Decisions, Decisions – the doing of God’s Will

By Ann Bendall, Conference presentation, Sunshine Coast on

When we have finally reached the level where God’s will and our will are indistinguishable in all our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of the day, our Thought Adjuster becomes eternally one with us.  Unfortunately this process involves much more than simply praying for God’s will to be ours. The rub of the process is that we have to attune our will with God’s, and this involves decisions, decisions and more decisions accompanied by disappointment, disappointment and more disappointment as we do a post hoc  analysis of our failures in achieving our heart’s desire.

What makes this attuning our will to God’s will so difficult? I suggest two reasons:

  1. The fact that life is simply not a process of two wills impinging on our being but countless wills, for example, the will of those we love dearly and could not contemplate hurting; the will of our insecurities where others are concerned which negate our even attempting an action which would meet with their disapproval; the will of our firmly held convictions about what we are or should be; our misconceptions about what life is, who others are in relation to us, and who we are.

These other-than-God’s will exert, millisecond by millisecond, their pervasive directional power over us and our major challenge is identify each and every obstacle in our task of eradicating all other than God’s will in our daily thoughts, feelings and actions.  And change is difficult, painful, and requires determined and concentrated effort on our part.

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Being and Doing

By Ken Glasziou, Maleny, Introduction Presentation to Queensland Conference 2002 on

That evening while teaching in the house, for it had begun to rain, Jesus talked at great length, dying to show the twelve what they must be, not what they must do. They knew only a religion that imposed the doing of certain things as the means of attaining righteousness—salvation. But Jesus would reiterate, “In the kingdom you must be righteous in order to do the work.[Paper 40:10.1, page 1584.4]

The title for this article, “Being and Doing,” is derived from the above remark made by Jesus to his followers that later goes on to state that “being righteous, by faith, must precede doing righteousness in our daily lives.” [Paper 140:10.1, page 1584.4]. This innocuous looking remark is the catalyst for initiating some serious thinking. For one, what does Jesus mean by “being righteous?” The most common assumption is that it simply means “doing good deeds to others.” But that reverses Jesus’ priority which asserted that being righteous takes precedence over the doing of righteousness.

An insight into Jesus’ meaning for “being righteous” is found in a statement about his earthly mission: “Jesus refused to have his attention diverted from his mission. He ignored the civic, social, and economic realms. He told the apostles he was concerned only with the principles of man’s inner and personal spiritual life. Hence, for those seeking to follow Jesus, this statement completely divorces “righteousness” [Paper 140:10.1, page 1580]. from the arena of the material and transfers it to the domain of the spiritual.

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Report on Sydney Conference 2001

By Kathleen Swadling, Sydney on

ANZURA held its annual conference from October 5-8 on the shores of the beautiful Narrabeen Lakes just minutes from North Narrabeen beach along Sydney’s Northern Beaches. We had a good turn out and everyone departed enriched by the experience of a weekend chocabloc full of valuable and stimulating exchange.

Rex Merrett began by setting the tone of the theme for the weekend by giving an opening address on “Organising the Soul for Dynamic Service.” He gave the group an exercise to do as an ice-breaker whereby we divided into pairs and spent 15 minutes alternating between talking and listening as we expressed to one another some of our inner-most thoughts on our spiritual lives. He then gave a presentation highlighting how we as individuals, and working together, can assist in the grand scheme of things by living God’s will more dynamically here on Urantia. He pointed out how the  realisation of new truth is generally brought about by courageous individuals who are prepared to step outside of the “no hassle zone” of their lives—how we think and act differently when we dare to live our lives with a spiritual purpose as opposed to a purely material one.

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Service in Everyday Life

By William Wentworth, Towamba, Presented at the Conference in Sydney on

Kathleen introduced the concept of service this morning. My job is to elaborate on this theme, and offer some of my own thoughts on the subject.

One way of looking at what we are actually doing here on Urantia is that we are participating in the construction of a universe—the Grand Universe. We are part of a huge team of collaborators engaged in the task of bringing this universe into the state of Light and Life so that the Supreme Being can emerge fully as a personality, take full and direct control of this creation, and in conjunction with the Ultimate, begin the evolution of the outer space levels. It is true that as mortals the part we play is not very significant, but it is, in its small way, essential in the greater scheme of things. We are essential participants in a mighty work, and an enormous number of co-workers are depending on us to do our bit. A glance at the lists on pages 335-338 of The Urantia Book will remind us of the huge number and variety of these personalities, and the fact that our part is small should not allow us to forget its necessity.

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No-Hassle Zone

By Rex Merrett, Central Coast, Presented at Conference on

Imagine a circle. Inside the circle is the “no-hassle zone.” If you think and do the same as everyone else here, you will be confused, but no one will hassle you. If you move out of this zone and start to think and act differently, the people inside the zone, mainly your friends and relations will say, “Why are you acting and thinking differently? Come back here with us. I told you reading that book would make you a little strange.”

Let’s take this zone back 2000 years to Palestine. Where was Jesus? He started off in this no-hassle zone as a small child, but the older and more conscious he became the further he moved away from the zone to a point where his family and friends thought he had taken leave of his senses. To the Pharisees and Sadducees he became a threat. They controlled the no-hassle zone and did not like the changes that Jesus proclaimed.

Where was Jesus just before he was crucified? Standing on the threshold of the era of light and life perhaps?

