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<P>DATE:</B> August 21, 2005<BR><B>LOCATION:</B> Rio Rancho, NM<BR><B>T/R:</B>
Gerdean<BR><B>MUSIC:</B> Elena on Piano: "Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving
Hearts"</P><B>
<P>PRAYER:</B> Esmeralda: </P>
<P><I>Michael, we are happy to be together today to help celebrate your
birthday. Our group is small but our hearts are large with love for you. Thank
you for being with us. Thank you for having always been with us. And thank for
all you did for us when you were on this earth. Your birthday was certainly a
joyous one to remember. We are very grateful for you. Amen.</P></I>
<P></P><B>
<P>MICHAEL: "To him who has been given much, much will be expected"<BR>TEACHER
HAM:</B> Tomas is Reassigned; Merium will be our new Teacher<BR><B>TEACHER
MERIUM:</B> Introduces herself and her background. There follows a discussion of
the theme: "To him who has been given much, much is expected." </P><B>
<P> </P>
<P>MICHAEL:</B> Blessed guests, I am your Host, Michael, whom you remember as
Jesus, my guests indeed, with whom I am glad to share my gifts -- those gifts
you bring and that Our Father has given to me to share with you in honor of Him
and to His glory. Let us rejoice in Our Family relationship, learning to play
together and work together and live together in constructive harmony. </P>
<P>I am here with you today, and in many other places as well, because of the
remembrance of my life lived as a man among men on your world and the
appreciation for such a noteworthy event occurring on your humble orb, that your
Creator Son should choose this world on which to experience a seventh and final
bestowal. </P>
<P>You will not know in total all the reasons for my choosing to come here or
the advantages you receive as a result of my having been here until many eons
have passed, but it delights me when you celebrate this world as one on which
you shared experiential living with the creator of the universe of Nebadon. </P>
<P>To those of you whom much has been given, much will be expected. And so to
those of you who pause to reflect on my incarnation as a mortal on your world,
and who consider what that means in terms of your planetary evolution, in the
bestowal of the Spirit of Truth and the up-front-and-personal affection I have
for this world of my birth, let us rejoice together in sonship of the experience
of beginning as a wee babe and being raised in the flesh and in the spirit to
stand before the god of our creation, Our Father in Paradise, on whom we focus
as our goal and on whom we bestow our thanksgiving, our heartfelt appreciation
for life itself.</P>
<P>Gather round then and enjoy the guests, the invited guests that attend to you
in the affairs of the Kingdom. Blessed be art thou, my children. And peace be
upon you.</P><B>
<P>Group:</B> Thank you. Happy birthday! Thank you, Michael. Happy birthday.
</P><B>
<P>TEACHER HAM:</B> I am Ham. I am here in an official capacity as an
administrator in the Teacher Corps and as a celebrant of the memorial you enjoy.
Thus we warm ourselves before the hearth of the divine plan and in company with
the divine Family. I am here to assure you of the overcare that we are all
given, we are all provided, but to allow, too, for the furtherance of His plans
and the growth of His Kingdom. Tomas is reassigned. </P><B>
<P>Elena: </B>What? </P><B>
<P>HAM: </B>I am here in my official capacity to advise you that Tomas has been
reassigned, and you will be receiving another Teacher
</P><B>
<P>Group: </B>(Murmuring)</P><B>
<P>HAM: </B>
one with far less experience and with whom you may grow in
accordance with your interests and capacities as a group. Tomas is in Minnesota,
and has been working with the Andover Group for some time and has made an
impression. In that, we will let him stay there and serve because it is his
delight to serve and the transmitter/ receiver there is comfortable with his
energy. </P>
<P>Gerdean is an experienced T/R and can handle the influx of a new and less
experienced Teacher who would benefit from the engagement with you and hopefully
you will benefit from her association also. You have met her before. Merium is
her name. M-e-r-i-u-m. Merium served extensively with Tomas when they sojourned
in Pennsylvania, but she has languished without a bullhorn, so perhaps we can
provide her a platform upon which to be heard. </P>
<P>I will be keeping my eye on you and on the development of this new
configuration, for the doings of these teacher bases is our heart's delight.
