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<DIV><B>
<P>DATE:</B> September 19, 1996<BR><B>LOCATION:</B> Pittsburgh, PA,
USA<BR><B>T/R:</B> Gerdean</P><B>
<P>TEXTUAL STUDY:<BR></B>Urantia Paper 113: Seraphic Guardians of Destiny</P>
<OL>
<LI>The Guardian Angels</LI>
<LI>The Destiny Guardians</LI>
<LI>Relation to Other Spirit Influences</LI>
<LI>Seraphic Domains of Action</LI>
<LI>Seraphic Ministry to Mortals</LI>
<LI>Guardian Angels After Death</LI>
<LI>Seraphim and the Ascendant Career</LI></OL><B>
<P>TEACHER SESSION<BR>TOPIC:</B> <B>Unselfish Devotion</P>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Good evening, friends.<BR><B>Group:</B> Good evening,
Tomas.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I, Tomas, your teacher, am in attendance with you this evening as
I am also in attendance with the many, myriad celestial hosts which hover around
you and for you and with you, as well as a number of visitors. Your Paper study
this evening has given you some indication, if you were but to calculate on your
fingers and toes, how many personages surround even one devoted soldier of the
circles, and when we get you co-ordinated in one room, it is truly a big event.
The air around you this evening is electric and jubilant in appreciation of your
renewed application and devotion to our spirit family, our gathering
together.</P>
<P>In keeping with our format, I have another lesson in store for you this
evening. Before I embark, however, I would like to take a moment and pause for
your consideration. I have heard it remarked that we are working pell mell, that
Tomas is really piling it on, and so forth, and I do not want to shovel the coal
so fast that the steam engine runs us all over. Indeed, I have many, many
lessons, but I am not so bent on my formal agenda that I am unwilling to abide
with you in your growing process. I will not lollygag overmuch, be advised, but
if it is necessary that we slow down, I would like to hear it before I again
commence. What say ye?</P><B>
<P>Group:</B> I think it's great. Full speed ahead!</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I must come up with another pet name for you, my loyal followers,
my eager beavers. Perhaps I shall ponder that after I have given you your
assignment for the week. I suspect that mine [my assignment] will be the more
pleasant.</P>
<P>I would like to address this evening yet another fruit of the spirit, that
being unselfish devotion.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> That's a biggie.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Indeed, that's a biggie. Let us take the concept over all of
"unselfish devotion" and give it a broad brush stroke to loosen the limbs of the
mind. A sweeping appraisal of unselfish devotion would be dramatic in its
employment; it would be a pageant of grand scale, of epoch proportions.
Unselfish devotion attends to Paradise, all the way to the tiniest detail, and
so, in order that we might bring this sweeping scope of a phrase into our
breadth of consciousness, that we might discover it as an actuality in our own
life, indeed, within our own personal personality as a trait of character, we
shall look at "devotion."</P>
<P>Certainly anyone who has committed him or herself to any even trifling cause
has some idea of devotion:</P>
<P>A young fellow who brings home his first stray puppy is instantly devoted to
the four-legged creature. He will feed it, he promises; he will wash the bowl;
he will walk him regularly, and for a short period of time his entire
personality is focused on utter devotion to this dog, this new pet.</P>
<P>Similarly, in young girlhood, a young man may catch a young ladies' fancy,
and her entire waking life is spent thinking of her beloved and her heart is
devoted to picturizing their "happily ever after" situations.</P>
<P>In some individuals, in their careers, they find themselves devoted to their
work. They have applied themselves and studied. They have ambitions; they have
made inroads into the ladder of echelon and community. Their life is devoted to
this service, this cause, and all that they do, all that they present, is in
response to and in service of their devotion to their career.</P>
<P>It is expanded here now to include devotion to family -- not the young
idealistic devotion of youth, but the sincere and arduous devotion of
long-suffering, long-standing care, one for his spouse/her spouse, the children,
the homestead, the future -- the future even of the estate, and the
grandchildren.</P>
<P>This is devotion to a value, one which most of you, if not all of you, can
identify and to some extent appreciate.</P>
<P>Creativity is an example of devotion. To paint the perfect picture, to shoot
the perfect photograph. Sports also provides ideas and examples of devotion. To
run the race, to climb the hill, to jump the hurdle -- these are ambitions and
goals which require total devotion in order that you may attain your end, your
attainment, your accomplishment, your prize, and in many ways, your purpose.</P>
<P>"Unselfish" devotion is, again, a qualifier. Unselfish means that you do this
for them. You bring home this puppy not for your own enjoyment, no sir! but for
the benefit of that puppy! It is not for your demure need that you should adore
the young man on the white horse, no ma'am, it is for the honor and glory of a
noble prince and all the ideals and values that husband and hearth represent,
and so you would bestow yourself unselfishly upon his every need, willingly.</P>
<P>These of youth give way to reality, to the truth of humanness, the pain of
struggle, the sorrow of illness, the despair of defeat, the realities of life
which bring often disappointment as well as accomplishment. Even so, unselfishly
we prevail, learning how to eke out a living, how to manage our monies, how to
compromise our relationships, how to set aside for the future, how to balance
