The Cosmic Citizen

This week Paula, Chuck, and André continue to discuss Urantia Paper 5, God’s Relation to the Individual, §3 True Worship, and if time allows, perhaps §4 God in Religion. Sincere worship connotes the mobilization of all the powers of the human personality under the dominance of the evolving soul and subject to the divine directionization of the associated Thought Adjuster. The mind of material limitations can never become highly conscious of the real significance of true worship. Man’s realization of the reality of the worship experience is chiefly determined by the developmental status of his evolving immortal soul. The spiritual growth of the soul takes place wholly independently of the intellectual self-consciousness. The worship experience consists in the sublime attempt of the betrothed Adjuster to communicate to the divine Father the inexpressible longings and the unutterable aspirations of the human soul — the conjoint creation of the God-seeking mortal mind and the God-revealing immortal Adjuster. Worship is, therefore, the act of the material mind’s assenting to the attempt of its spiritualizing self, under the guidance of the associated spirit, to communicate with God as a faith son of the Universal Father. The mortal mind consents to worship; the immortal soul craves and initiates worship; the divine Adjuster presence conducts such worship in behalf of the mortal mind and the evolving immortal soul. True worship, in the last analysis, becomes an experience realized on four cosmic levels: the intellectual, the morontial, the spiritual, and the personal — the consciousness of mind, soul, and spirit, and their unification in personality.. 5:3.7–8 (66.3–66.4) Please join us! http://tobtr.com/12255308

This week Paula, Marvin, and Pam continue to discuss Urantia Paper 5, God’s Relation to the Individual, §2 The Presence of God, and if time allows, perhaps §3 True Worship. The divine presence cannot, however, be discovered anywhere in nature or even in the lives of God-knowing mortals so fully and so certainly as in your attempted communion with the indwelling Mystery Monitor, the Paradise Thought Adjuster. What a mistake to dream of God far off in the skies when the spirit of the Universal Father lives within your own mind! It is because of this God fragment that indwells you that you can hope, ..., more fully to discern the presence and transforming power of those other spiritual influences that surround you and impinge upon you but do not function as an integral part of you. The fact that you are not intellectually conscious of close and intimate contact with the indwelling Adjuster does not in the least disprove such an exalted experience. The proof of fraternity with the divine Adjuster consists wholly in the nature and extent of the fruits of the spirit which are yielded in the life experience of the individual believer. “By their fruits you shall know them.” It is exceedingly difficult for the meagerly spiritualized, material mind of mortal man to experience marked consciousness of the spirit activities of such divine entities as the Paradise Adjusters. As the soul of joint mind and Adjuster creation becomes increasingly existent, there also evolves a new phase of soul consciousness which is capable of experiencing the presence, and of recognizing the spirit leadings and other supermaterial activities, of the Mystery Monitors. 5:2.3–5 (64.6–65.1) http://tobtr.com/12250230

This week Marvin, Chuck, Pam, and André begin to discuss Urantia Paper 5, God’s Relation to the Individual, Intro & §1The Approach to God. God has distributed the infinity of his eternal nature throughout the existential realities of his six absolute co-ordinates, but he may, at any time, make direct personal contact with any part or phase or kind of creation through the agency of his prepersonal fragments. And the eternal God has also reserved to himself the prerogative of bestowing personality upon the divine Creators and the living creatures of the universe of universes, while he has further reserved the prerogative of maintaining direct and parental contact with all these personal beings through the personality circuit. 5:0.2 (62.2) The inability of the finite creature to approach the infinite Father is inherent, not in the Father’s aloofness, but in the finiteness and material limitations of created beings. The magnitude of the spiritual difference between the highest personality of universe existence and the lower groups of created intelligences is inconceivable. Were it possible for the lower orders of intelligence to be transported instantly into the presence of the Father himself, they would not know they were there. They would there be just as oblivious of the presence of the Universal Father as where they now are. There is a long, long road ahead of mortal man before he can consistently and within the realms of possibility ask for safe conduct into the Paradise presence of the Universal Father. Spiritually, man must be translated many times before he can attain a plane that will yield the spiritual vision which will enable him to see even any one of the Seven Master Spirits. 5:1.1 (62.3) http://tobtr.com/12248665