</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> But Ham, did we foul up or something? Is that why there's been a
reassignment?</P><B>
<P>HAM:</B> No, you have done nothing wrong. This is simply change. You will
remember my first words to you were "Welcome to Change." Tomas has been a part
of Gerdean's life for so long it is difficult for her to detach her thinking
from his. This is fine, but it also puts her in a position of feeling as if she
is a broken record, for while a Teacher may find a thousand and one different
ways to say something, the human perception sees it as if this has been said
before, and so the human perspective perhaps despairs that the message must be
repeated and repeated and repeated, but the Teacher never tires of finding new
ways to apply its wisdom, its lessons to the learners, the students. This also
keeps the Teachers fresh, for they have the opportunity to work with other
minds. </P>
<P>You have done nothing wrong. You are not being punished. You are not being
set back nor are you being advanced. You are simply being given another
personality on which to lean as you grow. It being a female teacher, you may all
learn to respond to other energies than those of Tomas who, delightful as he is
and remains and will for a long time be, is somewhat formal and staid. Merium is
ebullient, vivacious, young and spontaneous, and this will give all of you an
opportunity to experience new energy, and I anticipate all of you will benefit
from this change. Tomas is not fired, nor is he removed from you. He remains a
vital part of the Teacher Corps and is, of course, interested in your further
growth and development and will continue to be an occasional visitor, guest
teacher and friend. Are there other questions?</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> I wonder if I might be so bold as to indulge and say, "While
you're here, Ham, do you happen to-- there are only four of us-- so, I mean --
do you have any messages for us, Ham?" You know, like it used to be when
I
mean when Mother and I were in your group? I know I'm being selfish.</P><B>
<P>HAM:</B> You are not being selfish, child. You are being presumptuous.</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> That's it! (Laughter) Sorry.</P><B>
<P>HAM: </B>But
I know you well and I know your heart is in the right place.
You presume upon those you love and trust. If I did not love you in return, you
would not feel free to ask. You would like a lesson. It will take only a moment
because Merium is waiting impatiently in the wings.</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Oh!</P><B>
<P>HAM:</B> I want to say only that this birthday party celebration idea that
your childlike minds delight to light upon is a starting point for my analogy
that the soul is in a constant state of striving, and when it attains a certain
level of accomplishment, it is appropriate that everyone stop and celebrate this
new plateau. It is my joy today to see how many groups there are across the
nation and across the world that have stopped in their many rigorous efforts to
search their own souls and to plant seeds within their fellows, who have put
down their weapons and their arguments, who have set aside the struggle for
ethics and principles, who have put aside their pursuit of accomplishment and
productivity in order to simply look to the Master for the love that he gives,
the support he provides, the future that he promises, and to celebrate the gift
of knowing him as a co-worker in this advancing reality yes, but even more so,
as children -- HIS children -- who, as our Father and the Divine Minister as our
Mother, show us the way, set forth the ideal and preside at the table. We
understand, as a result of his having walked among you and is walking among us
today, tomorrow and next week, Thursday afternoon, Tuesday morning, November,
and 2006 and beyond, into the next epoch and into infinity, it is also true that
he will be with us and showing the way. And at every point along the way where
growth has been attained, and where wisdom has been acquired, and where mastery
has been reached, there will be an opportunity for celebration, a putting down
our arms and instead, reaching out our arms in an embrace of friendship,
fellowship and affection in the spirit. And so, here's to tomorrow, and those
future tomorrows when we will walk with Michael (and Jesus, as you understand
Deity incarnate, even as you are learning to become God in man). I leave you
now.</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Thank you, Ham.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> Thank you for coming.</P><B>
<P>Elena: </B>But it's so good to have you here.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> This is Merium and I am so thrilled to see the doors and windows
are open! You know me well enough to know that I am one who likes to come in
after having heard a stodgy lecture and open the doors and windows of the mind
and soul and psyche to allow the ventilation to flow through, to fluff up the
pillows so that your comfort is assured, and to allow you to stretch into that
which you are becoming -- to let go of that which is stiff and outmoded in order
to embrace that which is fresh and young and new. </P>
<P>All of you are fresh and young and new! And I know you will love me just for
saying that because all of you perceive of yourselves as being so mature and so
settled in your approach. Indeed, one of our number here is, I believe, 86 years
young, and none of you are under half a century, and so for some reason you seem
to think you have all the answers and all the problems sewn up, and that it's
just a matter of endurance until you are released from the fetters of the flesh
in order to fly away like a helium balloon into the heights of Havona, there to
celebrate ever and anon a new youth as a morontia personality. </P>
<P>But I want to get you reoriented and set the record straight. You are not
getting older. You are getting younger, and that will be our exercise. That will
be the physical therapy, emotional therapy, mental therapy, even spiritual
therapy that I intend to undertake with you, that we are not looking forward to
a gracious translation to the other side, no, but to a vital new life in the
flesh as you are enabled to do through your re-invigorated approach to life
itself. </P>
<P>I will tell you about myself only briefly, since I will be babysitting you
(tee hee) for awhile. I was a young woman on my native world when I was untimely
removed from my mortal tabernacle. You might think of me as an 18-year old
blonde, pony-tailed, bobby-soxer, the high school student who is called upon to
babysit all the neighborhood kids because all the kids love her so much. Indeed,
I did live in much of that kind of environment and was much that kind of person.
