The Real Christmas Spirit
Every Christmas I feel closer to the Spirit of “Christ Consciousness” that began with a baby’s birth over 2000 years ago that billions celebrate as the Christmas season. I’ve met many friends who celebrate Christmas even if they don’t know Christ, which is wonderful because his light was for everyone regardless of your religion! He didn’t write the Bible and didn’t create the religion of Christianity. Discovering these facts opened my eyes, and eventually led me to spiritual realities that made sense. Today’s daily message from the Urantia Book (UB) was on religion in perfect timing to help share how spirituality and religion work together. It’s Aways Been a Personal Journey! Religion cannot be bestowed, received, loaned, learned, or lost. It is a personal experience which grows proportionally to the growing quest for final values. Cosmic growth thus attends on the accumulation of meanings and the ever-expanding elevation of values. 100:1.7 (1095.2), UB Jesus separated himself from his religion of Judaism not to start Christianity, but to help us understand who we are spiritually. He wanted us to know God as the loving, nonjudgmental presence living within us – not an angry punishing God who judges us we are separate from. My wish for you is that you experience the light of Christ’s Spirit by getting curious about him as a fellow human being. His “soul signature” is full of peace and unconditional love. You never needed to be Christian to experience his light! I don’t consider myself to be a Christian. I don’t go to a church even though I believe in the value of his teachings and want to know Him better. The same way I also find value in Buddha’s teachings, and don’t consider myself a Buddhist. However, Jesus has a special place in my heart after discovering the Urantia Book (UB) in 2011 that covers our entire spiritual history, and his life and teachings. Having many students of the UB over the past decade who can hear from celestial teachers (including Jesus) helped bring the Urantia Book to life for me. Donna D’Ingillo, founder of the Centre for Christ Consciousness is one of them: “Remember me as Jesus and how I lived, that you too may be the LIGHT OF THE WORLD in your particular corner. Be in my PEACE.” ~Donna D’Ingillo, Dec 24, 2011 Many people hear from Jesus, and if you were so inclined – you could hear Him too! I grew up thinking everyone celebrated Christmas until I moved into a pre-dominantly Jewish neighbourhood and was shocked to discover my new friend didn’t have a Christmas tree, and eagerly showed me her Menorah. Despite our differences when it came to God – something told me her God and mine were one and the same. Has it ever made sense that one religious group is at war with another when their religions both talk of peace, compassion and love? Each year in the “Christmas season” we slow down with the ones we love and seek meaningful connection – joy, laughter, love. It comes from the “Christmas Spirit” that begins with knowing Him first as a person. It’s why we’ve begun watching “the Chosen” series as a family this holiday.. Getting to Know Jesus as a Person I grew up attending an Anglican Church, and going to chapel every morning in high school. I learned of Jesus more as a central figure who was out of reach. Do you think of him only tied to the Christian religion or as a special man who was born and died with some pretty important lessons to share? For the longest time, I couldn’t separate the name Jesus without thinking about religion, and it’s why I still don’t know Him very well, but here’s some of what I’ve learned: Jesus came here to “BE in our shoes” and know us personally in order to administer at His highest for his role on the other side. He did not write anything down for his Apostles or followers wanting to avoid the tendency for words to become dogma or used to enforce rules or justify actions that turn words into weapons. Instead of creating a religion, he role modelled throughout his short life and shared parables planting seeds of spirituality. He lived such a spiritual life that people who know him well will ask themselves in difficult situations “what would Jesus do”? No matter what the question, the answer is always love, and he role modelled divine love for us – unconditional, nonjudgmental, and forgiving. I believe Jesus’s greatest message and why He still lives on today was this: LOVE is the most powerful force in the universe and it comes from God, who is Love and is part of you. “Devote your life to proving that love is the greatest thing in the world” ~Jesus, Paper 192 (UB) How to Know God Jesus wanted us to have a relationship with God and taught his 12 Apostles to do something radical back then, which I believe more people are now doing today including me! He asked them to go to their room, close the door and talk to your Heavenly Father. This is a practice my spiritual friend and mentor, Chris has developed with the help of his guides that he calls “Conscious Contact”. In the new year, we plan to develop classes on “spiritual communication”. Stay tuned! Because Jesus and his Apostles were Jewish, they were accustomed to reciting prayers as their way to talk to God, and couldn’t understand how to just have a conversation! So Jesus eventually created the Lord’s Prayer to help them begin fostering this connection with God. I used to say this prayer every night before I went to sleep without a clue what it really meant. It was to prevent having bad dreams and if we (5 siblings & I) got out of bed, they wouldn’t work, and I’d have to say it all over again! I have a smart mother. Our Common “Religious” Threads In 2011, I saw this poster at a workshop called “Going Within – Developing a Conscious Relationship with Spirit” in Michigan, …