This week Paula, Chuck, and André read and discuss Urantia Paper 4. God's Relation to the Universe, §5, Erroneous Ideas of God and, perhaps, begin Paper 5 God’s Relation to the Individual, Intro & §1The Approach to God. One of the greatest sources of confusion on Urantia concerning the nature of God grows out of the failure of your sacred books clearly to distinguish between the personalities of the Paradise Trinity and between Paradise Deity and the local universe creators and administrators. During the past dispensations of partial understanding, your priests and prophets failed clearly to differentiate between Planetary Princes, System Sovereigns, Constellation Fathers, Creator Sons, Superuniverse Rulers, the Supreme Being, and the Universal Father. Many of the messages of subordinate personalities, such as Life Carriers and various orders of angels, have been, in your records, presented as coming from God himself. Urantian religious thought still confuses the associate personalities of Deity with the Universal Father himself, so that all are included under one appellation. 4:5.2 (60.1) The barbarous idea of appeasing an angry God, of propitiating an offended Lord, of winning the favor of Deity through sacrifices and penance and even by the shedding of blood, represents a religion wholly puerile and primitive, a philosophy unworthy of an enlightened age of science and truth. Such beliefs are utterly repulsive to the celestial beings and the divine rulers who serve and reign in the universes. It is an affront to God to believe, hold, or teach that innocent blood must be shed in order to win his favor or to divert the fictitious divine wrath. 4:5.4 (60.3) Please join us! http://tobtr.com/12246005

This week André, Chuck, and Pam read and discuss Urantia Paper 4. God's Relation to the Universe, §4, The Realization of God and, perhaps, §5, Erroneous Ideas of God. In this section we will learn about the immutability of God’s nature and character and that he does not change in his essence, attributes, or will. Since God is self-existent, he is absolutely independent. The very identity of God is inimical to change. “I, the Lord, change not.” God is immutable; but not until you achieve Paradise status can you even begin to understand how God can pass from simplicity to complexity, from identity to variation, from quiescence to motion, from infinity to finitude, from the divine to the human, and from unity to duality and triunity. And God can thus modify the manifestations of his absoluteness because divine immutability does not imply immobility; God has will — he is will. T]here are no limits to [God's] universe reactions save those which are self-imposed, and his freewill acts are conditioned only by those divine qualities and perfect attributes which inherently characterize his eternal nature. Therefore is God related to the universe as the being of final goodness plus a free will of creative infinity.  In God the Father, ...divine personality is ... consisting in spirit and manifesting himself to the universes as love. [I]n all his personal relations with the creature personalities of the universes, the First Source and Center is always and consistently a loving Father. God is a Father in the highest sense of the term. He is eternally motivated by the perfect idealism of divine love, and that tender nature finds its strongest expression and greatest satisfaction in loving and being loved. 4:4.2, 3, 6 (58.7, 8; 59.2)  http://tobtr.com/12245694

This week we continue our study of God in The Urantia Book. So far we have read the first 3 Urantia Papers. Urantia Paper 1. The Universal Father Urantia Paper 2. The Nature of God Urantia Paper 3. The Attributes of God We are currently reading and discussing Urantia Paper 4. God's Relation to the Universe. This week we are exploring Section 3, God's Unchanging Character. In this section we will learn about the immutability of God’s nature and character and that he does not change in his essence, attributes, or will. This paper teaches us that God is consistent in his dealings with all of his creatures and creation. He does not act arbitrarily or capriciously. We discover God’s unchanging character, his perfection and reliability. We will also learn that God adjusts his plans and methods according to the changing needs and situations of his evolving universe, but never does he deviate from His eternal purpose or divine nature. Consider the following from Section 3: 4:3.2.The eternal God is incapable of wrath and anger in the sense of these human emotions and as man understands such reactions. These sentiments are mean and despicable; they are hardly worthy of being called human, much less divine; and such attitudes are utterly foreign to the perfect nature and gracious character of the Universal Father. 4:3.4.God repents of nothing he has ever done, now does, or ever will do. He is all-wise as well as all-powerful. Man's wisdom grows out of the trials and errors of human experience; God's wisdom consists in the unqualified perfection of his infinite universe insight, and this divine foreknowledge effectively directs the creative free will. This week's study will provide us with another wonderful opportunity to explore God as revealed in The Urantia Book. Please join us!

We continue our study of our Heavenly Father and his relatiion to the universe in Paper 4 of The Urantia Book with §2 on God and Nature. Nature is in a limited sense the physical habit of God. The conduct, or action, of God is qualified and provisionally modified by the experimental plans and the evolutionary patterns of a local universe, a constellation, a system, or a planet. God acts in accordance with a well-defined, unchanging, immutable law throughout the wide-spreading master universe; but he modifies the patterns of his action so as to contribute to the co-ordinate and balanced conduct of each universe, constellation, system, planet, and personality in accordance with the local objects, aims, and plans of the finite projects of evolutionary unfolding. 4:2.1 (56.5) The apparent defects of the natural world are not indicative of any such corresponding defects in the character of God. Rather are such observed imperfections merely the inevitable stop-moments in the exhibition of the ever-moving reel of infinity picturization. It is these very defect-interruptions of perfection-continuity which make it possible for the finite mind of material man to catch a fleeting glimpse of divine reality in time and space. The material manifestations of divinity appear defective to the evolutionary mind of man only because mortal man persists in viewing the phenomena of nature through natural eyes, human vision unaided by morontia mota or by revelation, its compensatory substitute on the worlds of time. And nature is marred, her beautiful face is scarred, her features are seared, by the rebellion, the misconduct, the misthinking of the myriads of creatures who are a part of nature, but who have contributed to her disfigurement in time. No, nature is not God. Nature is not an object of worship. 4:2.7–8  (57.4–5) Please join us! http://tobtr.com/12239944

