TruthBook Religious News Blog

September 7, 1:43
Margaret Benefiel

This Labor Day, honor the holiness of labor. The holiness of labor, a motif that surfaces consistently across spiritual traditions, is especially important to recognize this year in the midst of tough economic times.

According to spiritual teachers, work is sacred because it is a manifestation of the divine work through humans in the world. Human dignity must be honored in work, work should be compensated justly, and workers should work honestly and with integrity.

In the Bible, for example, landowners are commanded to pay workers their wages at the end of each day (Deuteronomy 24:15), because the workers are “poor and counting on it.” Otherwise, workers may “cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.” Workers in turn are exhorted, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23).”

Please click on "external source" for the complete article, and an entertaining video about the modern evolutions of labor in America.

From The Urantia Book:

69:2.5 Labor, the efforts of design, distinguishes man from the beast, whose exertions are largely instinctive. The necessity for labor is man's paramount blessing. The Prince's staff all worked; they did much to ennoble physical labor on Urantia. Adam was a gardener; the God of the Hebrews labored—he was the creator and upholder of all things. The Hebrews were the first tribe to put a supreme premium on industry; they were the first people to decree that "he who does not work shall not eat."

Labels: holiness, Labor Day, Margaret Benefiel, sanctity, The Urantia Book

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Saturday, August 29, 2009

How do people view religions other than their own?

By JULIA CORBETT-HEMEYER •
August 27, 2009

The United States is a land of stunning and vibrant religious diversity. All of humankind's religious and spiritual traditions can be found somewhere within our borders. For some people, and I count myself among them, this diversity is an excellent thing. For others, it's threatening.

The 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey conducted by the Pew Forum (www.pewforum.org) found that most Americans say that their religion is not the only way to salvation. On the other hand, there are also those who very firmly believe that their way is the only way and all others are simply wrong. How we regard religious and spiritual paths other than our own becomes very important with religious diversity, because it influences how we interact with the people who follow them. We can identify five points of view.

"My religion is the only one that's true." This reassures those who hold this view that they are in the right. To many people, it seems appropriate in light of many religions' claim to absolute truth. However, it also harshly excludes all others and sets up an us/them mentality in which dialogue and understanding are difficult, although not impossible.

To see the remainder on the five points of view, please click on "external source."

And for comparison, here's what The Urantia Book has to say about religions:

134.4.4 Religious peace — brotherhood — can never exist unless all religions are willing to completely divest themselves of all ecclesiastical authority and fully surrender all concept of spiritual sovereignty. God alone is spirit sovereign.

92:7.3 The many religions of Urantia are all good to the extent that they bring man to God and bring the realization of the Father to man. It is a fallacy for any group of religionists to conceive of their creed as The Truth; such attitudes bespeak more of theological arrogance than of certainty of faith. There is not a Urantia religion that could not profitably study and assimilate the best of the truths contained in every other faith, for all contain truth. Religionists would do better to borrow the best in their neighbors' living spiritual faith rather than to denounce the worst in their lingering superstitions and outworn rituals.

Labels: diversity, Julia Corbett-Hemeyer, Pew forum on Religion, religion, The Urantia Book

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Friday, August 21, 2009

Looking for a Higher Authority on Health Care

by Phil Davis

When the topic of health-care reform is so focused on economics and politics, I often think of a woman in the Gospels who had been hemorrhaging for many years. Who knows what her actual problem was, but it was severe enough that she had spent all her financial assets on the medical system of her time and was no better for it. In her desperate need, she reached out to Jesus Christ and was instantly healed.

What's the point of this story? Is it an indictment of a cold and heartless society not providing the necessary financial resources to give her better care? Is it an indictment of a health care system that didn't heal over many years? Some might think so. This is where the economics and politics come in. But I see it differently.

Obviously, the woman needed healing of her hemorrhaging. And yet, I feel she was reaching out for something beyond just another method to fix the body. She was probably yearning to have a deeper sense of her well-being that went beyond physical health...

Please see "external source" for this complete article. And for a Urantia Book perspective on this miracle of Jesus please see HERE

Labels: healing, health, hemorrhage, Jesus, The Urantia Book

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Friday, May 29, 2009

Five must-read books to for health and happiness.

Five must-read books to for health and happiness.
May 25, 12:44 PM

The definition of overwhelmed? Standing in front of the self-help section at your local big box bookstore. How do you sort through all that clutter to find the best of the best? Here are five recommendations to get you started. From the practical to the spiritual, each ends up with the same core conclusions:

1. We each have a remarkable inner navigation system to guide us to our own happiness.
2. The most powerful change tools available to us are our thoughts and our imagination.

These are books to change your life.

Note: Please go to "external source" to access this list of great books for your journey. And while you're at it, don't forget The Urantia Book!

Labels: Chris Trout, happiness, health, spirituality, The Urantia Book

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Friday, October 17, 2008

A Car Crash, A Five-Year Coma, and The Inner Voice

This video is the story of a young girl who suffered a brain injury in a car crash, after which she endured a five-year coma. During that period of time, she was sustained in her inner self by her relationship with God. In the video, she relates her experience, during which she maintained much of her consciousness, and she expresses a desire to help others who are searching for assurance of God and the assurances of faith.