Light of Truth – UB Light of Truth

Mota – Bridge to Spiritual

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Nearly a month ago my hard disk crashed; it has been a struggle to get everything about the website back in order. This entry was ready a couple weeks ago, but only now have I been able to post. I could not wait to share these thoughts about the bridge between physical and spiritual reality: mota.

Mortal beings have great difficulty comprehending spiritual realty. To us it seems incomprehensible that there is more to reality than what we can see, touch or feel. For example many times we have been asked “What do angels look like?” the answer is they are spirit beings, in the purely physical sense they do not exist. They exist in spiritual reality, not in physical reality. A vague analogy is love; like spiritual reality, love cannot be seen or analyzed, yet it is certainly real. The bridge guiding us into spiritual reality is called mota.

I do not pretend to be a philosopher; that being said, I have thoughts on this subject based on revelations in The Urantia Book. Mortal philosophy functions well except when it ventures beyond the physical realm into the swamp of metaphysics, which is generally something beyond the physical. A material philosophy cannot safely go outside the physical without some sort of guidance from beyond the physical. Our revelation calls this guidance mota. Revelation is the only technique which can compensate for the absence of the truth sensitivity of mota in a material world. Revelation authoritatively clarifies the muddle of reason-developed metaphysics on an evolutionary sphere.[1]

Mota presents philosophical statements highlighting superphysical value. It also implicitly rejects many other conflicting ideas; filtering out the unworthy. This clarification helps us begin to comprehend spiritual reality and gives hints as to how we can increase our level of spiritual awareness.

Mota is more than a superior philosophy; it is to philosophy as two eyes are to one; it has a stereoscopic effect on meanings and values. Material man sees the universe, as it were, with but one eye—flat.[2] As we grow in spiritual understanding we attain a wider viewpoint, we superimpose our physical experiences onto the mota guided by revelation; thereby being able to distinguish between the worthy and the unworthy. We begin to achieve a more spiritual outlook; we see with both the physical and the spiritual, gaining a stereoscopic world vision.

The mota statements have been rearranged into various categories to assist our understanding of these vital concepts. Each statement is referred to by its number; they are on 556.3 to 557.14 in The Urantia Book.

Spiritual and Physical Reality

3. Inherent capacities cannot be exceeded; a pint can never hold a quart. The spirit concept cannot be mechanically forced into the material memory mold.

There is only one mota in this topic, but it is a vital one. Understanding that the spiritual is something other than the physical is fundamental to spiritual growth. We cannot grow into the spiritual from the physical unless we know there is something beyond, above, and more desirable; something other than the physical. Our eternal life and growth depends on this.

Falsehoods Revealed

1. A display of specialized skill does not signify possession of spiritual capacity. Cleverness is not a substitute for true character.

15. Affectation is the ridiculous effort of the ignorant to appear wise, the attempt of the barren soul to appear rich.

18. Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet’s nest.

19. Anxiety must be abandoned. The disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come.

28. The argumentative defense of any proposition is inversely proportional to the truth contained.

Weeding out falsehoods, pointing out undesirable characteristics, is a vital aspect of mota. The first of these is cleverness; which might be useful in the short term, but it is shallow and does not give true lasting character. Often we try to appear more than we really are; we may pretend to be successful while inwardly we are barren; these are shallow personalities. Being aware of and avoiding spirit poisons is a vital aspect of spiritual growth; among these poisons are impatience and anger. God is guiding and helping us; therefore there is no need for anxiety. We worry endlessly over things which never happen.

The last mota in this section is a classic commentary on our current political, societal, and interpersonal discourse. The louder and stronger we defend our position, the less truth we have to offer. In this respect, the soft word of truth falls like a great stone into the arena of discourse, however the loud shouting of untruth means many who listen only to the shouting without thinking will be misled by the noise. They listen to the form, not the substance. And so it is in our society.

When we know which characteristics to avoid, we are better prepared to begin our spiritual growth.

Action

7. Blind and unforeseen accidents do not occur in the cosmos. Neither do the celestial beings assist the lower being who refuses to act upon his light of truth.

9. Action achieves strength; moderation eventuates in charm.

11. The weak indulge in resolutions, but the strong act. Life is but a day’s work—do it well. The act is ours; the consequences God’s.

