<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>DATE: December 29, 2001
<BR>LOCATION: Spokane, WA, USA
<BR>TEACHER: TOMAS
<BR>TOPICS: TALENTS
<BR>T/r: Gerdean
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<BR>TOMAS: I am Tomas. I'd like to talk today a little bit about hierarchy, as it descends into the human race, so that you have an appreciation of the real need to work within the parameters of your material existence. While we hold the goal of eternity in our hearts and minds, our bodies and souls are in the material life and thus must be made to enjoy degrees of divinity which will result in the Kingdom being manifested in your arena and in the arenas in which you engage and which you impact as you pass by.
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<BR>Yes, we have asked you to lift up. Indeed it's necessary for you to reach up as the Father reaches down. It's necessary for you to strive and for the Supernals to bow down to the elemental levels of creature existence in the reclamation process. But while you well may be the lowly mortal creatures, in terms of your origins, you are exalted in potential as being the workers who will bring about the Diadem of the Divine in honor of our Creator, just like certain cities and towns will take over a neighborhood and pick it up by the bootstraps, tear down what was condemned and rotten, building up what is efficient and effective, in order for civilization to advance, planting flowers and trees where there was nothing green growing, making malls and festive shopping areas in the place of muddy, dusty dirt roads, beginning to reflect self-esteem as opposed to poverty and shame.
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<BR>The future of Urantia is extremely promising when you think in terms of truth, beauty and goodness and what is possible even in your own life, to come about if you are focused on helping it up a step or assisting in creating a greater reality and improved environment, a cleaner pathway in your own village, town, county and country.
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<BR>Rodan of Alexandria, your philosophy teacher of old, is burgeoning with insights in the bringing about an improved brotherhood. Spirituality does not have to be up on a pedestal somewhere. It does not have to stand on an altar. It does not have to be protected from the elements. It does not need to hold it's hem up out of the dust. Spirituality enters into all of the material world, and is able to make of the material world all that it was intended to be.
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<BR>But I see there are many of you already out there who are active in enhancing truth, beauty and goodness in your own lives. Your yards are a reflection of your love for the land. Your socializing ecological concerns indicates your appreciation for your home sphere ~ the organism of earth ~ as even its upheavals ~ earthquakes, volcanoes and storms ~ seem to bespeak a concern for the very orb's well-being.
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<BR>The more you can bring the Kingdom down into your realm, the more you can work with it! This is not the same as bringing God down as if He were common energy and unworthy of reverence, no, however it is a way of engaging in an association with God and His energy that enables you and He to work together. So many people feel that God is too busy to pay attention to their little lives. So many people feel that God is so important, upholding the universe, he hasn't got time for your little concerns. But I tell you God is so magnanimous, He is able to be involved in everything at once and is infinitely concerned about your every need and want and desire and concern and problem. He goes through life with you, whether it's an exalted life or an effort to attain some reality stature, and loves you in any case, as it is in the nature of God to be positive and nurturing and supportive and encouraging.
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<BR>As you in your garden like to tend to your flowers and vegetables with a care as to parasites and bacteria which will eat away the leafy greens that feed the root vegetables or carry minerals to its fruit, so does creation concern itself with the wholesome production of life, and you live on this world. This life is your rightful concern. How the natural resources are handled is a matter you may have a vote in. The whole of the collective consciousness is altered as a result of your input, how you portray your truth.
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<BR>(Long pause)
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<BR>I'm having a conversation here with the T/r whose mind interrupts our flow as I feel her drag her energies into a thought about how it is that people's opinions are more difficult to deal with and more obstructionistic to progress than seems necessary.
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<BR>I appreciate your allowing me to expose your thought, Daughter. It is not unlike the thought of many others who feel that the human race makes much ado about nothing, and is slow to recognize what is a critical issue. It's a reflection of the evolution of the species that allows for these manifestations of understanding to become a part of the collective consciousness. It is stirring the waters of what once was the dominant mentality and you here are all very much a part of the acceleration of thought and thus while it seems excruciatingly time-consuming and tedious, it is a stage of growth and development that must be bourne en route to spiritual maturity. It does require you to maintain a parental attitude in order to save yourself from mental distress as a result of the plethora of personal opinion that abounds in your advancing social order. Proceed!
