A.L.L.
Newsletter from the Association for Light and Life
January 2010
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The January Issue of the newsletter for the Association for Light and Light includes a little something for everyone. They are representations from:
Ø Daniel Megow’s service project: the Church Within;
Ø The Urantia Foundation’s service project: The Standardized Reference Text;
Ø Donna D’Ingillo’s New Year Message from her Center for Christ Consciousness;
Ø An update and an appeal from Jim Cleveland on the upcoming TeaM Book; and
Ø Results of the recent ALL election for a new Councilor
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New Year´s
Service of the Church Within
Weekly On-Line Services Since September 29, 1996. Today's Service is offered
by: Pastor Daniel J. Megow. Please Freely Share any of our Church Within
Services with Any and All whom you feel might Appreciate them. If you
have received this Service from a friend and would like to subscribe to our
Weekly On-Line Services, send an e-mail with your request to: seewithin@churchwithin.org
Thank You! ...and Please Visit our Church Within Web-Site at
http://www.churchwithin.org
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Humor of the Week
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A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was
like: "We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a
tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We
picked wild raspberries in the woods." The little girl was wide-eyed,
taking this all in. At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to
know you sooner!"
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Welcome by: Pastor Daniel
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Greetings my Beloved Sisters and Brothers, and welcome once again to the Church
that is Within. I wish a Cheerful and Progress Filled 2010 to you all!!! The
topic of today´s 2010 New Year Service, is
The Quest...
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Quotes
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(From: The Urantia Book - Paper-5 Section-4)
The morality of the religions of evolution drives men forward in the God quest
by the motive power of fear. The religions of revelation allure men to seek for
a God of love because they crave to become like him. But religion is not merely
a passive feeling of "absolute dependence" and "surety of
survival"; it is a living and dynamic experience of divinity attainment
predicated on humanity service.
(From: Solonia 11/17/04 - the Lightline Teleconference)
In your quest to serve, forget not to allow others the honor of serving you as
well. Others receive great joy in being of service to you. Do not forget that,
do not block that joy. Serve and be served as brothers and sisters who have attained
a level of maturity to go beyond the bickering part of siblinghood.
(From: Eugene S. Wilson)
Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to
learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.
(From: The Urantia Book - Paper-102 Section-3)
Religious desire is the hunger quest for divine reality. Religious experience
is the realization of the consciousness of having found God. And when a human
being does find God, there is experienced within the soul of that being such an
indescribable restlessness of triumph in
discovery that he is impelled to seek loving service-contact with his less
illuminated fellows, not to disclose that he has found God, but rather to allow
the overflow of the welling-up of eternal goodness within his own soul to
refresh and ennoble his fellows. Real religion leads to
increased social service.
(From: Aaron - 4/26/94- the Spokane WA TeaM)
Continue on in spirit, taking the journeys forward through all of the struggles.
Let your material bonds weigh lightly upon your quest, for though they attach
themselves to you, they no longer must guide you, for you have found the Inner
Guide, the Higher Guide. Take the truth and let
it envelop your whole being.
(From: The Urantia Book - Paper-131 Section-1)
Creation is in the Creator and the Creator in his creation. We search for the
Most High and then find him in our hearts. You go in quest of a dear friend,
and then you discover him within your soul.
(From: Ham 9/26/99 - the Nashville TeaM)
There is nothing holding you back or impeding you in your spiritual quest
except illusion. Fear is an illusion, loneliness is an illusion, feeling
misunderstood is an illusion. I know that you are always thinking of the
higher, spiritual way and that you are truly trying to walk a higher path
and to live an ever more righteous life. Relax, allow yourself time for
refreshing the spirit with humor. The Master said once that life is like a
bridge from one existence to the next. It is not wise to try to build a home on
it. That means there is nothing worth holding on to. Everything
changes, so walk forward without fear and be happy.
(From: Harold Bloom )
We read frequently if unknowingly, in quest of a mind more original than our
own.
