2003-12-07. The Nature of God
Rio Rancho #76
Topic: The Nature of God
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Tomas, Anatolia
TR: Gerdean, Matthew
Opening
MUSIC: Elena on Piano: “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” (Bach)
PRAYER: Willie: Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ.
Master Teacher, We come to you today with open hearts and minds, to hear the message once again, and it can be proclaimed, wherever and whenever, like the song, “Go Tell it On the Mountain,” anytime is good news, and as if it were heard for the first time.
As Advent progresses, as we had heard today, to prepare the way for the coming of the King, we do so again this time in remembrance of the formality of that program, but in reality everyday, as we hope and expect to meet you in person as we prepare the way for you with us every day of our lives.
And for everyone who is here and those who are not here for the concerns that they may have that they carry in their heart, we place before you on your altar, before you and the Father, for blessing and affectivity.
And otherwise, for the Teachers who are here today we are grateful and wish to thank them, with you and through you, for they are truly wonderful in giving of themselves, as is the whole Teaching Mission and all of Christ-centered spirituality. For this and all else we are forever grateful. Amen.
TOMAS: Dear associates, I am Tomas, glad to be with you and to engage again with you in our customary aspiration to reach for and recognize those aspects of the divine nature which are ours by divine inheritance, and to assimilate those into the personality such that God may be revealed through you, as you go about your day.
Lesson
What indeed, is the nature of God? One of the aspects of God is his ability to share himself so freely with others. He gives his creations work that will fulfil his needs and their greatest satisfactions. And so he bestows himself without reservation.
What a comprehensive lesson to learn, for those who have been prejudiced to believe that once acquired, wisdom and all that follows must be retained, subdued, categorized and secured against the thief in the night who might break in and steal what was so hard-fought.
What does God retain? Only the innermost secrets of divinity. All else, throughout the majestic realms of space, the work is undertaken by those who willingly serve in response to the distribution of wealth and power that comes from those secret places of God known only to the Mystery Monitor Itself. And thus, the love of God is distributed without regard.
Will you distribute those same seeds yourself? Will you manifest such generosity of spirit as was evidenced in Jesus’ life with his complete acceptance of those who would serve, withholding his approval only from those who would abuse the divine nature, and reflect that abuse in their subsequent treatment to their fellows. Love freely. Mingle openly among the many mortals who meander around in search of more accessible truth, beauty, and goodness.
What a delight to have you with us today, Adrienne. It indeed alters our energy composition and the augmentation of your personality fragrance is readily assimilated in the company we form this afternoon. Your personal guide, as well, is vitally in attendance. We enjoyed your discussions earlier about the appreciation for those other entities of spirit reality that accompany you and companion you in your daily path – those more devoted to your personal daily contribution to life and its to you.
We have developed a pattern, a broadcasting approach, which works well with the small configuration as well as the larger audience of those who read the transcripts of these sessions and they will be then sent into the ethers of Urantia, helping the perceptions that we reveal in our gathering to spread far and wide, and thus the God that we bring to this gathering, that we are a part of and that we offer to serve, will be reflected in each of us and in our dynamic, such that when it goes out from here, it will go out in your personally, and in the lives of those many who have been brought to this table of the Father by their own hunger to know more and to distribute the good that can be garnered from our mutual devotion to doing the divine will and bringing His presence consciously into the fabric of Urantian life.
We offer to aid revelation and we are a part of the evolution of religion. In future years there will be many more such gatherings of friends of a like-mindedness such that they and you will have confidence in the effects of such a cause as communing with the invisible companions that inhabit the universe and who are purposely in attendance with you for specific ambassadorial assignments and so everyone begins to feel they have a reason for being, a task to perform, a purpose to fulfill, a service to provide. And thus the work is extended further and further into the realm and the divine nature of God, again, is enlivened and actualized in and through your efforts.
What a marvelous opportunity we have to portray the highest conception we have of that nature of God — which is meaningful, which means something to us. Thus, it would behoove us to have the most intimate and personal understanding of God as can be had, rather than having the mental or intellectual appreciation of what God is, for that is a matter that is fully within the mind and imagination of each mortal individual’s way of thinking and believing. But the intimate presence of the divine is something that transcends thought, that stands outside of belief, that prevails in faith, and is known by all – as germane, to truth, beauty, and goodness.
