The Cosmic Citizen

An Investigation into The New Testament Bible From 3 perspectives * The Biblical Worldview * The Academic/Scholastic * The Urantia Book.. This living faith of Jesus was more than an intellectual reflection, and it was not a mystic meditation.  Theology may fix, formulate, define, and dogmatize faith, but in the human life of Jesus faith was personal, living, original, spontaneous, and purely spiritual. This faith was not reverence for tradition nor a mere intellectual belief which he held as a sacred creed, but rather a sublime experience and a profound conviction which securely held him. His faith was so real and all-encompassing that it absolutely swept away any spiritual doubts and effectively destroyed every conflicting desire. Nothing was able to tear him away from the spiritual anchorage of this fervent, sublime, and undaunted faith. Even in the face of apparent defeat or in the throes of disappointment and threatening despair, he calmly stood in the divine presence free from fear and fully conscious of spiritual invincibility. Jesus enjoyed the invigorating assurance of the possession of unflinching faith, and in each of life's trying situations he unfailingly exhibited an unquestioning loyalty to the Father's will. And this superb faith was undaunted even by the cruel and crushing threat of an ignominious death.Always in Love God's Gumshoe www.godsgumshoe.org On facebook:  Godss Gumshoe Twitter: @godsgumshoe YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/godsgumshoe?feature=mhee Archive of this series at: http://www.urantiabook.org/audio/gods-gumshoe/gg-index.html

We caught up last week with one of our favorite quests, Dr. Frank Kaufmann. Frank is an amazing representative of the interfaith and peace movements and we were delighted to have him back on.  [Paula and Christilyn will continue "Prayer" next week while Andre is at the UAI Study Group Symposium.] Is it possible to create peace and promote understanding between world faiths like Islam, Judaism and Christianity? If ever there was living proof that these lofty ideals are possible, Dr Frank Kaufmann provides it. Frank is the founder and president of Filial Projects, director of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace (IRFWP), editor-in-chief of Dialogue and Alliance, and editor-in-chief of The New World Encyclopedia where he has engaged 500 international scholars. He has done extraordinary peacemaking work in more than 65 countries, including many conflict-ridden and violent environments like Israel, Egypt and Palestine, Croatian Refugee Camps, the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, Hindu-Muslim conflict zones in India and Kashmir, revolutionary centers of the southern Philippines, the Gulf, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere. Frank was nominated for the Guru Nanak Interfaith Award, along with luminaries like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.  Frank is a true cosmic citizen and just plain fun, amazing and engaging! Frank Kaufmann is a tireless toiler for truth and harmony. He is as humble as he is fascinating. He is currently offering a doctoral level course on Interfaith. He says, "As religions, through dialogue, understanding, and reconciliation develop the ability to work together, we must seek to discover what is the positive good for all that can come of these achievements, this newfound harmony, this powerful synergy." Join us for what was another insightful program of truth seeking and God finding with a truly remarkable and inspiring man.

An Investigation into The New Testament Bible Whistleblower: From 3 perspectives * The Biblical Worldview * The Academic/Scholastic * The Urantia Book  139:4.13.John was in prison several times and was banished to the Isle of Patmos for a period of four years until another emperor came to power in Rome. Had not John been tactful and sagacious, he would undoubtedly have been killed as was his more outspoken brother James. As the years passed, John, together with James the Lord's brother, learned to practice wise conciliation when they appeared before the civil magistrates. They found that a "soft answer turns away wrath." They also learned to represent the church as a "spiritual brotherhood devoted to the social service of mankind" rather than as "the kingdom of heaven." They taught loving service rather than ruling power—kingdom and king. 139:4.14.When in temporary exile on Patmos, John wrote the Book of Revelation, which you now have in greatly abridged and distorted form. This Book of Revelation contains the surviving fragments of a great revelation, large portions of which were lost, other portions of which were removed, subsequent to John's writing. It is preserved in only fragmentary and adulterated form. Always in Love God's Gumshoe www.godsgumshoe.org On facebook:  Godss Gumshoe Twitter: @godsgumshoe YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/godsgumshoe?feature=mhee Archive of this series at: http://www.urantiabook.org/audio/gods-gumshoe/gg-index.html