(From: The Urantia Book - Paper-102 Section-2)
Knowledge is an eternal quest; always are you learning, but never are you able
to arrive at the full knowledge of absolute truth. In knowledge alone there can
never be absolute certainty, only increasing probability of approximation; but
the religious soul of spiritual illumination knows,
and knows now. And yet this profound and positive certitude does not lead such
a sound-minded religionist to take any less interest in the ups and downs of
the progress of human wisdom, which is bound up on its material end with the
developments of slow-moving science.
(From: Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)
In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what
is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a
long and arduous quest after Truth.
(From: Elyon - 2/23/94 - The North Idaho TeaM)
Fear not your leap from the nest. Your wings have been strengthened, have been
exercised. You are ready. When you take the leap they will support you. They
will carry you on high. That is the only way to your soaring, to your quest for
your Father.
(From: The Urantia Book - Paper-100 Section-1)
Religion cannot be bestowed, received, loaned, learned, or lost. It is a
personal experience which grows proportionally to the growing quest for final
values. Cosmic growth thus attends on the accumulation of meanings and the
ever-expanding elevation of values. But nobility itself is always an unconscious
growth.
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The Sermon
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So much of life´s efforts and struggles are spent in the Quest of discovering
One´s Own Personal Truth, that when a person truly and undeniably Finds some of
it, the temptation is to presume that The Quest has finally been
attained.
Silly Human Mortals, aren´t we? The acquirement of a Truth, while indeed
it signifies an accomplishment of note, invariably heralds the beginning of
something rather than a culmination of anything more than one leg of a
journey. Knowing the Truth is one thing. Living that Truth is the
True Quest though, isn´t it? Wasn´t it all along ... in Reality?
The Quest ever goes on ... the True Quest is Eternal, yet each must pursue and
be True to their own Quest. Mine could not fulfill your Quest nor could
yours fulfill my Quest ... though often we may walk side by side traveling in
the same ultimate direction towards our unique personal
goals.
New Years can be a time of making resolutions or a time of Renewing The Quest.
Choose whichever one works for You. After all, it´s Your Quest!
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The Prayer
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Dear God,
Becoming more and more like You is my Quest. I have a long, long way to
go, but at least I have started upon it.
You ALL are Within the Infinitely Loving Embrace of our Universal Parent,
The Creator's Infinite Love to all of You,
Pastor Daniel
Thank you for the Love that you Share!!
Please visit our Web Site at:
http://www.churchwithin.org
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"Church Within"
1004 S. Millsap Loop
Post Falls ID, 83854
(208) 777-8077
E-Mail: seewithin@churchwithin.org
The Church Within was Incorporated as a 501-C3 Non-Profit Church on October 23,
1995
in the State of Idaho. [File # C112431] The Articles of Religion and
Declaration of Faith
of The Church Within can be viewed at our Web-Site: http://www.churchwithin.org
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From the Urantia Foundation:
Standard Reference Text
Because the Declaration of Trust Creating Urantia Foundation states that "it shall be the primary duty of the Trustees to perpetually preserve inviolate the text of The Urantia Book", the Trustees appointed a committee, the Standard Reference Text Committee, to study all the changes made to the book since 1955. The desired outcome was for both current publishers to agree on the "correct" text, to notate it as the "Standard Reference Text", and to encourage all Urantia Book publishers, now and in the future, to print only the Standard Reference Text. With the English edition of The Urantia Book no longer protected by copyright, this strategy provides maximum protection "to perpetually preserve inviolate the text of The Urantia Book."
The Standard Reference Text Committee examined all changes, including typing errors, formatting issues, misspellings, table of contents errors, and the digital referencing system. After two years of diligent work, the Committee unanimously recommended a standard text for future editions of the English text.
After receiving the recommendations from the Standard Reference Text Committee, the Trustees studied them for eleven months and agreed, at the October 2009 meeting, to approve them. In the future, the Standard Reference Text will appear in all printed and digital English editions of The Urantia Book printed by Urantia Foundation. This text will also be the "official text" from which all translations, done under the auspices of Urantia Foundation, will be made.
The detailed work of the Standard Reference Text Committee will appear on Urantia Foundation's new website. The Committee's report will be a transparent historical record of all past changes and will contain the Committee's final recommendations. The website will also contain historical records, such as suggestions made, but not accepted, by the committee.
