2003-01-12. Gentle Jesus, Friend of Friends
Rio Rancho #44
Topic: Gentle Jesus, Friend of Friends
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Tomas, Anatolia
TR: Gerdean, Matthew
Opening
Jesus
Music: Pianist: Elena. Selection: Medley (which includes “What A Friend We Have in Jesus,” “Jesus Loves Me” and more) called “Jesus, My Friend”
Prayer: (Matthew) Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ. Master Teacher, we come to you with light and childlike hearts. We lift them up to you as would a child saying, “Have you seen my pet frog?” We give you our trust, our faith, and our belief that you are the Creator Son that we know you to be. We give rejoicing and gladness that we are part of your program, the redemption of the world and ourselves, as a species, to be brought to the Father in living and loving glory with you and all of the saints that have ever been or ever will be.
This is a noble destiny. And one in which we continue to need your help, strength and support in that upward path that is endless. And for all that you have done for us and continue to be and that we may be the sign that is necessary at any given time, whether it be only one individual who asks the way and we can say unashamedly, and without reservations, “well, that’s the way home.”
For this and the gratitude that we share with all in the room, and those that are not here, and all that are part of this movement of moving the world to a transition to peace, we are forever grateful, and we wish the teachings that you designate from the teachers that are so designated. Amen.
TOMAS: I am Tomas. Good afternoon, loyal students of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
This afternoon the point of focus will be our gentle Jesus. I have no reason not to focus on our Lord as an initial teaching for a new season, for there is no time like the present to acknowledge the companionability of our Master Son, Michael of Nebadon, who reduces himself to personalize as our Great Friend, personalizing yourself with him, as his great friend, as well.
“What A Friend We Have in Jesus.”
What a ‘friend’ means to you is personal to each of you, but each of you respond to the tone of friendship, that feel of quality, that acceptance of another, that trust which fills the void of concern as to the value of your brother, for you know his ‘source.’ What a power this that can wash away all the barriers between you, a living water to quench the dry thirst of isolation. All of humanity longs for the solace of that companion who knows him through and through, who sees the end from the beginning, and who loves.
Having gentle walks in the garden, alone with Jesus, is a way of renewing the soul’s strength, of phrasing, for your mind, molding it so that you feel the embrace of the Divine that reinforces your reality and commends you to them On High who enfold you.
Christ consciousness is ours because he is so close to us, so intimate with us. We have been in his presence. We have, as well, been in one another’s presence. When I reach out to you, when my personality extends itself into the ethers of the environment in search of your personality, we meet as brethren and we greet with a holy kiss. In this we have extended the Kingdom. We have enlarged the Supreme. We have made actual that which was potential. We have advanced evolution. We have revealed the Source, the order, the peace, the communion that allows all of life to exist in grace.
Christ consciousness is yours. You can see and feel and sense the same beauty, affection and joy as he does and as he does in the spirit. This gentle Jesus is in you, each, is able to reach kindly into the heart of your neighbor, is able to draw him out in trust of your embrace, your peace, your fragrance.
What a joy it is to meet on these occasions with those of you who love the Lord and who bask in his presence, in his glory, in his peace. The invitation and the challenge is to extend this living love beyond the confines of this social sanctuary into the mainstream of humanity, there to find those who languish without. When you see them you will know them as I know you. Yes, I am finished.
Dialogue
Elena: Is anybody else there, Tomas?
TOMAS: Oh, of course! The full orchestra is present! I will not abandon you. I am your host.
Matthew: Anatolia is here.
Faith
ANATOLIA: Peace be with you, my friends, and welcome again to another afternoon of conveyance of thoughtful and thought-filled ideas that are good for the spirit and good for the soul who inhabit your beings of life in this present form that you take. You are to be commended and given high reward for being the beings that you are of faith, in principle, word and deed.
This is not an easy task that you endeavor, one in which many before you have had difficulty and many after you may find less difficult because in the eons, or ages, past, the Faith Path had been one of greater confusion and less certainty than the one you share currently — meaning that, in ones belief in a Rock or a Movement or a Statue of sorts, as being a host of Gods with personalities and quirks and idiosyncrasies that could hold your very being in the balance was a precarious position to place ones life and beliefs in and upon.
As man and woman became more progressive, more adventuresome and more desirous of a ‘real’ experience, the God you know and love and revere made himself known in relationship with the forefathers of the monotheistic race but eventually to be made known to each and every one in a personal and profound way.
This is true progress and advancement in the form of faith and living a life without actually ‘knowing,’ without actually ‘seeing,’ but a life that is full of belief, and often ‘knowing,’ that there is, in fact, more than meets the eye. For the world, even in its most common everyday occurrences, offers evidence of the higher priorities and higher order of life, if one takes the time and has the desire to see the evidence for what it is. Otherwise, you are living and knowing and believing without seeing — which is admirable to many of us who have not had that same requirement, for we have been blessed to live in a life-form, or society, that was further advanced, more spiritual in nature and had a more direct relationship with our Father/Creator than you have, by mere evidence.
