[tmtranscripts] Christmas Greetings from the Center for Christ Consciousness

[Donna DIngillo]

>From all of us at the CCC, we wish you the happiest of Christmases
celebrating our beloved Jesus' birth.  Enjoy the message.

Love,
Donna and the Group

MICHAEL – December 23, 2002

Good evening, my children. I am here tonight as one of you, for I am your
brother Jesus, who lived the life of the flesh as you do now on this
planet Urantia that we share together. I am honored that you are gathered
here in the celebration of my life as one of you. I am filled with
compassion, as I view all of my brothers and sisters and children who
celebrate my nativity, who embrace the magic of this holiday time as the
season of peace and joy and light as gifts to this planet from the Father
up above. 

Tonight let your hearts be filled with my peace as you begin to celebrate
my birth. And I ask you to consider the relevance of my birth and what
that means for your life. What is it about my having lived as a human
that you find significant as you pay tribute to me in this season of
light and life? 

As you know, you come into this place on these evenings to gain a greater
strengthening in the bond of kinship that we share. And your brethren
will find it inspirational as you each begin to offer one another those
qualities and those experiences of my life that you find have particular
relevance for your own. So I draw you into a discussion this evening,
which is a somewhat unusual way to celebrate, but I believe that it will
prove to be stimulating for each one of you to hear the responses of one
another, as you reveal more fully to not only yourself in your answers
but to others about the meaning of my life as it applies to your own. 

Come now into that place where you know of me. And as I walk with you
down the halls of recollection, share with me and with each other what
you find to be inspiring about how I lived and experienced life as you
now experience it. Who would like to begin?

Student: I will. I have increases in the symptoms of my experiences as a
result of having Parkinson’s. And I [must?] be melodramatic. I tend to
identify most with my affliction. And a few words which I do not
understand and I do understand Father for not forsaking me. I’d like to
know what the message is for me in this, for the rapid decline in my
physical well-being. I called 911 last night. I checked out okay. I have
the Parkinson’s. So [    ] suffering is the legacy of the human
[condition?]. And, because I am having such a degree of suffering and
physical impotence, I would like to know what the lesson, the attitude,
and is there a possibility of healing? (Pause)

Michael: I am with you in your struggles. And I understand the desire of
your heart for healing. This is not a time, however, for your engagement
of doubts about your physical well-being. Your spirit is more valuable to
me than your physical body. Do you see beyond your physical body into the
realm of spirit that you are growing? Do you see this? (Yes, I do.) 

I had to relinquish my physical body. My Earth career came to an end,
just as yours will. Will you struggle to retain the body you are in? Or
will you be willing to release yourself from it, into a new life and into
a new exploration of a different dimension of reality? These are
questions that you can ponder, and let them digest deeply within you. I
do not want you to answer this now, only to ask if you understand my
meaning. (Yes, I do.) Do you have faith, my child, that your life will
continue?

Student: Not as much as I would like to have. But I think my attitude is
growing, especially in these sessions. 

Jesus: Where do you find your doubts reside?

Student: Well, always as far as I know, the only experience is living in
the body. So, relinquishing the body brings up some fears. And also I am
pretty close to my son and my daughter, my children, who will be very
seriously impacted by this. Also I don’t know the time frame. I don’t
know how I should conduct myself, in terms of my living situation, or
diet, or all the normal things one does when one is alive in a body. How
should I conduct myself, in terms of eating, in terms of sleeping, in
terms of activities – especially since my legs have become less able to
move, to perform locomotion?

Jesus: Each day you will find new challenges to face. And physically this
will not be an easy time in your life. Therefore, the faith that you have
must be guarded and augmented by your increasing desire to be led into a
new dimension where there is no more disease, where your body is a
vibrant vehicle of mobility. Each day, as you begin to identify more with
the new life that awaits you, your physical body will have increasing
demands and you must guard your health, and be gentle in your movements,
and cautious in your activities. I would suggest that a private session
would address more of your concerns, as this is the time when we are
gathered here for more discussion than for personal advice. (Yes, I
understand). And so, I ask you now to continue to grow in your
understanding of the continuation of life after the physical body ceases
to be. We will discuss more of your immediate concerns at another time,
if you are so desirous of this.

Student: I understand, that’s fine. 

Jesus: Draw more in to me each day, and ask for your faith to strengthen
you, as you go through this difficult period in your life. Be in my
peace, my son; and I draw close to you now, to uplift you. (Pause)  Who
is next to share?