22. The evolving soul is not made divine by what it does, but by what it strives to do.

24. The destiny of eternity is determined moment by moment by the achievements of the day by day living. The acts of today are the destiny of tomorrow.

25. Greatness lies not so much in possessing strength as in making a wise and divine use of such strength.

When we seek spiritual growth it is important to act, and Jesus was certainly known for acting decisively. The statement in the middle, #22, might appear to have a different message, but this is not the case; blind unthinking actions would be dangerous. The important thing is what is the goal of our actions, what are trying to accomplish? Action guided by firm spiritual goals should be our objective; when we have a worthy goal we must act.

When we act based on our light of truth we will be assisted by celestial beings. As we seek growth, fortuitous things happen as a result of such assistance. When we act we become strong but when we restrain ourselves from acting unwisely, charm is acquired. When we act based upon our spiritual goals, God decides the consequences. Today’s actions determine our destiny tomorrow. Being strong is not as important as is using our strength wisely. If we know truth we must act upon that truth.

Difficulties

5. Difficulties may challenge mediocrity and defeat the fearful, but they only stimulate the true children of the Most Highs.

8. Effort does not always produce joy, but there is no happiness without intelligent effort.

12. The greatest affliction of the cosmos is never to have been afflicted. Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation.

13. Stars are best discerned from the lonely isolation of experiential depths, not from the illuminated and ecstatic mountain tops.

16. You cannot perceive spiritual truth until you feelingly experience it, and many truths are not really felt except in adversity.

The gulf between the physical and the spiritual is wide indeed; therefore efforts to personally connect the two are difficult. As we seek to personally bridge this formidable gap we must address our personal shortcomings, face them and change them; when we do this we move toward spiritual awareness.

Any goal that is truly worthy will be challenging; such goals only stimulate the true seekers of righteousness. There may not always be joy, but there can be no joy unless we strive to improve. “The greatest affliction,” if everything is given to us without striving, why would we put forth any effort to improve? Such individuals get stuck in the doldrums. In the depths of difficult personal experience we gain experiential insights that are not possible if we are in the illuminated heights of ecstasy. Spiritually worthwhile growth always comes with a struggle.

It is certainly true that spiritual truth has to be experienced, it cannot be obtained from a book; only in the depths of personal adversity, personal experience, can we glimpse it. Spiritual truth is available for anyone who earnestly desires it.

The Arts

20. Only a poet can discern poetry in the commonplace prose of routine existence.

21. The high mission of any art is, by its illusions, to foreshadow a higher universe reality, to crystallize the emotions of time into the thought of eternity.

On the first reading these are difficult to understand, why is it that a poet can pull poetry out of everyday experiences? How can the arts make this happen?

Art proves that man is not mechanistic…. Art is mortal morontia, the intervening field between man, the material, and man, the spiritual. Poetry is an effort to escape from material realities to spiritual values.[3]

The arts are similar to mota; they act as a bridge between the physical and the spiritual. The purpose of the photos on this website is to encourage a spiritual emotion. For example, the photo of a rose on the Talking Points page “God Within” is not merely a rose photo; the goal of the photos is to evoke a feeling that is related to the subject of the article. This is a fuzzy area, but that is the aim: to highlight something physical in a way that evokes spiritual emotions.

The photo for this posting of our little cove in Western North Carolina shows peace and tranquility; we appreciate these opportunities to share our life and the ecosystem in these ancient mountains. Nearly 400 million years ago these mountains were as high as the Alps are today.[4]

Faith

2. Few persons live up to the faith which they really have. Unreasoned fear is a master intellectual fraud practiced upon the evolving mortal soul.

4. Few mortals ever dare to draw anything like the sum of personality credits established by the combined ministries of nature and grace. The majority of impoverished souls are truly rich, but they refuse to believe it.

10. Righteousness strikes the harmony chords of truth, and the melody vibrates throughout the cosmos, even to the recognition of the Infinite.

At first blush it would appear that “unreasoned fear” should be in the first category, “Falsehoods Revealed;” however, it says that we do not live up to the faith we have, if we did we would not experience unreasoned fear. We may feel we have faith, but it does not impact our daily lives strongly enough. If we truly have faith, then we will live it every moment of our existence. The many gifts given us by the ministries of God are rich indeed; we must accept them and use them in faith. When we fully live our faith, our righteousness fills creation. Have faith in God to the end of your days on earth.[5]

Civilization

6. To enjoy privilege without abuse, to have liberty without license, to possess power and steadfastly refuse to use it for self-aggrandizement—these are the marks of high civilization.

