© 1990 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
This workshop was held in conjunction with an Australia-wide meeting of URANTIA Book readers at Noosa, Queensland during October 1989 which was attended by 31 devotees, coming from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and including one visitor from the United States. The subject of the workshop was a quotation from UB 155:1.4 of The URANTIA Book, made by Jesus as follows:
“Let me state emphatically this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired. The measure of your truth endowment, your righteousness. The extent to which you have to go with your message to the people is, in a way, the measure of your failure to live the whole or righteous life, the truth co-ordinated life.” UB 155:1.5
Since direct observation indicates that very few URANTIA Book readers are being trampled by crowds of truth seekers, the Sunshine Coast study group undertook an attempt to discover what may be missing in the way we live our lives that prevents crowds from flocking to us. Possible clues were located, firstly on UB 194:4.6 where, in speaking about the very earliest Christian community that formed immediately after Pentecost, the Book tells us that: “Nevertheless they were filled with joy, and they lived such new and unique lives that all men were attracted to their teachings about Jesus”. Another clue was located in the section entitled, ‘As Jesus passed by’, on UB 171:7.1 which states: “Jesus spread good cheer everywhere he went. He was full of grace and truth. His associates never ceased to wonder at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. You can cultivate gracefulness, but graciousness is the aroma of friendliness that emanates from a love-saturated soul”.
From these three quotes, key words were selected and the Reference Aid for The URANTIA Book was utilized (courtesy of the Brotherhood of Man Library) to generate 96 quotes (29 typed pages) of material that might be relevant to the problem of the missing link. This material was distributed to each participant prior to the workshop taking place with the request to mark passages that each thought bore on the problem, and also to add any other quotes from the Book that were thought to be relevant.
At the workshop we divided into five groups and the quotes selected by individuals were discussed in terms of concepts set out on UB 101:6.8 where we are told: “The teachings of Jesus constituted the first Urantian religion which so fully embraced a harmonious co-ordination of knowledge, wisdom, faith, truth, and love as completely and simultaneously to provide temporal tranquility, intellectual certainty, moral enlightenment, philosophic stability, ethical sensitivity, God-consciousness, and the positive assurance of personal survival. The faith of Jesus pointed the way to finality of human salvation, to the ultimate of mortal universe attainment, since it provided for:…” Then follows a description of 7 points of personality growth that may be briefly summarized as salvation from:
During the discussions, individuals indicated their thoughts about how the various quotations related to the ‘missing link’. The most relevant ones are listed below in the order of the greatest number of votes received.
- “Nevertheless, they were filled with joy, and they lived such new and unique lives that all men were attracted to their teachings about Jesus”.(UB 194:4.6)
- “By the old way you seek to suppress, obey, and conform to the rules of living; by the new way you are first transformed by the Spirit of Truth and thereby strengthened in your inner soul by the constant spiritual renewing of your mind, and so are you endowed with the power of the certain and joyous performance of the gracious, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Forget not — it is your personal faith in the exceedingly great and precious promises of God that ensures your becoming partakers of the divine nature. Thus by your faith and the spirit’s transformation, you become in reality the temples of God, and his spirit actually dwells within you. If, then, the spirit dwells within you, you are no longer bondslaves of the flesh but free and liberated sons of the spirit. The new law of the spirit endows you with the liberty of self-mastery in place of the old law of the fear of self-bondage and the slavery of self-denial”. (UB 143:2.4)
- “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and be led to glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
“While light dispels darkness, it can also be so “blinding” as to confuse and frustrate. We are admonished to let our light so shine that our fellows will be guided into new and godly paths of enhanced living. Our light should so shine as not to attract attention to self. Even one’s vocation can be utilized as an effective “reflector” for the dissemination of this light of life.” (UB 140:4.4-5)
- “Jesus spread good cheer everywhere he went. He was full of grace and truth. His associates never ceased to wonder at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth. You can cultivate gracefulness, but graciousness is the aroma of friendliness which emanates from a love-saturated soul.”
“Goodness always compels respect, but when it is devoid of grace, it often repels affection. Goodness is universally attractive only when it is gracious. Goodness is effective only when it is attractive”. (UB 171:7.1-2)
- “You cannot reveal God to those who do not seek for him; you cannot lead unwilling souls into the joys of salvation. Man must become hungry for truth as a result of the experiences of living or he must desire to know God as the result of contact with the lives of those who are acquainted with the divine Father before another human being can act as the means of leading such a fellow mortal to the Father in heaven. If we know God, our real business on earth is so to live as to permit the Father to reveal himself in our lives, and thus will all God-seeking persons see the Father and ask for our help in finding out more about the God who in this manner finds expression in our lives”. (UB 132:7.2)
- “Happiness and joy take origin in the inner life. You cannot experience real joy all by yourself. A solitary life is fatal to happiness. Even families and nations will enjoy life more if they share it with others”. (UB 111:4.7)
- “I cannot but observe that so many of you spend so much time and thought on mere trifles of living, while you almost wholly overlook the more essential realities of everlasting import, those very accomplishments which are concerned with the development of a more haermonious working agreement between you and your Adjusters. The great goal of human existence is to attune to the divinity of the indwelling Adjuster; the great achievement of mortal life is the attainment of a true and under- standing consecration to the eternal aims of the divine spirit who waits and works within your mind. But a devoted and determined effort to realize eternal destiny is wholly compatible with a light-hearted and joyous life and with a successful and honourable career on earth. Co-operation with the Thought Adjuster does not entail self-torture, mock piety, or hypocritical and ostentatious sef-abasement; the ideal life is one of loving service rather than an existence of fearful apprehension”. (UB 110:3.4)
- “But the great problem of religious living consists in the task of unifying the soul powers of the personality by the dominance of LOVE. Health, mental efficiency, and happiness arise from the unification of physical systems, mind systems, and spirit systems. Of health and sanity man understands much, but of happiness he has truly realized very little. The highest happiness is indissolubly linked with spiritual progress. Spiritual progress yields lasting joy, peace which passes all understanding.” (UB 100:4.3)
- “It is the presence of the divine Spirit, the water of life, that prevents the consuming thirst of mortal discontent and that indescribable hunger of the unspiritualized human mind. Spirit-motivated beings ‘never thirst, for this spiritual water shall be in them a well of satisfaction springing up into everlasting life’. Such divinely watered souls are all but independent of material environment as regards the joys of living and the satisfaction of earthly existence. They are spiritually illuminated and refreshed, morally strengthened and endowed”. (UB 34:6.8)
- “And so must we clearly recognize that neither the golden rule nor the teaching of nonresistance can ever be properly understood as dogmas or precepts. They can only be comprehended by living them, by realizing their meanings in the living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth, who directs the loving contact of one human being with another.” (UB 180:5.11)
Towards the conclusion of the workshop, Trevor Swadling, representing his group, leapt to his feet and declared with great joy that “JOY” is the missing link. Nobody disagreed. This joy is, of course, a very special kind of joy that emanates from our knowledge of, and our love of, the Father-Spirit that dwells within us and our complete confidence that, in seeking to do his will, the security of our destiny is totally assured.
The Sunshine Coast Study Group
Tewantin, Queensland