Student: Jesus, I would like to speak to you now about an event that took
place in your life that I found inspiring. There were many, in fact your
entire life was inspiring. But this one I just remembered. I read about
it recently, and had forgotten about it. It was when, after your public
life started, you went back home to your hometown, and spoke in the local
synagogue. And there were men that were hired to ridicule you, and not
allow you to bring your light to the congregation that was there that
day. And in the events that unfolded, where you were physically taken out
of the church in your hometown and threatened to be thrown over a cliff. 

I found this inspiring, because of the humiliation that you endured from
your own people, from the people that you grew up with. I was saddened
when I read that this had to happen to you. But it was an inspiring event
for me to read about this. It helped my love grow even further for you. I
wish your life here could have been better. But because of the difficulty
you endured, it makes my life so much easier, because of the inspiration
that you give me. I wanted to share that with you. 

Jesus: Human life would have little relevance or meaning without the
character-forming stimulation of adversity. From the overall design of
our Father’s plan, there comes the increasing recognition that the
evolutionary struggle on the worlds of material creature life must evolve
through the march of effort and struggle and challenge. You are not
placed here as a punishment because you are of animal origin. But you are
actually attributed with certain diametrically opposed qualities that in
the tension stimulate growth. 

The ease-seeking animal nature does not relish this, however. Your
spiritual nature will rise to the challenges. Where will you put your
attention? Where will you place your value? Where will you strive for
meaning in your life?

The challenges that I faced in my life are really not so much more
difficult than yours, albeit the times were certainly very crude and
primitive. But human nature has not changed. There are still people who
will be deriding you for your beliefs, mocking you for your aspirations,
and even trying to eliminate you from speaking your truth. 

But if you identify with that which is true and good within you, then you
have no real need to allow other people to sway you or diminish your own
intrinsic attachment to the spiritual ideals dynamically growing within
you. The more you identify with the spiritual life as one of effort and
challenge and stimulating growth, the easier it will become to be in
those places of challenge and become more strengthened. So that where you
are being asked to exist at that particular time and place can be one of
peace and acceptance, and thereby feel that sense of ease and
effortlessness. 

This is a great paradox to you, I understand. But you are being
challenged now to walk in this path. And you only need to ask me, and to
draw on my life experience, and I will accompany you through that
challenge – whatever the challenge is, wherever you are in life, with
whatever you are facing. 

I ask others now for their comments on this idea. For you all are faced
with certain difficulties and challenges to your own ease and comfort. So
let me hear. Put it out there on the table, and let us get in the muck
and mire of life, and celebrate the human evolutionary struggle together.
(Laughter)

Student: Jesus, I feel a little more lucky in being able to celebrate
tonight. For instance, as you know, I’m one of those lucky ones who were
the first of the Urantia readers, 29 of us, who went to Nazareth and
Israel; and I can remember the spirit of celebration. These little
children, as we climbed up the pathway to the top of the town, where
right now the trees are even bent over in humility. And there’s a cistern
up there. It may have been up there in your time. But the fact that so
many happy Christians, at the happiest point in their life, had passed
the doorsteps of those little children who live there right now and right
then. They were just naturally absorbing the spiritual joy of the
pilgrims. And, to me, that is a type of thrill that was almost an
unconscious and super-conscious surprise, when we visited Nazareth and
the surrounding area. 

Jesus: You sensed a closeness with my presence, did you not, at that
time? (Yes, we did.) And do you sense that same closeness now in your
life, regardless of where you are in location to where I lived? For truly
I am there with you now, in spirit beyond any distance, beyond any time
frame, and I ask that you grow more receptive to this presence you have
within you of my being. Just as you experienced it there, you can
experience it here and now. There is no qualitative distinction, for you
are imbued with the Spirit of Truth. Do you understand my meaning? 

Student: I think I do. I can remember I thought it was the guardian
angels that I was feeling there. And we weren’t so used to thinking of
the Spirit of Truth. As you know, we tended to try to get in touch with
our Thought Adjusters. But I can clearly remember that feeling. I am glad
it was the Spirit of Truth. I’m sure the guardian angels were there, but
I appreciate that distinction. 

Jesus: There is no separation between us. Recall how you experienced that
moment when you were there, and I am there with you. And carry that with
you as a treasure to know that you once walked where I walked. And you
now walk with me, each moment of each day. Be in my peace, my son. 

Student: Yes, Jesus, regarding in the mire and the human drama that we
all are a part of; when one is a father, there is a lot of drama involved
in that, in raising two children by oneself. And so there’s a lot of
drama in that, and a lot of concern for the growth of each child, and
wanting to give each child as much as possible, and to love them as much
as possible. And to also let them go, when the time is right. It is a
difficult task, at times, knowing when to let go and when to hold them
back. 