After a three-week hiatus where three or more of us were unavailable for one reason or another, we are ready to resume our study of our Heavenly Father—our Good Dad! This week we start Paper 4—God’s Relation to the Universe,  which  section that many Urantia students would call a favorite, it covers the "inevitabilities" in Section 5.God's Supreme Rule.  THE Universal Father has an eternal purpose pertaining to the material, intellectual, and spiritual phenomena of the universe of universes, which he is executing throughout all time. ... It is doubtful whether anyone except the Paradise Deities and their highest associates really knows very much about the eternal purpose of God. Even the exalted citizens of Paradise hold very diverse opinions about the nature of the eternal purpose of the Deities. ... The amazing plan for perfecting evolutionary mortals and, after their attainment of Paradise and the Corps of the Finality, providing further training for some undisclosed future work, does seem to be, at present, one of the chief concerns of the seven superuniverses and their many subdivisions; but this ascension scheme for spiritualizing and training the mortals of time and space is by no means the exclusive occupation of the universe intelligences. 4:0.1,3 (54.1,3)  ...There is a providence of divine outworking on your world, but it is not the childish, arbitrary, and material ministry many mortals have conceived it to be.  Can you not advance in your concept of God’s dealing with man to that level where you recognize that the watchword of the universe is progress? ... Throughout all these millenniums Providence has been working out the plan of progressive evolution. The two thoughts are not opposed in practice, only in man’s mistaken concepts.  4:1.1,2 (54.4,5) Please join us! http://tobtr.com/12237605

Here is what we've covered so far in Urantia Paper 3. The Attributes of God: 1.God's Everywhereness, 2.God's Infinite Power, 3.God's Universal Knowledge, 4.God's Limitlessness. This week we hope to conclude our study of Urantia Paper 3 with sections 5 & 6, God's Supreme Rule and God's Primacy. This week we will study a section that many Urantia students would call a favorite, it covers the "inevitabilities" in Section 5.God's Supreme Rule. The uncertainties of life do not contradict the universal sovereignty of God. Creature life is beset with certain inevitabilities. To develop courage, we must grapple with hardships. To develop altruism, we must experience social inequality. Hope results from being faced with insecurity, and faith arises when we live in such a way that we know less than we can believe. The love of truth is created only in an environment where falsehood is possible. Idealism comes as we struggle for a better world. Loyalty cannot emerge unless we live with the possibility of betrayal, and unselfishness results only if we have a self-life to forsake. To appreciate pleasure we must live in a world where pain and suffering are possible. The only evolutionary world without error would be a world without free intelligence. Man must be fallible if he is to be free. We will then put a bow on this paper with The Father's Primacy! Consider: 3:6.2.The sovereignty of God is unlimited; it is the fundamental fact of all creation. The universe was not inevitable. The universe is not an accident, neither is it self-existent. The universe is a work of creation and is therefore wholly subject to the will of the Creator. The will of God is divine truth, living love; therefore are the perfecting creations of the evolutionary universes characterized by goodness—nearness to divinity; by potential evil—remoteness from divinity. Please join us!

This week we continue our study of Urantia Paper 3 - The Attributes of God. We are studying section 3, God's Universal Knowledge, and hope to get to section 4, God's Limitlessness. Some points to ponder: “God knows all things.” The divine mind is conscious of, and conversant with, the thought of all creation. His knowledge of events is universal and perfect. The divine entities going out from him are a part of him; he who “balances the clouds” is also “perfect in knowledge.” “The eyes of the Lord are in every place.” Said your great teacher of the insignificant sparrow, “One of them shall not fall to the ground without my Father’s knowledge,” and also, “The very hairs of your head are numbered.” “He tells the number of the stars; he calls them all by their names.” 3:3.1 (48.8) ... “All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” And it should be a real comfort to every human being to understand that “he knows your frame; he remembers that you are dust.” Jesus, speaking of the living God, said, “Your Father knows what you have need of even before you ask him.” 3:3.2 (49.1) We are not wholly certain as to whether or not God chooses to foreknow events of sin. But even if God should foreknow the freewill acts of his children, such foreknowledge does not in the least abrogate their freedom. One thing is certain: God is never subjected to surprise. Omnipotence does not imply the power to do the nondoable, the ungodlike act. Neither does omniscience imply the knowing of the unknowable. But such statements can hardly be made comprehensible to the finite mind. The creature can hardly understand the range and limitations of the will of the Creator.  3:3.4–5 (49.3–4) Come join us! http://tobtr.com/12224669