This week we've been presented with a special opportunity to catch up with one of our favorite quests, Dr. Frank Kaufmann. Frank is an amazing representative of the interfaith movement and we are delighted to have him back on. We'll continue our study on prayer in the near future.  Is it possible to create peace and promote understanding between world faiths like Islam, Judaism and Christianity? If ever there was living proof that these lofty ideals are possible, Dr Frank Kaufmann provides it. Frank is the founder and president of Filial Projects, director of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace (IRFWP), editor-in-chief of Dialogue and Alliance, and editor-in-chief of The New World Encyclopedia where he has engaged 500 international scholars. He has done extraordinary peacemaking work in more than 65 countries, including many conflict-ridden and violent environments like Israel, Egypt and Palestine, Croatian Refugee Camps, the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, Hindu-Muslim conflict zones in India and Kashmir, revolutionary centers of the southern Philippines, the Gulf, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere. Frank was nominated for the Guru Nanak Interfaith Award, along with luminaries like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.  We are sure you will agree that Frank is a true cosmic citizen and just plain fun, amazing and engaging! Frank Kaufmann is a tireless toiler for truth and harmony. He is as humble as he is fascinating. He is currently offering a doctoral level course on Interfaith. He says, "As religions, through dialogue, understanding, and reconciliation develop the ability to work together, we must seek to discover what is the positive good for all that can come of these achievements, this newfound harmony, this powerful synergy." Join us for what promises to be another insightful program of truth seeking and God finding.

An Investigation into The New Testament Bible Whistleblower: From 3 perspectives * The Biblical Worldview * The Academic/Scholastic * The Urantia Book  139:4.13.John was in prison several times and was banished to the Isle of Patmos for a period of four years until another emperor came to power in Rome. Had not John been tactful and sagacious, he would undoubtedly have been killed as was his more outspoken brother James. As the years passed, John, together with James the Lord's brother, learned to practice wise conciliation when they appeared before the civil magistrates. They found that a "soft answer turns away wrath." They also learned to represent the church as a "spiritual brotherhood devoted to the social service of mankind" rather than as "the kingdom of heaven." They taught loving service rather than ruling power—kingdom and king. 139:4.14.When in temporary exile on Patmos, John wrote the Book of Revelation, which you now have in greatly abridged and distorted form. This Book of Revelation contains the surviving fragments of a great revelation, large portions of which were lost, other portions of which were removed, subsequent to John's writing. It is preserved in only fragmentary and adulterated form. Always in Love God's Gumshoe www.godsgumshoe.org On facebook:  Godss Gumshoe Twitter: @godsgumshoe YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/godsgumshoe?feature=mhee Archive of this series at: http://www.urantiabook.org/audio/gods-gumshoe/gg-index.html

This week on the Cosmic Citizen we'll be discussing Paper 91 of The Urantia Book, The Evolution of Prayer. Prayer has evolved and it keeps evolving. Some prayers can rise like a bird with outstretched wings on ascending spiritual currents while others sink like a stone. Paper 91 covers not only the history of human prayer but also the value and efficacy of our prayers.  Have you ever wondered if you prayers are answered?  Does it seem that your prayers aren't answered? One of the great religious questions of our time is whether or not prayers are answered. The Urantia Books reveals thought provoking information about why we pray and how our prayers are answered. The Urantia Book states, "The earliest prayer forms were not addressed to Deity. These expressions were much like what you would say to a friend as you entered upon some important undertaking, "Wish me luck." Primitive man was enslaved to magic; luck, good and bad, entered into all the affairs of life."  It teaches that prayer has sometimes become so materialistic that it has degenerated into a pseudomagical technique of avoiding the expenditure of that effort required for the solution of human problems.Eventually we will realize that the truest prayer is in reality a communion between us and our Maker. "Genuine prayer adds to spiritual growth, modifies attitudes, and yields that satisfaction which comes from communion with divinity. It is a spontaneous outburst of God-consciousness." We hope you will tune in for this series on prayer, and join us as we discover together these insightful teachings and explore this important and timely topic.