And at times it’s heart-rendering watching them, especially my daughter;
because she is so empathetic and so compassionate, so loving and
nurturing. And I want so much for her to experience the joy and peace
that I have come to know. And I give her little tidbits of that, just by
being true to her. So, I am so blessed with them, and my son; because I
probably wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for them.

As I move on, some other things that bother me is how people’s
distortions or unsavoriness can pervade other people’s live –
good-natured people. And I just, sometimes it just seems so unnecessary,
the suffering that we have, that we experience, because someone doesn’t
understand what being human is all about. And I just wonder what it must
be like for you, when you were here, to be in that place of absolute
certainty of who you are; to have that complete, undeniable, non-doubting
faith – despite all the dramatic and all the chaos and all the
misperceptions and distortions around you. That is the place I wish to
come from in every moment, and wish to empart upon my children, as well.
Thank you.

Jesus: I did not shy from the unsavoriness of the human condition. No, my
son, I place myself squarely in front of it; and asked the Father’s light
and the Father’s love and the Father’s truth to shine upon all the
ugliness that I saw in front of me and to make it whole. Are you up to
this challenge? For this is what you must, too, face in front of you if
you wish to achieve the degree of faith that is consistent with living as
a true faith son of the Father. 

You are the salt that can add the savor in one of your brother’s or
sister’s lives. Are you up to the challenge? If so, then be willing to
stand up against all that you see as unsavory. Let your beauty and your
truth come so magnified that it begins to compel another person by its
very goodness to seek and to become that goodness itself. When you
confront this unsavoriness, draw on all the powers of Heaven that you
have available. Ask for the Father’s love and the Father’s light and the
Father’s purity to cut through to the very essence of truth – and to
magnify that – so that all of the dirt and the darkness will fade away.
Is this something that interests you? 

Student: Very much so. I just get tired of seeing people unnecessarily
suffer because of others, whether it be well-intentioned or not. It’s so
unnecessary. 

Jesus: But it is necessary. For this is how you grow, and this is how you
can change situations. This is all part of the evolutionary struggle –
for the imperfect to become perfect, for the truth to overshadow the
error, for the goodness to triumph over the evil. Yes, this is necessary,
and the strength that comes by not losing perspective of the imperfect
nature of the world and why it must be this. 

What role will you play in turning this around? Gird yourself. There are
many challenges ahead of you. This life is not for the faint-hearted. It
is easy to become tired. It is easy to give up, to lose focus, to
diminish your spiritual reserves. This is why your teachers have come to
teach you the practice of stillness – to give you that time and
instruction, to be with the Father to strengthen you and support you to
live on this very challenging planet. 

And you who are here have agreed to help in this correcting time. And you
need to be strengthened and whole and courageous and committed and
compassionate – to love one another and to serve one another through all
the darkness and ugliness of human depravity. Again, if this is something
that interests you and you are up to the challenge, you have all of the
weapons and tools you need to help you, to keep you strengthened. 

The question is, will you learn to master these tools? And to use them
artfully and skillfully in relating to your brothers and sisters. This is
a question I ask each of you tonight, as you think about the meaning of
my life during this time of celebration. (Pause) It puts quite a damper
on things, doesn’t it? (Laughter; one student says, but not your sense of
humor, though.) 

Student: Jesus, I had very wonderful loving parents, and so Christmas, to
me, was always a marvelous time; beyond all the childish greed at what we
might be getting. It was always just a very magical time of everybody
having a good excuse to be really nice to each other. But when I
encountered the Urantia Book, it was probably when I was at my most
distant reach from Christianity; and there was even a big part of me to
even read the book when I heard it had something to do with Jesus. 

But then the book touched my heart. It is not an intellectual thing for
me. And the part of the book that seemed to stress over and over again
that we were all touched with infinity, we grew polliwogs, as Welmek
calls us, our [?] with infinity, every moment. And it seemed that toward
the end of your life, when you knew full well what you were facing, which
is a day of death we call ‘terrorism’ now. It’s a way of killing someone,
designed to terrorize everybody else around. That the book exists, that
you never ever lost your freedom, through it all. So I salute you, as
much as I can. 

Jesus: And I thank you: for your heartfelt words, and for your
willingness to look at that aspect of my life and realize that through
faith there is freedom – freedom to choose how you will react to any
situation, freedom to transcend the mere chaos and depravity of evil, to
step into the realm where the Father lifts you into the new life, into
the spirit where all things are good and beautiful. You cannot know
exactly how that will feel until you walk through the very mist of great
despair and evil. You must begin to glimpse through the eyes of faith
what is awaiting you on the other side: that which can cut through the
darkness and be the lifeline extending out to you, to bring you in to the
new way, to the new truth, the new life.

