Dear Urantia Book readers,
Okay, you’ve got the Urantia book, you’ve read it, or, at least you’re reading it, you love it, you believe in it. It satisfies some of the most fundamental questions of life. Now what?
Let me ask you a question: What is more important? To turn people on to the Urantia Book or to live the Urantia book teachings? If the answer is number 2, then read on.
There is quite a lot of interest in getting the Urantia book into people’s hands and minds. It would seem to me that we should put as much interest in deepening into the teachings so that we can in fact become “even overflowing sources of inspiration and enhanced living to all men. What do you think the revelators had in mind for us when they gave us these papers? Here’s a hint.
195:10.1 The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men. Jesus’ disciples should be more than conquerors, even overflowing sources of inspiration and enhanced living to all men.” (Emphasis mine)
It would seem to me, having been a student of the UB since 1969, that the revelators would like us to actually embody and implement the teachings in as many and as effective ways as possible.
After all, what is the purpose of revelation?
What is the difference between that level of commitment and what we are currently doing? What gets in our way? What stokes up our motivation? How do we do it?
What is the potential relationship between your own spiritual development and your ability to impact the world and lead others into an enlightened state of consciousness? There are so many passages in the book that beg for our participation. Not just study and discussion, but deep involvement.
I would suggest that it is a long way from having an intellectual understanding of certain concepts and actually “groking” them.
(To grok is to intimately and completely share the same reality or line of thinking with another physical or conceptual entity.
How can your study and experience of the Urantia Book empower you to become a “second miler?”
195:10.5 “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.”
So one course of study and creativity would be to consider what is “free service and liberty-loving devotion?” Can it be accelerated so that we can be more effective in helping our global community deal with the enormous problems confronting us? I would suggest that the more we can embody and assimilate the teachings, the more we can contribute to the world. How would we live differently if we allowed the kind of transformation that the UB calls us to?
Of course I could go on and on with what I believe are admonitions, warnings and injunctions from the U.B. that should compel us to burn all bridges to achieve these goals, but now I’d like to suggest a program to actually start to achieve these goals.
- It begins by recognizing that we need to become whole-hearted in our commitment to service and personal evolution.
- Next, we must employ all effective tools and diverse techniques that will enable us to transform and to upgrade our level of spiritual commitment and participation.
- We should develop, and most importantly, into our will.
- We must practice and ultimately master the 4 steps of righteous.
- And we must be creative!
What is required?
“And all such true faith is predicated on profound reflection, sincere self-criticism, and uncompromising moral consciousness. (Emphasis mine) Faith is the inspiration of the spiritized creative imagination.
This is not easy, so most of all, we need to learn how to support each other and become the kind of community, brotherhood, if you will, that can empower its members to realize our fullest potential and to activate the vision of the Urantia Book.
Practically speaking, I would suggest a curriculum that can be done on line, through Skype and teleconferencing and live events. For instance, we might take any one of the passages above and begin to probe into ever deepening layers of meaning and then, see how those meanings can be applied to our lives, in particular, how they can affect our decision making.
39:4.14 The keys of the kingdom of heaven are: sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. All men have these keys. Men use them — advance in spirit status — by decisions, by more decisions, and by more decisions.
This concept, along with many, many others begs for our analysis and embodiment. What are those decisions? How can we make better decisions? What is the relationship between sincerity and decision-making? How do you know when you are sincere with others? With yourself?
Why wouldn’t you be sincere? (Hint: some kind of fear)
Imagine we meet weekly on a conference call and share our personal challenges and struggles with that—both our mistakes and our successes. We work with a small team and a buddy to penetrate these ideas and then develop some creative ways of sharing our discoveries. We develop ways to measure our progress and then we come together in a live setting at least once a year to share stories, celebrate our work and set goals for the next year.
To use the Urantia Book’s phrases, how can we develop “self-mastery”? “the truth-co-ordinated life?”
Let me leave you with these quotes, everyone one of which should inspire us to a greater commitment to, at the least, understand how they might affect our lives and then to seek ways to promulgate these teachings.