17. Ambition is dangerous until it is fully socialized. You have not truly acquired any virtue until your acts make you worthy of it.

26. Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love.

27. Progress demands development of individuality; mediocrity seeks perpetuation in standardization.

No surprise, our civilization fares poorly when measured by these statements. Characteristics of society are a sum of the traits of its leaders, thinkers, and citizens. We cannot seek to improve values of society as a whole; efforts to encourage these characteristics have to be addressed to the components of society, its individual citizens. Each of us should be careful we do not abuse privilege or use power for selfish gains. We must use ambition for the betterment of society; share our knowledge tempered by wisdom and love. Progress requires individuality, it needs individuals to stand up and declare there are better ways of doing things. Only when a significant number of our fellow citizens embrace these ideas will our society improve, begin the shift toward a greater understanding of spiritual reality for our society.

Thoughts

14. Whet the appetites of your associates for truth; give advice only when it is asked for.

23. Death added nothing to the intellectual possession or to the spiritual endowment, but it did add to the experiential status the consciousness of survival.

After assigning the mota to categories these were left over, last but certainly not least.

Giving advice out randomly is rarely productive. Those of us who are students of The Urantia Book certainly know this. Handing the book out randomly is rarely productive. Give advice only when there is a real interest.

We call death graduation; we graduate from life in the flesh to a better life on high. Friends of ours call it getting a promotion; we are promoted to better life beyond the physical.

Comments

This posting is too long already; we close with a quote.

Revelation is evolutionary man’s only hope of bridging the morontia gulf. Faith and reason, unaided by mota, cannot conceive and construct a logical universe. Without the insight of mota, mortal man cannot discern goodness, love, and truth in the phenomena of the material world.[6]

It is up to each one of us to increase our understanding of these truths, to truly live them every moment of our existence. If we do, we can go forth and share these revelations in our lives. Become a Light of Truth.

[1] 554.1; all references are to The Urantia Book one column version in the format page:paragraph.

[2] 554.2

[3] 2079.10

[4] 673.8

[5] 2049.4

[6] 1137.3

Light from the Lantern

Our sisters and brothers are torn apart by many conflicting areas of angry disagreement; we need illuminating spiritual guidance for these troublous times. Spiritual assistance is vital as we attempt to find our way through today’s conflicting crosscurrents. Revelations in The Urantia Book, if sincerely accepted, will improve our spiritual awareness so that we naturally manifest fruits of the spirit in our daily lives as we interact with those around us. These teachings must direct our lives as we apply them to every moment of our existence; each of us thus becomes a living Light of Truth; a spiritual lantern.

We explore the significance of light and lantern, what constitutes spiritual growth, what are fruits of the spirit, and briefly discuss personal religious experience.

Light of the Lantern

“It is the light in the lantern which shows you the path not the lantern.” (Note on the tag of a bag of Yogi Chai Rooibos tea)

The lantern is a physical device whose purpose is to produce light that can illuminate our surroundings; whether it is a fancy work of art or plain and ordinary, its purpose is illumination. Its purpose is physical illumination.

In a similar manner, The Urantia Book is a physical item with a purpose. Those sincerely reading it receive a message of spiritual truth, hope, joy, love, mercy, and the eternal value of each and every human being. Its purpose is to uplift our spiritual awareness; if we sincerely apply its teachings to our daily lives we receive illumination. We receive spiritual illumination.

Many students of our revelation, The Urantia Book, are mainly concerned with purely physical aspects of this spiritual revelation. It is indeed filled with countless fascinating physical facts: when did our Creator Son arrive here to begin the creation of his local universe (over 400 billion years ago, the Big Bangers will have trouble with that), (653.8)^[1] how many inhabited worlds are there (7 trillion when this region of space is completed), how did the geological process operate to form our native sphere, and how did the evolutionary process of life on Earth originate and proceed; to list only a tiny fraction. Many also want to know how we got this hefty book. They are mainly interested in its physical aspects. This is OK for sisters and brothers becoming acquainted with our revelation, but serious students need to look toward the purpose of this Epochal Revelation: growing spiritual awareness for citizens of planet Earth. We must turn on our inner illumination and contribute to the betterment of life on Earth by exhibiting fruits of the spirit in our daily lives.

