S. E. Idaho TeaM
4-8-2003

Cora(Bill): I am Cora.  Let us pray.  Michael, our brother and Father, we
stand in Your presence; and like this group listens for the urgent messages
which may be coming over their telephones, we would have ears attuned to
Your guidance that leads us into all truth, that takes us past the fences
of prejudice, of small mindedness, of selfishness into the pastures where
Your sheep are well fed.  Tonight it is our will to do Your will, oh great
Universal Father, Eternal Son, and Infinite Spirit.  So, may our perception
be keen and our resolve complete. Amen.


Cora: Indeed, I am Cora, and it is my night to speak, partly in honor of
Martie, but also because it has been granted that we personal teachers have
a go at it and assist our good brothers Daniel, Minearisa Melchizedek, our
brother Aaron and other visiting teachers.  Since this is a birthday
celebration, in part, I wish to talk with you about milestones.

As you know, milestones mark distances.  They also are used to give you
feedback on how accurate your estimations of distance are.  You can assess
your odometer accuracy by taking note of milestones.  Birthdays have been
set arbitrarily as milestones of a year in time.  And, as you know, the
meaning of those milestones in years can be the subject of a vast range of
human emotions, including sorrow, anxiety, humor, pleasure, and
satisfaction.  It is not the designated number of the milestone which
induces those emotional reactions, except in cases of significant
milestones such as twenty five, a quarter century, or forty, the top of the
hill.  Usually the meaning of milestones has to do with how a person feels
about their progress in life so far. 

You have mused and discussed some facts regarding male/female differences
in the interpretation of life's events.  As you have noted, these vary
somewhat over time with cultural pressures and changes. For men, and
increasingly for women, the milestones of birthdays are measurements of
achievement in the material realm: the beginning, maturation, or completion
of a career; the progress of your children; the number of grandchildren or
possibly great grandchildren that you have accumulated. There are many
other kinds of examples: your salary level, the size of your home, the
number of cars you own, whether or not your wardrobe reflects the latest
fashions appropriate for your age, the number of degrees that you have
earned or been awarded as in Ph. D.s, etc.   I could go on and on.

How many of you have seen a card that congratulates a person on the
achievement of spiritual growth?  There are such cards, but they are in a
distinct minority.  As your text tells you, God looks upon people and
divides them into two categories: those who are willing to do His will; and
those who are not.  So I am suggesting tonight that the best and most
accurate celebration of milestones has to do with your spiritual journey,
which is not highly correlated with your material journey.  In fact, to be
more accurate, I should say it is not correlated with your material
journey, except in one small area: having enough of the basic physical
necessities to have the time to contemplate spiritual matters, if they so
choose. 

Tonight you have all congratulated Martie on her birthday and your pleasure
in celebrating each others milestones is pleasant to observe.  I suggest
that even as you know Martie as your friend, as your colleague in this
Teaching Mission group, as a mother of two children, and a wife of her
husband, Buck, as a woman who has had several careers, yet all of these
things that we know about her are not the fullness of her measure.  Indeed,
what you have most in common with her is your spiritual journey, the goal
that you have set for yourselves, the same goal that we have set for
ourselves, to traverse the ascension levels and to reach the Corps of
Finality.  I congratulate you, Martie, on your sensitive, broad minded,
caring nature.  I congratulate you on your willingness to progress, despite
handicaps and difficulties.  I celebrate this milestone for you in that we
have achieved a certain degree of communication.  I laud you in your
efforts to do the will of God as you understand it.  I suggest to you that
you be as gentle with yourself as you are in understanding other people.
Beware of the dissatisfaction of minimizing your own progress.  Continue to
look for the bright side of the interpretation of events, which is good
advice for all of you, of course.  I am not suggesting that you become a
foolish optimist, but a confident realist.  Let that inner up-swelling of
your spiritual center displace the tendency to worry.  Again, advice that
pertains to you all, for worry and anxiety are the thieves of inner peace.
They are not spiritually constructive. 