So we are wanting to reinforce who and what you are as a body of believers that are both individually and collectively held in high esteem. We encourage you to continue on your inner journey, your inner knowing and your developmental relationship with Jesus, both as the Wayshower and the Truth Provider in your realm, as well as the Heavenly Father and the Trinity itself. For this relationship with the Trinity is as certain as is the relationship that a plant has with the sun. It is impossible to live and grow and have its being without having that in the presence of the sun — that is, a plant in most circumstances — meaning that it is not without water and is otherwise provided for in its natural environment, or that is provided for otherwise.
There may be more reasons to question or wonder what it is and why it is you find yourself on this planet that, for the most part, defies logic and often defeats the purposes that one aspires to. In other words, for those of you who are faith-filled and convinced that this life is only a mere representation of the actual life that you currently share, the world that you see around you often defies this, on the other hand, not by the natural environment that exists, but rather by the behavior that exists which defies faith, belief and certainly, loving practice. But these discouraging ingredients I encourage you to place in faith, too, that they will be transformed.
The worst of human behavior, the most destructive of man’s ambitions, can and will be transformed in the long and over-all road to perfection. It doesn’t mean you have to excuse abominable behavior but rather forgive it, for this is what your Master Teacher has provided as the avenue for your transformation to the higher realms. So, no one can find completion and happiness, ultimately, until all that have been constituted within the Body of Christ have opportunity for that same completion and fruition.
It is a game plan that includes each player as well as the team. It is all-inclusive and you’re encouraged to keep that perspective. I wish I could lend you my ears and my eyes to see what I see and hear what I hear. But more importantly, you have what I have, in terms of the heart, that tells you what is right and what rings true and where you have your true allegiance and affection. For this is where your Truth will be found – in the heart and not necessarily the mind, for the mind can still deceive for what the ego may direct in your current experience.
Let not these factors deter you from knowing what Truth really is and the way to recognize it — primarily within the Heart. These I leave you as kernels of growth for your on-going success and your encouragement to be the faith-filled students that you are. For this is what will make the difference, whether here, now, or in the long un-designated future of your love-devotion program.
Be at peace with yourselves and with one another and follow that practice that Jesus prevailed to demonstrate to others, that to forgive is to be forgiven and to be is to be the example of what is yet possible. Peace be with you and may your week be productive and full of on-going faith.
TOMAS: Tomas, once again. Anatolia spoke to you and made mention of your courage and valor in the duties of Sonship and civilizing the beast. I too, in Christ consciousness, acknowledge the forbearance and graciousness of my companion and teacher, Anatolia, who enhances my existence and augments my work, which is to the further glory of the Creator and those in Paradise who smile upon us all. Gather ’round little flock. Tell me! Share with us! Give of yourself that which is in your heart or your mind this afternoon.
Matthew: Time for questions?
TOMAS: Have I been using a foreign language today? I seemed to have lost you twice already.
Elena: I was with you that time – got lost the last time – but I seem to always be the first one with questions and so I was waiting to see if someone else wanted to say something. I didn’t want to be a hog.
TOMAS: How are your fish and mice?
Elena: I think the mice are gone; I really hope they decided to go someplace else. Herby (the blue Beta fish) is just great. We got him a new home and we have an oxygenator and a water filter and he is just wonderful. It was a little shock for him at first but I guess that’s like dealing with changes in our world and then adjusting to it and making the best of it. So, Herby is doing really well and I’ll tell him you asked about him.
TOMAS: How do you know he is doing very well?
Elena: Well, he comes up to greet me. He is more active. He acts against the water that flows. He flows with it, he dances around it, he has more movement. He’s eating. And all these are good signs.
TOMAS: So he has some exercise and some amusement?
Elena: Yeah. Of course, there’s always me to talk to – that’s amusing. (group chuckles) So since they don’t seem to get along with other fish, probably his best shot at entertainment is me. I think he’s doing a lot better. What do you think?
TOMAS: It would be curious to see how Herby responded to having a Beta fish in an adjacent jar.
Elena: Or I could put in a separator but that wouldn’t give them much room. The separate container might be a good idea.
TOMAS: If he is amused, he is amused. But sometimes those who cannot get along in the same environment manage to adapt to another’s presence if it is self-contained in its own jar, so to speak, if amusement is all that is necessary to keep Herby happy. But exercise and attention is needed by all life. Something to strive against and something to fuel itself upon makes for sturdy stock.