Spiritual Growth

Everyone of normal mind on our native sphere contains within them an actual fragment of God. This spark of God within is always seeking to guide us into a stronger relationship with our Heavenly Father. here are present in all normal mortals certain innate drives toward growth and self-realization which function if they are not specifically inhibited. (1095.1) In this quotation “innate drives” is plural. We have several spirit influences guiding us into greater spiritual awareness, all we need do is to “not specifically inhibit” their guidance. We frequently do not fully cooperate with our spirit guides; our material mind set has difficulty accepting spirit guidance. Our Heavenly Father is continually guiding us into greater spiritual awareness but it is up to each individual to fully cooperate, to follow the guidance each of us is given. All too often it is we who tell Father what we want.

We assist spirit growth by many means: recognizing spirit led lives in others, meditating on spirit reality such as God, looking at events from a spirit prospective, and accepting the spirit guidance we receive. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious. (1095.3) Our greatest desire should be to draw closer to God, but our progress Godward is unconscious; we may be totally unaware of any spiritual progress.

Spiritual growth is first an awakening to needs, next a discernment of meanings, and then a discovery of values. (1095.6) We cannot make spiritual progress unless we know we absolutely need it. It is important to recognize we are alone in a seemingly cruel universe if we do not accept God’s guidance; we need His guidance. There comes a point where we begin to understand meanings, these will come in many ways. One thing is we begin to comprehend the magnitude of what our Creator Son Michael, Jesus, did to create everything in his local universe; amazing. At last we become conscious of values; while the physical arena is concerned with quantity, in the spiritual region it is quality. Since God is spirit, He is the ultimate value. Our goal should be to grow closer to Him.

Fruits of the spirit

As we grow spiritually we begin to manifest fruits of the spirit. These are a natural result of living the spirit led life. Indeed, all political, social, or economic value that may result from the teachings of Jesus arise from natural consequences of a personal soul experience; the fruits of the spirit are a spontaneous manifestation of soul growth. (1585.4)

Salvation is the free gift of God, but those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures. And the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace. (2054.3)

God is truly merciful; love is His primary reaction to our pleas. Salvation is freely given each one of us as long as we do not totally reject His gifts. These fruits of the spirit are a consequence of being born of the spirit; accepting the guidance of our Heavenly Father. Fruits of the spirit are expressed in being honest, fair, and having total concern for the welfare of all of our sisters and brothers.

When we exhibit these fruits of the spirit in our lives we are simply showing traits Jesus manifested in his life on Earth. (2062.10) We begin to live our lives in these times as Jesus would were he with us now; through the Spirit of Truth Jesus is truly with us here and now.

Personal Religious Experience

When we think about a personal religious experience our first thought might be Saul of Tarsus. At first blush it seemed that all he did was to walk down the road to Damascus when suddenly he had a powerful spiritual experience and became the apostle Paul. It was so strong it took several days before he fully recovered from the abrupt transformation; it certainly was not that simple. Another example is Gautama Siddhartha, Buddha. These experiences may be a natural and gradual growth or may sometimes be experienced at certain junctures, as in a crisis. (1099.1) The individual must be devoted to doing God’s will, following His guidance at each decision point. These decisions will be difficult; they may involve hardships and emotional conflicts. If the way into a greater spiritual awareness were easy, our planet would be teeming with Buddhas and Pauls.

The spiritual growth of Jesus was gradual; when he was not quite thirteen he experienced illumination. (1376.1) He was also visited by a celestial visitor telling him it was time to be about his Father’s business.

Our revelatory lantern, The Urantia Book, presents to us an enlarged description of creation and describes the exalted eternal future awaiting each of us if we so choose. Our choices define our future; if we choose to follow the spiritual guidance we receive, there will literally be no end to our existence. This gradually happens as we accept the illumination from this big blue lantern.

All references are to The Urantia Book, the one column edition in the format page.paragraph ↑

Becoming a Light of Truth

A more precise title of this posting would be: “Becoming a Light of Truth to those in Spiritual Darkness.” When I obtained this website (UBLightofTruth.com) a few years ago it was because “Light of Truth” was already taken; I added the UB because the focus of my book (“Light of Truth, Anticipating the Triumph of Righteousness”) is The Urantia Book. It was some time before I realized it had another meaning: “U B Light of Truth,” in other words: “YOU can BE a LIGHT OF TRUTH.”