If you have the faith to see this, then you will also see the liberty
that comes in choosing to walk through the darkness with hope and
courage. Always is the light more brilliant than the darkness. But you
must choose to see it with your faith eyes, otherwise the light will be
obscured by material darkness. Your challenge, my friend, is to always
see the challenges with the faith eyes. But you can begin to pierce
through the veil that the darkness imposes, and glimpse the light that
exposes the darkness and beckons you into the future. 

Each of you here has the potential to live in this light, to live in this
faith. My life revealed how it is possible for you to choose this. And if
it is difficult for you to see this when you are in the midst of a
situation, you only have to call on me and I will walk through the
darkness with you – and expose you to the light, as we move into the new
way together. Each of you has access to this. And I promise that you will
be with me as we do this together.

Student: Well, Jesus, I guess it’s my turn to speak up. I remember the
question was how does each of us relate to you, particularly in this
season where your life is celebrated. I’d like to pick up on a couple of
aspects. One is your humor, and I think I want to call it craftiness.
Your humorous kind of craftiness. The reason I’m bringing that up is:
I’ve only been involved with the Urantia Book and this particular group
of people and intense activity for five months now, a very short time.
And yet, in the wake of answering this question, I’m recalling that it
actually has been quite a few years since this process got started
overtly.

So I go back to the time in October or November of 1971, in Boston where
I fasted on no water and no food all day, in order to have a vision of
you. I didn’t know why, except that it was in a place called Hippocrates
Health Institute, where I was volunteering, and part of what they did
there was worship under the title Rising Sun Christianity. And it was sun
spelled s-u-n. And I just kind of came to it in all naivete from my
Jewish background, and participated a couple of times, with no special
feeling. I just kind of knew that I’m there, and so I fasted that day.
And you appeared to me in an image, and that was all. No voice. 

And then, a few months later I was in Florida, and this young fellow in
an ashram I was in said he was studying the Urantia Book. And I took a
look at it and I saw all these big words and I said ‘that’s not for me.’
So, for 30 years I went along outside of that specific guidance. And yet,
as I look at the path that I was on, my yoga training and being a Sikh, I
see the enormous parallels in everything that I did – that it was another
form of growth. 

So here I am now, in answering this question, and I am listening to you
and I would just like to say that my response at this time as to how I
relate to you is that I have asked for you to permeate me in every cell
of my being, that I see your life as a perfect example of how to be a
human being on this planet, and that I draw you as my most exquisite
example. So I want to be like you.  

And therefore I invite you – and have invited you – 100 per cent into me;
and I have requested that I am 100 per cent in you, which is also 100 per
cent in the Father and the Mother Spirit. So I am very happy that all
that has accrued, although in a sense on earthly terms and times it has
been somewhat of a long time. 

So I am not worried so much anymore about chronological time. I am just
here and doing the work of the Father, as you have inspired us to do. And
I’m just raring to go further, and very much enjoying the experience and
the other information that is being revealed to me step by step every day
– especially prayer and worship and being in fellowship with the
incredible beings that are around in me in this room and in the other
places that I am associating with. It’s enormously gratifying and
humbling. So that’s my thanks to everybody and to you.

Jesus: You are welcome. But there is more to add.  It gladdens my heart,
as I recall my human life, to hear your words. For this was what my
intention was, to reveal to all humanity how to live a Father-inspired
life. And if my life is the inspiration for you now, then I have done my
job. And if you live your life so as to inspire another individual, then
you have done your job. And this is all that we ask of you – is to live
faithfully each day as this human being that you are becoming: being more
real, being your own sense of Father-likeness that reflects your own
individual personality. What more can we ask, what more is there to ask
of you? You see, my children, how much help you are given, how much
inspiration you have been accorded? And so we give you the tools and the
ideas and the instruction and the inspiration, and what you do with it is
up to you. 

I honor all of your attempts to grow spiritually. I celebrate with you
the life that you are leading and growing and becoming. For you, too, are
becoming the light of the world. You, too, are becoming the inspiration
for your fellows. You, too, are becoming the peace that will soon
permeate your planet, the more each one of your brothers and sisters
grows, and the more you reach out in service – to love and to nurture, to
inspire and to kindle the fan of faith that lives within each of them. 

We are all the light of the world. We are all the hope of the future. You
are all in me, and I am in each one of you. Together, as we celebrate
this season of birth, of promise, of hope, let us draw in our collective
potential to transform this planet into the shrine, into the sentimental
birthplace, of how humanity can become Father-like – and how the Father’s
love lives in each one of you and all of us, and brings into the hearts
of all the peoples on Urantia a new dawn of brotherhood and peace, love
and freedom, and joy in being children of our Paradise Father of us all.
Merry Christmas.