Elena: I think he has most of those things going for him right now – so I really think he’s doing better. What I wanted to ask was, in trying to improve our world, sometimes it seems that there’s so much to do in taking care of one’s own things and concerns that — trying to deal with the whole world — it just gets daunting! So I’m trying to focus out the other stuff, and focus on what I can do, and have the faith that I’m going in the right direction.
TOMAS: And what constitutes the impulse behind the choice you make as to what to focus on to do?
Elena: Those things that I have some power to change or where I can make some positive impact. As well as things I think are worthwhile and things that seem to strive for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness.
TOMAS: You are reflecting perfection hunger in your environment?
Elena: I’m reflecting perfection? I guess it’s more of what I can hopefully do to make a difference. Perfection would be good but I’m very happy the way things are in my life. But when you go outside the home it’s easy to see where improvements need to be made either in the work environment or to improve people’s awareness, to reduce fear in their life, to increase love in their life. The fear is the one I probably see most often.
TOMAS: Fear has the hold. But your nature tends toward the humane – the compassionate. Your ministry appears to befriend and be supportive of that which is already representative of Truth, Beauty and Goodness. In this way you find companionability and you contribute.
You need to know that your existence has meaning. You are not merely an impulse seeking to have its needs met. You have a reflection back into your society that is of a giving nature that reflects the Father. This is part of your value. The fact that fear is so oppressive and over-powering sometimes in the mass-consciousness, is what we are attempting to rehabilitate, reclaim. For that we continue to strive, even when the clouds form overhead and the days are gray, when the fear overcomes even yourself for a moment in time.
But the truth is: some Truths are not felt except in adversity. And so when you have adversity, understand that you are beholding a Truth that will enable you, by your experience and your revelation of Light and Life, to extend Divine Light into the darkness, to expel the fear, to diminish the clouds that hide the sun. Thus, when you suffer, you provide rebirth. Your experience is not for naught. We work, even while we relish what we do, for you would grow soft with a life of ease.
Elena: That’s encouraging, Tomas. I appreciate that very much.
Service
Paula: I have a question for the two brilliant minds here. It’s always been my opinion that everybody is born with some particular talent that they can share with the rest of the world. They might not know what it’s going to be until they grow up, perhaps. But unfortunately I don’t have any particular God-given talent. I don’t play the piano like Paderewski, or like Dorenda (Elena). My father was an artist and I can’t even draw a straight line. But I found my niche in something else that has satisfied me but I don’t think you could call it any kind of a ‘talent.’
I think I’m what my younger daughter calls a “people person.” People are interesting to me. And the people I’ve run across all these years, like my patients, for many years, who I would talk to, to help relieve their minds — and I’ve made some friends among some most interesting people. So I guess you don’t have to be born with any particular talents in order to enjoy life.
TOMAS: You have a movie about Forrest Gump who says, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’- they aren’t all the same inside. Much like talents are multi-faceted. There is, certainly, the parable about the Talents and the point that if you are given talents and don’t use them, you have been slothful. You are thus encouraged to use what you have, to be the best that you can be with what you’ve got to work with.
The world has no need for too many Pavarottis or Neil Armstrongs. But every individual can be given certain basic talents such as Kindness and Goodness. If you are given Kindness and Goodness, as a Talent – as part of your basic stock of Talents – and you never use them, you have been as slothful as those who are given the gifts that are visibly acknowledged. Artisans, physicians, musicians, surgeons, physicists, mechanics, apple pie-bakers, cat-strokers, cherry pickers. There are many, many kinds of expressions of personality that, when offered in Goodness, Truth and Beauty, are those talents which are extensions of Paradise.
Everyone can’t paint like Mattisse, but who would want to? This is a part of the marvelous tapestry of life. What you are is uniquely you, and what another is, is uniquely him or her.
The amazing thing remains, that when you acknowledge your friend, the friend you haven’t met yet, as a child of God, and see his or her Source before you see its manifestations, you will love those manifestations as an extension of the heart of the individual who has now become your friend.
These are the talents that are enduring, meaningful and lasting, for they are the stuff of soul-building; not merely embellishments upon the material life, but integral aspects of the Eternal Life. You have that in you, Paula, . .. you who chose to water the plant when everyone announced they were thirsty. Thus you extend Father’s love into all of His creation. This is service, this is ministry, this is spreading the Gospel.
Paula: Thank you.
TOMAS: There is problem there? Does anyone have a problem they would like to discuss? If not, we are in serious trouble.
Matthew: We’re in denial?
TOMAS: Either that or effervescence of a sort which will lead you down the primrose path to nowhere.
Thoroah: We’re feeling too good?
TOMAS: You are taking “a respite from reality.”
Elena: That’s a curious thought – a ‘respite from reality.’ I go back and forth between not reading or watching the news and not, and I guess some would perceive that as taking a ‘respite from reality’ too. But it just seems so abysmal even though there are choices from different sources of news but so much of the ‘news’ is really so negative that to proceed with your own goals and ignoring ‘reality’ is sometimes the better thing to do.
