THE PEARL by Bahati Allan Eric
Dedication:
I dedicate this booklet to my parents N. Eric and T. Hope, my favorite friend A. Syson, my cousin Winnie, my community’s young generation group, the Urantia family, ma’am Monica Kemp and Papa Paul Kemp, to the publisher I thank you for you have provided me with guidance, prayed for me and kept me closer and I ascertain this work is a wide vision through a narrow window.
Preface:
This book is a manifestation of how God relates with us, it is built on truth, thoughts, and future aspirations, I developed the thought to write “The Pearl” after completion of “Hope for My Community in Africa” that described “the community boy in Africa”. It is the spiritual motivation and sense of humor that encouraged me to write this life-changing book to create a gap between real life situations, stereotypes and spiritual connection as our lives are nothing without God, after acknowledging Bible motivation verses and teachings of Jesus Christ and research on the Urantia Book studying the life of Jesus, the metaverse and looking at the expectations of our universe parents, I decided to create “The Pearl”.
140:8.28 The right to enter the kingdom is conditioned by faith, personal belief. The cost of remaining in the progressive ascent of the kingdom is the pearl of great price, in order to possess which a man sells all that he has.
151:4.5 "The kingdom of heaven is also like a merchant seeking goodly pearls; and having found one pearl of great price, he went out and sold everything he possessed that he might be able to buy the extraordinary pearl."
Moral perfection in Prayer
According to the book of Ruth, as you read deeper about her story, it proves a Moabite bereft of kinsmen that pelted on the fringes of fifth –century womanhood, but determined to see providence run its course, the writings about her story and lineage bequeath to us pieces of mystery of God on the canvass of her struggle. I have personally told different generations that there is nobody on earth who experiences revelation without some great cost and at times the tax is our own transgression. Looking at different lifestyles in the livelihoods of people in Africa and all the least developing countries I see in the URANTIA Book:
"Prayer is not a technique for curing real and organic diseases, but it has contributed enormously to the enjoyment of abundant health and to the cure of numerous mental, emotional, and nervous ailments. And even in actual bacterial disease, prayer has many times added to the efficacy of other remedial procedures." (UB 91:6:2)
Holy Light through Faith.
When you read the life of Jesus, it depicts light for us on earth to know that one should never pass on earth or live on earth as just a detective or security spy, it literally implies that we should leave a legacy by doing something for what the young generations to come will imitate and learn from because we are created for a reason and thus we should live to ascertain that reason.
The complex enigma which is God’s holiness is literally indescribable, our best attempts are but anthropomorphic images, metaphors to decode mystery and in everything we attempt doing needs God’s input, be it financial discipline and literacy lectures by the most educated professors. Truth will always be what “Words cannot do” unless God is experienced. You and I need to build our trust in God if we are to change or to break the patterns of animal-nature.
Do you know that "without faith, it is impossible to please God" - Heb.11:6. Therefore, faith must always be a part of the discussion of how we are to interact with Him; or without it, we are doomed but with it, we can move mountains. It is faith that keeps us going, year in year out, as our outlook changes, be it people’s perception towards us with trustworthiness, honesty, self-control, gentleness, wisdom, and purity.
Attributes…
The goal for personal transformation is to live my life paying attention, and doing my best to keep that inner connection to those spiritual forces that help develop those higher values in my life’s actions… as a youth and a UB reader whose motive is to live harmoniously and keep the inner and outer peace in people’s hearts alive. Imagine if we all lived a life to inspire others, the Father would immensely bless us and assist us in removing our flaws. The most transforming experience I have ever encountered was the day I found God living within my mind and soul, that I can truthfully survive all the earthly tragedies and transgressions. This is a steady uphill and gradual climb from the life and lessons acquired. It is good to develop spiritually with a growing soul; this motivates the life of other generations looking at how God, the living God, is uplifting and changing one’s life. People! Learn from others as regards to personal-individual relationship with God and give your attention to the Spirit of Truth, as well as the Universal Father’s spark within and this can be the living fuel to our personal inner transformation.
The Fruits of the spirit...
N.Eric once said; if the book you feel you need to read is not yet written, write it.