Copied from: http://www.urantia.org/news/2009-12/0ctober-2009-board-meeting- notes
"Noteworthy Decisions From The October 2009 Board Meeting"
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Center for Christ Consciousness
(415) 595-8491
New Year’s Message
January 1, 2010
Joyous New Year, my beloved children, this is Michael. Well, you made it through 2009 and for many of my children this was indeed a difficult and challenging year. You, however, are learning how to maneuver through your challenges and to find your strength, comfort and hope by going within. As your Mother Nebadonia and I have encouraged you, as well as your teachers, this is the place where you will find all of the resources you need to make sense of your outer world and to successfully meet the demands that come your way. More and more you will find that change will come to your planet, especially now as the LIGHT infuses and embraces Urantia.
The great shift that is now unfolding is the change from perceiving your environment from the outer world to the inner domains of your being. This realignment of your attention is the change we have encouraged you to embrace. Going within will always be the answer to creating a better world for yourselves and your brothers and sisters. Going within to see and feel your own inner light will increasingly build more light within you, and you only have to ask your Mother and me to infuse our presence in you to receive more light. Ask openly and unreservedly and it shall be given. Grow and flourish in this light, my children, it is your divine birthright to BE the children of our Paradise Creators’ LIGHT.
Embrace more change this year, my children. Seek to be more invested in being internally directed. As many of you make resolutions at this time of the new year, resolve to grow within. Resolve to spend time seeing your own internal light of your Indwelling Spirit shine upon your heart and mind. Resolve to love your brothers and sisters, and to radiate from your hearts loving forgiveness, courageous compassion, and living faith. Know that your Mother and I are here to guide you into these mindsets and we are evermore and always by your sides.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
An update from Jim Cleveland:
TeaM Book
Hello All,
Thanks for three more chapters before the Dec. 31 deadline -- from Manu Puri, Karen Roberts and Henry Zeringue. All are nicely written and are worthy additions to the book.
Some authors asked for extensions and got them, to Feb. 1. Also, some folks were very late coming in to the project to make the deadline. Combined, these include Patije Mills, Leoma Sparer, Wendy Creel, David and Susan Butterfield, Byron Belitsos, Mark Rogers, Eugenia Bryan. That would be 7 or 8 more chapters, and 18 or 19 in all.
From our list of 38 contributors, that leaves 13 chapters, now comprising the wall of silence. Haven't heard from you folks in quite a while now.
We also have chapters in hand from D'Ingillo, O'Dell, Goaldman, Besser, Rice, Eric Johnson, JoiLin Johnson, the Whelans, Hunt, Creger, Morse, Rowland, Livingston, Austin, Andrews.
What about these non-responses?
I used to think that email was an absolutely astounding new way to communicate with the world. I now see that it provides a root to absolutely astounding communications breakdowns. E-mail may be miraculous but it gets little respect. Given that lack of respect, it is used extremely poorly. And it's often an excuse not to communicate at all. Astounding, isn't it?
Nonetheless I don't have time to work with 38 people on the telephone, which happens to be an extremely limited communications tool that provides no record or authenticity, so ...... I'll get whatever I get from whomever and just work to move the books forward at this end.
For the 13, Let me know if and when you can as to whether you want to contribute something or actually drop out. Your chapters are still welcome, and any and all input.
It's not too late to put in your two cents on behalf of the celestial teachers. I think they deserve our support, and I think this Melchizedek University collection of fine lessons deserve to be published. Don't you?
We're making progress on the other chapters, with Blanche operating our new text scanning system. We are retrieving materials for 1992 forward where electronic files don't exist. Historical material is also being assembled and organized from authors such as Blackburn, Wormeck, Belitsos, Mills, Slagle, Schlundt, Faw, others.
Our 365 day teacher lessons are formatted up to 70 now. Lessons will span many teachers and the years 1992-2010. Lots of work to do on this whopper. 26 teachers for first 70 lessons.
Here are two recent additions.
