<![CDATA[SpiritualFamily.Net: Bill Bricker's blogs]]> https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/owner/Bill_Bricker?offset=10 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1889/seeds-in-the-wind Thu, 27 Apr 2017 13:55:11 -0400 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1889/seeds-in-the-wind <![CDATA[Seeds in the Wind]]>
Seeds in the Wind ~
 
It seems we are all trying our best to face this religious challenge, described in the quote from the Urantia Book below. It does take courage to stand up and stand firm in your beliefs -- and learned and earned personal Spiritual Values. It never seems easy, but it is the easiest of paths once you start out and get a few miles in that heart and mind we use to test the winds of Truth.
 
Love is the path, and it does take inner-strength to stand firm at times. At other times we share with anyone interested in our truths we find along the way.
 
I love to pass around the good energy of Spiritual values anytime I get a chance. Words are like seeds in the wind. They fly around in our minds and thoughts until they find that perfect place that is just right for growth. And they grow in the roots of our Being as Spiritual Values of Truth, Beauty and Goodness, manifested in real life as Love.
 
The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul. Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.
 
]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1784/the-thinking-process Sat, 15 Apr 2017 15:45:06 -0400 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1784/the-thinking-process <![CDATA[The Thinking Process]]>
The Thinking Process ~
 
It seems that the process of Thinking is up to us, but we have the Spark of God (Mystery Monitor/Adjuster) and the Angels that spiritualize, improve, modify, and adjust our direction of thinking to eternalize it. We have the last say, the final word in how we go about our lives, but we have much help in how we make up that mind. In the end we personally take the action, make the decision and reap the rewards, one way or the other.
 
Just thinking about this gives me pause to be patient in the process of making decisions and taking actions in my life.
 
110:2.3 (1205.1) Urantia Book
The Adjuster is not trying to control your thinking, as such, but rather to spiritualize it, to eternalize it. Neither 
angels nor Adjusters are devoted directly to influencing human thought; that is your exclusive personality 
prerogative. The Adjusters are dedicated to improving, modifying, adjusting, and coordinating your thinking 
processes; but more especially and specifically they are devoted to the work of building up spiritual counterparts of your careers, morontia transcripts of your true advancing selves, for survival purposes.
 

 

]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1754/the-perfect-balance Thu, 13 Apr 2017 15:33:01 -0400 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1754/the-perfect-balance <![CDATA[The Perfect Balance]]>
The Perfect Balance ~
 
 
Jesus was the perfect balance in a human personality. He was all the things many of us aspire to be when we aim at that perfection in life's doings. A perfectly unified personality, and the perfect example of how each of us can become more and more balanced in our own lives.
 
 
 
 
100:7.4 Urantia Book
~ The Son of Man was always a well-poised personality. Even his enemies maintained a wholesome respect for him; they even feared his presence. Jesus was unafraid. He was surcharged with divine enthusiasm, but he never became fanatical. He was emotionally active but never flighty. He was imaginative but always practical. He frankly faced the realities of life, but he was never dull or prosaic. He was courageous but never reckless; prudent but never cowardly. He was sympathetic but not sentimental; unique but not eccentric. He was pious but not sanctimonious. And he was so well-poised because he was so perfectly unified. 
 
]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1712/power-and-freedom Thu, 06 Apr 2017 14:39:39 -0400 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1712/power-and-freedom <![CDATA[Power and Freedom]]>
Power and Freedom ~
Privilege is won by those with self-control. Liberty without license is born in those who have mastered their own selfish desires. Freedom born of Power is only for those who have stripped themselves of their self-pride, and steadfastly refuse to use that power for their own self-enhancement. These freedoms born of personal self-control and unselfish desires foster a strong and peaceful civilization.
Morontia Mota ~ #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.

Urantia Book (556.8) 48:7.8 6
]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1639/my-relationship-with-god Sun, 02 Apr 2017 13:58:38 -0400 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1639/my-relationship-with-god <![CDATA[My Relationship with God]]> My Relationship with God ~
 
 
 
 
My 'Relationship' with God is my religion. God is not a religion -- it's the 'Relationship' between God and I that is the religion. Religion is an action.  It has power in that action, and strength in it's attitude.  Relationship is the reality of my action.
 
 
 
 
 
5:6.12 Urantia Book
God provides for the sovereign choice of all true personalities. No personal creature can be coerced into the eternal adventure; the portal of eternity opens only in response to the freewill choice of the freewill sons of the God of free will.
 
 
]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1421/gratitude Thu, 23 Mar 2017 14:14:07 -0400 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1421/gratitude <![CDATA[Gratitude]]>
Gratitude ~
 
What are we grateful for in life? How do we show that gratitude to others in life? Is our gratitude Internal or is it an external showing of good energy in our relationships to others we meet in our days?
 