In this posting we briefly discuss the sad state of affairs in current society; this emphasizes society’s need for many lights of truth. We then outline how each of us can become a light of truth for our sisters and brothers, especially those who hunger and thirst for spiritual guidance.

Troubled Society

There are many troubling trends in society; our social fabric is starkly polarized in many ways. Among these stress fractures are political, economic, racial, labor, and religious tensions; add to this mix the rise of many hate groups and authoritarianism around the world.^[1] How did these flash points arise seemingly arise all at once? Actually these stress issues were increasing throughout the twentieth century; they became suddenly conspicuous as a result of COVID-19. To understand what is going on we briefly examine world history, a 30 second version.

For most of the history of planet Earth, change was exasperatingly slow. True, communication was spotty at best, but there was just not much of long-term value going on. During the last 5,000 years only a few things stand out as making a lasting change; following is a short list of newsworthy events during this time period, selected at random.

BCE

Abraham: ~1900

Moses: 14-13^th century

Buddha: 6-5^th cent.

Muhammad: b. 570

Alexander the Great: b 356

Jesus: b. 7

CE

Norman Conquest of England: 1066

Genghis Kahn: b. ~1162

Magna Carta: 1215

Black Death (Bubonic Plague): 1347-1351

Gutenberg Bible: 1455

Martin Luther: 95 Theses, 1517

There were certainly other sudden events such as wars, plagues, and famines, but these generally had little impact on the gradual evolution of society at large. In spite of sudden upheavals, lives of the vast majority of people were little changed over time.

Things started to pick up in the last quarter of the 19^th century, particularly with scientific advancements by Louis Pasteur and others.

20^th Century “Progress”

Contrast this with the progress achieved during the twentieth century alone, which is mind boggling. My father, born in 1901, was a rural mail carrier; he started with a horse and buggy and lived to watch men walk on the moon. My wife’s grandmother, born at nearly the same time, arrived in Kentucky by covered wagon. Such a staggering level of progress in a short period of time places drastic stress on the fabric of society. It is like running downhill as fast as you can, there will come a time when you lose control and fall on your face.

It is important to consider what sort of progress was made in the previous century. All of these advancements were materialistic, based mainly on science; there was also progress based on the mind, for indeed this is where scientific gains originate. However, a third and equally important component of our being, spiritual reality, has been ignored while our materialistic society races madly downhill toward certain destruction.

There has been no significant advancement in the spiritual awareness of society since Jesus of Nazareth over two thousand years ago. We are about to pay the price for this spiritual neglect: the collapse of society as we know it.

We are already seeing the start of this collapse: in grocery stores there are empty shelves, our favorite brands may be missing; in July I ordered a book (“Please Scream Inside Your Heart” by Dave Pell) which was supposed to be shipped in September, but there was a delay in the book binding, it arrived in the second week of November. Ports in California are clogged with ships that cannot be unloaded because there are not enough truck drivers to carry the goods away; trucking companies have trouble hiring drivers because many applicants fail drug tests; many businesses are unable to hire enough qualified workers. And there is more: this year there has been large number of cases concerning violent passengers on airline flights, many more than previous years. A lot of people are just angry.

Our society is coming apart because it has no moral foundation; we desperately need a spiritual uplift.

We who study The Urantia Book have all the information we need to begin this spiritual renaissance. What are we going to do with this revelation? How can we use it to begin the spiritual transformation of planet Earth?

Lights of Truth

We have this revelation but many of its students do not fully appreciate it. Many treat it as if it were a textbook, perhaps a history textbook. I have attended study groups where it was read like a phonebook. This is the fifth epochal revelation of truth to our planet; {Epochal Revelations} only the fifth time in our planetary history advanced truth has been revealed to us. Treat it as such!

We begin this process of spiritual transformation by applying the teachings of The Urantia Book in our daily lives. The keys of the kingdom of heaven are: sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. All men have these keys.^[2] We use these keys of sincerity as we make decisions to do the will of God; in this way we grow stronger in the Kingdom of Heaven. Each decision we make can have an impact on our soul depending on how sincere we are; we cannot become a light of truth while harboring falsehoods and insincerity.

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.^[3] We cannot make spiritual progress until we realize we are spiritually impoverished, that is when we develop perfection hunger, an indescribable reaching out for something above and beyond us.

