2013-05-02-Healing and Persecution

Session

Opening

Prayer: Father God, we come before you humbly and eagerly, to just enjoy your presence, appreciate your energy, and feast upon your reality. We come to you for clarity, for understanding, for patience, and all those qualities of godliness that we imagine you to have, in addition to your overriding love which we depend upon.

Be with us this evening Father God, Mother Spirit. Open our minds, our hearts to truth, beauty and goodness in whatever way it should pass by. And for all that you do for is, all that we are, all that we are becoming, all that we will one day be because of your tender nurturance and that of all the heavenly helpers, we give thanks. We rejoice. Amen.

0802-AB Jack here. Have you got it together, Gerdean? Well, you are a trooper. You will pull through and so will the participants in this gathering. Good evening, everybody. I am Jack, your surrogate host, your celestial guide, glad to be here and emcee the proceedings. Yes, this is a tumultuous time of year when the seasons are changing. We’ve seen and heard many complaints and concerns about the weather and different atmospheric conditions, but such is the way of times of change. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” That’s not prophesy; it’s an old saying that’s been kicked around to indicate the relativity of things.

We have teachers on hand and we have at least one question.

Dialogue

Healing

Q: What are the oils they speak of when they speak of the Women’s Evangelical Corps ministering to the sick with sundry herbs and oils and whatnot? Can someone address that?

A: I would like to get to that myself since I am one of those who was here in the flesh in those days -- well, not in the flesh exactly, but I was here among the flesh of those days and so I have some knowledge of some of the practices they used. Herbs have always been a big deal in your history. I was going to say the Jewish history but it’s not just the Hebrews who put so much focus on the merits of herbs. All early men have utilized herbs for one reason or another, to eat or smoke or ingest or use in one way or another -- to render curses on their enemy and blessings on their friends. Oftentimes they were chemically ineffectual but emotionally effective and so herbs have been used as a placebo effect, as it were, because herbs smell so pungent; you feel something is happening whether it is or not. Garlic was so strong as to be said to stave off vampires and evil spirits. It doesn’t. But if you believe it, your belief will do mighty things.

There are certain herbs and oils and other elements of nature that can be gotten, applied, rubbed on, rubbed in, rubbed off, that will have an effect on the body and the spirit. This is how alchemy became medicine. But for the most part, those oils that were used in healing, or in embalming, as it were, were based on smell or the source of the oil itself rather than any genuine healing qualities that might have been believed to accompany the root, or the fruit of the vine, or the herb, or the bark, or the stones that were also used in healing modalities that are used in healing modalities even today.

Some of the more aromatic herbs were more costly because it was believed the pungent odors carried more weight, had more of an effect on the wound. Those herbs that were (and spices but more so with herbs) were less costly but none the less desirable to cover other worse scents, body odor being a problem in those days before Laundromats. So the healing oils that were applied were most likely and most often made by the maidens themselves from crushing the leaves of certain plants and creating a paste, an oily paste, which was then smudged on the body. Some plants generating more oil than others.

There are also natural oils that are used for blending certain aromatic essences in it and rubbed on the body as if it were a lotion. This was rather lavish, but imperative in some situations, some cases, for it assisted the process, whatever the process might be. You are now familiar with aromatic essences and ascribe certain values with each, such as the relaxation that comes from lavender and the qualities that come from an assortment of other natural plants. They will vary, too, depending upon where you are, what grows there. Aloe vera is a handy plant with many healing qualities; in fact, many cactus plants hold stores of moisture which are used to stave off dehydration and sunburn. Lots of wonderful qualities come in the form of plants that are discovered over time and when you don’t have a pharmacy to go to or a physician to prescribe a solution, you become inventive, and much of these ministries of yesteryear were creative ventures by well-meaning women who put their heart and soul into their healing efforts. And sometimes their faith in their patient was adequate for the patient to rise up against the disease or the malady and return to robust health

It is amazing what you can do when you feel that someone has faith in you. It is rather like, if you will, the oil of reconciliation. Perhaps you remember reading about this oil of reconciliation in the Urantia Papers. It is not an actual oil such as you would pour from a carafe, but it is none the less a quality, an essence of a soothing and salubrious nature that will soften the parched elements and cause the skin to be receptive to the anointing of restored relations. Much of the ministry done by the Womens’ Evangelical Corps and others such groups in those days when Jesus walked, were similar to the oil of reconciliation. Their common oil was enhanced by herbs and blessed by their hopes such that their faith was able to minister to many, such that they arose and walked. Today, you have myriad products on the shelves in the marketplace which you apply alone. And so one of the lost arts of ministry falls by the wayside.

I will stop there. I hope this has given you some idea of the kinds of oils that were used in those days, olive oil being probably the most common, but with herbal essences added. Thank you.

We have a teacher here this evening – your old friend Tomas, who would like to speak about persecutions. I’ll be back. Wait for Tomas.

Lesson

Persecution

TOMAS: Good evening, my children, my students. I am Tomas, your teacher. I am grateful to you that you have the courage to come forth and connect with your fellow believers in a gesture of faith in the Teacher Sons and heavenly helpers of sundry sorts that minister to you and in many ways are dedicated to your spiritual unfolding. Although we remain unseen, and in this peculiar relationship existing in faith between the physical and the incorporeal, there is much ridicule and disbelief. For some reason, this relationship that we enjoy, that we have cultivated now for at least 20 years, and that has proven itself to be beneficial and not harmful, has none the less been the thorn in the side of many who don’t understand it, don’t appreciate it, don’t want to have anything to do with it and, alas, those who do. This brings me to the topic of persecution.