Finally, I look forward to our journey together, you and I; and while your
mortal estate is here with these, your friends, I look forward to my
association with all of you.  You are a mature group relative to the
Teaching Mission as a whole.  You have had many years of experience, years
that have been filled with earnest effort and spiritual growth,
intellectual expansion, and social outspreading.  You have been a source of
guidance and inspiration to many people beyond the circle of this small
group tonight. 

Milestones are measures of progress, as we have been discussing.  As you
know more and more your spiritual progress you will be less and less
concerned about your material status.  Jesus repeatedly taught to lay up
treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt nor thieves break in
and steal.   He said, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole
world and loses his own soul?"  These words suggest that the most valuable
thing in life, the pearl of great price, is the discovery of your true
nature as sons and daughter and the resulting growth in grace and in the
fruits of the Spirit which follow that experience. 

I wish for you, Martie, another year filled with successful progress on the
uncharted waters of the future as you steer your ship toward our Paradise
destination.  To the rest of you...the same wish, that you all will be
successful as you pilot your individual ships in this little fleet of boats
moving across the waters of God's time and space experience toward His
home, His destination.  I have finished my little homily and I would be
glad to engage in discussion, comments, or questions.  The floor I now
share with you.

Martie: Cora, I don't have any questions, I think.  But I certainly
appreciate your coming and talking to me.  It always give me another little
boost of faith that I am on the right track, even when I sometimes wonder.
Thank you so much!

Cora: You are most welcome, my dear.  I know that you wonder, but you still
persist.  Indeed, the sharks of doubt that circle your ship are not going
to prevail.  As you move closer to your destination you will leave them
behind. Yes.

Virginia: Cora, when you said our fleet of little boats I thought to
myself...why couldn't we all be on one big  boat so that we share the
responsibility of the trip.  Seems to me there could be a little more help
here!  (Much laughter from all the group).

Cora: Let me try to give you another mental picture that will help you.
You probably know what I am going to say.

Virginia: Oh, I don't know.

Cora: You are captains of your own ships, for your responsibility rests
with your free will prerogatives.  But your little fleet is not
defenseless.  It is following a very large and strong vessel, a windjammer,
full of sails, with a mighty crew and with many rescue boats on board.
(More laughter goes on and on) 

Ken: We use them all the time! 

Cora: Michael is the Captain of that ship and many are the angels who are
his crewmen.  There are also two vessels behind you.  One is the Spirit of
Truth and the other is your Indwelling Fragment.  So you have a front and a
rear protection.  Does that encourage you and give you a sense of security?

Virginia: That is exactly the words I was thinking.  That gives me
encouragement.  Thank you Cora.  I will try to refrain from pessimism about
my journey.

Cora: Yes, it is such a life on such a planet!  You Agondonters will be
amazed at what this tough life that you live will mean for your future
usefulness as you journey to Paradise, and after that.  That is why we
teachers keep telling you that we are envious of you being in the flesh
where you can make all these growth enhancing decisions in such a dramatic
environment of choice which most of us have never experienced.  The results
are truly wondrous, for you will be assigned to jobs, and you will have the
knowledge of how to do them that others will not have.  You should,
perhaps, sometime do a study on the status and role of Agondonters in the
Urantia Book.  I think you would be most amazed.  So don't let the rough
waters take you down and throw you on the deck of your ship that you cling
in terror to the guard rails.  Rather, as you stand there and the waters
rock you, hang on to the guard rail of your faith, and all will be well.
Others?

(Long pause)

Very well, I will have you all stand once again and unite your souls with
each and your hands grasp each other and I will offer prayer.

Nebadonia, dear Mother, we thank You for Your spiritual presence in this
universe, that we can always turn to You and rest our heads on Your bosom.
We thank you for your ministering angels, our faithful guardians.  We
desire to cooperate with them as they help us in mortal estate, and to work
with them more fully in our morontia estate.  Bless all of these, my
younger brothers and sisters, with an ever expanding faith, depth of trust,
and overflowing love.  Even so, Michael, in Your name I pray.  Amen.