99:4.6 During the psychologically unsettled times of the twentieth century, amid the economic upheavals, the moral crosscurrents, and the sociologic rip tides of the cyclonic transitions of a scientific era, thousands upon thousands of men and women have become humanly dislocated; they are anxious, restless, fearful, uncertain, and unsettled; as never before in the world’s history they need the consolation and stabilization of sound religion. In the face of unprecedented scientific achievement and mechanical development there is spiritual stagnation and philosophic chaos.
195:8.13 The complete secularization of science, education, industry, and society can lead only to disaster. During the first third of the twentieth century Urantians killed more human beings than were killed during the whole of the Christian dispensation up to that time. And this is only the beginning of the dire harvest of materialism and secularism; still more terrible destruction is yet to come.
155:6.17 But you who have been called out of darkness into the light are expected to believe with a whole heart; your faith shall dominate the combined attitudes of body, mind, and spirit.
195:10.10 If the Christian church would only dare to espouse the Master’s program, thousands of apparently indifferent youths would rush forward to enlist in such a spiritual undertaking, and they would not hesitate to go all the way through with this great adventure.
195:10.16 The great hope of Urantia lies in the possibility of a new revelation of Jesus with a new and enlarged presentation of his saving message which would spiritually unite in loving service the numerous families of his present-day professed followers.
195:9.4 Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in neglecting its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers of Jesus’ religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization of the world.
One last quote: What did Jesus call his apostles to do?
140:3.2 I send you forth to proclaim liberty to the spiritual captives, joy to those in the bondage of fear, and to heal the sick in accordance with the will of my Father in heaven.
Think on’t
With love, support and in service,
Errol Strider
4 thoughts on “What is the Purpose?”
Hi – i was introduced to the UB in the late 1970’s and started reading it 4 years later – here is my story:
http://jackiegtba2013.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/what-is-urantia-and-the-urantia-book/
your program looks very nice on the surface, but where do you address the problem of apathy – to say “we must…” and “we should…” doesn’t make much of a dent in people’s inertia. first look to see what the problem is before seeking solutions.
I’ve heard so many people say these same sorts of things, but things in the world only are getting worse. more apathy and more violence. sure there is love, i read about it in lots of blog stories. you say “get creative” but how does one actually “do” that?
the truth of the matter is is that we are each responsible for our own lives – some are lived well, and others less so. i think making bonds and connections between individuals would be the right place to start – we don’t understand how human communication works, or how bonds are formed. we allow hospitals to treat birth like it was a disease and the first experience of life is like the experience of alien abductions. the initial chemical based bonds between mother and infant from skin to skin contact for more than just 30 seconds are brushed aside. how does that figure into your “program”. people are what people are, and are made to be, by others like parents, teachers, peers and those pesky authority figures. we are bombarded by adverts and materialistic pressures. most succumb. i believe if Jesus came back today, the “Christians” would crucify him all over again because the message that they expect would not match the one he would bring, as it happened 2000 years ago.
Jacqueline. Points well taken, and not the first time I’ve considered these issues. After spending over 40 years developing all kinds of programs, processes, tools and methods, I have ways to shake people out of their apathy.
What I am proposing with this article is to engage people who want to make a difference and train them to use and implement these tools and methods. This requires further discussion and elaboration.
This article was meant to see if there was any interest in going what the UB calls “The Second Mile.” If so, there are very effective ways to do that, but it starts with a whole-hearted desire and commitment if it is going work.
Again, thanks for taking the time to respond to my article.
Blessings,
Errol Strider
At any moment, we have only 3 choices. Do good. Do harm. Or waste time. If we decide to do good, we may as well do the greatest possible good. One way to do this is to start making a list of the greatest good we have done or seen or discovered in our lives so far. Keep adding to the list from now on. When not sure of what to do next, first look at the greatest good from your past and try to take maximum advantage of at least the very best one. When we try to do the greatest possible good, everything works in our favor, and we create a better future for everyone we encounter.
“You either believe or you don’t, and if you believe than what are you going to do about it?”