(Presented at the 2022 ANZURA Conference in Tasmania)
Coming through customs the other day, the custom’s officer asked me if I had any criminal convictions? “What, is it still a requirement to enter Australia” I replied? “Trying to be a smart arse, are we?” “No, not at all officer” I replied. “It’s just that I’ll be staying at Port Arthur, and I wanted to make doubly sure.” ☺
Apologies for there being no power point presentation, white boards, charts etc. I’m afraid you are just going to have to listen to me ramble on for the next 20 minutes or so – so let’s get on with it.
Before we get underway, I’d like to start with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II. QE2 was an amazing woman. To me she was an exemplar of service to her subjects around the world. Something about her that most people overlook is the fact that she was a deeply religious person. She had a deep personal faith in God. She was after all the head of the Church of England and this was a role she took very seriously. Her life was devoted to service and bringing people together. What a privilege it was living under her reign and the consistency, devotion, and loyalty she brought to our lives during 70 years of turbulence, upheaval, and constant change. In a BBC radio presentation recently, they spoke about how she was so impressed with the evangelist Billy Graham when he held crusades in Britain back in the 1960’s & 70’s, that she invited him for an audience at Buckingham palace. Two great people of faith who left an indelible impression on our world for good, and for God himself.
Isn’t it great to be alive! To have this life experience that only the Father could give us. Surely the least we can do in return is to give him praise and gratitude for it. Without his desire to create us, we simply wouldn’t exist. We would have never known what the joys and tribulations there were install for us. And to think this is just the beginning of a never-ending experience all the way to paradise and the embrace of God himself! Where we take the trinity oath of eternity and become eternal ourselves! How great is the God we adore. How wonderful and marvelous is his/our creator son Michael of Nebadon who revealed the Father unto us while living here as Jesus of Nazareth.
When preparing this presentation “The Ultimate Human Experience!”, I quickly realised that the subject deserves more than 30 minutes of time because we could discuss it for hours, if not days. So, I just want to concentrate on three aspects of this manifold subject, so I am going to focus on peace, joy, and enthusiasm – the first two are of course fruits of Spirit.
Starting with PEACE we read on page 1101:
“One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace, that peace which passes all human understanding, that cosmic poise which betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil” [Paper 100:6.6, page 1101.1]
How reassuring is this? And yet we live in a world where peace is a rare commodity these days. Who would have thought that a major war would erupt in Europe again in 2022? There are conflicts all around the world. Brutal genocide in Rwanda has been going on for years. Eritrea and Ethiopia have been in a state of civil war for years. Tensions are high in many parts of the world and seem to be building. And it’s not just countries where peace has been shattered. Countless millions of people aren’t at peace with themselves. They have no faith in the living God.
Today we live in an increasingly secular, and some would say an increasingly socialist world. A materialistic world where, to many, only material things matter. People have abandoned their faith in God. Mention God to virtually anyone these days (in NZ), and they think you are strange to say the least. No wonder so many young people are anxious, frightened, uncertain, confused and lost in their thinking these days. Mental illness is rife in NZ and the western world. Our government recently pledged $1.9 billion towards mental health. Is this going to solve anything without spiritual instruction? I very much doubt it. Many have no hope for this world, let alone the next if only they knew about it. Youth suicide is huge in NZ and many other countries. What a damming indictment on our society. If only they were taught the sublime truths, we all know. The truths that Jesus taught us while here in the fresh. What reassurance, peace and hope would fill their hearts and minds. What a sense of purpose would fill their hearts and souls.
We live in a world filled with noise. Most of us probably wake to the sound of the clock-radio to awaken us. Then it seems to be a continuous succession of noise throughout the day. Radios and TV’s blaring forth, road noise from cars and trucks coming and going, people constantly talking, phones ringing, construction sites, lawn mowers, street sweepers, aircraft flying overhead etc. Noise, noise, noise!
The Palmist of old said “Be still and know that I am God”, which I think is very good advice. And I (personally) find that the best time of the day to achieve this, is if I waken in the wee hours. I find it a great time to have a personal chat with the Father himself. All alone, just him and me. To share my inner self with him. To seek to know him and his will for my life. It’s also an opportune time to wait for reflective feedback, just meditating on his presence. It can be a truly wonderful time. A time of real peace, joy, happiness, and reassurance. A time to strengthen one’s faith and to get more motivated.
In David Kantor’s script for his upcoming movie presentation to theologians and (particularly) the Christian clergy, states “The crisis of Christianity is the fact that the credibility of the story which has identified Christianity as Christianity no longer provides conceptual support linking spiritual experience to observable reality.”
The crisis of Christianity is, by extension, the crisis of Western Civilization. Every culture, every civilization that we know of has been held together by values derived from shared stories about the gods and their relationship to humanity. The post-enlightenment West is the first civilization that we know of to abandon its foundational stories, forsake its dependence on God, and attempt to go it alone.
