2005-08-21-Sharing Michael's Birthday

Session

Opening

Prayer (Virginia): Creator Father, we thank you that you chose Urantia to come and show us the Love of the Father. Help us to give that love away and to trust that love day-by day. Amen

Group stillness and centering.

DANIEL (Nancy): My dear students, I am Daniel, your teacher, guide and friend, pleased to experience your group dynamic and energy once again. You have been apart on individual adventures for some time now, and it is my pleasure, our pleasure, the pleasure of your teachers, to experience the focus and joy that your camaraderie and shared vision, shared understanding brings.

Lesson

On this significant day in which you remember Michael’s final bestowal life, its power and its blessing, I wish to talk to you of faith. Jesus’ life was the perfect embodiment of faith, the perfect human life lived in faithful consecration to the will of his Father, your Great Parent. As such, when you struggle, when you desire to be of faith and yet you feel despondent, feel cynical, doubt, doubt that the magnificence of God’s plan is real or that God’s love and purpose will prevail, then it is time to once again review Jesus’ life from a fresh perspective. For Jesus struggled every bit as much as any of you in His early life, first to find his Father, then to know who he was to be. He struggled with l! oneliness of the human type, for there were things he could not share with any other person. He experienced the death of his own human father and had to take on the responsibility of breadwinner at the same time he grieved this loss, his wise guide, his father. And Jesus prevailed. He maintained faith in the good, faith in truth, and he sought beauty always. He saw the beauty in the possibility in his fellows even while discerning those traits that could require care.

And so I wish to discuss with you your faith journeys over this summer while we have not held formal class. I, at this time, invite sharing. I ask you to share with one another your experience, and afterwards I have further comment. I will not be interjecting until this sharing time is complete. And so I release PamElla that she may participate fully in this experience.

Group shares personal experiences of faith.

I am Daniel back among you. Dear students, thank you for the sharing of your reality. Thank you for your willingness to trust one another in speaking your truth. All perspectives, all experiences are equally valid and meaningful. It is in the reflection, in the practice of reflection, and the confirmation experienced through expression, that growth occurs.

And now I wish to address faith generally. You my friends are all faithful. Even as you experience lapses, your ability to identify and understand the nature of the lapse and the reasons for the lapse assures the ultimate demise of the lapse. Growth is ongoing. Yes! And so the ultimate demise of the lapse with which you currently struggle may occur in your lifetime or in some future phase of your existence. The ability to have faith is a great gift bestowed by the First Source and Center as a homing device that calls you home. We your teachers see your progress. And so as we have told you many times before “do not let your emotions be the source of your discerning the actual state of your being.” For your emotions are complex and rooted in electro-chemical states as well as intellectual comprehension.

Isadora shared with you that she believed what drew her on was her ability to find the beauty in life despite the trauma and chaos of her particular world’s and her life’s circumstances. And so today I say “be easy on yourselves, be gentle in the way a parent is gentle with a newborn.” Look for the beauty wherever you can find it. And if you see it not, do not belittle yourselves, but change your focus to where you can see the beauty. If you can find the beauty in another person, see it there. But if this is difficult, find it in the sky, in a flower, in an animal, in a child, in a landscape, a sunset, in a piece of music, and then perhaps you will find it ea! sier to see that beauty in another.

I am not the final speaker but I wish to leave you with an exercise before I depart. PamElla is familiar with this exercise and is somewhat uncomfortable conveying my suggestion. Once a day look at yourself in the mirror; look in your own eyes; look with love; see the beauty of the person the Father-Mother created. Love that person in the mirror, and let love shine back at you. And if you can bring yourself to do so, say aloud “I love you.” This may sound like a sappy exercise but it is in fact profound, and for some individuals it is very difficult, and therefore there is growth possible.

I Daniel, commend you, my students, for your dedication. You are here this evening, and this is a testament to your desire to know and become like our Great Parent. You all do well. I love each of you and feel greatly privileged to continue this fine work into another season. I look forward to our next group opportunity and assure you that I check-in on each and every one of you daily without fail.

I am your teacher Daniel saying good night. (Group: good night.)

Closing

MICHAEL (Bob S.): My children, you honor me with your presence at these festivities. My time on your world was much different than the times you face today. Yet, the difficulties and ambiguities of spiritual growth remain the same. It is as you who are parents know, your children must pass through stages which you can anticipate, and you can provide comfort and solace as (your) children experience some of the difficulties of growing up which you yourself experienced.

It is much like that with me as I view your spiritual development. I too went through the same difficulties on the same planet, and although the times were different, your problems of today remain very clear to me. I therefore make myself available to each of you at your pleasure. Whenever you are feeling down, when the difficulties of your life seem overwhelming, reach out to me, for I am just a prayer away and would consider it my loving obligation to sit with you and consider the difficulties you are facing.

I hadn’t planned to provide a sermon this evening. My purpose here was solely to enjoy your company as you were celebrating my birthday. But those of you who are teachers know sometimes you can’t resist the opportunity. My friends, while you are my children, I consider you my friends, please honor me by allowing me to assist you with the difficulties of life.

This concludes my sermon and I will take one more opportunity to thank you for coming together at this time and for this purpose. I pray the love I feel for each of you may, over time, become experienced in your life. Good evening. (Group: good evening.)

AARON (Bob D.): I am Aaron. It is my pleasure to embrace with you tonight the universe of Michael. Words cannot express the depth of feeling that is bestowed by our Creator. And so I ask you to share with me in silent embrace of all that is.

(Silent embrace)