at my bedside. How else would I ever know for certain what his will was on every occasion? Truth be told, it was frustrating and stressful. Yet for a time, I continued to falsely believe that doing the will of God was somehow about figuring it out at each and every turn, every fork in the road. After all, aren’t we also taught that we advance spiritually, decision by decision? But uh-oh, what if I make the wrong one? Sheesh!

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Recently I went online to purchase some sports items for my son-in-law Tim’s birthday. A few years ago I set up an Amazon-Smile account. Every time I need to shop for birthdays, holidays or any special event for my family, I can do something that has been very difficult financially for me to do in the past; I can support a cause. Raising my four children as a single parent made it nearly impossible for me to give to worthy charities and causes such as Urantia Foundation and all of their translation projects. Now Amazon helps me to accomplish this by taking 0.5% out of their profits for my total purchase amount, and then they send it to Urantia Foundation. When I need to shop for someone, first I check Amazon-Smile to see if they have something that would be an appropriate gift, and generally they don’t disappoint me. I appreciate the great variety available and reasonable prices.

I know some of my friends have set up similar accounts with Amazon-Smile to support Urantia Association International. I would encourage everyone to take advantage of this great opportunity. Many people acting as a large network collectively giving their resources and time can be much more effective than a few wealthy donors carrying the heavy load of expense and doing all of the work of planting the seeds for the fifth epochal revelation.

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When people find The Urantia Book, they experience new enthusiasm upon discovering something bigger and truer than anything they had ever known. Very often, a first reaction is to share this same enthusiasm with all those surrounding us. To our dismay, we readers quickly find people are not interested in our discovery or our experience.

Towards one o’clock in the afternoon, while the one hundred and twenty believers were in prayer, they all realized a strange presence in the room. At the same time, all these disciples became aware of a new and profound sense of spiritual joy, confidence, and security. This new consciousness of spiritual strength was immediately followed by a powerful impulse to publicly proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and the good news that Jesus had risen from the dead. [Paper 194: 0.1, page 2059.1]

It seems that this passage from The Urantia Book illustrates well a typical mental condition when first discovering the book. So, why did it not produce for most of us the same effect as it did for the apostles and disciples? These early believers convinced hundreds and thousands of others to accept the good news. I believe part or many of the answers are found in the narrative of the life and teachings of Jesus. More answers may be in ‘The Publication Mandate.’ *

If we review Jesus’ strategy, we can easily see he prepared a solid foundation well in advance of his public life. He perfected his methods and teaching style for sharing truth. He improved his ways and gained more knowledge of humankind throughout his pre-baptismal life as he journeyed around the Mediterranean Sea. He knew how to avail himself of every possible opportunity, sowing seeds of truth, preparing for his later disciples and apostles’ ministry after his departure from this world.

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