Is this the end of Western civilisation or is there hope of a renaissance. To be honest, it’s not looking that good out there, especially on the spiritual front. We will probably have to wait for the “end of the current ideological struggle” before people are ready to accept the truths of Jesus found in The Urantia Book. But rest assured, the teachings of Jesus will not fail! Maybe it could be through a unique musician. “But be not discouraged; someday a real musician may appear on Urantia, and whole peoples will be enthralled by the magnificent strains of his melodies. … It is literally true, “melody has power a whole world to transform.” (p.500:6)
Yet we can experience this sublime truth right here and now. Again, that wonderful quote from page 1101 “One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace, that peace which passes all human understanding, that cosmic poise which betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil” [Paper 100:6.6, page 1101.1]
JOY:
In Peter DeCamp’s study aid “The Entities, Beings and Personalities of The Urantia Book“, we read on page 66, under the sub-heading “5 of Secondary Seconaphim”, (offspring of Reflective Spirits), about the “Joy of Existence” angels:
…reflectively attuned to the superaphic harmony supervisors above and to certain of seraphim below, but it is difficult to explain just what the members of this interesting group really do; their principal activities are directed toward promoting reactions of joy among the various orders of the angelic hosts and the lower will creatures in a more general manner and in a collaboration with the reversion directors, they function as joy clearinghouses, seeking to up-step the pleasure reactions of the realms while trying to improve the humour taste, to develop a super-humour among mortals and angels; they endeavour to demonstrate that there is inherent joy in freewill existence, independent of all extraneous influences; and they are right, although they meet with great difficulty in inculcating this truth in the minds of primitive men. [Paper 28:5.16, page 312.3]
I believe the song writer got it right when they penned these beautiful lyrics: –
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
I’d stay in the garden with Him
Tho’ the night around me be falling;
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
We should be filled with joy. We should try to share this joy with everybody we come in contact with. Then will people inquire of us the source of our joy and happiness. Jesus of course was a master at this. Just his countenance and demeanour were enough to draw men and women unto him.
I once worked with a couple of guys who were real druggies. A typical weekend for them was being spaced out on LSD, MDMA, cocaine or whatever they could get hold of. After some time (I forget how), they became Christians. These guys had a real Damascus Road experience. Their lives totally changed in an instant. They flushed all their drugs down the loo and completely changed their lives. They were so filled with the love of God, all they wanted to do was to talk about their experience. They would sit in my office and tell me about how they used to love getting high and the sense of euphoria they would experience. But then would go on to say it was nothing to compared to their newfound love of God and the feelings of joy and happiness they experienced now.
ENTHUSIASM:
When I first left school, I attended a Dale Carnegie course (of How to win friends and influence people fame), in self-confidence and public speaking. Although this course cost me several weeks of pay, it was some of the best money I ever spent. One of the exercises we had to go through each night was to act out the mantra “Act enthusiastic and you’ll be enthusiastic”.
Demonstrate how.
If we research the word enthusiasm, we will see it is derived from the Greek ‘enthousiasmos’ – meaning “inspiration or possession by a god”. It entered the English language around the beginning of the 17th Century and for the first 200 hundred years or so, enthusiasm was primarily employed to refer to beliefs or passions that related to religion. We need to be more enthusiastic about our relationship with God and his divine fragment that lives within us. What is more important?
One of my favourite quotes from The Urantia Book is:
Of God, the most inescapable of all presences, the most real of all facts, the most living of all truths, the most loving of all friends, and the most divine of all values, we have the right to be the most certain of all universe experiences. (1127.5) 102:8.1 [Paper 102:8.1, page 1127.5]
This to me really says it all. It tells me that if I truly believe these truths and seek to do the Father’s will, what is there to worry about? Our loving heavenly Father is truly taking care of me, of us all, all the time. He is in control. We have our faithful companion, our divine fragment with us the whole way.
Paul taught the citizens of Rome nothing can separate us from the love of God. “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Great words from Paul.
The consciousness of the spirit domination of a human life is presently attended by an increasing exhibition of the characteristics of the Spirit in the life reactions of such a spirit-led mortal, “for the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.” Such spirit-guided and divinely illuminated mortals, while they yet tread the lowly paths of toil and in human faithfulness perform the duties of their earthly assignments, have already begun to discern the lights of eternal life as they glimmer on the faraway shores of another world; already have they begun to comprehend the reality of that inspiring and comforting truth, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” And throughout every trial and in the presence of every hardship, spirit-born souls are sustained by that hope which transcends all fear because the love of God is shed abroad in all hearts by the presence of the divine Spirit. [Paper 34:6.13, page 381.7]
As the conference brochure quotes “It is high time that man had a religious experience so personal and so sublime that it could be realized and expressed only by feelings that lie too deep for words.” (p.1091.8) The closest I have got to this is, is what I described before. It’s only a beginning and I know I am just approaching the first step. But it is a start. A start to make me aware of the divine presence in me. A juncture in life’s road that is clearly pointing me in the right direction. A signpost telling me, this is the way to go. We have just embarked on the most thrilling, joyful and exciting journey.
Let’s not forget we are all Agondonters, which The Urantia Book describes as such on page 579:
Evolutionary will creatures who can believe without seeing, persevere when isolated, and triumph over insuperable difficulties even when alone; on Jerusem the ascenders from these isolated worlds occupy a residential sector by themselves; this functional grouping of the Agondonters persists throughout the ascension of the local universe and the transversal of the superuniverse; it disappears during the sojourn in Havona but promptly reappears upon the attainment of Paradise and definitely persists in the Corps of the Mortal Finality. [Paper 50:7.2, page 579.1]
We are all going to be on the paradise journey together, even Queen Elizabeth II and Billy Graham. We are all going to be in the same group known as agondonters, whether like it or not. Best we learn to foster this sense of togetherness now. After all, we are all children of the eternal Father. We are all brothers and sisters and will remain so for eternity. Let’s all learn to share the love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance right here and now. For these are the fruits of the spirit. I believe this is the essence of “The Ultimate Human Experience” and also of our conference theme, ROPE – The Religion of Personal Experience. God bless you all. May his love shine upon you all. And don’t forget, be of good cheer!