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<p>10/03/2004</p>
<p>Ham: Greetings, children, I am Ham and I am very happy having you
here this evening. You each are making consistent and fairly steady
progress in your spiritual lives. Each of you consistently engages in
spiritual self-examination and spiritual self-reflection. You are also
growing in your individual ability to effectively pray because your
spiritual priorities are growing in importance in your lives. Prayer
then becomes an effective tool in orienting the mind and the will
toward the spiritual rather than allowing the physical stresses of life
the upper hand. When you have true spiritual priorities they orient all
of your thinking and all of your life’s decisions toward the spiritual
priorities. </p>
<p>The life of the spirit then begins taking on a life of its own, so
to speak so that when you are giving your life to the spirit, the
spirit gives your life also to you. A life of selfless service is that
which is most exciting and rewarding. When you actually succeed in
removing the factor of narrow self-interest from your thought process,
then greater purposes can invade your will. This is the purpose the
Master gives you, it is not the purpose you design for yourself. To be
willing to be used for the Master’s purpose creates the thrilling
possibility that some minor interaction, some chance encounter, may be
a turning point for some person you don’t even know. </p>
<p>Those who are certain about God’s power do not seek to create power
of their own but rather seek to be instruments of God’s power instead
never knowing the outcome, never deciding such things. Those who are
certain of God’s power can rest in quiet certainty about all things in
life. To the one certain of God’s power, man’s power looks tiny and
vain. So for those happy people who rest their hearts in certainty, the
pressures of life grow smaller because the great certainty of God’s
love overshadows all else. </p>
<p>The kingdoms of the world are temporary things. The great riches of
the world count as nothing in the kingdom of heaven for in that
kingdom, the humble street sweeper who gave God’s love to all he
encountered did more and is counted greater in the kingdom than the
most powerful human on earth. </p>
<p>Of course the Father desires that you should use the talents he has
given you, that you should each develop what you have and grow in the
spirit through the use of your God-given abilities in doing good and
serving your fellows in the world. The Father loves all his children
and desires for all his children to love him and to bring for his love.
Human beings always, as all children do, must test their own strength.
You must come to the end of your own human efforts before turning to
the spirit. But happiness is only found by turning to the spirit first
rather than last. Happiness and contentment are only arrived at by
making your lives a process of dedication to your highest ideals and
those highest ideals always reside in the spiritual realm, even in the
Father’s person. </p>
<p>Each of you is always going through a process of moral decision
making both in your personal conduct as well as other broader issues
and orientations. This moral decision making must continually be fine
tuned because the decisions you made yesterday have to be made again in
a slightly different way today and made yet again in an even more
different way tomorrow. All of this moral decision making brings you
closer to the Master’s ultimate will for you. If you forgive someone
today, you may still have to forgive that person tomorrow and still
another the day following. There is never a point when all decisions
have been made for the progress of eternal life consists in progressive
decision making and continual adjustment of one’s self to God and to
God’s creation. All of mankind’s progress comes from the gradual
adjustment of society to ever advancing ideals. </p>
<p>Each generation must rediscover Jesus and his life. You must
reorient your society to an ever expanding conception of God’s will for
mankind. This constant process is the steady advancement of each
individual mortal. The Father loves mankind as a whole, yes, but he
loves each individual completely and the Father values each human being
equally. The choice of eternal life is in your own hands for the Father
to trust his children with their own ultimate destiny decision is
testament to the profound love the Father gives to each individual
personality. </p>
<p>Each individual gradually comes to exalt every more true and lasting
values. Each human life progresses in this way and so the glittering
fools gold of youth is gradually and painfully replaces with true
spirit value and a gradual deepening and appreciation of value in
others. </p>
<p>Let us go now to addressing each of you this evening. </p>
<p>Rebecca, you are doing very well my daughter. Do not be concerned or
worried about yourself. Continually fling off the old insecurities
which are a false refuge. Cling instead to truth and the Master’s hand
and allow him to guide your way rather than ever thinking that you must
plan for your future rather you must be open to your future instead. </p>
<p>Amalain, you are also doing well my dear. You also have a tendency
to over involve your own emotions and personal feelings with things
that are outside of your control. In this way you can kick yourself
over something that isn’t your fault, but you can pretend it is. You
must instead release this need to experience guilt and to be
responsible about things you can’t be responsible for. Similar to
Rebecca, both of you were made to feel to much responsibility as
children and you willingly took on guilt and shame for the family as a
whole. You cannot continue this process as adults. You must release
these old cycles of guilt and the assuaging of guilt through penance.