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<BR>Are there other questions before I go on?
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<BR>THOROAH: We have been discussing the idea of what expressing your opinion in certain situations causes; there is a ripple effect. We have a tendency, when we hear someone express their opinion or we read something that is obviously someone's opinion, a lot of times, to be very defensive and this reflects our need to not be beguiled or tricked or, God forbid, educated by somebody else's opinion, so it kind of puts our defenses up.
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<BR>TOMAS: Yes, and as you say, it is a phase of growth. Let's compare it to the adolescent who has begun to present a certain attainment level, a recitation if you will, and in front of the class begins the recitation only to have everyone try to say it for him, or tell him to sit down because they want to do their recitation. It's like when someone wants to finish your sentence for you and you want to speak your own sentence, thank you very much. This is a sophomoric behavior and yet how can you become a junior, after being a freshman, unless you go through a period of being a sophomore? And part of this is the sophomoric behavior of an intense desire to expose your learning.
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<BR>(Long pause)
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<BR>In some instances it is a backlash from gurus and teachers and others who are of the opinion that they have a quality of reality which others haven't got. And while there are scores of students who will follow that leading, even paying large sums to hear the teacher or the guru or the counsel, there are also those who have an attitude and have things to teach who would wish them well but, "stay out of my way." And so you get different cultural and emotional reactions to your growing pains, and different little social uprisings break out, erupt, and snag your smooth sailing. But these are not fatal encounters. They are experiential bumper cars. And truly there are some who thrill to be in the thick of the traffic jam while there are others who prefer a sedate gait around the edge.
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<BR>I want to talk a bit about abilities and skills, as this has some bearing on what we've been discussing in terms of how it is that you want to display what you've learned, even as you are still learning. And again, this is an appropriate lesson to grasp for your stage of development. At this point in the advancement of a Correcting Time approach to your world and its peoples, your inherent skills and abilities are only made good as you become aware of what they are and invest in them.
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<BR>Here I'll refer to the story of the Talents that the Master distributed to his servants. To one he gave 10, to one he gave 5, and to one only one, and when he returned, those who had invested their talents had something to show for it, and the one who merely saved her talent and kept it safe, was struck to realize she had been slothful and too timid with her assigns. The same is true for you in your characteristics and qualities. This is not to judge as to whose abilities are lesser or greater. How absurd! To weigh and compare God's gifts and his faith in you, to utilize these gifts to your potential.
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<BR>If this man is given the ability to make motors more effective or work with wheels, what is to say that ability cannot be developed into a skill that then could conspire to alleviate you of every having to worry again about a mechanical problem or a tire situation as long as you are aware of the talents invested in your brother, whose efforts at developing his talents have made it possible for you both to live a fuller and more abundant existence? And perhaps you are a dentist who can in turn provide a filling for your neighbor's daughter. And these generous acts are the essence of a sociology that is equitable in terms of love being "the currency of the universe."
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<BR>There are some people who cannot stand the sight of blood, but there are some whose whole heart is in the healing paradigm, whose compassion and drive will put them into an emergency room or paramedic or hospice situation that provides them with a purpose and joy in living. Yet they may not be able to express themselves artistically. Are they to be deprived of art? No, not when there are artists and musicians who are also developing their gift, their talent.
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<BR>This is how you bring the Kingdom into your realm: you take that which God has given you, and you find it, and you nurture it, and you embellish it, and you become it, until such time as you are your Paradise pattern personified. And you will most assuredly be encountered along the way by those others who are blindly stepping out in faith to be all that they can be. Even as they may not understand with the same vernacular what's happening to them, they'll likely all be able to relate to the parable of the talents.