Persecution comes not simply from this format, but from any situation in which those who guard their precious truth against those they feel will besmirch its precious nature, and I am going to say that quality, that value, is something that everyone has, every one of you that has a religious context whatsoever, who has a faith in anything has that seed of conviction and passion within them that will hold their truth up as being worthy of any man’s adoration. This is the nature of personal religion. And yet, oddly enough, there are those who feel the need to protect theirs from the effects of others and there are many ways that humanity can deal with this process. The most effective of which would be to probably just let it be, just accept the fact that there are differences, differences among each individual, differences among those of like mind. The planet is awash with small pockets of families, clans, tribes, settlements, clusters, neighborhoods of people who have their own interests, preferences, dialects, diets, customs and so forth. There are so many different kinds of people enjoying so many different things and way s of going about their life. This is the nature of evolution.

And ever and anon will you find those who are bullies and those who are are victims. Sometimes the bully is the victim is the bully and sometimes the bully is the victim, depending upon the circumstances, the age of the participant, the experience they might have, who they might want to be showing off to, how intense and intent they are to do their duty. Some don’t care a whit. And some care greatly. But the persecutions that I want to focus on here in my chat today are those that you experience as a result of your faith, your personal faith as it hinges upon your belief that you are able to hear the lessons that come from the teachers on high, that you are able to step aside from the trappings of nomenclature and physicality to allow your mind to consider new truths, new thoughts and ideas, new approaches to old problems, new ideals and ideas and consider suggestions that come from outside yourself.

There are those who must live within a circumscribed protocol of belief. They are invaluable for the work they do where their work is appreciated. It is not valuable, however, where and when it is not appreciated. And so we find that all of these beings, mortal beings, with their integrity, are a part of the whole, each one striving to do what they feel they need to do to keep the fundamental truth, beauty and goodness of revelation alive. That kind of stalwart attitude and faith is commendable. It is something you each share. It makes you a community of believers. And yet, there are constantly conflicts between you and so “Why is that,” you ask. “Why can’t we just get along? Why must there be persecutions? Why do I feel persecuted when my integrity is rejected. Why do I feel somehow smug, spiritually replete, when I have pummeled someone with my truth until they finally got it, instead of feeling elsewise.

There are those who say that persecutions do not happen, that it’s all in the mind, that you’re just paranoid or that you have a victim mentality. There are philosophies and schools of thought that will not tolerate anyone having an attitude of being victimized or persecuted, since it casts negative aspersions on something they consider above such behavior and you are, by engaging in that attitude, reflecting poorly on their value and thus making a fool of yourself. Well, make no mistake. Persecution does happen. It happens all the time. It happens particularly on the worlds of time and space that are decimal worlds where they are more open to and vulnerable to experimentation, where the stakes are extended because no one has ever gone that far before. Normal worlds are not as intense as decimal worlds; although there is persecution on normal worlds, it is not to the extent as you experience it here. It is very unlikely, for example, that the Master would have been crucified on a normal world.

Jesus was, in fact, persecuted. And you also are persecuted when you are heckled, jeered, rebuked, alienated, ridiculed, and ostracized because your religious belief, your faith, your spiritual practices differ from those who think theirs is better. Of course, this is one of the principles that are set out in the discussion in the Uranta Papers about the Urmian schools of Cymboyton and his sons. But in these delicate days of establishing the fifth epochal revelation as well as opening the minds and doors that lead into faith walks where no one has gone before, and particularly for those of you who push the envelope, the avant-garde as you have been called, those of you who do not succumb to the peer pressure of the collective consciousness, those of you who do not, are not willing to settle for a religion of authority, ecclesiastical authority, but who appreciate the captivity from which you have been released while remembering the clause about liberty without license. Stepping outside of the norm is not the same thing as stepping into the devils camp.

There is so much to be said about this topic. It really goes to the heart of courage; confidence in your relationship with Deity. It gives credence to your mind, your thought processes. It is not an escape from reality that you seek to know God, that you long to know His family, visible and invisible. The beatitudes speak to this when they say blessed are they who are persecuted for they shall be called sons of god. Indeed I call you sons of God, and daughters, as well, who courageously face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and well-meaning men and women, meaning well but really acting as an albatross around the neck of the angels of progress.

Even so, the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men and they will no doubt organize this mass of humanity appropriately, such that it may not look hopeful in one part of the globe but appear quite cheery in another. And this is multiplied 6 billion fold and more as circumstances change for you and each of you on a daily basis. Everything is on the move. Everything is on the mend. Everything is rising to the occasion – everything that matters. I can’t tell you enough how humbling it is to behold the agondonters of Urantia persisting in their faith against the sometimes almost overwhelmingly negative forces of your semi-civilized world. Never hesitate to come to your spirit mentors and beyond, to Father God and Mother Spirit themselves, to burrow into their breast, to be held close and comforted, in order to regain your strength, renew your resolve, and return to the field as one committed to doing the Fathers will, to singing your song, to fulfilling your destiny as it is given to you, as it unfolds.

Closing

Beloved children, it is as always a pleasure to be with you, to have this occasion to philosophize and feel your embrace. Let us be about the Father’s business. Amen and Farewell.

JACK: [Salutations and sign off] Later!