The Master has said many times, give me your burdens. Now is the time
for you to do this. The sins of the world are not on your shoulders. Is
this helping your understanding my dear?</p>
<p>Q: Yes, thank you.</p>
<p>Ham: My daughter Julia. My dear, you are also learning to let go of
the old patterns of childhood as well. You have long felt yourself to
be at some level outside the family, outside the family of humanity
even and now you are beginning to adjust to the feeling of being chosen
and worthwhile and valued. Your orientation in life is changing and
this will change your life in profound ways. But this change will be
internal before it is external. He who saves his life shall lose it,
while he who loses his life for the Master’s sake finds it. You are
beginning this process of losing the old life and you will gain a
greater life. You are doing very well my dear.</p>
<p>Howard, my son you also do well. You are truly coming to a new
orientation as well and you are beginning to find your own values, your
own truth. Much of your life has been a process of elimination,
rejecting some things while not finding some thing better to replace
those things your rejected. Still you are straddling two realities. You
are trying to be ever mindful of the Master’s presence while also being
rebellious of the Master’s presence as well. So you are still going
back and forth on some personal level. But, truth is more powerful and
the Master’s love makes certain demands. One of those demands is that
you should develop and nurture ever greater levels of self-respect and
self-acceptance. Man gains self-respect through devotion to higher
purpose. Devotion to self, by the self, results invariably in
self-debasement. The spirit demand always your total self. Devotion to
God cannot be split or parsed. You are moving though toward ever
greater levels of decision making and this process will inevitably
result in ever more complete personal devotion to a personal God, even
though now this is still through a glass darkly for you. It will not be
for long. Is this helping your understanding?</p>
<p>Q: Thank you very much, yes. </p>
<p>Ham: Jarad, you are also moving ever more completely toward total
unselfish commitment to a higher calling. You must release the
attachment to outcome in your work for like the man who sweeps the
streets giving his message to love, you do not know the effect of your
work in the world and you can never know it. This knowledge is for the
Father. The effort is yours and the results belong to the supreme
being. This is something your must internalize and make your own. Fear
not, my children, for you all do well. </p>
<p>My son Brodan, you are also gradually but certainly moving toward
this same orientation. For likewise, you do not know the effects of
your work in its entirety and gradually it is dawning upon all of you
that you cannot know those things which are impossible for you to know.
</p>
<p>The Father holds all things in his awareness. Each of you influence
the future in innumerable ways you will never comprehend. Part of
maturity is the gradual acknowledgment of all that you cannot know. It
is also the gradual acceptance of things you cannot control. Human
beings have a hard time accepting they are not gods and each of you is
going through this gradual acceptance. Release then your attachment to
specific outcomes. You may have goals, of course, but you should not be
so attached to specific goals that when the Father tries to give you
something greater, you do not understand and cannot accept it. Progress
in the spirit is made by the progressive acceptance of God. Coming
along with that it the progressing acknowledgment that you are not God.
And though this seems to be self-evident and simple, human beings are
so constituted as to be capable of great internal self-deception so
that they can believe themselves to have god-like wisdom. This is the
trap that each generation must avoid. Making human beings into God
helps nothing and causes untold suffering needlessly. Constantly keep
sure of the fact of God’s sovereignty over all things human and you
will find life much sweeter and easier to bear as it is. Love each
other my children and do not tire of loving. Love when it is hard. Love
when it is impossible and you will find God. </p>
<p>At times when Rebecca grows weary the words seem to lean toward
conclusion, sometimes prematurely. </p>
<p>Yes my son, this lesson you are undergoing is one of releasing
control. For you have also taken on too much of the sins of the world
to your shoulders and you have also walked in the valley of guilt and
shame at length during your lifetime. But, you are now growing into a
realm of greater balance and greater inner peace. You have reached now
a new level of feeling at home in the universe and of knowing yourself
to have been a purposeful creation of God. Human beings in the modern
world have grown up thinking of themselves as accidents in time, as
though your existence is just a chance event without purpose or
planning or reason. You have even looked upon those who claim to be
purposefully created sons of God as having to feel this way out of
emotion despair. But this is not so. One comes to understand the
greater dimension of life not from weakness and despair but from the
robust decision making of the spiritual life. Accepting truth is never
easy when the old concepts were comforting in the past. When they are
being replace by greater spiritual concepts and awareness, there is
always some pain associated with letting go of the old. But you, my
son, are doing this and you are ever reaching for the greater and more
profound spiritual concept and orientation in life. Never shrink from
this and do not be tempted to turn backwards. The spiritual life is
like the brass ring that must be stretched for and reached for. It is
never simply given. Is this helping?</p>
<p>Q: Yes, thank you so much for everything.</p>
<p>Ham: You are welcome my son. Are there any further questions? Very
well my children, all is well. Be at peace.</p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="80"><font
face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" size="+1">--
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
David G. Schlundt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Vanderbilt University
301 Wilson Hall
Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: (615)322-7800
Fax: (615) 343-8449
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:David.Schlundt@Vanderbilt.edu">David.Schlundt@Vanderbilt.edu</a>
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
To science God is a possibility, to psychology
a desirability, to philosopy a probability, to
religion a certainty, an actuality of religious
experience
The Urantia Book, page 1125
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*
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