I was often surrounded by children, and while I did have a couple of gentlemen
admirers, I was not focused on romance, nor was I focused on academics. I really
enjoyed being a young woman -- a girl, actually -- and having the opportunity to
spend most of my time with younger children. </P>
<P>You now will be my younger children, and so you will not get any of this
mature stuff from me. I will not expect you to be philosophic or wizened. I will
expect you to be youngsters, curious about life and adventurous in your approach
to it. I anticipate your thinking, "Oh, Merium, I don't have the energy," but I
promise you, the energy will be forthcoming, for it does not come from your old
chromosomes; it comes from the divine Source of your being, and there is no want
where that is concerned. </P>
<P>In fact, you are all just now reaching the point where you can be truly
useful, and so you will not be allowed to sit on your duffs and watch the PGA
tournament while the rest of the world is floundering in what may be regarded as
stodgy air when I am here to teach you how to open the windows and allow the
sunshine and fresh air to come through, enlivening your life and theirs. Let us
introduce light and life to this planet. Let us be children in our consciousness
-- not as you perceive little ones in this world, perhaps, but as the divine eye
sees the young from a spirit perspective. </P>
<P>I am not as gabby as Tomas. I am already bored with the sound of my voice.
But I will play games and tell stories as the opportunity presents. And yet you
are the child; you are the one I have come to focus on. Therefore, this is your
time to bask in the limelight of my love. Let's hear it from you, then. Learn to
step out and into that light that we may all see your delights.</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Merium, I'll ask a question and maybe it'll be-- I am looking
forward to kind of having you here and having the benefit of having a different
approach, as much as I have loved and cherished each one of the personalities
that we have had the opportunity to deal with, so I'm glad you're here, and
thank you. But you know when Michael said, "To those who have been given much,
much will be asked." Well, sometimes, as a child, you think, "Well, gee, maybe
I'm not doing enough." So I was kind of wanting your spin or a comment on that
perhaps, because that sometimes makes me feel burdened and like I have not done
enough and I don't know what actually to do more or how can I do more kind of
thing. </P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Well, let's be childlike about it then. Not childish, but
childlike, and put yourself in a position of being a child and in a situation as
a child wherein you want to show your appreciation for your parents for what
they have done for you. Generally speaking, a child does not sit around night
and day trying to find ways to please its parents. Only a child who is insecure
in the parents' love would feel the need to be constantly finding ways to please
the parents and get their attention (approval). Most healthy children are busy
being about their lives, playing with their friends, going to school, doing
their lessons, learning to play a musical instrument, or whatever it is that is
appropriate for children. </P>
<P>Therefore, see, if you will, that it is absurd to expect from yourself that
you should be fretting about what you could do for your parents, but rather
think about what you can do to make your life richer. It is like a child who
sits around saying, "I'm bored!" and the parent will say, "Well, find something
to do or I'll find something for you to do," and naturally this means you'd
better scurry and get creative fast, otherwise you will end up having to do some
dumb chore. </P><B>
<P>Group: </B>(Chuckles and chortles)</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Well, I'm telling you, only the boring are bored. Don't be bored.
