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Spiritual Growth
Spiritual growth
Is mutually stimulated
By
intimate intellectual association
With other religionists.
Love supplies the soil
For
religious growth -
An objective lure
In the place
Of subjective gratification.
Yet intellectual love
Yields the supreme
Subjective satisfaction.
And religion
Ennobles the commonplace
drudgery
Of daily living.
Spiritual Growth Through Evolution
Evolution
Is the way progress happens
In
the finite First Universe Age.
Evolution is divinely ordained,
Divinely
controlled and divinely sustained.
Evolution happens
Through the efforts
of evolutionary beings -
The sons of God, mortals, midwayers, angels,
Melchizedechs, Lanonadek and Vorondadek Sons,
Paradise
Sons, Divine Ministers, the Spirit of Truth,
The Holy Spirit, the Master Spirits,
(Assisted by Father fragments like
the Thought Adjusters)
And many other divine entities.
Meanwhile,
Direct and overt divine
intervention
Is extremely rare.
Miracles seldom happen.
Direct verbal communication
With divine or spirit entities
is truly exceptional.
Evolution is constant.
It is slow
but extremely effective.
The first principle of evolution
Is
that it is spontaneous.
It happens by the free-will acts
Of all involved.
Gods do not force their will on anyone.
Striving for Supremacy
Individual and collective evolution
Consists
of great effort, striving, and struggle.
While evolution is not easy,
It
is the supreme satisfaction
And joy of accomplishment.
The religion of Jesus acknowledges
The difficulties
And accepts them
with joy.
The new religion of Jesus endeavors
to discover
And do the Father’s will.
It herocially faces the challenges,
The rugged realities, and idealistic
adventure
Required for spiritual progress.
Miracles
Religion is never enhanced
By appeals
to the so-called miraculous.
The quest for miracles is a return
To
the primitive religions of magic.
True religion has nothing to
do
With alleged miracles.
Revealed religion does not point
to miracles
As proof of authority.
Spiritual growth
Through the true religion of Jesus
Is
grounded in personal experience.
Traditional Religions
Tradition is a safe refuge
And
an easy path
For fearful and half-hearted souls
Who instinctively
Shun the spirit struggles
And mental
uncertainties
Associated with the faith voyages
Of daring adventure on the seas
Of unexplored truth.
Only
the religiously bold
Search for the farther shores
Of spiritual realities
That may be discovered
By the
progressive human mind
And experienced
By the evolving human soul.
Showing Spirit
The sons of God
Should not merely
proclaim
The
joys of heaven.
Sons of God should
Exhibit in their
daily experience
The spirit realities of the divine life
Since they already have eternal life -
The gift of God,
through faith.
Spiritual Attractiveness
The measure that truth seekers
Are
drawn to a son of god
Represents the measure
Of that son's truth endowment
And righteousness.
The extent that a son of god
Must
go with the message
To people is, in a way,
A reflection of the son's failure
To live the whole or righteous
life,
The truth-coordinated life.
Jesus' Life
Jesus’ unique teachings
Can
only be understood
When viewed within the background
Of how he lived his life.
It is Jesus' life,
Not merely his lessons to the apostles
Or
his sermons to the multitudes,
That will assist most
In revealing the divine character
And loving personality
Of
the Universal Father
Whom Jesus came to reveal.
The Quality of Religions
Most religions
Are
based on fear, emotion,
Tradition, and philosophy.
Such religions are intellectual religions.
Only those religions
Based on true
spirit experience
Are
true religions.
The object of religious devotion
May
be material or spiritual,
True or false,
Real or unreal,
Human or divine.
Religions can therefore
Be
either good or evil.
Changes
Jesus’ new religion
is the living hope
Of the traditional religions.
Those who embrace the religion of
Jesus
Need not espouse
Any of the doctrines and dogmas
Of the evolutionary or partially revelatory
Old religions.
The new religion of Jesus
Must
not be amalgamated
With any of the old doctrines.
Conversely, the institutionalized
Traditional
religions must undergo
Profound transformations.
Believers in fossilized doctrines
Will
increasingly realize
That they must radically modify, revise,
And change their dogmas, doctrines, creeds,
And ceremonials.
Teachers of Jesus' Religion
The teachers
Of the religion of
Jesus
Should recognize the truths
Held in common with other religions
While refraining
From emphasizing differences.
While true religion
Is a matter
of personal experience,
It is important to be exposed
To the knowledge of a vast number
Of other religious experiences
To
prevent circumscribed, selfish,
And unsocial religious behaviour.
Coexistence of Religions
If all religions
Recognize
the spiritual sovereignty
Of God the Father,
Then all religions will remain at
peace.