the many responsibilities of life that all may be served with perhaps some time
left over for a game of cards or a Calgon bath.</P>
<P>And now we come along with "unselfish devotion" as a fruit of the spirit, and
having now understood how fully the aspect of devotion affects your lives, and
knowing personally how much you are affected by your own understanding of your
own selfishness and unselfishness, as well as that of your brothers and sisters,
your peers, your siblings, your enemies, and so forth, unselfish devotion to Our
Father and to his children enters the picture.</P>
<P>And is it not true that Michael would have you manifest fruits of the spirit
in order that you bear fruit and give honor to Him, the Living Vine? How is it
that He would have us manifest unselfish devotion as a fruit of the spirit?
Certainly all of the human facets we discussed, I discussed, are inclusive. That
we take care of the lower animal realms with devotion is noble. That we love and
are loved in return is noble. That we have concern for the future of our
families, economically, philosophically, politically, ecologically,
educationally, medically and so forth, are noble devotions.</P>
<P>But what of the fruit of the spirit? How are we devoted to the God that
dwells within each other? How are we devoted unselfishly to the God that has
given us all these wondrous things to have, to enjoy, to manage, to attain, to
dispose of? For is it not He who is deserving of the highest devotion? Without
Him, these things would not exist. Without Him, you would not be aware of the
love, the beauty, the goodness of all that you enjoy as a kingdom believer, as a
son or daughter.</P>
<P>"Unselfishly", you say. "I am only human. How can I possibly devote my life
to God and do it unselfishly? If I devote myself to God, will I have time then,
to take care of these other affairs? Will I have time to paint pictures and
dream and forecast and amend?"</P>
<P>As I look at the word "unselfish" I am reminded of many who, when speaking of
spiritual matters, testify that a certain degree of selfishness is desired, and
that it is wise to set aside, selfishly, a period of time in each day in order
to thank the First Source and Center, the Creator of us all, for the devotion
that we may give Him, for the devotion that He has given us, for the devotion
that Michael had when he chose to come here, that he displayed in his life in
the flesh, that he bestowed on his family conscientiously, that he engaged in at
the marketplace, in the caravans, in meeting men and women and finding out how
they lived their lives; in his travels, in his studies, in his musings, in his
life with his apostles, in the devotion that he manifested to even the little
children. An exemplary life, indeed, full and rich. And what made it unselfish
was that he gave all credit to the Father.</P>
<P>As you thus look about yourself this week in quiet awareness of the many ways
in which you yourself are devoted, in the many noble ways in which you devote
yourself to value -- truth, beauty & goodness -- to those things, beings and
so on that have value, remember your primary Caregiver, your Father, for without
Him none of this would be possible. Stop and thank the Father unselfishly for
His devotion to you and honor Him by unselfish devotion to Him.</P>
<P>I am going to discuss this fruit further, but it is an introduction so that
you can understand clearly in your social discourse with one another, that you
all have this fruit of the spirit. You all have unselfish devotion. It is not a
question of having to discover it, polish it up and show it off, for it is there
in each of you. How is it that we may utilize this noble fruit to further the
cause of the kingdom is a facet of unselfish devotion I will bring to your
plates next week.</P>
<P>How are you, my friends? You have blessed me with your presence here this
evening. What a bountiful group! How have you been, one and all?</P><B>
<P>Mrs. Ml:</B> Great.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> She fell off the wall and they're putting her back
together.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Oh, no, my dear. She is not a fragile egg, and she will certainly
be put back together. It is wonderful to see your smiling face, to feel your
cheerful presence. I am glad you are among us and with us in more ways than
one.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. Ml:</B> Thank you, Tomas.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Theresa, I will speak to you, for last time we talked I did not
get to spend much time with you. You were telling me how you have learned to
fear by trusting and being disappointed in your trust. It is unfortunate, but
that is how one learns whom to trust and when to trust, but it is not a reason
to give up on trusting altogether.</P>
<P>You recall the reading this evening of how it is that the angels have a hard
time understanding the animal legacy of fear, and as I work with you and as I
talk more and more with the midwayers, I gain an understanding of your vantage
point, and I am somewhat reminded of the vantage point I had so very, very long
ago, but truly it has rather evaporated in the mist of history. It is for me
very difficult also to understand the animal legacy of fear.</P>
<P>I am beginning to think, however, as I dally with you and as I learn to
occasionally challenge you, I am beginning to think that fear is just a bad
habit that has been permeating your minds for so long it is easy to revert to
fear and hide therein, rather than step out in courage and conviction in spite
of the fear.</P>
<P>And so that is my greeting to you, my daughter, my mini-lesson, my somewhat
challenge and my sincere hope, that you not allow the fear of the negative to
steal from you the joy and riches of the positive, for love is more catching
than hate.</P><B>
