<![CDATA[SpiritualFamily.Net: February 2017]]> https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/archive/Bill_Bricker/1485925200/1488344400 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/869/mota-17-ambition Tue, 21 Feb 2017 12:07:17 -0500 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/869/mota-17-ambition <![CDATA[Mota #17 Ambition ~]]>
Morontia Mota ~ # 17
 
Personal ambition strictly for Self only helps builds that Ego we use to live as humans in relations to other humans. The way I like to socialize my ambition, if I feel anything driving me forward, is to give some type of Service to my fellow Brothers and Sisters in God’s Family. The Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood off all men/women – the Good News ~ that service always and every day, with a smile or a helping hand, helps me keep that old ego in its place of balance. Behind my Soul which is the best of me -- is the balance point.
 
No one really can strive for virtue. You are, or you are not, virtuous. You can strive to be a better more tuned in person, but striving for ‘virtue’ is feeding the Ego, and I want to grow my Soul where the best of me lives. So I just live my life with my best efforts and my deepest Spiritual values, and the Fruits of my and our actions are obvious to Everyone. We truly become what we practice in life – on all levels. So virtue comes to those who just do their thing with a good heart -- not only a subjective yearning to be good, an actual action of goodness creates real virtue.
 
Urantia Book (557.3) 48:7.19 17.

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

]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/856/we-who-believe Mon, 20 Feb 2017 13:58:58 -0500 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/856/we-who-believe <![CDATA[We Who Believe]]> We who Believe ~
 
More than just pure energy, more than our ideas of reality, or value, or level of achievement.  We who believe have a solid Inner foundation to stand on in our life.  A deep value of truth, beauty, and goodness shown to the world as Love.  It enhances our lives, and we love to share those good energies and values with others.
 
Urantia Book (1124.5) 102:6.3 
The religionist of philosophic attainment has faith in a personal God of personal salvation, something more than a reality, a value, a level of achievement, an exalted process, a transmutation, the ultimate of time-space, an idealization, the personalization of energy, the entity of gravity, a human projection, the idealization of self, nature’s upthrust, the inclination to goodness, the forward impulse of evolution, or a sublime hypothesis. The religionist has faith in a God of love. Love is the essence of religion and the wellspring of superior civilization.
]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/838/music-has-power-a-whole-world-to-transform Fri, 17 Feb 2017 23:12:26 -0500 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/838/music-has-power-a-whole-world-to-transform <![CDATA[Music has power a whole world to transform]]>

Music has power a whole world to transform!

 

Music ~

Sometimes when I'm in the right mood, or trying to get in the right mood, I listen to music. It seems to help me reach deep inside and touch something that is special. I love to move in that gentle yet powerful flow of the arts I've learned and practiced for so many years to music. It makes me want to move in that perfect flow of energy that comes up from deep inside of me. Music -- what would I do without it?!

I think we all have some type of music, or art, or something we listen to, or practice to plug into our deepest depths of reaching for something that just eludes our grasp -- and if you are at all like me, the music, or art, or beautiful thoughts, just plug you into that feeling of connection Within, that you know has got to be our Father God -- and in a beautiful and flowing way helps set that connection. 

~ 44:1:12 [#2] Urantia Book
Appreciation of music on Urantia is both physical and spiritual; and your human musicians have done much to elevate musical taste from the barbarous monotony of your early ancestors to the higher levels of sound appreciation.

]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/365/the-nature-of-prayer Wed, 01 Feb 2017 16:32:01 -0500 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/365/the-nature-of-prayer <![CDATA[The Nature of Prayer]]> The Nature of Prayer ~ The nature of Prayer has it's own energy and power derived from the depths of the Individual's deepest beliefs and Spiritual Values. I find that personally, when I dive into my mind, the deeper in thought, or higher my thinking, the more simple and profound my thinking becomes. In the end the thinking has gotten so focused and centered on my intentions, that there is silence and sweet appreciation in the deepest root of my mind in sublime prayer, which evolves ever so smoothly -- like the gentle flow of some invisible energy, into pure thankful and appreciative Worship. That's how I end my prayers. How do you pray? And worship ~ ~

5:4:8 Urantia Book The Greek religion had a watchword "Know yourself"; the Hebrews centered their teaching on "Know your God"; the Christians preach a gospel aimed at a "knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ"; Jesus proclaimed the good news of "knowing God, and yourself as a son of God." These differing concepts of the purpose of religion determine the individual's attitude in various life situations and foreshadow the depth of worship and the nature of his personal habits of prayer. The spiritual status of any religion may be determined by the nature of its prayers.

]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/383/the-sublime-personal-experience-of-faith Wed, 01 Feb 2017 16:26:35 -0500 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/383/the-sublime-personal-experience-of-faith <![CDATA[The Sublime Personal Experience of Faith]]>  
The Sublime Personal Experience of Faith ~
 
I love these few words out of the text: "rather a sublime experience and a profound conviction." I've found that 'Faith' is 'alive' if you've got it, and an intellectual concept if you don't have it. Faith is a living and growing personal experience I've found you can cultivate, like a garden. Plant some Inner mental/spiritual seeds, along with a nice foundation of a good attitude, and the whole life perspective changes slowly as you refine yourself along the way. It seems that Jesus knew this and started from childhood. He was the perfect example of the highest value -- doing his Father's Will.
 
~ Theology may fix, formulate, define, and dogmatize faith, but in the human life of Jesus faith was personal, living, original, spontaneous, and purely spiritual. This faith was not reverence for tradition nor a mere intellectual belief which he held as a sacred creed, but rather a sublime experience and a profound conviction which securely held him. His faith was so real and all-encompassing that it absolutely swept away any spiritual doubts and effectively destroyed every conflicting desire. Nothing was able to tear him away from the spiritual anchorage of this fervent, sublime, and undaunted faith. Even in the face of apparent defeat or in the throes of disappointment and threatening despair, he calmly stood in the divine presence free from fear and fully conscious of spiritual invincibility. Jesus enjoyed the invigorating assurance of the possession of unflinching faith, and in each of life’s trying situations he unfailingly exhibited an unquestioning loyalty to the Father’s will. And this superb faith was undaunted even by the cruel and crushing threat of an ignominious death.
]]> Bill Bricker