Religious war ensues
When one religion assumes
Superiority
and authority
Over others religions
And presumes intolerance
Of other religions or dares to persecute
Other religious believers.
Religious Rigidity
Religion is the most unyielding
Of
all human institutions.
Only grudgingly does it adjust
To a changing society.
Eventually, evolutionary religion
Does reflect the changing mores.
Slowly,
religion (worship) follows
In the wake of wisdom -
Knowledge directed by experiential reason
And
illuminated by divine revelation.
Religious Progress
Prophets have usually led the people
In
religious development.
Theologians have usually held them back.
When theology controls religion,
Religion
dies.
It becomes a doctrine
Instead
of a life.
Religion, being a matter of inner
Or
personal experience,
Can
never develop very far in advance
Of the intellectual evolution of the races.
Religious Guidance
Jesus gave his followers
Very little
instruction
Regarding the socialization of religion.
As each individual enters
Upon
religious questions
Regarding the socialization of religion
Or the co-ordination
Of divergent human interpretations
Of religious
issues,
Each human must solve
All such problems
By their own
decisions.
Prayer
Rote prayer is the technique
Whereby
every religion
Becomes institutionalized.
In time, prayer becomes associated
With
numerous secondary agencies,
Some helpful, others deleterious
Such as priests, holy books, worship rituals,
And ceremonials.
Peter's Church
Under the vigorous leadership of Peter
The
apostles began the subtle process
Of gradually and certainly
Changing the religion of Jesus
Into a new and modified form
Of religion
about Jesus.
Jesus' religion of the spirit
Means
effort, struggle, conflict, faith,
Determination, love, loyalty, and progress.
The religions of the theology of authority
Such
as Peter's
Require little or none of these exertions
From
its believers.
Firsthand Religion
The world
Needs more firsthand
religion.
Most religions,
Like Christianity,
Are
largely religions
That men experience secondhand.
Christians take their religion
Wholly
as handed down
By their accepted religious teachers.
The world would experience
A real
awakening
If
it could see Jesus
As he really lived on earth
And know, firsthand,
His lifegiving teachings.
Peace
Religious peace
Meaning, Brotherhood,
Can never exist
Unless all
religions
Are willing to completely divest themselves
Of all ecclesiastical authority.
Religious Health and Freedom
Sectarianism is a disease
Of institutional
religion.
Dogmatism is an enslavement
Of
the spiritual nature.
It is far better to have a religion
Without
a church
Than a church without religion.
Religious Equality
Organized religions
Can never hope
To
attain a uniformity
Of creeds, dogmas, and rituals.
These are intellectual.
But organized religions
Can, and
some day will,
Realize a unity
In true worship of the Father of all
For this is spiritual.
In the spirit
All men are equal.
Reconstruction
Institutional religion cannot provide
The
inspiration and leadership
Required for the impending world-wide
Social reconstruction and economic reorganization
Because
it has become an organic part
Of the social order and the economic system
Destined to undergo reconstruction.
Only the real religion
Of personal
spiritual experience
Can function helpfully and creatively
In the present crisis of civilization.
Religion as a Crutch
There are types of unstable
And
poorly disciplined souls
Who would use the sentimental ideas of religion
As an avenue of escape
From the irritating
demands of living.
When vacillating and timid mortals
Attempt
to escape from the incessant pressure
Of evolutionary life,
Religion, as they conceive it,
Seems to present the nearest
refuge,
The best avenue of escape.
"Mysticism" is often a retreat from
life
Embraced by those humans
Who do not relish the more robust activities
Of living a religious life
In the open
arenas of human society and commerce.
True religion must act.
Conduct
will be the result of religion
When religion is permitted
To truly possess the man.
Religion can never be content
with mere thinking
Or uncaring feeling.
Planetary Spiritual Goals
On normal planets
In the ages following
The
bestowal of a Son of God
(Such as Jesus),
There are many nations
(Mostly determined by land distribution),
But
only one race,
One language, one religion,
And one philosophy.
Spiritual Symbolism
The religion of Jesus is the true
And
personal religion.
Any Church attempting
A restatement
of the religion of Jesus
Must develop a new and appropriate symbolism.
The new symbolism must arise
Out of religious
living
(Spiritual experience).
The new symbolism
Must be predicated
on the concept
Of the Fatherhood
of God
And be pregnant with the ideal
Of the brotherhood of man.
It must be the outgrowth of applied love,
Foster sentiment,
satisfy emotion,
And promote loyalty.
The new symbolism
Must facilitate
spiritual progress,
Enhance cosmic meanings, augment moral values,
Encourage social development,
Stimulate a high
type of personal religious living,
And provide supreme goals of living
That are both temporal and eternal
(Social
and spiritual).