As we reach out with perfection hunger we begin to manifest fruits of the spirit in our lives; it is at this point that we are beginning to become a light of truth. You who know these truths must yield the increase of the fruits of the spirit and manifest a growing devotion to the unselfish service of your fellow servants. And remember that, inasmuch as you minister to one of the least of my brethren, you have done this service to me.^[4]

Those who are lights of truth care about each one of their sisters and brothers. They know as a truth everyone has within an actual spark of God, they know God respects everyone equally. We become a Light of Truth when every moment of our lives radiates our faith, our absolute certainty that life eternal is ours for the asking.

Being a Light of Truth means we exhibit our firm faith in every interaction with those around us. It becomes our way of life into eternity.

Being a Light of Truth does not necessarily mean doing anything flashy; the most valuable aspect is in the ordinary, everyday interactions with those around us. Perhaps any contact might ignite another light of truth. Being a Light of Truth is a fulltime endeavor.

Together we can light up our world, Michael’s world!

For a look at how autocracy spreads see: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/12/the-autocrats-are-winning/620526/?utm_source=feed ↑
Unless otherwise stated, all references are to The Urantia Book one column edition in the format page:paragraph 435.7 ↑
1095.5 ↑
1917.1 ↑

Ideologically Driven Processes

This posting discusses “Ideologically Driven Processes.”

Ideologically driven processes occur when individuals seize upon a particular goal so strongly they will go to any length to attain it. They feel their goal is so vitally important anything is acceptable in their quest; this goal then becomes their morality. Their actions are no longer measured against right and wrong but against how it helps them reach their goal. There is no possibility of success when goal and morality become confused in this way.

An example of this is Communism. Their original goal was to attain a “workers’ paradise” where common labor would be properly compensated for their work, which is certainly a worthy goal. The problem with Communism is they had no moral foundation, they felt it was necessary to use any means whatsoever to attain that goal, thus resulting in the socially repressive conditions of their regimes. They felt obligated because of the difficulty in convincing governments to recognize the rights of workers; since they were impatient and wanted results soon they felt obligated to use strong methods. Once they started on the path of seeking their goal at all costs they gave up any chance of reaching that goal. Those who embark on such an ideologically driven process can never attain their goal because of their lack of moral foundation.

Having a moral foundation based on the truth that God is present within each thinking mortal on this planet is vital. When we realize this and use it as our moral compass, sorting out priorities becomes much easier.

Terrorists in general fall into this category because their goal, whether they seek social or religious reform, is seen to be so vitally important they feel conventional morality no longer applies, the supposedly transcendent goal has overtaken their morality.

Terrorists seek out those who feel disadvantaged in some way; this may not necessarily be because of poverty. Recruits would be carefully fed information to indicate a way out of their misery; once these individuals have fallen into the terrorist mindset it is difficult for them to return to society.

An article in Foreign Affairs Magazine addresses this point; “Teenage Terrorists Aren’t Lost Forever” by Nabeelah Jaffer discusses this issue of returning young terrorists to society. The radicalization process is termed “de-pluralization” where potential recruits are led to “see the world through the lens of a single story.” This story then becomes the focus of their existence as they buy into the terrorist mindset. “The urgency of the problem demands an urgent response: Violence seems justified in pursuit of a noble cause.” They have therefore bought into an ideologically driven process.

One way to return these individuals to society is, in effect, to reverse the process; in other words they aregradually introduced into a more pluralistic view of the world. Such procedures offer more promise than to force feed them “proper” dogma. The gradual pluralistic approach certainly seems the better way.

This process could be used in any instance where radicals have become fixated on a certain idealistic goal to the exclusion of morality. Such individuals could be introduced into a more pluralistic mindset, have their point of view expanded to the point where we all are sisters and brothers because each one of us has a spark of God within. A firm moral foundation must be in place before the needs of the disadvantaged can be addressed.

Recognizing our Light of Truth

This posting is an entry on the Talking Points page which lists topics from my book “Light of Truth – Anticipating the Triumph of Righteousness.” Each one of us can become an individual Light of Truth if we follow the guidance of the fragment of God dwelling within. The problem is not the rampant evil on our native planet; rather it is our inability and unwillingness to listen for God’s guidance in our lives. He truly wants to help us but we must listen and follow that guidance.