TOMAS: There is a fine line, it would seem, between your reality and the reality of your world. But there is no escaping the oneness of all, including relative imperfection. This is the study of divinity. Where God IS and where God is NOT cannot be perceived perniciously
[Ed. Note: destructively, harmfully, irreparable. It would seem Tomas is addressing the relative perfection of deity, not the relative imperfection.]
When you factor in the perspective of the Most Highs, you’ll have a better perspective of what’s going on in the evolution of the human race on Urantia.
You can’t have forgotten already, can you have, that you are avant garde? that you are a religious leader? a spiritual light? How can you embrace that which was? You have stepped out of that which was into that which is. You have stepped out of darkness into Light. But there is a reason for such darkness. It’s not your reason, child. You are affected by it but not really impacted by it. “My Kingdom is not of this world,” should speak to you. Certainly we are interested in the Global picture, the political situation.
Of course we are involved with it individually and in battalions (spiritual battalions, that is), but you are wise to do what you do and that is to pursue what you know you have some authority over, for you forge the Greater Reality in your work in the field. Even as humble and personal as it may be, it is augmenting that which is Eternal and thus counter-balancing that which is temporary. And ‘save the nation’ is temporary.
Think long term, not just today. Think of today in terms of how it appears with a backdrop of Eternity. History is not repeating itself, it is advancing. As long as you help advance it by your faith and your hope and our striving against the current of fear, which will always backslide until such time as we have advanced adequately to overpower the pull for destruction by the lure of creation. Can I help you keep alive your hope? Can I befriend you in your efforts?
Practice Truth, Beauty, and Goodness and your lives, as you pass by, and you will be doing great things toward peace, eternal peace — albeit local skirmishes will continue for a time into the future until such barbarism is consumed by its own fury. Anatolia, have you any other comments in that context?
Attitude
ANATOLIA: I can only tell you that the world in which you operate and function, has, like the earlier analogy, a lot to do with your perspective. The analogy I speak of is as Tomas had begun, with the question, “How is Herby doing?” This could be the title of our group publication, “So, How’s Herby?” (some group chuckles) because it illustrates the point that he, as you perceived, had a poor attitude, perspective, and consequently his behavior was apparently stilted, as his environment became the same mundane, and if not, polluted with the atmosphere of sameness and lack of hope, or anything to look forward to.
This partly speaks to your question. As your environment changes it improves one’s attitude and approach, as well as willingness to engage in that environment. I realize that this has, to some degree, in a third dimensional structure, a limitation because not all can overcome their physical environment, and in such case renew or reinvigorate their attitude as a result of improved circumstances.
However, this is one reason why the ‘beta,’ in particular, and Herby as the local star, is our case in point. Because of their ability to survive under limited circumstances, they can continue to function. But one can only function WELL in attitude, approach and behavior in an atmosphere that, in fact, permits that. One can not exactly flutter if there is NOT room to flutter, or fly, or swim, or enhance one’s conditions.
What I’m getting to is that your placement in this world is much like a fish in water. You are affected by it. You are immersed in it. But what you do with it to change the circumstances, is self-creative and self induced. There are those who were, and continue to be, under the worst of circumstances, the most dire of physical, worldly circumstances, that had an attitude that would have, and could have, moved mountains. Concentration camp victims and those who are under similar limitations, by their attitude and their perspective, have overridden and become pure beings of Light and Hope.
This is, by choice and attitude, something that can, in fact, affect the reality that you know around you. For if some of the world’s actors had, or (would) adopt, an attitude of hope, perspective and kindness toward each other and the rest of humanity, this is a case where an overnight change of attitude and perspective would be most noticeable. However, it is not to say that each of you, as air breathers, who have the same purpose, share the same fate and enjoy the same destiny, are less able to affect your world in a positive sense. That is, attitude is everything.
Even though you may not meet Mr. Bush and Saddam Hussein, to scold or admonish or advise them as you would see fit, your attitude, in a prayerful, mindful and purposeful way can, in fact, change the aquarium in which you reside. This is my approach that I hope bears fruit for your consideration. Is there a question? Amen.
Closing
TOMAS: Well, I see by the clock on the wall that our class session has expired. (group chuckles) Have you any urgent issues before we go?
Elena: I just want to say thank you.
TOMAS: It is indeed our pleasure to be your companions, teachers and overseers. Join with us anytime and earmark us as associates in the work at hand. What we can do we will do. What we can’t, we will help you learn how to – or together we will find ways to prevail in the face of what cannot be our destiny.
We wish you well in the upcoming week and take heed those words which we were given by the Wayshower which enable us to be the friend of humanity and the Great Friend . .. in harmony. See you next week.