This is my contribution for the afternoon in our formal portion. I call upon my associate to balance our lectern and then we will reconvene for your questions and comments.
ANATOLIA: Welcome, all, to the Land of Enchantment, the hearth of brotherly love that has been engendered here after much conflict and struggle. The brotherly love may not be active and everyone a participant, nevertheless, with the peaceful acquiescence to the interwoven cultures, this is a land of enchantment.
All are welcome and encouraged to continue to learn some of the precepts and principles that prevail here within this land of never-ending mystery and charm.
I usually make a reference to the physical environs here in this place that you call home, primarily because of its sometimes blank, austere and nevertheless awesome surroundings, which reminds me of the pervasiveness of the mystery that surrounds physical life and its beauty. There are other places where it may be as or more dramatically impressed, such as the Serengeti in Africa, or other places where predator and prey play the dramatic role.
This need not be the focus of our discussion today, in terms of a predatory principle active here in your world, but to let you know that this is part of the evolutionary principle and cycle, for where you find yourselves in this land of mystery and beauty that can be stark and rob a person of life as you know it, to be exposed to the elements without protection, or to be provided the necessary life-carrying elements such as water, or clothing, or the like, you begin to appreciate that just the land and its environment itself is a life and death reminder, surrounded by beauty that is part of that threat to life, limb and happiness.
Nevertheless, cultures have survived. Not always well, but survived. And new cultures have been brought into play to demonstrate the on-going nature of the physical environment and the actors who interact within those locales. My point is that whatever you do, think, or act upon, has its spiritual counterpart to prevail at that same time. So that, as the act of baptism, for example, takes place (as you can appreciate), it is not simply the washing away of sins in a literal sense, it is the elimination of the physical presence as a predominant focus or limitation to life in its essential form.
For the physical can prevent one from recognizing the higher truth behind what is being portrayed. It is not simply predator after food. It is the proliferation of the life force, long sacrificing itself to the higher food chain predator for its proliferation, all in a cycle of life that continues to breathe and breed itself into being from spirit to physical to spirit and back. A constant interwoven chain of life force and life energy.
This is a way of looking at the reality of what you live on a daily basis, and one I wish to reinforce for you and with you today that is a reminder for me of what I see when I look at your life forces and the energies which surround you in this austere Land of Enchantment.
I wish to give you encouragement for where there may be discouragement currently playing out. Discouragement is, for a moment, a shadow of its true self. The encouraging knowing of who one is, has an occasional necessity to relax and not have to stand and carry all of the weight, but rather to relax and to sit in the shadow of its former self, where it no longer fills that space and casts its shadow as it relaxes, to regain its self-image and its strength to stand once again – strong, and able to carry itself and all others who may need assistance.
So for those of you who are weary, and tired, and need to sit and relax and gain strength again of your former self, do so. Not with discouragement, but with encouragement, knowing you are unchanged from who or what you represent and are, in fact, that strength … only relaxing for a moment, untaut and unnecessarily “strung out” and can relax to regain that which was formerly formidable. So relax and let your cares go with the stroking of your forehead, to let every tense muscle and part of yourselves be relaxed, and release that which may be caught up in some place within your being. Relax it, release it, and let it go, and do not hold on to that which may be stressful and unnecessary.
I wish each and all of you peace, strength and happiness in this time of preparation for the kingly visit, for that kingly visit is surely an everyday event. Where the Kingdom within is, there is all that is. So in preparation for the visit of the King, and that true birth which changed life in your world forever, I leave you in hopeful good news that all is well and everything has an opportunity to rebound and regain its strength in the cycle of nature as it gives and takes.
Peace be with you and may all be well.
Group: Thank you, Anatolia.
TOMAS: In the spirit then of relaxation, this being our Happy Hour, let us revel in the intoxication of one another’s company. What joy do you bring to our gathering, or what trouble prevails? Do you have questions?
Dialogue
Elena: I don’t know about anybody else, but I feel that Anatolia’s words were directed directly to me and I am very grateful for them. Thank you! That kind of took care of my questions, Tomas.
TOMAS: Yes, you have celestial permission to relax and regain perspective and strength. This is the Sabbath and the Eternal Now. What else?
Janet: Well, don’t you think it’s wonderful that it’s almost Christmas?
TOMAS: I have no opinion regarding that mortal holiday.
Elena: That’s too bad.