Hindsights and Foresights of Growing Spirituality
Each of you can see yourselves in a world of ten or twenty years ago, and see your vast change. This results from a continuing shift in consciousness brought about by incremental energy openings, which leads you to higher levels of truth and beauty and goodness. In these formative and quickening years, your visualizations of these ideals are growing your ability to reach into the stillness to quiet your mind and find the place where deep meditation and holy worship meet, to blend east, west into those higher verities of truth and the heart, which Rob has succinctly described as "love," the ultimate and true identity of God. And so as you find these truths, these kernels of truth, we are joining you this weekend in amazement and in joy-even tears of joy-to find how you are growing in many ways, not just by listening, and not just by expounding, but as you listen, and as you speak, you will agree with me that new concepts are continually being poured into your head, into your heart, so that even mid-sentence you are expanding your connection, you are expanding the revelation, you are expanding the body of knowledge with which you grow your soul.
But it is more than knowledge. To follow up on Merium's request, you must find this new way of relating to one another with the heart. Philosophy is only that, the free and grand expression of a myriad of ideas, countless and vast in number across this planet, and across many other planets as well. It is the fruit of life, the ability to intellectualize, philosophize, share and try to understand deeper levels of understanding in all of your institutions, and all of your ways of life, so that in these quickening times when you stand on the brink, you will be able to create new institutions, built of that love, and built of all the incremental qualities and standards and principles which will lead you to find that ultimate love. And in each incremental station, you will find a greater depth of joy and clarity in your own mind, about the confidence of your paths. As you relate to one another, look into each other's hearts; field no emotional aberrations that you do not know as much, that you know more, or that you understand better. Open your hearts and your minds to new knowledge, to new perspectives, and you will round out your own knowledge to a higher degree.
Teacher Tarkas
Association for Light and Life retreat
Taos, NM: 9-19-2009
Transition and Progression Through Death
Even if you have a wonderful life on this planet, one full of so many blessings and so many gifts, it should never be incumbent upon you to fear that all this may go away. It is unrealistic that you grasp so tightly to this world. You are not losing anything when you die. Nothing is being taken away from you when you die. It is simply a transition point in your eternal career and all gets transformed and reinvented. True there are things that you do leave behind, such as material things. But all these can be reinvented on the other side and enhanced as well. You forget that you go to a place where all dreams are created. You go to the sources of invention. You head into the apex of creativity. And hence everything that you’ve had here on this planet that has made you happy you will find tenfold on the other side. So your fear of leaving this planet is unwarranted for there are so many better things.
Your family that you leave behind will eventually follow you. Nobody here lives forever; at one point or another they must die, they must cross over. So you are really leaving nothing behind. You take everything with you, all that’s true and good and valuable. You carry that all with you when you arrive on the other side. And when others join you and your family finally arrives, all those things that were real here will be real up there. But this is simply my attempt to placate any fears of death that you may have. For in the long run, when you look back at these fears that you may or may not have, about transitioning over, you will find that many of those ideas were preposterous. For you did survive, you did continue, it was simply that you did not know all the facts.
JarEl, Arcadia, CA 4-27-2009
If any of you want to submit lessons to fill the book, please do. Any and all feedback welcome. And May the New Year be Blessed with great corrections and great resurrections for all the Children of the Quest.
www.lightandlife.com
An Exploration of the Spiritual Universe
www.cdbaby.com/all/lightandlife
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Truthbook Quote of the Day for today, New Year’s Day, 2010:
Happy New Year!
Without a worthy goal, life becomes aimless and
unprofitable, and
much unhappiness results.
The Urantia Book, (140:4.9)
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NEW COUNCILLOR ELECTED
Last, but certainly not least, is the Good News that Angus Bowen has won the election to serve on the Council for the Association for Light and Light.
ALL’s “founding father” Bob Devine called Angus on New Year’s Eve to congratulate him on his win to the three-year term of service.
Incumbents Rick Giles and Judy Langston were retained by the membership to continue their service to the Association.
Voter turnout was good and we wish to thank everyone who participated, with special thanks to Jim Cleveland and Jim Young who both garnered an admirable showing on the ballot.
Best wishes, Angus.
The Council will meet sometime in January to welcome the new Councilors and to vote on a replacement for the vacancy that exists, which position is an appointment, rather than an elected position. Officer positions will also be determined at that January meeting.