Find something to do. You don't need to feel compelled to be doing something all
the time, either. It is only when you are under foot and asking for guidance and
direction that you would say, "I'm bored" in the first place, for usually
children, being adventurous, are doing that -- being adventurous: building a
tree house; floating up and down the river on a makeshift raft; poking around in
a hole for something to come out at you. There are all kinds of ways that
children amuse themselves, even academically and through their studies, for
learning is a joy for most children. </P>
<P>And that is the business that you need to be about in your life now. Being a
child. Finding things that interest you and pursuing it, so that you find joy
and satisfaction in your life experience. </P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Thanks!</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> I was thinking about that same phrase. "To those who have been
given much, much will be expected" or whatever, but how is one to know that they
have been given a lot? Sometimes I feel like I've been given a lot but then
sometimes I think how presumptuous of me to think that I've been given a lot.
Just a little mind game there.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Well, it is, in fact, a mind game. But what else have you got but
your mind to keep you constant company?</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Just trying to make sense out of what's being said,
Merium.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Sometimes you can feel sorry for yourself and say you haven't got
anything -- you have got nothing that you really wanted to get. Everybody else
got it but you didn't. And that is a state of mind that many children go
through. They sulk and pout. They did not get the pony. They did not get the
bicycle. They did not get the dolly. But the neighbor did, and so the mind says,
"I didn't get anything." Naturally, in that state of mind, you will not be
wanting to do something for somebody who already has it all, as far as your
concerned. That would be martyr-ous of you to try to twist it around to make
some sense of it. </P>
<P>And yet there are times when everything feels right and good. When the sun is
shining and the shadows are falling magically, the breeze is blowing
refreshingly, your tummy is full and you feel good about life, you get the
giggles, you want to do something fun for someone else. In these times when your
sense of feeling good mounts up in you like a wave and you get the idea that you
really probably ought to ask little Jimmy Rogers to play with you once in a
while, that's the time to go over to little Jimmy Rogers' house and say, "Hey,
you wanna do somethin'?" even though many other times you would just as soon not
be bothered with him, for there are things about him that you don't like. </P>
<P>Perhaps his family is not the right kind of people, or his nose runs, or
something that is distasteful or culturally antithetical, but when you are
feeling magnanimous, you can let go of those restraints and prejudices and just
go with being a kid and say, "Ah, so what! Come on, Jimmy. Let's go play." And
that's when "my cup runneth over. I have got a lot to be grateful for. I may not
have the pony. I may not have the bicycle. I may not have gotten the doll, but I
have so much to offer and so much to share and so much to learn, I'd like some
company." </P>
<P>Including someone else in your life plan is taking responsibility for
something outside of yourself. It's one of those selfless things that inspires
and stimulates your indwelling Adjuster, for it is thinking of someone other
than yourself incessantly. That is not to say that thinking of yourself is
erroneous; it is that including others in your concerns and considerations
enlarges your room, opens the windows and lets the air through, and only you can
tell, only you know in your heart if you have been given much. Only you know the
size of your heart and the extent of your gratitude. </P>
<P>Some may find your gratitude capacities to be miserly and mean, and some may
be overwhelmed at the size of your intent, but limit yourself not according to
others' values. Just be yourself, and be true to yourself in this regard and you
will know when and as you have been given much. And chances are, if you allow
yourself to do (as Gerdean likes to say) "your own thinking for you," you will
probably find yourself so favorably enriched, you will not know where to begin
to include humanity in the abundance you have at heart. </P>
<P>"To he who has much, more will be expected -- by whom?" is the question! You
are accustomed to that authority which says "Shame on you! You have 14 marbles!
And you're keeping them all to yourself! Why don't you give 7 of them to Jimmy
Rogers?" Whereas, the admonition is rather for you yourself to say, "My God!
I've got 14 marbles! I only need two! How many can I give away?" And this is who
makes the determination. </P>
<P>Does that help? </P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> I think it's helpful.</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> I do.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Does that make sense? </P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Yes.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> It does.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Then why am I not hearing anything from this young fellow in the
class?</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> I don't know.</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Oh, I think it all makes sense. I still think it's one of those
admonitions that gets tossed around that has a guilt edge to it.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Yes. Yes, it has a guilt overtone to it.</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Yes, it does.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> But that is because of your approach to religious authority on
this world. It colors everything, including your perception of our presence
among you.</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Yeah, I have no problem with the analogy and I understand the
difference between feeling like I don't have anything in my cup and I'm ready to
admit that my cup runneth over most of the time
whether I perceive it or not!