<P>Theresa:</B> Thank you, Tomas. It isn't a fear of being physically hurt. It
was more of a mental hurt. I felt it was my ego being hurt. It was a put down
kind of a thing I was talking about that I was referring to last week, that
after so many put downs you just feel sometimes it's better to keep your mouth
shut and not say anything.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Perhaps it is not so much that you should keep your mouth shut,
but perhaps you should seek a different audience.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> I think she's going to enjoy that little paper we had from our
...</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> On mota. A mini-lesson on mota.</P><B>
<P>Theresa:</B> I was trying to work in that trust thing. You're trying to trust
people, you know, and you love them and you think you can trust them and you
can't! because they're not ready. They're just not ready. And you wonder where
you're supposed to stop and where you're supposed to start and you're there for
a reason, they're in your life for a reason and you want to enlighten them, and
they're not ready. And that was where I get the putdown, and it's the ego! I
just don't want to be hurt that way again. And yet it's not hurt. I get, maybe I
call it a hurt ...</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> It is a rejection of that which you would offer them. In truth you
are offering them sonship, filiality with them in the spirit, and they are
rejecting your understanding and, therefore, to you they are rejecting the
filiality, family of God aspect. Even so, there are ways that you can tear down
the wall rather than to allow the status quo or to allow the wall to raise up
between you. You might not attain the goal that you had in mind, but if you have
fellowship and have nurtured the moment with honest heart-felt good cheer,
affection, tolerance and so forth, you have registered On High that you are
experiencing your temporary setback as a result of your unselfish devotion to
the cause of opting to share God with others, so that they will know the joy you
would share with them.</P>
<P>It is like the lesson about being misunderstood, and it never seemed to
bother Jesus whether he was understood or not, but it bothers mortals
tremendously! They want to be understood; they want to make their point; they
want to have their words heard and felt and responded to, ideally, in a way that
is fruitful, and when this is not forthcoming, when they don't understand your
motives, when they do fear you and the gifts that you bring as well as the
challenges that you present, they balk. And their only known recourse is to put
you down or reject you, which is easier than rejecting God himself. But
in-as-much as you are God's child and in-as-much as "that which you do to the
least of your brethren, you have done unto me" ....</P><B>
<P>Mrs. Ml:</B> You might say, "Well, you might not like what I just said, but
God likes it! "</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> That's a good one! That might make this person become even
more discombopulated! Scare the wits out of this person! Evidently this person
is quite frightened of this encounter with God and so, as Tomas said, it takes
recourse in striking back at Theresa. But that's an interesting
observation.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. Ml:</B> How about, "Well, God, I'm finished with that one. How about the
next one?" (Group laughter)</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> A good practice session.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> In spreading the good news, you have heard it said to not let the
right hand know what the left hand is doing, for if you are setting out to
consciously plant a seed or save a soul or convert a heathen or whatever, you
are going with an ulterior motive into your arena. If you go with love, and a
desire to share your inner life with them, your avenue will be more open, for
you will not run upon the hidden agenda of conversion, which is a stumbling
block for so many.</P>
<P>As you live the gospel, as you re-sound its harmonious toll in your life, in
your voice, in your actions, in your attitudes, you are preaching and teaching
the gospel. In time, you will have established yourself so that you may have
intimate discourse with others. Praise God, the living God. Make reference to
those things that are familiar. Do not try to add boulders onto the shoulders of
little ones who can only carry pebbles. Strengthen that in them that which is
good and true, and spoon feed them little pieces of divinity. Chew on them with
your siblings.</P>
<P>Ponder them over, as if to say, "I heard this. I wonder what you think. What
is your opinion?" Of course, you may get the oaf who looks at you dumbly and
says something rude, in which case you have lost no time moving along. But
remember, you have established yourself in the life of this individual by
setting aside --in unselfish devotion -- time to think about and pray for and
ponder the welfare of this child of God before you. It is not a stranger. He is
not a stranger if you have invested in him in prayer.</P>
<P>It is necessary to develop spiritual stamina if you are going to be active in
the field, and since you are already active in the field, my girl, it is a
simple matter of adapting your already excellent techniques to a broader range
of circumference to broaden your arena, for your harmonious bell tolls clear,
and as it tolls clearer from the height of truth, beauty and goodness, it will
echo throughout the valley below. The Spirit of Truth will enable you to teach
and preach gladly, and so fear not. I am eager also to greet others.</P>
<P><B>Hunnah:</B> May I give a report? <STRONG><BR></STRONG><B>TOMAS:</B>
Briefly. (Group laughter)</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> I will make it brief because you've answered something for me.