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How Does the Individual Organise the Soul for Dynamic Service

By Kathleen Swadling, Sydney, Presentation at Sydney Conference on

How does the individual organise the soul for dynamic service? That’s the topic of this morning’s pre-morning tea presentation. When I first started to ponder this topic about organising the soul for dynamic service I thought that perhaps we should begin by taking one step back and ask the question: why would one even want to organise the soul for dynamic service? I thought about changing the title to read “why should the individual organise the soul for dynamic service?” What are we trying to get at here by dedicating an entire conference to this theme of individual preparation for service?

Well, I figured that before we can seriously consider the merits of organising the soul, it may be useful to ponder what drives us—what factors come into play that cause us to ponder this idea of organising our souls for service. As Rex has explained, we’ll be taking a two-pronged approach to this theme this weekend—today we’ll be dealing with the individual aspect. We’ll be looking at ideals and philosophical concepts as they relate to the individual’s spiritual quest, and tomorrow we’ll be exploring the more practical aspects of service—projects, group activities, networking, outreach etc.—good gutsy stuff like that.

My presentation will be dealing with the broader picture—an idealistic and philosophical view of the individual’s inner life quest for God. After morning tea William will take us on a, no doubt, entertaining journey of what we’re up against as we try to put our ideals into practice on a consistent daily basis. If I know William well enough it will be entertaining and very valuable I’m sure. He’ll look at the realism of being religious idealists living in a confused, messed up world. (I’m glad I don’t have his job 🙂

Let’s start by taking a good look at the quote that inspired this theme:

Religion is not a technique for attaining a static and blissful peace of mind; it is an impulse for organizing the soul for dynamic service. It is the enlistment of the totality of selfhood in the loyal service of loving God and serving man. [Paper 100:3.1, page 1096.6]

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Opening Address to Sydney Conference 2001

By Rex Merrett, Central Coast on

This conference will carry forward from last year’s conference in Canberra, where we postulated that we were poised on the threshold of the Fifth Epochal Revelation.

The Urantia Book has now been in publication for 46years and last year 39,071 books in seven different languages were distributed worldwide, making an approximate total of 500,000 books circulating around our planet, and with distribution dramatically increasing each year. We feel the time has come to dynamically cross that threshold.

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Reporting on Canberra 2000

Last reminder in September Arena

ANZURA Conference 2000
Canberra, October 6 – –9

October has almost arrived! Conference 2000 will soon be just another memory of those fabulous pioneering days spent on Urantia-606.
For those unregistered, there is still time to join us for what we hope will be fresh insights and deeper understandings.
All readers are invited to join us at Blackfriars Conference Centre, Canberra. For last minute information, please contact ANZURA,
phone ……….. 02 9970 6200
email ………… anzura@urantia.org.au

Together, our value deepens and magnifies. We hope that many of you have the opportunity to join us!

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Surfing the Absonite

By Nigel Nunn, Australia, presentation at Canberra Conference on

To finite creatures of the grand universe the concept of the master universe seems to be well-nigh infinite, but doubtless the absonite architects thereof perceive its relatedness to future and unimagined developments within the unending I AM. Even space itself is but an ultimate condition, a condition of qualification within the relative absoluteness of the quiet zones of midspace.
At the inconceivably distant future eternity moment of the final completion of the entire master universe, no doubt we will all look back upon its
entire history as only the beginning, simply the creation of certain finite and transcendental foundations for even greater and more enthralling
metamorphoses in uncharted infinity. At such a future eternity moment the master universe will still seem youthful; indeed, it will be always young in
the face of the limitless possibilities of never-ending eternity.” [Paper 106:7.7 page 1169.6]

We have been discussing the raising of an epic backdrop for the stage upon which Urantia’s fifth epoch will unfold. We have predicted humanity’s acquirement
of (1) a new perspective onto the frame within which we young ascenders live and work, and (2) a deeper understanding of the domain of our Michael.
Now let’s take another step back, and reflect upon the frame within which this Michael himself works—the context within which a Creator Son, a master Michael, perfects his local universe:

“The Universal Father, through the mechanism of evolutionary Deity, is actually engaged in the stupendous and amazing act of personality
focalization and power mobilization, on their respective universe meaning-levels, of the divine reality values of the finite, the absonite, and even of the absolute. ”[Paper 0:9.3, page 13.1]

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Personality-The Pearl of Great Price – Passport to Paradise

By Verner Verass, Canberra, Presented at Canberra Conference 2000 on

The aim of this presentation is to take a look at personality. In this attempt I propose to ask a series of relevant questions and encourage you to personally participate.

Let me begin by focusing on the heading line. The Pearl of Great Price. Passport to Paradise.
It is not possible for us in our spiritual infancy to put a true value on personality, but we are able to get an appreciation of its worth when we realize what unique privilege it is to be recipients of the gift of personality. Personality, a gift from our Paradise Father, is a level of deified reality. This is a great comfort, to know that the personal exchange we are now enjoying is based on such a reality. When speaking of the value of personality, we may ask, who has most clearly illuminated the true worth of a

person? Jesus, our Father/Brother and fellow one time mortal. Jesus loved men and women more than any human who has ever lived, he highly valued each person, he knew how precious was the father’s  gift of personality to each mortal. A perception of value is a level on which personality functions, experientially realized in the progressive realms of the material, morontial and the spiritual.

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