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“The Master’s Program”

2013-04-02 10:32 AM | Dave

    “If the Christian church would only dare to espouse the Master's program, thousands of apparently indifferent youths would rush forward to enlist in such a spiritual undertaking, and they would not hesitate to go all the way through with this great adventure.” (Urantia Book, 195:10.10, pg. 2085)

   Note that this challenge in the Urantia Book (UB) is given to the Christian church. If Christianity has shirked the task so far, can we as UB readers and teachers take up the “dare” and do better? What can we share, teach or impart that might inspire the youth of our world to rush to sign up for the Master’s program?

   “The call to the adventure of building a new and transformed human society by means of the spiritual rebirth of Jesus' brotherhood of the kingdom should thrill all who believe in him as men have not been stirred since the days when they walked about on earth as his companions in the flesh.” (195:10.6, pg. 2084)

   There are obstacles. In many cases, we find the ears of youth (as well as adults) closed to such an appeal. Why?

   “Civilization can hardly progress when the majority of the youth of any generation devote their interests and energies to the materialistic pursuits of the sensory or outer world.” (111:4.3, pg. 1220)

   If we try to make the Master’s program available, do we present Jesus as an example to follow?

   “He did not come down to live on Urantia as the perfect and detailed example for any child or adult, any man or woman, in that age or any other. True it is, indeed, that in his full, rich, beautiful, and noble life we may all find much that is exquisitely exemplary, divinely inspiring, but this is because he lived a true and genuinely human life. Jesus did not live his life on earth in order to set an example for all other human beings to copy. … as he lived his mortal life in his day and as he was, so did he thereby set the example for all of us thus to live our lives in our day and as we are. You may not aspire to live his life, but you can resolve to live your lives even as, and by the same means that, he lived his. Jesus may not be the technical and detailed example for all the mortals of all ages on all the realms of this local universe, but he is everlastingly the inspiration and guide of all Paradise pilgrims from the worlds of initial ascension …” (129:4.7, pg. 1426), a guide to living a true and genuine human life.

   “It should not be the aim of kingdom believers literally to imitate the outward life of Jesus in the flesh but rather to share his faith; to trust God as he trusted God and to believe in men as he believed in men.” (196:1.5, pg. 2091)

   To effectively present the Master’s program, what should our action plan look like?

“…action, completion of decisions, is essential to the evolutionary attainment of consciousness of progressive kinship with the cosmic actuality of the Supreme Being.” (110:6.17, pg. 1211)

   There are no limitations to the ways the Master’s program can be expressed, taught, and followed:

   “… the will of God can be done in any earthly occupation. Some callings are not holy and others secular. All things are sacred in the lives of those who are spirit led; that is, subordinated to truth, ennobled by love, dominated by mercy, and restrained by fairness—justice.” (155:6.11, pg. 1732)

   Courage and faithful devotion are essential even if these qualities need to be learned and acquired. Consider Jesus’s speech to Fortune, “The Young Man Who Was Afraid.” All of Paper 130, section 6, was preserved for young people to hear throughout the ages, an appeal they are likely to respond to. It is the Master’s program in his very own words:

   “You may be surrounded with small enemies and be retarded by many obstacles, but the big things and the real things of this world and the universe are on your side. The sun rises every morning to salute you just as it does the most powerful and prosperous man on earth. … You are trying to run away from your unhappy self, but it cannot be done. You and your problems of living are real; you cannot escape them as long as you live. But look again, your mind is clear and capable. Your strong body has an intelligent mind to direct it. Set your mind at work to solve its problems; teach your intellect to work for you; refuse longer to be dominated by fear like an unthinking animal. Your mind should be your courageous ally in the solution of your life problems rather than your being, as you have been, its abject fear-slave and the bond-servant of depression and defeat. But most valuable of all, your potential of real achievement is the spirit which lives within you …

   "This day, my son, you are to be reborn, re-established as a man of faith, courage, and devoted service to man, for God's sake. And when you become so readjusted to life within yourself, you become likewise readjusted to the universe; you have been born again—born of the spirit—and henceforth will your whole life become one of victorious accomplishment. Trouble will invigorate you; disappointment will spur you on; difficulties will challenge you; and obstacles will stimulate you.” (130:6.3-4, pg. 1437)

   Jesus was clear about his purpose: “I have come into the world to proclaim spiritual liberty to the end that mortals may be empowered to live individual lives of originality and freedom before God.” (141:5.1, pg. )

   Therefore to empower modern youth, our approach to the Master’s program should foster mental expansion, creative imagination, higher levels of self-understanding, and faith urges to identify and commune with the indwelling presence of the Father’s spirit.

   The ultimate goal of the program must be to achieve the chief purpose of all human struggling:

   “Fatherly love has singleness of purpose, and it always looks for the best in man; that is the attitude of a true parent.” He instructed his followers “… in the realization of the chief purpose of all human struggling … to love with a fatherly as well as a brotherly affection.” (140:5.12-16, pg. 1575)

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