I've come across some information that I felt dovetailed with your talk on
character, and I was considering investing in the tapes so that others might be
able to hear them in the privacy -- because people frequently do well privately
for their introspection. If you have it at a group, it doesn't have the same
impact. And then something happened tonight. It was a conversation between
Gerdean and I that made me suspect that I was still just being aggressive with a
particular individual and coming at them from another direction, and I felt,
"Well, there goes that idea!" and then you just emphasized expanding your arena,
and the tapes might be for someone else and not just the person that I'm
concerned about. And so I'm going to go ahead and do it. And if I get booted for
it, my intentions were good and I'm going to run with it. As they say.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> In approaching that entire thing through unselfish devotion, I
would only caution you to make certain that the interest charges are not late.
(Silence) That was a bit of humor.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah</B>: I missed that. We'll work on that. Well, it might be for someone
who I have no idea who it's for, so I'll go ahead.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Are you certain it's necessary to make the purchase, since the
point has been made, the truth has been planted in your heart, and you are a
great revealer, and now you are eagerly expanding your arena. I question the
need to make the purchase at all. Especially since you have now acknowledged
your hidden agenda and found it not necessary. Both you and Theresa have saved
yourself great steps this evening by acknowledging your true motive and going
for it and acknowledging it honestly. It is not wrong to want to introduce
someone to the truth. Just 'fess up to it and don't try to come around the side
door. If they are not hearing you, go down the road a piece and sing a song.
Like the pied piper, they may find they enjoy the tune so much, they will follow
you anyway.</P>
<P><B>Hunnah:</B> You've given me something to think about. Thank you.
<STRONG><BR></STRONG><B>TOMAS:</B> You are welcome.<BR><B>Hunnah:</B> The line,
"and the government shall be upon his shoulders," just came to my attention.</P>
<P><B>TOMAS:</B> Shalimar? <STRONG><BR></STRONG><B>Shalimar:</B> I was thinking,
<STRONG><BR></STRONG><B>TOMAS:</B> You are quiet this evening. </P><B>
<P>Shalimar:</B> (something about her daughter) between taking action that would
be probably dramatic and praying for this person. Let's put it this way, I've
turned to praying for the person (indistinguishable). This person is causing a
lot of havok. How long should you wait? How patient can you be if other people
are being damaged? When you know that they're a very disturbed person.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I cannot counsel you under these circumstances. I would counsel
you only to continue to pray, that is, to spend time in stillness ascertaining
as best you can the clarity of the personalities involved, their motives and
intentions as best you can see, and ask that God oversee and intercede if
necessary. I cannot even suggest, from here, what you might do about it in terms
of your social discourse or dramatization.</P><B>
<P>Shalimar:</B> I have been doing that and I have been getting --well, the one
day I just got in my car. I did spend a couple hours writing and I was tempted
to give it to this person but I didn't. I read it to some other people involved,
but I think I got a flood of information with the idea that I have to write it
down and try to make sense out of some things.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> If it is so ponderous as to weigh you down entirely, perhaps you
are investing too much devotion in one area, and a review of your more supernal
devotions would give you better perspective.</P><B>
<P>Shalimar:</B> I'm trying not to be involved in it, but ... it's coming to a
head, let's put it that way, and I do. I ask for it everyday -- what's the
Father's will for me. That's all. But my own child is not just emotionally ill,
but is physically ill because of this. So, it's not easy to just let it
linger.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Elizabeth, my dear, I have not heard much from you this
evening.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> I've been really enjoying tapping in on others here. I really
feel good about some of the things you told Theresa. I really feel that I can
use some of that. Theresa is much more gentle than I am, so people don't seem to
be too overt about putting me down, but I still have my own kinds of struggles
as you know. And you know that I lapsed into fear on Sunday and I was afraid ...