Whistleblower: An Investigation into The New Testament Bible From 3 perspectives * The Biblical Worldview * The Academic/Scholastic * The Urantia Book Paper 195.4. The European Dark Ages 195:4.1.The church, being an adjunct to society and the ally of politics, was doomed to share in the intellectual and spiritual decline of the so-called European "dark ages." During this time, religion became more and more monasticized, asceticized, and legalized. In a spiritual sense, Christianity was hibernating. Throughout this period there existed, alongside this slumbering and secularized religion, a continuous stream of mysticism, a fantastic spiritual experience bordering on unreality and philosophically akin to pantheism.   195:4.2.During these dark and despairing centuries, religion became virtually secondhanded again. The individual was almost lost before the overshadowing authority, tradition, and dictation of the church. A new spiritual menace arose in the creation of a galaxy of "saints" who were assumed to have special influence at the divine courts, and who, therefore, if effectively appealed to, would be able to intercede in man's behalf before the Gods. Hmmmm...... Always in Love God's Gumshoe www.godsgumshoe.org On facebook:  Godss Gumshoe Twitter: @godsgumshoe YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/godsgumshoe?feature=mhee

The Urantia Book provides comprehensive detail on what happens to you after death. It's says, "...you will resume your intellectual training and spiritual development at the exact level whereon they were interrupted by death." Further, "You begin over there right where you leave off down here." It's also says that death adds "nothing to the intellectual possession or to the spiritual endowment" but that it does "add to the experiential status the consciousness of survival." The book reveals levels of progressive existence between material life and pure spiritual existence. It explains that it is the soul that survives death. The soul is the child of the combined life and efforts of our human self in liaison with our divine self. It is the embryonic spirit, a child of human and divine parentage, and the potentials of the soul are eternal. After death we sleep, until we are awakened on a new world. The authors tell us that these "resurrection mornings" are something we will remember eternally.  We are then assigned permanent residence on this first Mansion World where we enter upon a time of personal liberty. We are free to explore the immediate vicinity of our new home and to familiarize ourselves with the program which lies immediately ahead. We have enough time to gratify our desire to consult the registry and call upon our loved ones and other earth friends who may have preceded us to these majestic worlds.  We will know and be known, and more, we will remember, and be remembered by, our onetime associates in the short but intriguing life on earth. We invite you to join us on this exploration of The Urantia Book and begin an endless voyage of discovery!

An Investigation into The New Testament Bible Whistleblower: From 3 perspectives * The Biblical Worldview * The Academic/Scholastic * The Urantia Book As Paul reminded Timothy, "All Scripture is inspired by God and is [therefore] useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16)--all Scripture, not just our "life verses." At the same time, the Westminster Confession properly reminds us that not everything in Scripture is equally plain or equally important. We have to interpret the more difficult passages in the light of clearer ones. Scripture interprets Scripture, and we learn the whole meaning of Scripture by studying its parts and its parts by learning the whole. You need the box-top and the puzzle-pieces. Hmmmm???   Scripture "proves" scripture... From The Urantia Book: 103:7.15. Science discovers the material world, religion evaluates it, and philosophy endeavors to interpret its meanings while co-ordinating the scientific material viewpoint with the religious spiritual concept. But history is a realm in which science and religion may never fully agree. Always in Love God's Gumshoe www.godsgumshoe.org On facebook:  Godss Gumshoe Twitter: @godsgumshoe YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/godsgumshoe?feature=mhee Archive of this series at: http://www.urantiabook.org/audio/gods-gumshoe/gg-index.html

This week we continue our series on the afterlife.  In the last two weeks we covered the third and fourth Mansion Worlds. Jesus alluded to this phase of the afterlife when he said: "In my Father's house are many mansions." The Urantia Book provided comprehensive detail on what happens after death. It's says that, death adds "nothing to the intellectual possession or to the spiritual endowment" but that it does "add to the experiential status the consciousness of survival." Paper 47 of Urantia Book reveals levels of existence that fall between matter and spirit. It says, "The life after death is no different in the essentials than the mortal existence. Everything we do in this life which is good contributes directly to the enhancement of the future life." Andthat, "The entire universe is one vast school." Amid the economic upheavals, moral crosscurrents and cyclonic transitions these unsettling times, have you become humanly dislocated? Are you anxious, restless, fearful, uncertain, and unsettled? In the face of unprecedented scientific achievement and mechanical development do you feel spiritual stagnation and philosophic chaos?  If so, it's time to romance the universe and reach out for spiritual teachings that make sense and put this era into perspective. The Urantia Book gives hope to the hopeless. It says, "Having started out on the way of life everlasting, having accepted the assignment and received your orders to advance, do not fear the dangers of human forgetfulness and mortal inconstancy, do not be troubled with doubts of failure or by perplexing confusion, do not falter and question your status and standing, for in every dark hour, at every crossroad in the forward struggle, the Spirit of Truth will always speak, saying, "This is the way." Please join us, as we continue to explore the hereafter.