I initially was interested in making a deeper writing about the fruits of the spirit as compared to the earthly fruits like apples, grapes, mangoes, oranges as I needed to put it out right to the world of believers. To set the ball rolling; it was a calm, chilly morning in the wee hours that I woke up from a deep sleep and realized that spirit is what endures and dwells in our lives from the God of truth and seat of emotions and character, the soul, and so I was looking at what is happening between two super earthly nations. Ukraine and Russia. After the shake of corona virus in the universe I was so seeking a harmony between body and spirit. Father has always been merciful to us regardless of size, color, religion, education level and our character.
Our character! Our behavior when alone, our behavior when with others, our behavior towards others. Alas! Most youth are losing focus due to character, let us tame our character and avoid unhealthy scripts in our lives, because that is what the lord expects of us, let us pay attention to how we spend our time on meaningful things. Youth, elders have all underrated his mercy; we have seemed powerful but, guess what? Our Father only listens to calm hearts. Most people have rebelled against God’s call, the Bible and UB tell us to learn how to control our mental, emotional, and nervous ailments as we interpret prayer, as in the following quote:
"It is to the mind of perfect poise, housed in a body of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical function—when the physical, mental, and spiritual powers are in triune harmony of development—that a maximum of light and truth can be imparted with a minimum of temporal danger or risk to the real welfare of such a being." (110:6.4)
What are the fruits of spirit? Good behavior, connectedness with people, blessings from the Father, a peaceful mind that distances oneself from evil, reduces psychological illusions and stress, creates love, modesty, creates joy, and patience. It remunerates kindness and generosity, it gears faithfulness and gentleness and above all it creates self-control! Self-control over evil and creates charity and chastity. Growth is not always conscious, be it physical, emotional and, especially not, spiritual.
Look in the Bible, Galatians: 5.22, for the fruits of the spirit as they were first stated:
"...an increasing exhibition of the characteristics of the Spirit in the life reactions of such a spirit-led mortal, “for the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.” These are also cited in the Urantia Book, Paper 34:6.13.
And Jesus called us up to another level of living out these manifestations of Spirit leading:
"...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, and unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace." (UB 193:2.2)
The daily progress...
When you look at a continually changing world, in the midst of an evolving social order, it is impossible to maintain settled and established goals of destiny. Stability of personality can be experienced only by those who have discovered and embraced the living God as the eternal goal of infinite attainment. And thus transfers one's goal from time to eternity. From earth to paradise, from the human to the divine, requires that man shall become regenerated, converted, be born again; that he shall become the re-created child of divine spirit; that he shall teach to gain entrance into the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven. All philosophies and religions which fall short of these ideals are immature. The philosophy which Jesus teaches is linked with gospel which represents the new religion of maturity, the ideal of all future generations. And this is true because our ideal is final, infallible, eternal, universal, absolute, and infinite. So, we ask: What is ahead? The sun is high, all crust like. The temperatures are hot throughout the night, the windy conditions and dirty state of the environment disrupts our trails for the day and in overseas snow is frozen and temps did dip throughout the night as well as slushy snow froze where it lay and this disrupts walking all ways, the crispness of the morning air, fills our lungs, gives us flare, every day we are more aware and your presence shows you really care.
We must look to see and find an inner presence of divine, life is simpler when we are blind, when we pretend our lives do not show you are kind; turn a blind eye unto God? And yet in life you try to solve the question of what life is about; stop right now and observe your route!
Take a look at your direction, search and look to your inspection and determine what controls you! On how you decide and God's way ahead might seem too much. Do you want a shortcut-way to fudge? God knows all your thinking habits and his way is never static.
“The meaningless and menial practices of an ostentatious and false humility are incompatible with the appreciation of the source of your salvation and recognition of the destiny of your spirit-born souls. Humility before God is altogether appropriate in the depths of your hearts; meekness before men is commendable; but the hypocrisy of self-conscious and attention-craving humility and unworthy of the enlightened sons of the kingdom..." (UB 149:6.10)
Life Realities
The more I understand about all phrases of reality, the more I understand where I am standing in this personal moment in time, at this point in my personal growth in the universe. Bringing it down to the basic reality of our own lives –the more we know about our own life’s values and how we have used them in life so far --the more we understand how we got to this point in our personal lives. With all this personal experiences and understanding we have accumulated, the easier it is to step forward in life with insight, wisdom and truth.