I know that when I talk with God Within my mind, or out loud, I end that little talk with an expression of gratitude in sincere silent worship. Out here in the material world I like to give out a smile to people I pass in my day. Or a friendly "Howdy, how's it goin' " with good energy -- something positive and real.
 

91:8:4[#3] Urantia Book

To some individuals prayer is the calm expression of gratitude; to others, a group expression of praise, social devotions; sometimes it is the imitation of another's religion, while in true praying it is the sincere and trusting communication of the spiritual nature of the creature with the anywhere presence of the spirit of the Creator.
 
]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1138/good-news-gospel Tue, 07 Mar 2017 13:56:13 -0500 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1138/good-news-gospel <![CDATA[Good News -- Gospel ~]]>
Good News -- Gospel ~
 
To my thinking Jesus was here to show and tell us the 'Good News -- Gospel' of the Fatherhood of God and the Son/Daughter-ship of all men and women in the Family/kingdom of God.  He showed us more, but to me this was his main message.  What more powerful thing could you possibly understand than you are a child of God, and a Spark of the Universal Father lives next to your personal center -- a personal child of God. And Jesus and his values are the perfect example for each one of us. His highest value was to do the Will of the Universal Father.
 
 
Urantia Book (2016.8) 188:4.3
~ Mortal man was never the property of the arch deceivers. Jesus did not die to ransom man from the clutch of the apostate rulers and fallen princes of the spheres. The Father in heaven never conceived of such crass injustice as damning a mortal soul because of the evil-doing of his ancestors. Neither was the Master’s death on the cross a sacrifice which consisted in an effort to pay God a debt which the race of mankind had come to owe him.
]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1047/thinking-positively-getting-into-the-habit Thu, 02 Mar 2017 16:03:43 -0500 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/1047/thinking-positively-getting-into-the-habit <![CDATA[Thinking Positively -- getting into the Habit ~]]>  
Thinking Positively -- getting into the Habit ~
 
I love the idea of starting a day out with a good solid positive attitude.  I also like the idea of ending the day with that same positive attitude.  It's kind of like our own personal 'Will' and 'Intention' for the day -- and for the healing time of sleep at night.  Keeping that good forward action strong and consistent in that positive energy you create with your personal thinking is Healthy on all levels of living.  The direction of our thinking is Powerful, so to me it seems a good thing to empower ourselves with our Positive thinking. And I love to say -- "We do become what we practice in life -- on all levels."
 
Although religious experience is a purely spiritual subjective phenomenon, such an experience embraces a positive and living faith attitude toward the highest realms of universe objective reality. The ideal of religious philosophy is such a faith-trust as would lead man unqualifiedly to depend upon the absolute love of the infinite Father of the universe of universes. Such a genuine religious experience far transcends the philosophic objectification of idealistic desire; it actually takes salvation for granted and concerns itself only with learning and doing the will of the Father in Paradise. The earmarks of such a religion are: faith in a supreme Deity, hope of eternal survival, and love, especially of one's fellows.
]]> Bill Bricker https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/997/the-impossible-moment-to-express-with-words Wed, 01 Mar 2017 11:41:08 -0500 https://spiritualfamily.net/blog/view/997/the-impossible-moment-to-express-with-words <![CDATA[The Impossible Moment to Express with Words]]>
The Impossible Moment to Express with Words ~
 
At some point in deep meditation and worship given to our Universal Father, it seems that in the silence of that moment of worship that the "I AM" has no space between my silence and silent worship Within my own mind. I suppose that at that moment I might be, for the moment, in tune with that Spark of the Universal Father that I am worshiping. It's almost impossible to explain, and I do believe it is a super-personal instant of relating to God Within us. That is as close as I can come with words to express that special feeling and moment of pure appreciative worship and love of God. I'm sure it's different for each one of us -- that special moment of clarity in our own personal experience of Inner worship of the Universal Father.
 

105:1.6 (1153.3) Urantia Book

Ever remember that man’s comprehension of the Universal Father is a personal experience. God, as your spiritual Father, is comprehensible to you and to all other mortals; but your experiential worshipful concept of the Universal Father must always be less than your philosophic postulate of the infinity of the First Source and Center, the I AM. When we speak of the Father, we mean God as he is understandable by his creatures both high and low, but there is much more of Deity which is not comprehensible to universe creatures. God, your Father and my Father, is that phase of the Infinite which we perceive in our personalities as an actual experiential reality, but the I AM ever remains as our hypothesis of all that we feel is unknowable of the First Source and Center. And even that hypothesis probably falls far short of the unfathomed infinity of original reality.
]]> Bill Bricker 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