The new symbolism
Must be based
on the biologic, sociologic,
And the religious significance of the home.
It must symbolize that which is permanent
In
the presence of unceasing change,
And glorify that which unifies the stream
Of ever-changing social metamorphosis.
It
must recognize true meanings,
Exalt beautiful relations,
And glorify the good values of real nobility.
The new spiritual symbolism
Must
embody some masterful mystery
And conceal some worthy attainable goal.
It must not only be significant for the group,
But
also meaningful to the individual.
Its forms must be those which the individual
Can carry out on his own initiative
And
which he can also enjoy with his fellows.
The new spiritual symbolism
Must
not be too complex.
It must demand devotion and loyalty.
It must not be crystallized into cramping, deforming,
And
stifling stereotyped ceremonials
That can only handicap and retard social, moral,
And spiritual progress.
Experiencing Religion
The experience
Of dynamic religious
living
Transforms the mediocre individual
Into a personality of idealistic power.
Religion ministers
To the progress
of all
Through fostering the progress
Of each individual,
And the progress of each
Is augmented
Through the
achievement of all.
Spiritual growth is mutually stimulated
By
intimate association
With other religionists.
Love supplies the soil
For religious
growth -
An objective lure
In the place of subjective gratification,
Yet it yields
The supreme subjective satisfaction.
Religion ennobles
The commonplace
drudgery of daily living.
Educating Children
Parents must give
Every developing
child
A chance to grow
His own religious experience.
A ready-made adult experience
Should
not be forced upon a child.
Year-by-year progress
Through an
established
Educational regime
Does not necessarily mean
Intellectual progress,
Much less spiritual growth.
Real educational growth
Is indicated
by enhancement
Of ideals,
Increased appreciation of values,
New meanings of values,
And augmented loyalty
To
supreme values.
Religious Growth
Religious experience
Is greatly
influenced
By physical health,
Inherited temperament,
And social environment.
But these temporal conditions
Do
not inhibit
Inner spiritual progress
By a soul dedicated
To doing the will
Of the Father in heaven.
There are present
In all normal
mortals
Innate drives
Toward
growth and self-realization
That function
If not specifically inhibited.
The technique of fostering
This
constitutive endowment
Of the potential of spiritual growth
Is to maintain an attitude
Of wholehearted devotion
To
supreme values.
Spiritual development depends
Upon
the maintenance
Of a living spiritual connection
With true spiritual forces.
Spiritual Evolution
Spiritual development
Depends upon
the maintenance
Of a living spiritual connection
With the family
Of true spiritual forces,
And upon the continuous
bearing
Of spiritual fruit by providing
The ministry to one's fellows
Of that which is received
From one's spiritual
benefactors.
Spiritual progress
Is predicated
on intellectual recognition
Of spiritual poverty
Coupled with the self-consciousness
Of perfection-hunger -
The
desire to know God and be like him,
The wholehearted purpose to do the will
Of the Father in heaven.
The goal of human self-realization
Should
be spiritual, not material.
Self-Realization
The only realities worth
striving for
Are divine, spiritual, and eternal.
Of course, temporally,
Mortal man
is entitled to the enjoyment
Of physical pleasures
And to the satisfaction of human affections.
Man benefits tremendously by loyalty
To
human associations and temporal institutions,
But these are not the eternal foundations
Upon which to build the immortal
personality
Which must transcend space, vanquish time,
And achieve the eternal destiny
Of divine perfection and finaliter
service.
Determining Good and Evil
Human likes and dislikes
Do not
determine good and evil.
Moral values do not grow out
Of
wish fulfillment
Or emotional frustration.
In contemplating value
Man must
distinguish
Between that which is value
And that which has value.
Man must recognize the relation
Between
pleasurable activities
And their meaningful integration
And enhanced realization
On progressively higher
Levels
of human experience.
Supreme Values
Religion
is not a technique
For attaining a static
And blissful peace of mind.
Rather, religion is an impulse
For
organizing the soul
For dynamic service.
Religion is the enlistment
Of the
totality of selfhood
In the loyal service of loving God
And serving man.
Religion pays any price essential
To
the attainment of the supreme goal,
The eternal prize.
There is a consecrated completeness
In
religious loyalty
That is superbly sublime.
These loyalties are socially effective
And spiritually progressive.
Cheerfulness
Jesus was not a blind
And unreasoning
optimist, but
He was an unusually cheerful person.
His constant exhortation was,
"Be
of good cheer."
He could maintain this confident attitude
Because
of his unswerving trust in God
And his unshakable confidence in man.
Jesus was always touchingly considerate
Of
all men because he loved them
And believed in them.
Simultaneously,
He was always true
to his convictions
And magnificently firm in his devotion
To the doing of his Father's will.
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