but you know, it's still -- the question is "to those who have been given
much
." You know. Much what? And much will be expected. It's still
. That's like
trying to pin down what love means.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Yes, it is, and it is also a paradox, and these paradoxes are
games people play and there are no hard and fast rules, but you know the common
laws of the universe, such as "attract and repel" or "cause and effect" and so
the same thing can be said for this one. Only you can determine how that law
affects you and how you affect that law. That way, you take it out of the hands
of those who would presume to sit in judgment over you and your goodness or your
riches and you then are in a position of wielding your free will toward acting
on your own perception of that universe law. </P>
<P>If someone else is telling you much is expected of you, that is
guilt-promoting. If you tell yourself much is expected of you, you are
challenging yourself. If you simply see in yourself that you have abundance and
want to share, you will share, and your cup will be replenished. It is in
knowing this that you allow yourself to have many, many more opportunities for
sharing, and thus, you reinforce the universal law by having a part in it, by
being a participant in the abundance of being. Those who cannot feel their
abundance, the joy of living, the love of life, the sense of adventure, have
nothing to give, have no sense of responsibility for others. Right?</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Um-hum.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> Well, I think much has been given. To probably all of us. And
that doesn't mean necessarily much good has been given, because I think we're
given some little challenges along with it, and maybe some things we would
rather not be given at times, but the important thing is that the things that we
were given that what we deemed as not ideal, has actually made us better people,
and a better understanding, more wisdom, and
like my stroke was a blessing,
because it led the way to other things, so that was-- I think sometimes we are
given some eye-awakening things too, and hard awakenings.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> But, my dear, you were not given a stroke.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> No, I wasn't given it.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> You invited that yourself.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> But, nevertheless, it was a blessing, in a way.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> This is your mind allowing for it to be a blessing. This is your
adaptability.</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Making it a gift.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Making it a gift.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda: </B>Well, I certainly consider that it was one.</P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> You made it that way, too.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> But another thing, I think, rather than fretting about what is
expected, we are told in our lessons that service is a very important thing, and
if we simply just open our eyes or breathe, there are all kinds of things around
us that are ways that we can be of service. So I don't think we need to feel
guilty about it. </P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> That's right.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> If we only open our eyes! There's all kinds of ways to be of
service, and I think we enjoy it, when there are ways, but I don't think that
we're to feel guilty about what is expected of us, unless we absolutely
as you
said, are sitting on our duffs watching the PGA tournament. Which I do, I have
to admit</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> But this is a part of the privilege of being a child.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> Well, you also said to have fun.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Absolutely. </P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Be of good cheer!</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> This is a part of the understanding that your cup runneth over
and thus you have something as a result to give to someone else. It is those who
have a feeling that there is nothing good in life, that are needy, that provide
the myriad opportunities, the many empty cups or half-empty cups that are
sitting around waiting to be filled and have no idea how to invite the Living
Water in. </P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> I think what Thoroah said expresses it quite well: Our cups
runneth over. </P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> And finding the right way to bestow our joy in service is another
challenge, and another adventure. And so <I>I urge you this week to look for
opportunities to share your adventures in living in such a way as will help fill
another's cup</I>. And I'll be back. And we'll play more games and have more
parties. And have more fun in this family gathering.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> We're glad to have you, Merium, and it has been fun. You're
very energetic and spirited and I think we're going to enjoy you and learn from
you, a lot. Though it was rather startling and unexpected to hear that Tomas was
reassigned. And we will miss him.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> It was abrupt. But remember, people can be taken away without
warning. And we are fortunate that Tomas is not "taken away" from us, but merely
busy elsewhere.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> Yes, that is good.</P><B>
<P>Elena:</B> Because we really care about him, too.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> Oh, we do. We love him! We care about Ham. We care about
Abraham. And we will love you too, Merium. </P><B>
<P>Thoroah:</B> Yeah, we didn't mean that we were being punished because they
sent us you, Merium.</P><B>
<P>Esmeralda:</B> No, we're glad. It's already been a good lesson.</P><B>
<P>MERIAM:</B> I didn't think anything untoward from any of you and I adore you
all. I'll be glad to be back. Bye.</P><B>
<P>Group: </B>(Laughter) Bye!</P>
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