Our study of The Urantia Book reveals we have all the pieces necessary to build a character able to go forth and contest the forces promoting deceit and iniquity. We now put them together in a way to guide us toward living these teachings, striving to make this world a better place in which to live; indeed, a better place for everyone on the face of Earth.

There are seven stages in the soul construction process; each one of these successive realizations brings us closer to becoming equipped to move out into the greater world promoting righteousness, peace, love, and brotherhood.

The first and most important of these steps toward recognizing our Light of Truth is to realize each one of us has a literal spark of God dwelling within. We may be looking at the most unhappy, confused person imaginable; even there our Heavenly Father is within that human being striving to bring light and truth to that individual. God is no respecter of persons; we all stand equal before Him. This truth of God within is the bedrock of our reality, our soul and our eternal future.

Knowing this, we have faith that God will guide us in our daily lives. This will not be an obvious leading, no text message or email, rather it will be gentle guidance showing the way. Our Father does not coerce, does not force but if we choose to follow His guidance, we will know the way. We will know the way. This is a distinct awareness of how we should proceed; we will know it in our soul and the more willingly we follow this guidance the more readily we will recognize it next time. Having faith, knowing God is guiding us, is fundamental to making spiritual progress.

Once we recognize and accept God’s guidance, the next step is choosing to follow His lead. We might fear difficulties will be involved or we would rather do something else. There may be any number of excuses we want to present. Following our Heavenly Father only when it is easy does not count as doing God’s will. One thought that helped me when dealing with these matters was becoming confident that God would not ask me to do something either beyond my ability or immoral; he would not ask me to do the non-doable. Choosing to follow the will of our Heavenly Father will not be the easy way, but doing so means we have God fully on our side. Bring it on!

A covenant is a formal agreement between an individual and our Father. This covenant means we accept that God’s favor is entirely based on faith alone. If we have faith in God and share this faith in our daily lives, He will protect us. We do not have any idea exactly how this protection works, but it will surround us. God cannot protect us against our recklessness or going against God’s will, but those of full faith can be protected. Before proceeding, each individual must personally, individually, and solemnly accept and uphold our covenant – this holy pact with our Heavenly Father.

As a result of this we will enjoy a more personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. In our interactions with people we see the individual, we exchange words and emotions, but with God there arises a certainty within, often difficult to describe. This certainty is at the center of our being – in our soul. Our personal relationship with God becomes the core of our being, the center around which the rest of our soul – our existence – revolves. This relationship with God promotes the best we can become; we interact with our Father through living experience rather than with dogma and preachers.

At this point we will be able to bring the Motivating Story to life in our relationship with our sisters and brothers. This story energizes our efforts to reach out and share these teachings, to fully live them. Living the story means we become focused and eager to participate in the spread of these teachings of peace, love and joy. Living the story means we now have a framework on which to build a new world, we have a meaningful and vitalizing world view.

After this process we are becoming, each one of us, a Light of Truth. We know God is with us, guiding us and helping us to become more aware of spiritual reality. We will certainly not know what lies in the future, we will not know what the consequences of our actions will be but we do know we have the best possible guide in all creation: Our Heavenly Father who created all things, all beings, and who is love.

One valid question at this point is: What does it mean to become a Light of Truth? It means we become tuned into God’s will; the Spirit of Truth will guide us into truth, and our actions declare truth. This does not mean we become perfect or infallible, it does not mean we are an unthinking robot spouting spiritual platitudes. We become thoughtful, although still flawed, spirit guided human beings dedicated to following the guidance each one of us receives; we become people consecrated to following God’s will in making this native planet of ours a better place for each one of God’s creatures, large, small or apparently insignificant. Every one of them is a creature of God.

These stages on the road toward becoming a Light of Truth are: recognizing each one of us has a spark of God within; having faith our Heavenly Father will guide us; accepting this guidance, choosing to do God’s will; accepting the covenant that faith is the sole requirement to receive God’s protection; we will enjoy an intimate personal relationship with God; we then bring the motivating story to life. Each one of us can become a Light of Truth to our sisters and brothers – all of them.

When this happens we can move forward into the world according to our Father’s will. We may not have any idea what will transpire but we can be confident God does have a plan to make this native world of ours a better place. Our Father knows how to make everything more equitable for each creature. God has a plan for each one of us; we now have the tools to help us cooperate with His divine plan for our life.