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<BR>And I will add one thing more and that is I don't want to hear any of this false humility about having no talent. Any living expression of the Creator has creative qualities within. It may be cooking. It may be teaching. It may be listening. But it's a gift, and as you pursue your talent, you invest in the Father, and He sees you investing Him well and rewards you accordingly. How can we not love such a Father who is so filled with opportunity and possibility? Whose purpose has been to bring us life abundantly.
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<BR>Abundance is a state of mind ~ and being ~ and all these riches that you are heir to as Sons and Daughters of the Universal Father, are lights indeed that brighten our way. We delight in your company and in your efforts as you delight in ours.
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<BR>Are there any questions this afternoon?
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<BR>You've asked about Paulo. Paulo is in action in areas under duress of rebellion and resistance. There are those who refuse to advance, that become retrograde, such that they risk becoming cancerous and which may need to be cut out. It's a part of the sweep-up work that must be done because we're not going to be re-installed into quarantine. We'll not go backward. We are advancing. We are upsetting the status quo and irritating those areas which have atrophied. And while we would choose to exercise/exorcize these areas, they will be forced to change one way or another before long.
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<BR>But in the meantime, there are those minds and hearts which waver. And when they can be removed from their cultural conditioning such that they have an opportunity to breathe a breath of fresh air in terms of real spirit fragrance, they have assented to advance, even if it is only in their own soul that they can get anywhere because the political and cultural condition situation is so locked into stalemate and impasse drain energy out of its already battered lives.
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<BR>There are many that are in the war zone, in one war zone or another, whether that is in the Near East, in the Holy Land, in Manhattan or in your neighborhood. There are those whose talent it is to be there, who desire above all else to be where they need to be as far as feeling that God wants them to be somewhere. Now this can be very dangerous, but it's essential. It's a natural side-effect of free will. Thus it's good that God's agents are there as well as those who want to fight over less divine reasons than infinite love.
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<BR>Infinite love is the true ammunition, you see. With infinite love, it's possible to fight any battle, and those of you who have grappled with reality have realized the truth of the saying that your real fight is the good fight of faith. The good fight of faith is initially not of this world. It is infused in this world as you pass by. Nature is not God, but nature is of God.
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<BR>We have a new year coming up, I see by your state of mind - you creatures of this creature configuration: planet Urantia, 2001, generally two millennia after the bestowal of Jesus Christ to your world. He was just here yesterday! It was only last week. You are so like his original apostles. So like them. Read about the apostles next chance you get. Read about the apostles and find them to be representative of your brothers and your sisters in the apostolic corp even now.
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<BR>Look at your peers, your fellows in this movement and in the greater movement who even now are espousing their mota and their opinions from their soap boxes, expressing their sophomoric philosophies in an attempt to rise up to spiritual adulthood as is a yearning in all these creatures here below. And see how noble and strong you are. Chuckle and weep at the short-comings if you must, but accept these apostles as your peers. Fisherman, tax collector, student, merchant, not unlike you at all. Each one very different. Some more compatible than others. Some well-educated and some simple, but everyone was treasured as a part of the apostolic corp and beloved by Jesus.
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<BR>I suggest that you take a look at your fellows, your fellow apostles in their varying states of experience and stages of experiential growth, and enjoy the fraternity, for you are not alone. You are one of a magnificent movement, advancing Urantia into light and life, up and out of the lethargy and the impasse of the past, and tilting the world on its axis toward the light. How wonderful it is to be a part of your lives and to share with you your experiential sojourn into cosmic problem-solving on your native world. What a tremendous opportunity you have! What a righteous future you are creating in your ideals, your hopes, and your consecrated efforts to reveal the Father as he has ordained for you in your own unique composition.
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<BR>I am privileged to be your teacher and to enjoy these oases of light away from time and space with you in this bubble of enlightenment that is our classroom, and share with you all the joy of knowing that we are one with the Father. In 2002, dear ones, let us be about the Father's business, Our Will, in conjunction with His, be done. Farewell.
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