I was afraid. Yes, that was that fear that you were talking about.</P>
<P>I was teaching my little class and I was very angry that these people are
trying to make these beautiful children pray in a way that I found very
objectionable. And the woman that I'm teaching with is one of these
fundamentalists and I was so afraid that she was going to find out how I feel
about some of these things. I was afraid and so I overreacted and ... we didn't
agree, and it was amicable, but if I just hadn't been so afraid that I would say
too much, because if I ever begin to say all the things that I feel, I would not
be able to be there and do what I think I'm doing, which is to help these
children not have all this misery placed upon them, these innocent children!</P>
<P>I was one of these fundamentalists myself, so I suppose I'm even much harder
on them in my mind, but I was in fear and I thought about that.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I am glad you told me. I am glad that you shared that with all of
us. It is too bad that you hide your grand light under this bushel. It is
unconscionable that a woman of your dynamism should so camouflage your own
enlightenment. You were afraid that these people would find that you were an
enlightened woman! and what? stone you? banish you from their coven?</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth: </B>They wouldn't let me do what I'm devoted to doing. It is a
tiny slice of my life that I think of as being somewhat of a selfless devotion.
I know that I can serve in a real way in that capacity, but if I were to be
totally frank, I would simply not be allowed to be in that capacity, and so I
try to be honest in the sense that I'm not going to teach them anything that
their parents would find troublesome, but I do want to not teach them these
terribly negative things that I feel are full of misery words like "blood",
"death", "crucifixion."</P>
<P>These children are eleven years old. They have to say that they are ... Wait
a minute! I brought it! I wanted to share it with everybody. "What is your only
comfort as a Christian?" "That I body and soul and life and death belong to
Jesus Christ." "What must you know to have this comfort?" First, how I sin every
day against God and my neighbor. Second, how Jesus saves me from my sin. Third,
how I can share my thanks." "How do you know you are a sinner? Because I do not
love my neighbor as myself." "Why don't you do what God wants?" "Because I
naturally sin."</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Whose answers are they?</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth</B>: This is the child's version of the Heidelberg confession, and
I have this in my Sunday School kit and I don't have to teach this. There's too
much material there. They just say, "Pick out what you think of as helpful" and
so I was planning to do this but I lost my cool because of my partner there,
because she wanted them to learn one of these horrible memory verses. So, it was
because I was in fear. That's probably what it was. And so I managed last year
to get through the whole year and just saying the positive things, but because
this woman is this fundamentalist beyond description ....</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Is it necessary that she hang with you constantly?</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> No, no. Hopefully she'll maybe just teach when I'm not there.
Hopefully. I'd love to have that happen.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> These youngsters are certainly old enough to be learning real
truths, such as what is sin, evil and iniquity. There is nothing wrong in giving
a substantial lesson to a young person. They can handle it. But I agree with you
that to teach a child error is error. Good for you.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth: </B>Thank you. I would like to have more faith and not fear in my
situation.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> It is through unselfish devotion to your Father in heaven and the
pure truth, beauty and goodness of His divine love (that) He loves his children.
He did not send His son to die for their sins, and so on and so on. You know the
revelation. You know the good news. You have been called to be an apostle. It is
not time now to compromise truth, especially with the young ones who still have
a chance to formulate an eager mind about spiritual matters.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> I do have a plan, but I was taken aback a little bit, maybe by
surprise because of the very strict fundamentalism of the people around me. I
didn't expect it to be quite so intense and so, in a sense, the surprise was one
of the reasons why I didn't handle it as well as I could have. I think that's
what's bothering me. I didn't handle it very well.</P>
<P>The woman I'm teaching with has a very beautiful faith. Like what you said,
if I'm not mistaken, and she really does love children very much. She's a very
fine person.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> It is well to approach each one individually and I will not split
hairs here, but remember that it was those who were so staunchly committed to
the traditional ways of spirituality that would not allow for the truth of
Jesus' teachings that ended up getting Jerusalem destroyed and the Lord
crucified.</P>
<P>(End of tape; balance of session "off the record.")</P>
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