TOMAS: Not to infer disdain, I have in the past made many positive references to the holiday and its value for you, including comparing Santa Clause to God himself, but I have subsequently lost enthusiasm for repeating those same lessons annually as you seem prone to want to experience. This needs to be because of your being so tied into the time-space paradigm. For you it is a cultural reality, whereas for us it is not. And in my opinion, it happens much more quickly than to your mind and, frankly, I find most mortal holidays to be a tremendous distraction from reality rather than a contribution to the reality that we would support and encourage.
So much of mortal life is merely pomp and circumstance, ritual, and paradigms of a reality, which seems designed to keep you occupied with as little of substance as possible, in order to control your behaviors. This is not liberating, but it is understood why the pattern is in place. Yet, to sit around and encourage these patterns is not in keeping with our purpose in being here with you. If that makes me a “Scrooge,” that’s the chance I take.
Janet: Well, I just love it. I have more fun at this time of the year than I do the whole yearlong.
TOMAS: This is not to be discounted, since your good cheer is certainly contagious and you, as one of Santa’s elves, are able to contribute to the joy of the season.
Janet: I think its fun to pick out presents for the family and try to figure out what they all want to have, and get together at each other’s houses. I think it’s great.
Elena: Sometimes it does have the effect of where the effort goes and it loses its mark, you know, and think most people are really glad when the season is over.
Janet: To take the tree back down again.
Elena: Yeah, I think Tomas’ point – I can see what he’s trying to say, but, like you, I think it’s a wonderful time of the year.
TOMAS: Is there anything else?
Janet: Isn’t anybody else happy and excited? Am I the only one?
Elena: You’re the only one, Janet.
Carl: You’re not the only one.
TOMAS: Indeed, happiness is reflected differently from different perspectives. There are some who carry their joy deep within them and theirs is not so demonstrable as others. This is not to say that your effervescent joy is not also a deep joy. And yet there are many factors that are a part of the human composition that may not reveal their joy in the same way as you do.
How God reveals his joy is in giving you the opportunity to become real, like the Velveteen Rabbit story, wherein the stuffed animal feels the craving to become live. He wants to know how to become “real” and the rocking horse counsels him, he must be loved, even to the point of having his whiskers rubbed off from hugs and kisses and handling.
When a stuffed animal has been handled, manhandled, mauled, pulled around by the hair or by the foot, left out in the rain and thrown in a corner in a heap, their joy is not as evident as that toy which has been preserved on a shelf and wound up for special occasions. But the promise remains within the heart of that stuffed animal, that when it is met with love, it will be made more than it is, and this is the joy that can be equated to the joy found in the EveryReady Rabbit. It keeps on giving, and giving, and giving delight in its being.
This tale has been brought to you by (Group laughter) my associate, Merium, who enjoys such antics and can think of nothing more pleasurable than playing on the floor with her children but I’ve been trained culturally differently, and so my manner is – perhaps Mr. McGregor is the point of reference I need. I will ask Gerdean to read it, and that way I will know for sure.
When I talk about stuffed animals, I am not necessarily thinking of you here, but there are days when you do resemble stuffed animals, today being rather one of them. But look how happy you are, even though you have been – as you say, “Pulled through a knothole and dragged by the foot.”
It gives me pleasure to hear your laughter and to more to the point perceive that essence within you, that quiet joy which supersedes the temporary setbacks of the season or the day, that which sustains you constantly and which reveals to you that part of yourself which is still in process of becoming. However, with that promise of that gift of being perfect within yourself, in your realm of being, as God Himself is perfect in His realm of being, is the Christmas gift we all want from Santa on Christmas morning.
Let every day be Christmas, then. Wake every morning with the delight of a child, knowing that within your very being you carry the priceless gift of God within you, the presence of your own reality, the spark of the Divine that lifts you above the mere stuffed animal and elevates you into that child of God which is eternal. Now, Tinkerbell has had her say.
Closing
It is an amusing gathering. I hope you have all had as much fun as I have. It would seem however that there is a certain amount of self-consciousness and reluctance to investigate the potential of the paradigm we share, and so we will advance you into the social portion of your gathering so that we might enjoy your festivities and your reflections on what we have shared, how we have engaged ourselves in childlike glee of our own sonship and the gift we are and the gifts we share with others. Peace be upon you. Farewell.