It is not enough that the ascending mortal should know something of the relations of deity to the genesis and manifestations of cosmic reality; he should also comprehend something of the relationships existing between him and the numerous levels of existential and experiential realities, of potential and actual realities. Man’s terrestrial orientation, his cosmic insight, and his spiritual direction-association are all enhanced by a better comprehension of universe realities and their techniques of inter–association, integration (applied mathematics) and unification.
“Just know wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you would rather have talked” Mark Twain.
Master’s Teachings.
Mistake not! There is in the teaching of Jesus an eternal nature which will not permit them forever to remain unfruitful in the hearts of the thinking men. The kingdom as Jesus conceived it has to a large extent failed on earth; for the time being; an outward church has taken its place; but you should comprehend that this church is only the larval stage of the thwarted spiritual kingdom, which will carry it through this material age and over into a more spiritual dispensation where the master’s teachings may enjoy a fuller opportunity for development. Thus does the so-called Christian church become the cocoon in which the kingdom of Jesus’ concept now slumbers! The kingdom of the divine brotherhood is still alive and will eventually and certainly come forth from this long submergence, just as surely as the butterfly eventually emerges as the beautiful unfolding of its less attractive creatures of metamorphic development (looking at entomology and human nature).
Persistence and perseverance;
The need to wait unto the Father. People need not to panic on what the world unfolds for them but rather wait for what the Universal Father’s hands hold. Patience and resilience in this concept is the gearing factor for a life to admire. Father can raise you from grass to grace. Imagine the life full of pain in that you devoted to witchcraft as all is vanity without our Father’s hand.
Brothers and sisters need to copy on the Bible and UB teachings.
99:5.11 What a mistake for Christians to make when, in presenting Christ as the supreme ideal of spiritual leadership, they dare to require God-conscious men and women to reject the historic leadership of the God-knowing men who have contributed to their particular national or racial illumination during past ages.
Because they articulate to us clearly to love our neighbor as we do to ourselves, we need to avoid jealousy as this is the last credential to sin. People have lost track and messed up as well as committing atrocities like murder, theft, adultery, rape and abortions as this is un human when it comes to cognitive domain, affective domain and psychomotor in which different people conceptualize ideas, and if these domains are disrupted, man’s trust unto the Father is corrupted and here, we notice people change and focus on earthly things as God the Father does not rely on this but judges our heart’s decisions, we have witnessed a shift in which most pastors of doom globally have increased, the sacrifice of young children is also on a rise in Africa, more so; rituals are paramount and this calls for repentance and continued missionary work across the world. Plenary research shows that the young genre towards salvation and God’s call is still low and wanting which has caused population elusion. You can imagine raising a generation that does not know God! Trouble that has increased child traffickers, wars that have increased and caused premarital deaths which causes the great displeasure of the mighty Father.
155:1.2 "Today you see this fulfilled before your eyes. But you shall not see the remainder of the Psalmist's prophecy fulfilled, for he entertained erroneous ideas about the Son of Man and his mission on earth. My kingdom is founded on love, proclaimed in mercy, and established by unselfish service. My Father does not sit in heaven laughing in derision at the heathen. He is not wrathful in his great displeasure. True is the promise that the Son shall have these so-called heathen (in reality his ignorant and untaught brethren) for an inheritance. And I will receive these gentiles with open arms of mercy and affection. All this loving-kindness shall be shown the so-called heathen, notwithstanding the unfortunate declaration of the record which intimates that the triumphant Son `shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.' The Psalmist exhorted you to `serve the Lord with fear' -- I bid you enter into the exalted privileges of divine sonship by faith; he commands you to rejoice with trembling; I bid you rejoice with assurance. He says, `Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish when his wrath is kindled.' But you who have lived with me well know that anger and wrath are not a part of the establishment of the kingdom of heaven in the hearts of men. But the Psalmist did glimpse the true light when, in finishing this exhortation, he said: `Blessed are they who put their trust in this Son.'"
“Don’t shrug God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed either. It is the child he embraces, He also corrects; God is educating you; that is why you must never drop out” Hebrew.12:5-8.
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Another book by Allan Bahati Eric
Hope for My Community in Africa